How God Can Use You To Impact Others

Alli Patterson explores how with the help of the Holy Spirit, God can use your life to have a profound impact on those around you.

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    Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads.
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    My name is Andy Ryder. I'm one of your pastors here,
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    and I help lead Crossroads anywhere.
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    That's serving our community of people online
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    and all over the country and the world
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    who are running after Jesus together.
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    Now, those seven practices are things
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    that followers of Jesus have done
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    for thousands of years that lead to growth.
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    And there's a whole Internet full of stuff
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    that you could be watching right now
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    and a whole world of stuff you could be doing,
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    but you chose to be here.
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    Hey, well done.
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    And that you're here and not watching, like,
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    random stuff on the internet tells me something about you.
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    It tells me that you want something more,
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    something bigger, something better than
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    just more scrolling, that you want to grow.
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    And I think that's exactly what can happen today.
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    Quick side note, a little bit later,
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    we're going to be taking communion.
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    If you're already following Jesus,
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    grab something to eat and drink and just set it aside.
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    I'll talk us through that when we get there.
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    Right now, we're going to take some time to connect with God.
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    This music isn't a live concert that you watch.
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    It's a conversation with God
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    that you get to be a part of.
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    So whatever's going on in your life,
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    whether it's good or bad, whether it's easy or hard,
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    I want you to bring that to mind as we sing this song
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    about a God who makes up for lost time.
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    - Sing this together.
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    That's what He does.
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    - Come on and sing.
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    - Listen, now we're going to do another thing
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    that followers of Jesus have done for thousands of years.
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    We're going to have a chance to take communion.
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    Communion is a reminder of God's love for us
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    and our trust in Him.
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    It's also a reminder that we're a part of a global church
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    that no matter what language we speak
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    or where we live, that we still get to follow Jesus together.
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    And anyone who's made that decision can participate.
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    Now, it's not magic, but it is a powerful reminder
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    of God's love for us and our trust in Him is our only hope.
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    Let me set the stage for this.
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    The last night before Jesus was to be executed,
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    He gathered his friends around Him for a meal.
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    So find something to eat or drink.
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    I'm going to use just really simply
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    a bottle of water and a cracker.
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    Jesus used wine and bread, but you can use anything.
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    1 Corinthians tells the story like this:
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    The food represented His body that was broken
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    so that we could be made whole. Take and eat.
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    1 Corinthians goes on to say:
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    In the same way also, He took the cup after supper,
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    The drink represented His blood shed
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    so that ours wouldn't have to.
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    Take and drink.
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    There's a pastor that I love who said that:
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    The reality of following Jesus is this:
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    With that hope, with that joy in mind,
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    would you just pray with me?
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    God, we ask for Your forgiveness
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    and we ask that You would help us remember
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    that You would bring to mind,
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    that You would help remind us
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    of just how incredibly loved we are.
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    Thank You for the gift of Your Son,
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    for living a life that we couldn't,
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    and being killed so that we could experience fresh life.
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    Amen.
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    - Come on, sing that again.
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    - God, I'm so thankful for Your presence
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    and for Your Holy Spirit
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    that offers us peace that surpasses all understanding,
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    a love that endures, joy in the midst of our trials.
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    God, I'm so thankful, God,
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    that we can be in Your presence
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    and experience how good You are.
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    Would You remind someone of your goodness today
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    in this room? In Your name we pray. Amen.
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    - This summer, we're doing something
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    that's never been done in Crossroads' 26 year history,
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    and I am so excited about it.
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    Crossroads is a church of tens of thousands of people
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    who live all over the world, right?
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    Some people show up in person at physical locations
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    and some of us live too far away for that.
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    But we're still all one church and it's amazing.
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    But we know it can be lonely if you're
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    the only Crossroads person in your neighborhood
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    or your town or your city.
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    So we want to gather all of our Crossroads community
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    who don't usually get to show up at a building
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    together this summer in person.
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    Join us for the first ever anywhere weekend
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    hosted right in the city where it all started,
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    Cincinnati, Ohio.
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    It will be a powerful weekend packed
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    with community building, connection, fun,
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    spiritual activation and training
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    on how you can be the church wherever you are.
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    It's going to be 100% fun, 100% meaningful,
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    100% family friendly and 100% bad at math.
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    If you can get here, all meals, experiences,
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    and even childcare are on us.
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    It's a chance for anywhere community members
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    who don't live within driving distance
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    of a local site to meet new friends,
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    to hear from key staff like Brian Tome,
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    Kyle Ranson and more,
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    to experience Crossroads worship in person,
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    to help Crossroads take over
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    a professional baseball game,
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    to hear what God might be wanting to do in you
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    and in your city.
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    And to get the best that Cincinnati has to offer:
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    amazing food, free date nights out,
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    custom designed kid experiences, and so much more.
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    It's all happening Friday night, July 21st
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    through Sunday afternoon, July 23rd.
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    See Crossroads.net/anywhereweekend
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    for more details, and to get signed up.
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    And if you have any questions, like, what do I do with my kids?
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    Or I live in Seattle, how do I get there?
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    Hey, we will get you taken care of.
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    You can reach out to me directly
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    at Andy.Reider@crossroads.net.
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    And hey, just a reminder,
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    whether you participate in Crossroads online
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    or in person at a physical site,
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    you can head to crossroads.net/locations
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    and click on the site nearest you
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    to check out what's happening in your area.
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    Now we're going to jump into our weekly teaching
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    as Alli Patterson, shows us about the power of story.
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    - The X Factor.
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    We all know it when we see it,
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    but it's hard to quantify.
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    It's what sets somebody apart from everyone else
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    and helps them succeed.
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    Every good story has an X factor,
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    or else we wouldn't watch it, right?
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    James Bond, Olivia Pope, John B,
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    they all have the X Factor.
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    It could be a special talent, a way with words,
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    charisma, style, or the secret Krabby Patty recipe,
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    and of course, the X factors themselves.
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    But what's our secret sauce?
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    When we receive Jesus, the Holy Spirit
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    gives us an X factor that makes us different.
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    And Acts is the key to understanding
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    and unlocking our own X Factor.
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    Today we're in the Book of Acts,
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    all about the early days of the church.
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    It's a book about everyday people being changed
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    by God's power and changing the world as a result.
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    And we have access to the same life changing,
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    world changing power.
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    Today, we're going to see how the Holy Spirit
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    sends us and gives us a new story.
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    Saul was a guy known for hating Christians,
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    but when Jesus broke through into his life,
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    He gave him a new story, a new mission,
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    and a new name: Paul.
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    Just like Paul, our story isn't finished yet.
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    When we have the Holy Spirit,
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    we unlock the X factor of a new story.
  • 00:27:06
    - Well. Hey, good morning, everyone.
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    My name is Alli Patterson,
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    I'm one of the teaching pastors here at Crossroads.
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    Thanks for spending part of your weekend
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    in our community.
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    Merry May-cember. Whatever we're supposed to say.
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    May is the new December. Anyone else with me?
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    I'm so incredibly busy this month,
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    but truly, being here this weekend
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    is a total highlight of mine.
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    So welcome.
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    I have a question for you right as we start off today,
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    I really want you to answer it.
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    It's nothing embarrassing or anything,
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    but if such a thing were possible,
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    who would say that you would like your life
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    to be used by God to touch or impact
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    somebody else around you? Yes?
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    I think many of us, most of us would say,
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    "Yeah, we'd be up for that."
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    And today we're going to get into the Book of Acts
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    because it holds a key to how we actually do that
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    to the people that are right in front of us
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    every single day.
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    And it's deeply rooted in those seven,
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    what we call proven practices,
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    but they're really just ancient ways
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    of the earliest followers of Christ.
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    And we're going to talk about two of those
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    and the power that they have to impact
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    the people around you every day
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    because the Holy Spirit uniquely empowers them.
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    I think this desire we have to, it feels good,
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    you know, like, when we know our life
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    or something we did or said or were
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    in somebody else's life matters.
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    And this is a uniquely human thing.
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    My cat doesn't wake up every day wondering
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    how she can make my life better.
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    My husband argues that maybe she does the opposite.
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    I know some of you liked me until I said I had a cat.
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    Right?
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    It's all right. You can hate on my cat.
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    It's all right. All you dog lovers out there.
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    But for real, we are the only thing
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    that wakes up going, like,
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    "I'd like to have a positive impact around me."
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    And this is a clue to how life with God
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    is really supposed to work here on the earth.
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    The very first man and woman, He told them
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    that they were His agents, His representatives,
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    His image bearers to do things on earth in His place.
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    And we hear that echoed in the Old Testament
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    as He makes a nation out of His people
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    and He tells them you're going to be a light
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    to all other nations and a blessing to all nations.
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    And Jesus echoes those same things,
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    sending His disciples out to go
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    and to represent who He is and His character
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    and His Kingdom all over the face of the Earth.
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    God has always wanted human beings lives
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    to be used by Him in a really unique and special way.
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    To be used by God is really quite simply
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    just to put Him on display in such a way
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    that it draws other people
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    even just a tiny bit closer to Him.
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    And you're invited into that.
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    And today I hope that you feel more equipped
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    to actually do that in your everyday life.
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    Let me pray for you.
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    Lord, thank You for all the ears listening.
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    Thank You for all of Your people that are gathered.
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    I pray that this time would be well spent,
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    and I ask that by Your Spirit You would equip us
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    to do whatever it is that You're going to send us
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    out into the world to do, even this very week.
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    In Jesus name, Amen.
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    Well, I got kind of a wake up call a month or so ago.
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    Who was here the weekend that we had
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    a guest speaker named John Burke?
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    Were some of you here that weekend?
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    If you haven't seen that service,
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    highly recommend that you go and find that online
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    and watch it.
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    He presented some research about what we can know
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    about heaven based on near-death experiences,
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    not just a couple, but thousands and thousands
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    and thousands that he's researched.
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    And so I got this big wake up call about my life
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    really being used to impact the people in front of me
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    because of this guy that I saw that weekend.
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    - Howard, tell us about this life review that you had.
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    - There was a number of angels, I call them angels,
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    who had been recording my entire life, all my life.
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    And Jesus wanted them to play out
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    in chronological order, the scenes of my life.
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    And the entire emphasis was on
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    my interaction with other people.
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    Of course, initially starting out with my mother
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    and father and my sisters
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    and then school and friends.
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    - And so you just, you saw it or you...?
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    - We saw it, we felt it, we experienced it.
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    And it was really interesting because it was --
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    the whole emphasis was on people and not on things.
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    Matter of fact, there were some instances
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    where I had won promotions, honors, awards,
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    and they skipped them.
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    And Jesus -- I said to Jesus,
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    "You're skipping the most important thing in my life.
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    This is what I live for, to get this award,
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    Kentucky Artist of the Year,
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    big banquet in my honor
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    and a big cash prize and everything."
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    And he said, "That's not what we're here for you to see.
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    That's not important."
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    - That's not what we're here for you to see.
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    That's not what's important.
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    Oh, like, I left the service going, how do --
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    how, how have I not been that crystal clear?
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    Like, how do I walk through the day
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    and even get distracted by the phone in my hand
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    and miss the person right in front of me? Come on.
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    For some reason, this was like a big wake up call for me.
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    So I go, I go the next day and I happen to have a haircut.
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    And a woman named Anne cuts my hair.
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    She might even be here. Hey, Anne.
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    She and her son had come to the service
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    and we were sitting there together processing
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    that particular service because
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    it was really intriguing, really impactful.
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    And I was describing that realization that I was having.
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    And I said to her, "Hey, Anne. What if?
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    What if the only thing that God cares about
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    in my life right this second
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    is how I'm interacting with you?
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    What if that's it?
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    How could He care about something else?
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    Like you're standing in front of me and I'm with you,
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    and I'm a person who's standing here in time
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    and space, and the only thing in front of me
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    is another person that He loves.
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    What if it -- What if that's it?"
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    And almost as soon as I said the words,
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    I just felt the same kind of rush
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    I had in the day before in the service
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    where God was going, "Okay, now you're catching on.
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    It is about the people that
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    are standing in front of you every day."
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    And that begs the question, how are we to interact?
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    Then how are we to interact like God?
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    How? How do I do that in a way
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    where my daily interactions actually matter,
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    or at least they have the potential to matter?
  • 00:33:31
    In the Book of Acts shows us two really simple
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    but critical things that the Holy Spirit uniquely empowers.
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    And as I read the Book of Acts
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    and thought about this weekend, I thought,
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    this is really fascinating because if we know this
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    and we grow in these things
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    and we do these things on purpose,
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    what might happen to our lives,
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    what kind of impact might we start to have?
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    And the two things that the Holy Spirit
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    uniquely empowers are story and Scripture.
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    Story and Scripture.
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    And you see this over and over and over
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    in the Book of Acts, because the Book of Acts
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    is really just regular people who used story
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    and scripture to change the minds and hearts
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    and impact the lives of the people
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    that are right in front of them.
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    And so we're going to dive into these two elements today,
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    the first of which is story that we're going to look at.
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    And I'm going to use a passage from Acts 26.
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    Acts 26 is way at the end of the book.
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    And the whole kind of second half of the Book of Acts
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    is about a guy named Paul.
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    And Paul meets Jesus kind of earlier in the Book of Acts,
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    and he goes about talking about him, really.
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    He just goes around talking about Jesus
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    and his experience, and he lands himself in jail,
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    which is where he is when we find him in Acts 26.
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    And he's been there for two years,
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    so he's been sitting in jail because of false charges,
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    kind of trumped up charges,
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    similar to the kind of stuff they would attack Jesus about,
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    like, he's teaching against Moses,
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    he's trying to incite a rebellion.
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    He's saying things against the Jewish law.
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    And all these false accusations that have landed him in prison
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    and he's just been sitting there.
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    And he finally gets the chance to talk to a man
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    named King Agrippa and give his self defense,
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    which is where we pick up this passage in Acts 26.
  • 00:35:22
    And his speech, if you will, that day
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    is to King Agrippa, but, of course,
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    there's a lot of other people listening as well.
  • 00:35:30
    And here's how he starts:
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    So Paul kind of starts with his,
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    seems like he's going to give you a life story, right?
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    He starts and our life stories are good for that.
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    They connect with people on a certain level
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    because we have common backgrounds
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    or similar interests or we've lived in certain places
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    or done certain things.
  • 00:36:06
    That's exactly what you think you're hearing from Paul.
  • 00:36:08
    He starts with kind of his life story.
  • 00:36:10
    I had the chance a couple of weeks ago
  • 00:36:11
    to talk to some corporate leaders
  • 00:36:13
    and you bet I wanted to connect with them
  • 00:36:16
    in such a way that I wanted them to understand,
  • 00:36:19
    like, I know what your life is like
  • 00:36:21
    because I've been there.
  • 00:36:22
    I drew a little bit on my experience
  • 00:36:24
    from having a corporate job,
  • 00:36:26
    what seems like now quite a long time ago.
  • 00:36:28
    But common experiences, life stories,
  • 00:36:31
    they do that really, really well.
  • 00:36:33
    But that's not the kind of story
  • 00:36:36
    that Paul was actually telling.
  • 00:36:39
    Listen to where he goes next. He says:
  • 00:37:14
    Not quite where you expected him to go, right?
  • 00:37:18
    And he goes on to a very important moment.
  • 00:37:51
    This is the story that Paul tells.
  • 00:37:55
    And it's specifically because the Holy Spirit
  • 00:37:59
    does not empower your life story,
  • 00:38:01
    the Holy Spirit empowers your Jesus story.
  • 00:38:04
    The Holy Spirit empowers stories told about Jesus,
  • 00:38:07
    and it does so, He does so for a very specific reason.
  • 00:38:12
    In 3 or 4 different places in the New Testament,
  • 00:38:16
    the Holy Spirit is actually referred to
  • 00:38:18
    as the Spirit of Jesus,
  • 00:38:20
    the Spirit of Jesus Christ multiple times.
  • 00:38:23
    The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus.
  • 00:38:26
    So when you start talking about Jesus,
  • 00:38:28
    the Holy Spirit is, like, "Right there, now I'm in."
  • 00:38:33
    The Holy Spirit empowers uniquely,
  • 00:38:36
    not that your other stories aren't good,
  • 00:38:38
    but uniquely empowers the stories that you have
  • 00:38:42
    in your life about encountering and experiencing Jesus.
  • 00:38:46
    Because the Holy Spirit was sent for that purpose.
  • 00:38:49
    Jesus sends Him and it's the Spirit of Jesus.
  • 00:38:53
    So when you talk about Jesus, boom,
  • 00:38:55
    your words take on multiple new dimensions
  • 00:38:59
    in the Kingdom of God.
  • 00:39:00
    They carry weight and impact
  • 00:39:02
    like you can never imagine on your own.
  • 00:39:05
    And there's a formula, if you will.
  • 00:39:08
    I don't know if it's right to call it that.
  • 00:39:10
    I think that's fair.
  • 00:39:11
    There's a pattern that Paul uses
  • 00:39:14
    in this particular speech and in all the other times
  • 00:39:17
    that you can read that he tells his story,
  • 00:39:20
    and it's super simple:
  • 00:39:22
    before Jesus, the encounter with Jesus,
  • 00:39:29
    and then after.
  • 00:39:32
    He uses before, encounter, after.
  • 00:39:37
    Really simple pattern,
  • 00:39:39
    but that's why he's choosing what he's choosing.
  • 00:39:41
    You know, he starts and he's connecting
  • 00:39:44
    with the people in the room, and then he goes into
  • 00:39:46
    a very surprising moment in his life. Can we agree?
  • 00:39:50
    Not many of us would tell our life story and go,
  • 00:39:52
    like, "And also, I was an unbeliever,
  • 00:39:55
    a scoffer, a hater, a murderer."
  • 00:39:58
    And that's the next part.
  • 00:40:02
    We might even seek to leave out some of those things.
  • 00:40:05
    And Paul seems to go right for them
  • 00:40:07
    because he's doing something very, very purposely.
  • 00:40:10
    He's telling a story about Jesus.
  • 00:40:12
    And when you tell a story about Jesus,
  • 00:40:14
    we need to know what were you like
  • 00:40:17
    before you experienced this guy named Jesus?
  • 00:40:21
    And then Paul, of course, gives us his encounter.
  • 00:40:25
    He saw something.
  • 00:40:26
    He met Him in pretty dramatic fashion.
  • 00:40:29
    He was told some things by Jesus.
  • 00:40:31
    He saw this bright light. He fell to the ground.
  • 00:40:33
    This is a firsthand account.
  • 00:40:35
    And he becomes what the same word Jesus uses here
  • 00:40:39
    to Paul is the same word He uses
  • 00:40:41
    before He ascends into heaven
  • 00:40:43
    to His disciples in their final instructions.
  • 00:40:46
    He says, "You're going to be my witnesses."
  • 00:40:49
    A witness has an experience, an event,
  • 00:40:52
    a happening, an understanding, a new something
  • 00:40:55
    that goes down that you could actually describe.
  • 00:40:58
    And that's exactly what we see Paul doing.
  • 00:41:00
    He says, "This is what I actually lived."
  • 00:41:03
    He becomes a witness,
  • 00:41:05
    and that's exactly what Jesus told him to do.
  • 00:41:06
    Here's what he reports Jesus says to him
  • 00:41:09
    on the side of the road that day:
  • 00:41:20
    What you have seen, this experience,
  • 00:41:23
    and what you will see,
  • 00:41:24
    which means there's going to be other ones.
  • 00:41:27
    There's going to be more stories
  • 00:41:29
    that Paul encounters about Jesus.
  • 00:41:31
    And he tells this story before, encounter, and after.
  • 00:41:37
    And as he describes the after, all he basically says
  • 00:41:40
    to King Agrippa is, "So that's what I did.
  • 00:41:43
    He told me to go tell what I saw,
  • 00:41:45
    so I started going around and telling what I saw.
  • 00:41:48
    And it really made some people mad, and here we are.
  • 00:41:51
    But how can I not?
  • 00:41:54
    Because that's actually what happened to me."
  • 00:41:59
    And this is the thing about our own lives
  • 00:42:03
    is that we have to, if we want to impact the lives
  • 00:42:07
    of the people around us,
  • 00:42:08
    they need all three of those parts.
  • 00:42:10
    And we're so prone to leave one of them out,
  • 00:42:12
    to assume that we either don't need it or it's,
  • 00:42:15
    you know, it's not necessary or we just don't like it.
  • 00:42:18
    They need all the parts before, the experience, and after.
  • 00:42:25
    Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of thought.
  • 00:42:28
    Maybe we've just never thought that through before.
  • 00:42:30
    So I decided to put this formula, this pattern,
  • 00:42:33
    to the test with my own story.
  • 00:42:34
    Now, if you've been coming here,
  • 00:42:36
    you've heard my story before.
  • 00:42:37
    This is not something that you haven't heard
  • 00:42:39
    or that's unfamiliar to a lot of you
  • 00:42:41
    who are part of our community.
  • 00:42:42
    But I'm just going to push my story
  • 00:42:44
    into those three buckets.
  • 00:42:46
    And let's look at what happens when we do that.
  • 00:42:49
    So before, if I were going to describe to you
  • 00:42:52
    the time in my life before I really encountered Jesus,
  • 00:42:56
    it would be something like this.
  • 00:42:57
    So a lot of you grew up like me
  • 00:42:59
    in maybe a midwestern city.
  • 00:43:01
    I grew up and I was one of three kids
  • 00:43:04
    in a pretty nice family.
  • 00:43:05
    I was a pretty good kid.
  • 00:43:07
    I thought I was pretty solid.
  • 00:43:08
    I did my work. I went to school.
  • 00:43:10
    I tried to make friends. I tried to be nice.
  • 00:43:13
    I tried to do the things
  • 00:43:14
    that I was told would make a good life.
  • 00:43:16
    And I did those and I was actually pretty good at them.
  • 00:43:19
    So I went to college and I studied
  • 00:43:21
    and I had my eye on a corporate career.
  • 00:43:23
    I met a nice guy. We got married.
  • 00:43:25
    I got exactly the job that I wanted.
  • 00:43:28
    And I began life thinking I had it by the tail.
  • 00:43:32
    And as I did that, I built exactly the life
  • 00:43:35
    that I'd intended to do.
  • 00:43:36
    But I failed to see I was building it
  • 00:43:38
    all around and on and through my own strength.
  • 00:43:42
    It was all about me.
  • 00:43:46
    And eventually that life all about me
  • 00:43:48
    led me into some people and circumstances
  • 00:43:50
    that I didn't see coming
  • 00:43:52
    that I wasn't strong enough to handle
  • 00:43:53
    and that brought out all of my weaknesses,
  • 00:43:55
    every single one of them.
  • 00:43:57
    Everything from people pleasing to performance
  • 00:43:59
    to beauty issues to all kinds of stuff.
  • 00:44:02
    And all of those went into a big ball
  • 00:44:05
    to conspire to offer me the opportunity which I took
  • 00:44:08
    and had an affair with someone that I worked with.
  • 00:44:13
    And I became somebody
  • 00:44:14
    that I would have judged the day before,
  • 00:44:16
    that I couldn't even look in the mirror at,
  • 00:44:18
    that I didn't even know anymore.
  • 00:44:23
    That's what my life was like before I encountered Jesus.
  • 00:44:28
    And then right around that time
  • 00:44:32
    I had an encounter with Jesus.
  • 00:44:34
    I started to feel like God was pushing in on my life.
  • 00:44:39
    It felt like everywhere I looked
  • 00:44:40
    there was something about God
  • 00:44:42
    or someone that knew God.
  • 00:44:43
    And I finally realized, like,
  • 00:44:45
    He's kind of pushing in on me here.
  • 00:44:47
    And I went on a run one day and I started talking to Him.
  • 00:44:51
    And then I started crying.
  • 00:44:53
    And then I cried so hard I couldn't run.
  • 00:44:55
    And I actually dropped to my knees on the sidewalk
  • 00:44:57
    and I said, "Jesus, I can't do this anymore.
  • 00:45:01
    I can't live like this anymore.
  • 00:45:03
    Get me out. Do whatever you need to do.
  • 00:45:06
    Break me, get me out. I don't want this life.
  • 00:45:09
    I want whatever You have for me instead."
  • 00:45:13
    And I experienced Jesus in the following
  • 00:45:16
    6 to 9 months in ways that were utterly incredible,
  • 00:45:20
    totally undeniable.
  • 00:45:22
    I had Him speak to me in dreams.
  • 00:45:24
    I had Him send me people with specific encouragement.
  • 00:45:27
    I felt His presence in the kitchen
  • 00:45:29
    when I was singing to Him one day.
  • 00:45:32
    And most importantly, above all,
  • 00:45:34
    I started to read the Bible
  • 00:45:35
    and there were sometimes words on the page
  • 00:45:37
    that just seemed to be highlighted, like,
  • 00:45:39
    "Those are for you."
  • 00:45:44
    And I encountered a real and living Jesus.
  • 00:45:48
    And what happened after? What happened after?
  • 00:45:51
    Well, those words that I started to read
  • 00:45:53
    were actually the crux of what happened after,
  • 00:45:55
    because I decided I had nothing left to lose.
  • 00:45:57
    It was pretty much all down around my feet at that point.
  • 00:46:00
    And so I just started doing what I was actually reading.
  • 00:46:07
    I pretty much threw all my eggs in His basket.
  • 00:46:09
    Every time that there was an opportunity to tell the truth,
  • 00:46:12
    to be obedient to something. That's what Paul uses.
  • 00:46:14
    The word he uses is I was obedient to the vision.
  • 00:46:17
    I did what He said, and I started to do that.
  • 00:46:21
    And I found a God who knew exactly how life worked,
  • 00:46:24
    who knew exactly how a marriage was supposed to operate,
  • 00:46:26
    who knew exactly what my job,
  • 00:46:28
    the place the job was supposed to have in my life,
  • 00:46:30
    who knew exactly who I was and who knew the way out.
  • 00:46:34
    He knew the way to rebuild me, my life, my marriage,
  • 00:46:38
    my work, everything from the inside out.
  • 00:46:43
    And the end of the end of the after is that tomorrow,
  • 00:46:46
    actually, we celebrate 24 years of marriage
  • 00:46:51
    together because of Him.
  • 00:46:53
    How can I not offer you that story?
  • 00:46:56
    And what if I left out the before?
  • 00:47:00
    That's what I wanted to do for a really long time.
  • 00:47:03
    I just wanted to leave out the before part.
  • 00:47:05
    I actually had a friend who asked me,
  • 00:47:08
    I had a book that released in January
  • 00:47:10
    and she read the manuscript before it released.
  • 00:47:12
    And she asked me what my favorite part of the book was,
  • 00:47:14
    and I told her something super nerdy.
  • 00:47:16
    And she laughed in my face and she said,
  • 00:47:18
    "Nobody's ever going to ask you about that.
  • 00:47:21
    Everybody's going to want to talk about your story."
  • 00:47:24
    And it frustrates, it kind of irritated me
  • 00:47:26
    because I'm like, "I want you to --
  • 00:47:27
    I want you to love God. I want you to know God."
  • 00:47:31
    And she was like [FX]. But the truth is,
  • 00:47:36
    as soon as I put those 3 pieces together,
  • 00:47:38
    the before, the experience with Jesus and the after,
  • 00:47:41
    it ceases to be a story about me.
  • 00:47:44
    Now it's a story about God.
  • 00:47:47
    Now, it doesn't say anything about me,
  • 00:47:51
    it says everything about Him.
  • 00:47:55
    And that's what happens when we put those 3 parts together.
  • 00:47:57
    Parents in the room, parents listening,
  • 00:47:59
    I have a special word for you.
  • 00:48:01
    Your kids, they need all three parts.
  • 00:48:04
    They desperately need to know that you have a before.
  • 00:48:08
    Because when they live theirs, they're going to want to know
  • 00:48:11
    that they have a parent with a before,
  • 00:48:13
    an experience with Jesus
  • 00:48:15
    that got them somewhere afterwards.
  • 00:48:19
    And that's the same thing that your friends need to hear,
  • 00:48:21
    that your colleagues need to hear.
  • 00:48:22
    If you want to have an impact on the people
  • 00:48:25
    around you, you need to be telling
  • 00:48:26
    your before, your experience, and your after
  • 00:48:29
    with Jesus stories,
  • 00:48:31
    because the Holy Spirit will explode those
  • 00:48:33
    in the life of other people.
  • 00:48:36
    And I think there's reasons why we don't, right?
  • 00:48:39
    I mean, I said why I didn't.
  • 00:48:40
    I don't want to talk about the before,
  • 00:48:42
    even this very weekend.
  • 00:48:43
    I'm like, really? Really?
  • 00:48:49
    Because there's still a little part of me
  • 00:48:51
    that thinks that story is about me.
  • 00:48:52
    It's not about me,
  • 00:48:54
    but we're ashamed of our part in it, right?
  • 00:48:56
    Paul's a murderer.
  • 00:48:58
    He's going, "Yeah, like, I not only helped murder them,
  • 00:49:01
    I cast my vote and they all came to me
  • 00:49:04
    and told me it was done afterwards."
  • 00:49:08
    And he tells that just as plain as day.
  • 00:49:11
    But some of us are, we are too ashamed.
  • 00:49:13
    We've locked it too far in the past.
  • 00:49:15
    I'm telling you, you've got to break
  • 00:49:16
    your agreement with silence because
  • 00:49:18
    you are silencing the power of God
  • 00:49:21
    for the people around you.
  • 00:49:24
    Some of us just don't have one.
  • 00:49:26
    We just don't have a story to tell.
  • 00:49:28
    And to you, I would say totally okay.
  • 00:49:31
    God loves to answer that prayer. As a matter of fact,
  • 00:49:33
    I'm going to pray for you right now.
  • 00:49:35
    Lord, there are people in here wh are
  • 00:49:38
    silently telling you that's me right now.
  • 00:49:41
    Just tell Him that's me,
  • 00:49:42
    who do not have a story about encountering You.
  • 00:49:45
    Would You make Yourself real to them?
  • 00:49:47
    Would You reveal Yourself to them?
  • 00:49:49
    Would You actually give them an experience
  • 00:49:52
    with Your spirit that leads them
  • 00:49:54
    to the life that You have for them.
  • 00:49:56
    Lord, give them a story to tell
  • 00:49:58
    of You for Your glory. Amen.
  • 00:50:02
    And I think some of our stories,
  • 00:50:04
    we just think they're too simple.
  • 00:50:05
    We don't think they're good enough.
  • 00:50:07
    I had a professor in seminary who,
  • 00:50:09
    I took him for a couple of classes,
  • 00:50:11
    so I heard this a couple of times
  • 00:50:12
    and it just made me smile because he would start
  • 00:50:14
    his classes by telling his story the first day.
  • 00:50:17
    He would tell, like how he came to know Jesus initially,
  • 00:50:19
    like, many years ago.
  • 00:50:21
    He's probably like in his late 50s to 60.
  • 00:50:23
    And he said, "You know, I tell my story?"
  • 00:50:25
    He goes, "I tell it because it's so incredibly boring."
  • 00:50:29
    He was like, "We need to tell more boring stories
  • 00:50:32
    about becoming a follower of Jesus, because guess what?
  • 00:50:35
    Most of us are just going to have
  • 00:50:37
    a compelling internal interaction with Jesus
  • 00:50:40
    whereby we realize who He is and what He did for us,
  • 00:50:43
    and we're going to say, "Lord, I want that."
  • 00:50:45
    And he said, "I tell my story because it's boring.
  • 00:50:49
    And the vast majority of stories of people who come
  • 00:50:52
    to Jesus in their life, at least the first one,
  • 00:50:55
    is kind of boring."
  • 00:50:57
    And to you, I would just encourage.
  • 00:50:59
    Don't worry. There's a lot of other stories to come.
  • 00:51:03
    Jesus said to Paul he was going to testify
  • 00:51:05
    about what he had seen and what he will see.
  • 00:51:07
    That means you get a lot more.
  • 00:51:08
    You might be on the edge of a thriller.
  • 00:51:10
    You might be on the edge of a thriller.
  • 00:51:12
    Maybe you're going to have a story about
  • 00:51:13
    what God does when you start doing money like He says,
  • 00:51:17
    or dating like He says or whatever.
  • 00:51:19
    But you might be on the edge of a story
  • 00:51:22
    that's way more dramatic than you think.
  • 00:51:26
    There's not just one for us.
  • 00:51:27
    There's many, many stories.
  • 00:51:30
    My idea, as I was looking through Acts,
  • 00:51:33
    I keyed right in on how the Holy Spirit
  • 00:51:35
    empowered Paul's story, not just this time,
  • 00:51:38
    but many times to reach somebody in front of him.
  • 00:51:41
    And I kind of wanted to talk just about that
  • 00:51:44
    because it's so what God has helped me to realize as well.
  • 00:51:47
    But an honest reading of Acts,
  • 00:51:50
    you could not just stop there.
  • 00:51:52
    You have to talk about the other element
  • 00:51:54
    because there's never even stories present
  • 00:51:56
    without this other element, which is Scripture.
  • 00:52:00
    Scripture is also uniquely empowered by the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:52:04
    And again, there's a very specific reason why.
  • 00:52:07
    The Holy Spirit is the living Word of God.
  • 00:52:12
    So it's like this --
  • 00:52:13
    It's like this equals sine equation.
  • 00:52:16
    It's sort of like Jesus algebra or something.
  • 00:52:19
    Jesus was called the Word of God
  • 00:52:21
    and the Word of God and the Holy Spirit is also Jesus.
  • 00:52:27
    It's the Spirit of Jesus.
  • 00:52:28
    So if the Word of God and the Holy Spirit
  • 00:52:32
    are all connected to Jesus,
  • 00:52:33
    then the Holy Spirit is the living, breathing Word of God
  • 00:52:38
    that was sent for us right now.
  • 00:52:41
    That means the Word of God is alive and active.
  • 00:52:46
    There's a prophet named Isaiah who actually gave words
  • 00:52:49
    for that that I love.
  • 00:52:50
    He said, When we turn loose the Word of God,
  • 00:52:52
    when the Word of God is spoken, he said
  • 00:52:55
    it goes out and accomplishes what the Lord sent it for.
  • 00:52:59
    That means when you turn loose the Word of God
  • 00:53:02
    out of your mouth into the life of someone else,
  • 00:53:05
    it means it carries a power
  • 00:53:07
    to actually do something in their life.
  • 00:53:10
    That's incredible.
  • 00:53:12
    Are you serious? I mean, that's incredible stuff.
  • 00:53:15
    That means that we need to be steeped in Scripture.
  • 00:53:18
    And please, I don't mean don't be --
  • 00:53:21
    Don't be the guy that answers everything with a Bible verse.
  • 00:53:24
    That is not what I mean.
  • 00:53:26
    Nobody really likes that guy.
  • 00:53:30
    And sometimes Paul does that actually.
  • 00:53:32
    Sometimes, to some people, I could see it, I could get there.
  • 00:53:35
    But most of the time what I mean is this thing
  • 00:53:38
    that we hear in Paul's speech to Agrippa that day,
  • 00:53:40
    that everything is just dripping with the truths
  • 00:53:44
    and the words and the concepts that are born in Scripture.
  • 00:53:48
    Here's what he says:
  • 00:54:12
    Now we don't hear the same way they did
  • 00:54:14
    all the Scripture that's packed into that.
  • 00:54:16
    But we hear some of the words.
  • 00:54:18
    We hear the word hope repeated.
  • 00:54:20
    We hear his reference to the 12 tribes.
  • 00:54:23
    Basically what he's using scripture to do
  • 00:54:25
    is cut right to the heart of the issue.
  • 00:54:28
    There's all this talk about who he is and what he's saying
  • 00:54:31
    and all these narratives about what he means
  • 00:54:34
    and what he's done and why he's on trial.
  • 00:54:37
    Paul stops and says, "You know what?
  • 00:54:38
    This is really simple,
  • 00:54:39
    I'm going to cut to the heart of the matter.
  • 00:54:41
    It's about hope and it's about God's power to raise the dead.
  • 00:54:44
    Do you not want those things?"
  • 00:54:49
    And Scripture gives us this ability in our life as well.
  • 00:54:52
    It gives us the ability
  • 00:54:53
    to see something that's below the surface.
  • 00:54:56
    Jesus did this all the time.
  • 00:54:57
    People would ask Jesus a question
  • 00:54:59
    or they would speak to Him
  • 00:55:01
    and He wouldn't directly answer them.
  • 00:55:02
    He would actually answer the heart underneath it.
  • 00:55:08
    In Hebrews, the Word of God is called a double edged sword,
  • 00:55:11
    and it's said to slice to the attitudes
  • 00:55:15
    and thoughts of the heart.
  • 00:55:16
    Those are things you can't see.
  • 00:55:19
    Does anyone else think we could use some help in our life
  • 00:55:22
    cutting through all the false narratives around us?
  • 00:55:27
    Anybody else hear four different explanations
  • 00:55:30
    for the same event from radically different perspectives
  • 00:55:34
    and ever wonder like what in the world is going on here?
  • 00:55:38
    When we read Scripture, it equips us to think, to see,
  • 00:55:42
    and then to speak what we see happening
  • 00:55:45
    in the Kingdom of God, in the spiritual realm.
  • 00:55:48
    And it cuts to the heart of issues
  • 00:55:51
    instead of staying on the surface.
  • 00:55:52
    Man, I could use some more of that in a world
  • 00:55:55
    like we're living in, in a culture
  • 00:55:57
    like we're living in right now.
  • 00:55:59
    And Paul spoke words, many, many words in this speech
  • 00:56:03
    that were steeped in the prophets,
  • 00:56:06
    that had weight way beyond what he was saying,
  • 00:56:08
    that he meant to do a head tilt.
  • 00:56:11
    He directly quotes Ezekiel 2, Jeremiah 1, and Isaiah 42.
  • 00:56:17
    And you would read through his words
  • 00:56:19
    and you would miss that because our ears don't hear that.
  • 00:56:23
    We're not steeped in Scripture
  • 00:56:25
    like the way his Jewish listeners were,
  • 00:56:27
    but if you heard it, you would hear phrase after phrase,
  • 00:56:31
    sentence after sentence, his words carried the weight
  • 00:56:35
    of the Word of God behind them.
  • 00:56:38
    And they were there to produce a result in the people listening.
  • 00:56:46
    If you don't read Scripture, you will forfeit
  • 00:56:49
    that kind of impact in the people around you.
  • 00:56:51
    You don't -- you don't have to do this, like, in --
  • 00:56:55
    It's not, I mean, it could be studious.
  • 00:56:57
    Goodness knows, I like a studious study,
  • 00:57:00
    but it begins to come alive in you.
  • 00:57:02
    Think of yourself like, like a two liter bottle.
  • 00:57:05
    You have a little, little hole at the top
  • 00:57:08
    and a really big capacity underneath.
  • 00:57:10
    And when you just constantly drip Scripture in,
  • 00:57:12
    it begins to live in you.
  • 00:57:15
    Pretty soon it's how you see people. It's what you think.
  • 00:57:18
    It's the wisdom or advice that you offer.
  • 00:57:20
    It's the things that you say and you're like, oh.
  • 00:57:23
    Have you ever talked to someone
  • 00:57:24
    that has a weightiness to their words?
  • 00:57:26
    That's what the power of Scripture does.
  • 00:57:29
    That's how it begins to interact and just explode
  • 00:57:34
    in impact in the life of the people around you.
  • 00:57:37
    If you want to be used by God,
  • 00:57:38
    you have got to get into Scripture.
  • 00:57:43
    I've never interacted with a follower of Jesus,
  • 00:57:45
    never, ever, not one time that had an impact on my life
  • 00:57:50
    that wasn't deeply entrenched in the Word of God.
  • 00:57:53
    And there's a reason for that.
  • 00:57:57
    I want you to hear a story right here from our community
  • 00:58:00
    that I think is an amazing example
  • 00:58:02
    of this one two punch
  • 00:58:03
    of scripture and story put together.
  • 00:58:09
    - My name is Ryan Williams.
  • 00:58:10
    We've been together 13 years, married 12.
  • 00:58:14
    - And I'm Jamie Williams.
  • 00:58:16
    Long story short, alcohol became a big part
  • 00:58:19
    of our relationship, our marriage, our struggles.
  • 00:58:23
    It affected me a lot more than him.
  • 00:58:25
    So in 2017, it caught up with me.
  • 00:58:29
    He had moved out.
  • 00:58:30
    One night he came over and that one night we didn't argue.
  • 00:58:34
    In the morning I woke up and freaked out
  • 00:58:36
    because I needed a drink.
  • 00:58:38
    God stepped in right at that moment
  • 00:58:40
    and I looked at him and I said,
  • 00:58:42
    "I need -- I think I need help."
  • 00:58:44
    And he just hugged me and started crying.
  • 00:58:46
    He goes, "I've been waiting for you to say that."
  • 00:58:48
    So that began our our journey of me trying to stop.
  • 00:58:53
    We got involved in a program, Celebrate Recovery.
  • 00:58:57
    - Celebrate recovery, yeah.
  • 00:58:58
    And things were going pretty good for four years.
  • 00:59:01
    Jesus was finally, you know, moving.
  • 00:59:03
    Beginning of 2022, I had a secret
  • 00:59:07
    that I carried with me for over 30 years.
  • 00:59:10
    And nobody, I never let anybody know about.
  • 00:59:13
    And I had a 30 year porn addiction.
  • 00:59:16
    That porn addiction ultimately led me
  • 00:59:19
    to an emotional affair, to a physical affair,
  • 00:59:22
    to just basically telling Jamie I'm done.
  • 00:59:26
    I remember she looked at me one day and she goes,
  • 00:59:29
    "So are you done with the marriage?"
  • 00:59:31
    And I said yes.
  • 00:59:33
    And then she asked me, "So are you done with God?"
  • 00:59:37
    And I just, like laughed.
  • 00:59:40
    God can't heal who you pretend to be.
  • 00:59:45
    My whole life, I was pretending.
  • 00:59:47
    I didn't know about anything.
  • 00:59:48
    It was just he started acting funny.
  • 00:59:50
    Three days before it was time to go sign,
  • 00:59:53
    I stumbled upon some communication, some texts
  • 00:59:58
    between him and someone else, and then everything clicked.
  • 01:00:03
    - I had put in a plan to break free of this bondage
  • 01:00:06
    that -- because I was just done.
  • 01:00:08
    I wanted my wife back.
  • 01:00:09
    I wanted my family back.
  • 01:00:11
    But even if I didn't get that,
  • 01:00:14
    I needed to break free from this.
  • 01:00:16
    July 5th, 2022, she's like, "Let's go to the courthouse."
  • 01:00:21
    So we got it signed and went out to eat
  • 01:00:24
    and she pulls out all these texts. She just puts it down.
  • 01:00:26
    She goes, "You need to get some help, and I'm praying for you."
  • 01:00:29
    And she gets up and she walks out.
  • 01:00:31
    I met up with a good Christian brother and he was like,
  • 01:00:34
    "You know, you need to read the story
  • 01:00:35
    about David and Bathsheba."
  • 01:00:37
    And I read it and I just crumble.
  • 01:00:39
    I repented to God like I never had in my life.
  • 01:00:46
    I was done being fake, so I just was like,
  • 01:00:49
    "God, I don't know what to do.
  • 01:00:51
    I've tried everything else. Jesus, help me."
  • 01:00:53
    And I heard Him say, "You know what, Ryan?
  • 01:00:57
    You got two choices here.
  • 01:00:59
    You can follow this path that you're on.
  • 01:01:00
    You may not be physically dead, but everything else
  • 01:01:04
    in your life is going to be dead.
  • 01:01:05
    But if you follow Me, you surrender to Me and you obey me,
  • 01:01:10
    I promise you you'll be okay.
  • 01:01:12
    I will take care of you."
  • 01:01:14
    And I was like, "All right, that's what I'm going to do."
  • 01:01:17
    But it was July 18th of the same month
  • 01:01:20
    of the same year that she looks at me at a park
  • 01:01:22
    in Michigan and says, "Ryan, I love you
  • 01:01:23
    and I want to work on our marriage."
  • 01:01:27
    - Once I pictured him having this journey
  • 01:01:29
    and pictured it, me not getting to witness it
  • 01:01:32
    and be a part of it, that was an instant heart change.
  • 01:01:35
    And then five days after the judge goes,
  • 01:01:39
    "There's something wrong with the paper,
  • 01:01:41
    so you're not divorced yet.
  • 01:01:42
    It's being reset for a month."
  • 01:01:44
    And in that month was that timeframe where it was like,
  • 01:01:47
    God put everything out on the line.
  • 01:01:51
    So we're still married, Never got divorced.
  • 01:01:53
    - God was like, "Look what I'm going to do
  • 01:01:55
    in this 30 day period right here."
  • 01:01:57
    - In 30 days. Yeah.
  • 01:01:58
    - Look what I can do."
  • 01:02:00
    Couples camp has been refreshing.
  • 01:02:03
    - The renewing of the vows,
  • 01:02:04
    hearing and being able to look in each other's eyes,
  • 01:02:07
    and especially after this year and say those words.
  • 01:02:10
    - It was like it was just me and her in there.
  • 01:02:12
    You know, with, all everybody else was gone,
  • 01:02:15
    it was just me and her.
  • 01:02:16
    And it was just like, that's when the holy --
  • 01:02:18
    I felt the Holy Spirit.
  • 01:02:19
    - Yeah, I don't care the state of your relationship right now,
  • 01:02:24
    I mean, it's just like watching transformation happen.
  • 01:02:28
    - That's an incredible story.
  • 01:02:30
    You know, God loves stories.
  • 01:02:32
    You can't write your own ending like that.
  • 01:02:35
    They were still married.
  • 01:02:37
    There was a glitch in the paperwork.
  • 01:02:39
    That's too good not to be God.
  • 01:02:41
    That is just an incredible story.
  • 01:02:44
    And I just have to call out the obvious.
  • 01:02:46
    You know, God, there is absolutely no brokenness
  • 01:02:51
    in your life that can't become
  • 01:02:53
    a before you encountered Jesus story.
  • 01:02:56
    The things we're talking about today are murderers
  • 01:02:59
    and porn addicts and alcoholics and adulterers
  • 01:03:02
    who are telling stories about the redemptive power of Jesus.
  • 01:03:06
    It's absolutely mind blowing.
  • 01:03:09
    It's totally mind blowing.
  • 01:03:10
    And they're all stories about Him.
  • 01:03:12
    You don't listen to that story and go,
  • 01:03:14
    "Wow, they were really messed up."
  • 01:03:15
    What you hear is: Jesus can do that for you.
  • 01:03:21
    Jesus can do that for you.
  • 01:03:23
    That's the kind of story He wants to write in your life.
  • 01:03:27
    And it's unbelievable.
  • 01:03:28
    And also, we don't need a lecture
  • 01:03:30
    about marriage and repentance, right?
  • 01:03:33
    What we need is our humanity acknowledged in a story.
  • 01:03:38
    And the Holy Spirit uniquely empowers those stories,
  • 01:03:41
    which are steeped in the truth of Scripture.
  • 01:03:44
    Did anybody else, like, take a deep breath
  • 01:03:45
    when he said, "God can't heal who you pretend to be?"
  • 01:03:51
    Do you know the kind of truths
  • 01:03:52
    that are wrapped around that,
  • 01:03:54
    that are deeply, deeply embedded in the pages
  • 01:03:57
    of the Bible at his moment of repentance?
  • 01:04:00
    Doesn't get much more clear
  • 01:04:01
    than the story of David and Bathsheba.
  • 01:04:03
    Here, read this.
  • 01:04:05
    I mean, God is creative, but every good story He tells
  • 01:04:10
    is deeply rooted in the truths that are found
  • 01:04:13
    in the Word of God.
  • 01:04:14
    Friends, if you want to have a life that impacts other people,
  • 01:04:18
    it may take some boldness and some courage on your part
  • 01:04:22
    to put that story together and let it out of your mouth.
  • 01:04:24
    It might take some discipline and some things
  • 01:04:27
    that you need to push out of the way
  • 01:04:29
    so that you can actually begin to be steeped
  • 01:04:32
    in the words of Scripture to the point
  • 01:04:34
    where they start to permeate your life.
  • 01:04:35
    But I promise you, you will begin to have an impact
  • 01:04:38
    on the people standing in front of you,
  • 01:04:40
    which is what God cares about.
  • 01:04:42
    And Paul knew that, too.
  • 01:04:43
    We've got to finish the story here because
  • 01:04:45
    there's too good, too good an ending not to see.
  • 01:04:48
    So Paul's finishing his speech to King Agrippa.
  • 01:04:52
    And he knows that God cares most deeply
  • 01:04:57
    about the guy standing right in front of him.
  • 01:04:59
    Listen to how he finishes this, he says:
  • 01:05:35
    Paul knew that God may have put him in jail for two years
  • 01:05:41
    to get to this day, just to talk to that guy
  • 01:05:45
    standing in front of him.
  • 01:05:47
    And I think he was perfectly fine with it.
  • 01:05:50
    He seemed absolutely laser focused
  • 01:05:53
    that no matter what else he said that day,
  • 01:05:55
    he was going to speak directly to King Agrippa
  • 01:05:58
    because he had to have believed that his job was
  • 01:06:02
    to try to impact the person that the Lord brought
  • 01:06:04
    into his life, into his day, into that moment
  • 01:06:08
    to speak directly to and he went for it.
  • 01:06:10
    He went straight for it because he knew
  • 01:06:13
    that guy is a guy that God loves.
  • 01:06:16
    That guy is the one that I can speak to right now.
  • 01:06:18
    He's the one that I have influence over.
  • 01:06:21
    He's the one my words can reach
  • 01:06:22
    and he's the only one I've been allowed to speak to,
  • 01:06:25
    so I'm going to go for it, and that's what he did.
  • 01:06:28
    And friends, that's how Jesus feels about you.
  • 01:06:30
    What if your last two years have all conspired
  • 01:06:33
    to get you here to the point at which you are going
  • 01:06:36
    to have an encounter with Jesus
  • 01:06:38
    because of something that happens here today,
  • 01:06:41
    and you've lived your before Jesus story,
  • 01:06:43
    and today is your encounter,
  • 01:06:44
    and today is your encounter
  • 01:06:46
    and the rest of it happens that you have an after.
  • 01:06:48
    What if Jesus has been
  • 01:06:50
    conspiring to do that in your life
  • 01:06:51
    for the last two years and today is the day?
  • 01:06:55
    That's exactly what many of us need.
  • 01:06:57
    We need to believe that the story Jesus came and lived
  • 01:07:00
    was for us, was to reach us.
  • 01:07:02
    That we're the one, eyes locked on us
  • 01:07:05
    that Jesus has been after, He's been coming after you.
  • 01:07:08
    He's been putting people in your path.
  • 01:07:10
    He is literally hunting you down so that you understand
  • 01:07:14
    how much He wants to reach you
  • 01:07:18
    and that His story was a story He came and lived
  • 01:07:21
    so that you could have one of the same.
  • 01:07:25
    And some of the rest of us just need a cold water in the face,
  • 01:07:29
    like I had a month or so ago.
  • 01:07:31
    Hey, it's you. You are plan A.
  • 01:07:34
    You are God's big plan to reach your kid,
  • 01:07:36
    to reach your mom, to reach your friend,
  • 01:07:38
    to reach your colleagues.
  • 01:07:39
    When he opens the door, step through it.
  • 01:07:42
    Step through it. Tell your story. Tell them the truth.
  • 01:07:46
    Take the opportunity in front of you because
  • 01:07:49
    there is no other plan for the people you love.
  • 01:07:51
    You are it, and God wants your life to be used by Him.
  • 01:07:56
    Let me pray for all of our weeks and all the people.
  • 01:07:59
    Can you imagine all the people, the multitudes of people
  • 01:08:03
    that are represented by this community
  • 01:08:06
    that we go out this week with the idea that, maybe,
  • 01:08:10
    just maybe, God would use our life to touch somebody else?
  • 01:08:14
    Lord, I pray that You would turn Your Word loose
  • 01:08:17
    among these people, among this community.
  • 01:08:19
    I pray that You would release stories
  • 01:08:21
    that have been in the dark for years about You.
  • 01:08:24
    And I pray that you would rip off the lid
  • 01:08:27
    on those and let those out.
  • 01:08:29
    I ask that you would deeply, deeply move
  • 01:08:33
    in the life of this community so that we can go out
  • 01:08:36
    this week, the people that we love,
  • 01:08:38
    the people that we work with and make an impact
  • 01:08:41
    and be used by You.
  • 01:08:43
    It's in Your Son Jesus's name that I pray. Amen.
  • 01:08:48
    - Your story is powerful and it needs to be shared.
  • 01:08:51
    Maya Angelou says there is no greater agony
  • 01:08:54
    than bearing an untold story inside you.
  • 01:08:57
    The world needs your story and you need to share it.
  • 01:09:00
    Head to Crossroads.net/shareyourstory
  • 01:09:03
    to share a bit of how God has shown up in your life.
  • 01:09:06
    And join us next week as Joel Firebaugh,
  • 01:09:08
    the guy who leads all of our students around Crossroads
  • 01:09:11
    talks about how to experience real life change.
  • 01:09:14
    Sometimes we get stuck, sometimes we mess up,
  • 01:09:17
    sometimes we go a way we know we aren't supposed to,
  • 01:09:20
    but we don't have to stay there.
  • 01:09:21
    The Holy Spirit gives us the X factor to change.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up! This is the group part of the Bible Challenge, so your questions are based on specific Bible passages from the weekend message. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. When was the last time someone else changed your life for the better? How did they do it?

  2. What stood out to you most from the message?

  3. Think of someone who you feel has represented God to you in some way? How did that influence your view of God? If you can’t think of anyone, what types of characteristics would you look for in someone representing God?

  4. What does it mean to you to be God’s representative now? What might that look like in your life?

  5. What can make being God’s representative challenging?

  6. What helps you focus on caring for the people around you? What distracts you from investing in those relationships?

  7. What is one way you can intentionally invest in the needs and feelings of someone else this week?

  8. Let’s end with prayer. You can say something like, “Jesus, thank you for the ways you’ve changed our lives. Help us to be more like you so that the people around us can see more of you. Help us to focus on others, the same way You did. Amen.”

More from the Weekend

Bonus Questions! Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper.

  • What barriers do you have to sharing your story with others?
  • Who comes to mind as someone who might be open to hearing your story? When and how could you share it with them?
  • Practice now. Have someone set a timer for 3 minutes, and everyone gets to practice sharing a story of where Jesus has shown up in your life.

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(This stuff helps us figure out how many fruitcakes to make come December)

You must include at least one person

Got it! Enjoy your discussion.


May 21, 2023 1 hr 9 mins 32 sec

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