Are you Hiding from God?

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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads.

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I'm Andy and I'm so glad that you've joined us today.

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You're actually joining us for our second week

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studying a book in the Bible called Mark.

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Specifically, we're going to look at

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how lines, circles, and Jesus all closely relate

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and come together in this book.

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But first, we're actually going to spend

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this next bit of time worshiping together.

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This is a time of singing songs about God and to Him.

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But we also believe that worship

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isn't confined to singing songs or just singing songs

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in one room at one time together.

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One of the beautiful things that I'm learning right now

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is that we don't all have to be in the same place

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physically to experience God together.

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Now, a couple of weekends ago,

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I actually experienced this personally.

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I was out solo camping and I got a text

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from a Crossroads community member in Nepal.

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It was a video of his son and his friends performing

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a Crossroads music original worshiping in Nepal.

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And I had a beautiful moment in the middle of the woods,

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being led in worship by a member of our church,

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literally on the other side of the world.

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So wherever you are right now, this is a chance

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for you to have a few minutes with

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the God who loves you more than you can know.

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- You may not know it, but what you just said

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is Scripture, it's not new words created in 2024.

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You just said Scripture.

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Our our team wrote this song right from a scripture.

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It's been near and dear to my heart for many years

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because I needed to choose to believe it.

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So it became an anchor point for me.

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It's James 1:17 in the Bible.

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It says every good gift and every perfect gift

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comes from above, it comes down from the Father of lights.

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What you're in right now, online and in this room,

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you're surrounded by many people who believe that.

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I believe that, that every good thing in my life

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has a source to it,

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and that source is the Creator of all. It's God.

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You may not believe that. You're in the right place.

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You came in here wanting more,

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and you're surrounded by people who would say,

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"I found more. He's a good God, a provider,

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a good source of all good things."

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And as I just watch in the room,

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I can't see you online, forgive me.

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But as I just watch in the room, I could see

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some of you seeing those words in that first song

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or the second song, or even that song just now,

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Anything That's Good and some of you just lit up with a smile.

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Because for you today, it's easy to say,

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"Oh, yeah, I remember.

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I remember God providing me this.

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I remember the friend who invited me here.

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I remember the loved one I'm standing next to.

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I remember my first child,

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or I remember acing that test," whatever it may be.

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Some of your faces lit up as we sing this.

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Others of you still chose to sing,

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even without a smile on your face,

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because where you're at in life right now

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says this is a hard choice to say He's good.

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It's a hard choice to show up and believe in a good God.

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When I'm in that space, I need to hear stories.

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I need to hear stories of those who are around me

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saying, "Here's where He's been good in my life."

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Because their stories remind me of

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how He's been good in my own life.

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They help me see it.

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It's one of the benefits of us gathering together

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as we get to share stories.

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And so one of the best places we collect those stories

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as a church is out on our base camp.

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Anybody been to camps before? There you go.

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So we have this space out at camp

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where we just can collect your raw, uh, unedited story.

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We call them dumper stories.

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Why do we call it a dumper?

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Well, because it's an outhouse.

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And why would we put a recording in an outhouse

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for people to tell their very personal story?

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Well, because we're Crossroads.

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And so there's a literal outhouse.

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It's not a functional outhouse. Take it easy.

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But it's a literal old outhouse.

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And people can go in there any moment that

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they want out of camp and pick up

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this old military grade phone and speak into it,

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their raw, in the moment response

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to seeing God's breakthrough and God's goodness.

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And so whether it's with a smile today or a stern choice,

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I want you to hear some stories of God's breakthrough.

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We're going to keep worshiping.

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You're going to hear a couple of these stories

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collected in that, stories of breakthrough,

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stories of God's goodness.

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- This is my fourth camp.

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Two Man Camps, a Couples Camp, and now Father Son Camp.

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I came out of Couples Camp seeing the power of God

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move in my marriage, and I brought my son

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to Father Son Camp hoping to see that same change,

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but knowing that life with my son

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has been hard as raising a son is.

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And letting go of baggage so that

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we can continue to grow as God wants us to.

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And I found out during solitude that

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my seven year old is carrying and sees his baggage.

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And it gave me the realization that my expectations for myself,

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my expectations for him, are outlandish,

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but am now realizing that by holding on to my baggage,

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I'm forcing him to hold on to his too.

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And we both need to let our baggage go

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so that we can help each other to grow better

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as father and son and as followers of Christ.

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And that's my big takeaway from this weekend.

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- I wasn't expecting to have a breakthrough in the woods.

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We were asked to close our eyes

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and to let God just tell us what we needed.

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When I closed my eyes, I saw my daughter's headstone,

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and I heard, "She is Mine." And I lost it.

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I cried so hard because I realized that

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I have been so angry at God.

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I kept hearing, "She is Mine, she is Mine."

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And I realized that my daughter was always His

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and the short amount of time that I had her heartbeat

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and I had her body, and I had so much love for her

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that she was never mine. She was always His.

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So that's what I'm leaving at camp: fear and anger.

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And it is such a burden off of my chest and my heart.

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I'm so grateful to have this opportunity.

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- I'm in Puerto Rico interacting with

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one of the partners that we have

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that we partner with with Go Trips.

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And this house was recently completed

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by a bunch of Crossroads folks.

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For this house we were the first one in,

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we're the last one out working here

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since a natural disaster a couple of years ago.

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And I'll tell you what, that's part of why we do Go Trips,

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because people's lives get changed,

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not just on the other side of the world

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or outside of America, but actually in your life.

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Hey, why don't you try something new?

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Why don't you try getting outside your comfort zone?

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Why don't you try blessing somebody else,

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giving them a hand up in life?

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In the process, you just might find

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your life change as well. Go someplace.

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- Now, like BT just said, life change happens

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when we go and when we move.

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And if you're interested in that life change

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for yourself and being a part of life change

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for someone else across the globe, you can check out

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all of our Go Trips at Crossroads.net/trips.

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Now, I have experienced this in South Africa,

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in India, in Nicaragua, and actually this year

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I'm going to experience it fresh again in Puerto Rico.

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Would love for you to join me

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and the Anywhere team this December.

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I mean, it's December in Puerto Rico.

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Come on, find a trip that works for you and go.

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Now part of what you just heard in worship

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are stories of life change from real people

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who experienced God at one of our camps.

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Now, what are camps?

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They are unique Crossroads events

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hosted on our land in Ohio,

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specifically designed to take you to a new place

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relationally and spiritually.

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We have over nine different camp experiences,

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so whether you're a man, woman, couple, student,

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veteran, senior who can't sleep on the ground anymore,

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hey, we have something for you.

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So wherever you live, we want you to come

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and experience this for yourself.

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You can find out more information and sign up

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for a camp at Crossroads.net/camps.

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Now, we've been talking a lot about life change,

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and life change happens through going

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and experiencing something new with God,

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but it can also happen through the practice

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of living generously, specifically financially,

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through the tithe.

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What we mean by that is that a lot of people

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in our community practice the biblical concept

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of the tithe by giving 10% of their gross income

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back to their local church.

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And if that sounds crazy, hey, stick with me here.

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Twice in our history, in October of '19

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and October of 2022, we did a teaching series

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called The Blessed Life that explains

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why we believe what we believe about God and money

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and, man, what happens when we put God first in our lives,

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as evidenced by how we manage our money,

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that He shows up in our lives in profound ways.

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Most of the people who experienced The Blessed Life

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said it was some of the most refreshing,

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invigorating, biblical teaching they've ever heard,

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and it was about money.

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Here's a story of one person whose life

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was impacted by The Blessed Life.

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- My name is Arturo Minera. You can call me Arturo.

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I didn't grow up in church.

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I grew up in Miami, Florida.

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My family moved up here when I was ten years old.

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My parents separated shortly after moving up here,

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but it was at that point where now my mom

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being a single mom with her four kids,

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giving, when it was explained to me,

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the youth pastors would have these sermons

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about here's how you give when you don't have money to give.

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The foundation of how to give back for me

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wasn't financial because just contextually,

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I didn't have always a dollar to give

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in that bucket that some churches would pass around.

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It was giving of time and talent.

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So I would get involved in like the worship team.

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I had already, in my head, I was already thinking,

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"I am giving. What do I need to do with my money

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that I'm not already giving with my time?"

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My rationale was God's giving me money. Great.

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Now I can do something with that,

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pay my bills and everything.

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But God, you're still getting 10% of me,

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so that should be enough."

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That was the posture in my heart for a good amount of years.

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It was just a thing you had to do.

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So what changed for me then was a couple things.

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Going back to my wife and I, on the verge of getting married.

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We went church shopping for a year.

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We landed on Crossroads.

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And wouldn't you know it, the first teaching

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that we arrived to was The Blessed Life series.

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The way I remembered it, it gave us this analogy

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of this rainforest somewhere that he stepped into,

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and it was almost magical in how here

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you're constantly being poured on with rain, with dews,

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and you step out and it's almost like magic.

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And it was through that language of like,

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man, there's there's an invitation God gives us

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to live in this blessed life.

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And it's kind of silly how humanity tends to,

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for whatever reason, step out of it.

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It was a great foundation for my wife and I

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for a lot of things, because as newlyweds,

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as new parents, and then when it comes to giving,

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it was just a fresh look at here's what would happen

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if you considered giving as much as you could back to God.

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And then when we step into it, we've seen the fruits

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and we've seen it in all parts of our life.

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Why would we give that up? Why would we stop now?

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We decided to start giving, and some of those things

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that we started to see was more peace.

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The first couple of weeks were very rocky.

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I could really only say a couple weeks because

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peace of knowing that God covered us financially,

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God covered us at home.

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There's a lot of personal things

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that we were very concerned about.

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As soon as we started giving with this changed mindset,

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this changed perspective, willing, changed perspective,

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we just saw a lot of fights that could have happened,

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just not, kind of aligned us in a way that

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when we did things, we kind of sensed that

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we weren't doing it alone.

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So what was important to me was, and for my wife,

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was knowing that being part of a community

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that was all in on giving, financially giving in these ways

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was something that made my wife and I feel

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more comfortable about doing together.

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I see now God is showing up with another thing

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that I didn't trust.

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I didn't --I didn't know who to trust with my finances.

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I didn't know who to trust with this whole concept of giving.

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I put my trust in Him and once again,

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surprise, surprise, He shows up.

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- Hey, I know Arturo and that is what happens

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when someone truly puts God first in their life,

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as evidenced not just by where they spend their time,

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but where they spend their money.

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And Arturo found things like

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peace that surpasses understanding.

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He and his wife drew closer together.

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He got answers from God about questions that he had.

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In short, he saw God's blessings in his life.

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And did you hear what he said at the end?

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The fact that he was part of a community of people

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who were committed to giving in this way,

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encouraged him and his wife.

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And that's true. That's what happens.

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You are surrounded by people who put God first

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in their finances, and God regularly uses those people

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to change the world through Crossroads.

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Just last week, over 40,000 people heard

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the gospel preached at our Super Bowl of Preaching.

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This is faithful people who tithe and give

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and make that and so much more possible.

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And for anyone who tithes at Crossroads,

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we have something called the Blue Team.

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And if that's you, I want to encourage you to sign up

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and join the literally thousands of people

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who are already on The Blue Team.

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The Blue Team is for self-declared tithers,

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so we take your word on it.

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We don't check your w-2s or anything.

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And you don't have to be wealthy.

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Crossroads doesn't have any corporate sponsors,

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just normal, faithful people.

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So when you sign up, you'll be put on the list

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of people who regularly get special information

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about what's happening behind the scenes

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here at Crossroads, and specifically

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who are asked to pray for those things

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and the mission that God has given us.

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Every year around this time, we also send out

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an annual Blue Team sticker,

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and we're about to do that this year.

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So if you are a tither, then please sign up ASAP

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at crossroads.net/BlueTeam so we can get that to you

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and have you on the list.

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And if that's not you, hey, please hear me here,

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you are still welcome.

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We know we have people at all different phases

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of their spiritual journey, and we are so glad about that.

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And you can still support the work that God

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is doing here at Crossroads at Crossroads.net/give.

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Now, just as God invites us into a blessed life,

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He invites us into life with Him.

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We're in our second week of studying the book of Mark

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together, and Alli is diving deep into

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how Jesus invites us into relationship.

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- Some of us see lines as divisive,

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limiting and restrictive.

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Others see lines and think, "Sweet,

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now we know exactly where to go and what to do."

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In their purest form, lines provide clarity

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about the space between two points.

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What if I told you that Jesus

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was really good at drawing lines?

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He was all about challenging people to something better.

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Jesus constantly challenges people

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to step over the line to receive more.

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When we choose to step over the line Jesus draws,

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we are stepping into more of his goodness.

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Circles, on the other hand, they're just lines that curve.

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A circle shows us where

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the energy is concentrated in the middle.

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A circle surrounds and identifies what is valued.

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Everyone wants to feel valued and known.

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All throughout history, Jesus has been weaponized

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or minimized by people who want Him

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to fit into their circle, club, or the in-crowd.

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Jesus drew His own circle, and it turns out

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it was bigger than anyone could have ever expected.

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Whether you resonate more with lines or circles,

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Jesus calls you to step into

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more of His concentrated goodness.

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Jesus wants all of us to step over the line

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into His giant circle.

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- Hey, everybody. I'm Alli.

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It's great to be with you this weekend at Crossroads.

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And we are in the Gospel of Mark, looking for

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the fullest picture of Jesus that we can possibly get.

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Why is this so important?

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Whenever I read the Gospels, I'm always asking God,

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"Make sure I see the real Jesus

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because I want to know Him, which helps me love Him."

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And it actually also helps us understand

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what might He be doing in our life every single day.

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And today we're going to talk about that

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a little bit in depth in the context of relationship.

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What kind of relationship is Jesus after

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for you and for me in our life every single day?

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I think there's a line that He is inviting all of us

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to step across into a very specific

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kind of relationship with Him.

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Some of us haven't seen that line.

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Some of us are hiding from that line.

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But I think some of us step across a line

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into a brand new place with Him.

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Let me pray for us.

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Would You speak to us personally about

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where we are with You, what what our relationships are like?

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And I'm asking that You would invite

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every single person who's present with us here

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or online to step into a new space with You.

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In Jesus's name, Amen.

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Well, we've got -- we've been using this concept

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of circles and lines to think about

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some of the complexities of Jesus, who He is,

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what His character is like, what He does in our life.

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And through the gospel of Mark, undoubtedly,

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when we look at how Jesus relates to other people,

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we see both of these things.

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Some of us love the idea of Jesus being circled Jesus,

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you know, inviting everybody in Jesus,

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all up close, come closer, come near everybody.

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And He is absolutely that.

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And He also draws some lines.

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And as I look at the Gospel of Mark, I see this theme

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that shows me how Jesus invited everyone into His circle.

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Mark writes about a very specific word that

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as you're reading the book with us,

00:34:03

I hope you are in the app.

00:34:04

I'm reading Mark through the app. I

00:34:06

hope you are as well.

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Mark repeatedly talks about crowds, crowds,

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crowds, crowds everywhere Jesus goes

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it seems that there's a crowd gathering around Him.

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And this theme goes all throughout the gospel.

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And to me, it's indicative of just how many times

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Jesus welcomed in, invited in, and let Himself

00:34:27

be around a whole bunch of people.

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And when He did that, He didn't draw a lot of lines.

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And these weren't just any crowds.

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They were kind of like a crowd that I was in

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maybe a year, year and a half ago, I took my girls

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and we went to an FC Cincinnati soccer game one night.

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A friend gave us tickets,

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and right as we approached the stadium,

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this huge thunderstorm broke open.

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I mean, like enormous.

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And right as we're going up the steps.

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Now, some of you get caught in the rain

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and your skin looks dewy and you get beachy waves.

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I look like my cat when he falls in the bathtub.

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So this -- I'm super distracted.

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We're walking up the stairs and the rain is pouring down,

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and I don't really realize

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until it's like 10 seconds too late,

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we just join the stream of people,

00:35:12

that they had cleared the seats.

00:35:14

So everyone in the stadium was crushed into

00:35:17

the circle where all the concessions and bathrooms are.

00:35:20

And it was like scary crowd, like,

00:35:24

nobody can move, people in your face, on your back.

00:35:27

I'm trying to keep a hold of my girls.

00:35:28

I mean, it is a literal crush of people kind of crowd.

00:35:32

And we were like that for about an hour.

00:35:35

And you could tell the crowd wanted something.

00:35:38

They really wanted that game to start.

00:35:41

They wanted to get back to their seats.

00:35:42

And nobody, nobody wanted to be

00:35:45

right up in each other's faces.

00:35:46

But we all were there for the same reason.

00:35:49

That's exactly what some of the crowds were like around Jesus.

00:35:52

I think sometimes when I read the word crowds,

00:35:54

I just think like, "Oh, it was a couple dozen people."

00:35:57

No, it was that kind of crowd. It was a crushing crowd.

00:36:02

People were very interested in being near Him

00:36:05

because of how Jesus drew circles in a crowd,

00:36:08

because of how He invited people into His space.

00:36:12

Jesus was very freely interacting in the crowd.

00:36:16

All through Mark, whenever you see that word,

00:36:19

watch what He does.

00:36:20

Jesus never once rejects, belittles, demeans a crowd.

00:36:27

He actually engages very freely with them.

00:36:30

Jesus meets needs in the crowd,

00:36:32

like real practical needs.

00:36:33

We get stories all the way through this gospel

00:36:36

of Jesus doing things like feeding people dinner,

00:36:38

like, literally thousands of people

00:36:40

He provides food for in a crowd.

00:36:42

He heals lots of people.

00:36:44

That's why people wanted to get close to Him,

00:36:46

because they wanted to touch Him.

00:36:48

They wanted to be close to Him.

00:36:49

They wanted to drag their friends to Him in a crowd.

00:36:52

And Jesus was patient and welcoming and inviting.

00:36:56

He regularly taught the crowd because

00:36:59

He got super bummed out that they didn't

00:37:00

have good leaders who were giving them

00:37:02

regular encouragement and instruction.

00:37:05

Jesus seemed to kind of love a crowd.

00:37:08

He certainly loved the people in the crowd very, very freely.

00:37:12

Now, I think this is one of the things that

00:37:15

we do pretty well in this community.

00:37:17

I think that's why crowds can sometimes gather at Crossroads.

00:37:21

Because this has been my experience.

00:37:23

I've been in this community 23 years, 23 years.

00:37:25

I have never once felt unwelcome

00:37:30

or I have never, ever, even, even when I knew

00:37:33

not one person here, I've never thought that

00:37:37

anyone was after something from me.

00:37:39

I've genuinely felt invited into many things over the years.

00:37:43

That's exactly how Jesus interacted

00:37:45

with people in the crowd.

00:37:46

And if that's real, you know, we talk about camps

00:37:49

and trips a lot around here, and if you decide

00:37:52

to go on one of those, no one's going to check

00:37:54

to see if you've been baptized

00:37:56

or what your theological convictions are.

00:37:58

You know, Jesus didn't do that with people either.

00:38:01

When he was in mass numbers of people,

00:38:04

He invited them closer to actually meet real needs,

00:38:08

to actually engage exactly where their lives were

00:38:12

at that time, and try to be a blessing to them in the crowd.

00:38:16

He generously gave what actually mattered to people.

00:38:20

He never represented a crowd as a terrible thing,

00:38:23

but it is a one dimensional thing.

00:38:25

The kind of relationship you can have with somebody

00:38:27

who's in a crowd is not complete, right?

00:38:31

You might see what's true. It's just not complete.

00:38:35

And I think about that whenever I speak,

00:38:38

whenever I teach, I just think,

00:38:40

I really strive to be authentically myself,

00:38:43

like to talk like I would to my friends or my coworkers,

00:38:47

to say what's honest and real about my life

00:38:50

and about my relationship with Jesus.

00:38:52

I really do strive to do that.

00:38:54

But at the same time, if you came home with me,

00:38:59

you would see something entirely different. Right?

00:39:02

You would see a bunch of new layers.

00:39:04

If you came home with me you would see how I talk to my kids.

00:39:08

You would see how we did family meeting on Sunday night.

00:39:11

You might wonder why there was Yahtzee

00:39:12

in the middle of my kitchen table 365 days a year.

00:39:16

You might hear what's on my Spotify playlist

00:39:20

or how I do my calendar.

00:39:21

You might wonder who I spend time with, you know,

00:39:25

marked out, like, some of my friendships

00:39:27

and how I engage those.

00:39:29

There's just layers to all of us.

00:39:30

There's layers of complexity to who you are

00:39:33

and how you put your life together that you could learn

00:39:36

if we went home with each other,

00:39:38

if we engaged in each other's lives that way.

00:39:40

Anybody wondering why I have Yahtzee

00:39:42

in the middle of my kitchen table?

00:39:43

Yeah, I threw that one out there, and I thought,

00:39:48

"I wonder if they're wonder why I have Yahtzee."

00:39:50

It's not just our favorite game, but I've noticed

00:39:52

it's exactly the right length,

00:39:53

pro tip for anybody who has teenagers,

00:39:55

it's exactly the right length of game

00:39:57

to get my kids to say yes to.

00:40:00

Like it only takes like eight minutes

00:40:02

to play a game of Yahtzee.

00:40:03

So it's how I get my my teenagers to stick around

00:40:06

the kitchen a little longer.

00:40:07

"Oh, why don't you just sit down?

00:40:09

Let's play a quick game of Yahtzee."

00:40:10

It's like, "Okay, fine."

00:40:12

And they sit and then we can talk.

00:40:14

It like holds them in the kitchen longer,

00:40:15

so it's my thing. I bet you --

00:40:17

I'll bet you I've played 20 games of Yahtzee this week.

00:40:20

This week alone. Promise you, not making it up.

00:40:22

I have four kids, so what does that work out to?

00:40:24

You know, five games a kid. That's probably about right.

00:40:27

Anyway, we have these layers of things about us

00:40:31

that make us who we are and how we live our life.

00:40:34

And while Jesus engaged lovingly and freely in a crowd,

00:40:40

giving what was real and true and good,

00:40:42

it's also true that you can't get

00:40:45

the complete picture of who He is in that setting.

00:40:48

It's exactly the same as it would be for you or for me.

00:40:52

Jesus cannot be fully known in a crowd,

00:40:55

and throughout the book of Mark, we see this line drawn

00:41:00

between the crowd and another group of people in His life.

00:41:04

And as a matter of fact, if you read very carefully,

00:41:07

you're going to notice that the crowd

00:41:08

is often mentioned right alongside these people,

00:41:11

almost like a contrast to them.

00:41:13

And so Jesus draws this line between the crowd

00:41:17

and another group who seems to actually know Him.

00:41:21

And that group of people is always referred to

00:41:24

distinctly as His disciples, His disciples.

00:41:29

Now that word is very specific.

00:41:30

These guys were also His friends.

00:41:33

They were also His traveling companions.

00:41:35

They were also likely people He had known

00:41:37

for a lot of his life, but they were His disciples.

00:41:42

And that word appears in contrast and next to

00:41:46

what Jesus would do in a crowd

00:41:49

versus what He would do with His group of disciples.

00:41:52

This kind of relationship that the Bible calls disciple

00:41:56

is a very important and specific distinction.

00:41:59

As a matter of fact, it exists across a certain line.

00:42:05

And I believe that that's the line

00:42:07

that Jesus is interested in each of us crossing,

00:42:11

where we come out of the crowd of people

00:42:13

that He loves, that He gives to,

00:42:15

that He welcomes, that He wants,

00:42:17

and we cross a line, and now we're a disciple.

00:42:22

And these two groups are very distinctly different,

00:42:24

and they get different aspects of who Jesus is,

00:42:27

and they know him at different levels.

00:42:29

This is a critical kind of relationship,

00:42:32

one, so much so, that it's exactly what Jesus said

00:42:35

in His final words here on earth before --

00:42:38

After He had been raised from the dead

00:42:40

and He had interacted with His disciples,

00:42:43

here's what He says to them, His final words:

00:43:02

Jesus said, go to the nations, go to the crowds,

00:43:06

go, gather crowds, you're probably going to need to.

00:43:09

But also what we're looking for is making disciples.

00:43:12

We're looking for the people in the crowd

00:43:15

who will step up and out and cross the line

00:43:18

into a relationship that's much deeper,

00:43:21

where you get, what did He say?

00:43:23

Taught everything that I've commanded You,

00:43:26

and surely I am with you.

00:43:28

This is the relationship where you're with Jesus.

00:43:31

You're going where He goes. You're doing what He does.

00:43:34

You're you're learning His ways,

00:43:36

the way that you and I would

00:43:37

if we followed each other around for the day.

00:43:41

Disciples follow up close.

00:43:43

They see the rhythm. They see the heart.

00:43:45

They get exposed to how Jesus prayed

00:43:47

and connected with His Father, where He went,

00:43:50

what His mission was, why He was doing it that way.

00:43:52

All of that stuff is the life of a disciple.

00:43:56

And can you catch a glimpse of it in the crowd?

00:43:59

Sure, you absolutely can.

00:44:00

But you have to be careful, because sometimes

00:44:03

what you see of someone in the crowd,

00:44:05

you can even misinterpret, right?

00:44:08

You can see a thing in the crowd,

00:44:10

and you can assume it's about one thing.

00:44:12

And then when you get to know the person,

00:44:14

you realize, "Oh, that's what that really was."

00:44:18

And it's exactly the same with Jesus.

00:44:20

So we can glimpse Him in the crowd

00:44:22

and what we see is true, it's just incomplete.

00:44:25

And our knowledge, our deep knowledge of Him,

00:44:27

is waiting in this relationship called disciple.

00:44:32

So if that relationship exists and it's good, you know,

00:44:38

if your goal is to know as much of God

00:44:40

as you probably possibly could,

00:44:43

why aren't we all doing it, is the question.

00:44:48

And to understand ourselves a little bit better,

00:44:51

I want to share with you something that happened

00:44:53

when I was in seminary.

00:44:54

I was taking a class that was actually partly online,

00:44:58

and I had to turn in a paper.

00:45:00

And there was like a portal where we had to upload it

00:45:02

and check like, yes, this is my original work,

00:45:04

and submit it, little submit button.

00:45:06

And so I go to turn in this paper

00:45:08

and there's a two question quiz.

00:45:10

It's like you must, you know, must answer

00:45:12

in order for the submit button to, you know, pop up.

00:45:15

And so the two questions were:

00:45:18

how much time did you spend on this paper?

00:45:21

And the multiple choice was 0 to 4 hours,

00:45:23

five to 9, or 10 plus. And you had to pick one.

00:45:27

And then the second question was a lot more interesting.

00:45:32

The first option, now I want you to imagine

00:45:35

what might you do if you saw this?

00:45:38

First option was: I'll take an A right now, thanks.

00:45:44

The second option was: I'll take what I've truly earned.

00:45:51

And the third option was: I don't know what this is,

00:45:54

but have a great weekend!

00:45:57

And you had to pick one in order to submit the paper.

00:46:00

So I chose one. I submit the paper.

00:46:03

I come back into the class on Monday morning

00:46:05

only to learn that that was absolutely real.

00:46:09

That question was absolutely real.

00:46:12

You either picked the I'll take an A, thanks,

00:46:15

and your grade was recorded.

00:46:18

Or he was going to grade your paper

00:46:19

for whatever you were actually going to get.

00:46:22

You all, the class exploded, absolutely exploded.

00:46:26

And we were to discuss this openly,

00:46:29

like with each other,

00:46:30

what we were thinking, what we were feeling.

00:46:33

And most people were going like,

00:46:34

"I had no idea that that was real. What?

00:46:38

I've never seen that before."

00:46:40

Some people were just flat out annoyed.

00:46:42

"I put ten freaking hours.

00:46:44

You mean to tell me if you put half an hour into that paper,

00:46:47

you could have gotten an A on it if you picked that option?"

00:46:49

Yep. Absolutely right. You definitely could have.

00:46:53

It was utterly real. And it was a total setup.

00:46:58

It was a total setup by our professor to set us up

00:47:02

for our reaction to this life altering relationship

00:47:08

that we are offered in Christ.

00:47:12

When we're told there's a way that

00:47:16

your sin can be utterly paid for,

00:47:18

and you can walk freely into the power

00:47:21

and the goodness and the life of God

00:47:23

in the Kingdom of God,

00:47:24

no matter what you've done in the past.

00:47:28

Sometimes our responses are a little complicated. Yes?

00:47:32

Like, unexpectedly complicated.

00:47:34

And that was what the discussion forum was all about,

00:47:37

because he was trying as an object lesson to go,

00:47:39

like, "How did you really feel about the fact

00:47:41

that you didn't pick that option

00:47:43

and your neighbor got an A? You know?"

00:47:45

I mean, it was -- it was infuriating to people.

00:47:47

And I got to tell you, the reason it was so explosive

00:47:53

is because only three people out of the entire class

00:47:57

picked I'll take an A, thanks. Three.

00:48:03

That's incredible. Three people picked that option.

00:48:09

I happen to be one of them, by the way. Ha, ha, ha.

00:48:13

I was like, yeah --

00:48:14

I think it was really like my straightforwardness.

00:48:18

Well, that's what it says.

00:48:20

I just, okay, yeah, I'll take it.

00:48:24

If that's real, I'm in. You know?

00:48:26

I'm pretty, I'm like a very straightforward person.

00:48:29

And I just went on the off chance that's real,

00:48:33

I'll go for it.

00:48:34

Three of us, three of us.

00:48:37

And I stayed pretty quiet because

00:48:39

we were really being hated on.

00:48:41

People were all up in their feelings about this.

00:48:46

And it's amazing how complicated,

00:48:50

how complex that question can be to answer.

00:48:53

But it all boiled down to one thing.

00:48:55

As I listened to the discussion that was going on

00:48:57

in the class what it boiled down to that day

00:49:00

is that everybody had their own version

00:49:02

of what they thought they might lose if they pick that option.

00:49:08

I might lose self-respect.

00:49:10

I might lose respect of the professor.

00:49:13

What if this is some weird test of character

00:49:16

and I get tossed out of seminary?

00:49:18

Like people were crazy.

00:49:19

It was all kinds of crazy explanations.

00:49:23

And it all boiled down to if you didn't pick that option,

00:49:27

it was because you had some version of something

00:49:30

you thought you would lose if you did.

00:49:33

Now, I want you to listen to the line

00:49:36

that Jesus draws between the crowd and the disciples.

00:49:40

It comes from Mark chapter eight.

00:50:05

Not only do we see Him again making this distinction

00:50:08

between the crowd and disciples,

00:50:11

but He's calling to the crowd saying,

00:50:13

"Do you want to come? Do you want to come?

00:50:16

But there's just one thing you should know."

00:50:19

And he gives us the heart of the reason

00:50:22

why we get complicated around this answer,

00:50:25

because we don't want to lose something.

00:50:29

And from the vantage point of the crowd,

00:50:32

it looks like we might.

00:50:33

When we think about crossing the line

00:50:35

into a deeper life with Jesus and really following Him,

00:50:39

maybe the heart of our objection,

00:50:41

no matter which person is answering,

00:50:43

the heart of the objection maybe boils down to:

00:50:46

what if I lose something?

00:50:51

What if I'm not willing to risk what it looks like

00:50:55

I might lose in this equation of crossing that line?

00:50:59

And the life of a disciple is really risk

00:51:02

after risk after risk to step across the line

00:51:05

and find out is it real? Is He good?

00:51:11

Is He there? Did He mean it?

00:51:15

Do His words about money or sex or friendship,

00:51:21

do they work in my life?

00:51:23

Do I find more life if I try to move that direction?

00:51:27

And the life of a disciple is asking that

00:51:29

and crossing the line over and over and over again.

00:51:32

But the truth is, from the vantage point of the crowd,

00:51:35

it looks like every time we cross the line,

00:51:38

we might just lose something.

00:51:41

And so we stay in the crowd, we stay in the crowd,

00:51:45

and we never experience the upside of a life with Jesus

00:51:48

because we we can't know it until we cross the line.

00:51:53

And we just have a limited view in the crowd.

00:51:55

And I think there's three places that we can be

00:51:57

in our life that make it especially difficult,

00:51:59

three different places you could be tonight,

00:52:04

that you could be in one of these places.

00:52:06

And I just got to tell you, I feel you.

00:52:08

I have been in all three of the places

00:52:10

that we're about to discuss, and we see them all

00:52:14

also in the book of Mark.

00:52:16

And when you're in these places, the line,

00:52:19

crossing the line to try to come into

00:52:22

a closer relationship with Jesus

00:52:24

doesn't look as good as it sounds.

00:52:26

And one of those places is when you're really, really low,

00:52:30

when you are down low. And I'm a realist.

00:52:35

I know that there's people in here tonight

00:52:36

who would say they're in a season or a day

00:52:38

or a week where they're just feeling low.

00:52:41

There was a woman in the book of Mark, chapter five,

00:52:44

who was at the lowest point of her life,

00:52:46

and she goes into the crowd around Jesus.

00:52:48

Here's what it says:

00:53:20

Now, this is a good crowd story, right?

00:53:23

Even her being in the crowd that day was a big move.

00:53:26

If you had been this woman in that culture,

00:53:30

you would have spent over a decade

00:53:31

being declared unclean, which means

00:53:34

you're outside the normal rhythms of every aspect

00:53:38

of life in the Jewish culture and community.

00:53:40

She was, for all practical purposes,

00:53:44

a pretty much on the outskirts, or an outcast

00:53:47

of her culture and her community.

00:53:49

And so she probably wasn't even supposed

00:53:51

to be in the crowd that day.

00:53:52

So I want you to picture an FC kind of crowd,

00:53:55

like, a crushing crowd, and she takes the low place,

00:53:58

does some kind of army crawl, and comes up to Jesus

00:54:02

and touches the hem of His cloak.

00:54:07

And lo and behold, Jesus, like He does so many times,

00:54:10

actually gives something amazing in the crowd.

00:54:14

He heals her. Her body is healed.

00:54:17

She actually gets what she thought she came for.

00:54:20

And the crowd offered her the cover

00:54:22

she wanted to do it, right?

00:54:23

She didn't want to take the risk because it was a risk,

00:54:26

make no mistake, it was a risk for her to be there.

00:54:29

And the crowd gave her just the cover she needed,

00:54:31

not to do what? Experience more rejection,

00:54:36

more disappointment.

00:54:41

Over and over and over again

00:54:43

she had been to doctors, that's what it said.

00:54:45

She had been repeatedly disappointed,

00:54:48

not healed and rejected.

00:54:49

And the crowd, was offering her the cover to not take a risk.

00:54:53

And she comes up to Jesus and touches the hem of His cloak

00:54:56

and actually gets something amazing.

00:55:01

I think this woman would have been,

00:55:02

on the quiz in my class, I think she might have been

00:55:06

the one that said, "I don't know what this is,

00:55:08

but have a good weekend."

00:55:10

Like, can't even see the line.

00:55:13

Can't even imagine that there's more for her.

00:55:16

But Jesus knew there was more.

00:55:18

So listen to what He does next. It's so interesting.

00:55:21

She was probably happy to slink away,

00:55:24

but Jesus, huh-uh. No, sir. Here's what He says.

00:55:28

He pushes on His disciples. "Who? I just felt that.

00:55:31

What's going on here? Who did that? Something happened."

00:55:35

And they're like, "Dude, people are pressing against you.

00:55:38

What do you mean?"

00:55:39

And he's, like, insistent.

00:55:41

And here's what it says:

00:55:52

She crossed the line. She crossed the line.

00:55:55

She came up out of the crowd, trembling with fear.

00:55:59

When you are low in your life, it takes trembling

00:56:02

with fear to drag yourself to Jesus.

00:56:05

And I think the real risk here is hope.

00:56:09

Yeah, sure,

00:56:11

the crowd prevented her from having to risk rejection.

00:56:13

But even deeper than that, even deeper than that,

00:56:17

would she consider hoping again, hoping for a life

00:56:21

that she hadn't had for more than 12 years?

00:56:25

And she finally crosses the line.

00:56:27

And here's what happens.

00:56:37

Jesus had far more for her than a life in the shadows.

00:56:41

That day when he pulled her up,

00:56:43

when she came and fell at his feet and told that story,

00:56:45

you know what would have happened?

00:56:47

Way more than her physical healing.

00:56:49

She would have gotten her family back, her community back.

00:56:51

She would have been able to go to temple again.

00:56:53

She would have been able to completely rejoin her life

00:56:56

by doing that kind of testimony that was authenticated

00:57:00

by Jesus in front of that crowd, and He knew that.

00:57:03

He wanted that for her, but she had to cross the line.

00:57:08

She slunk up and got the little bit that she came for,

00:57:11

and Jesus was like, "No, there's more.

00:57:13

I want you to cross the line."

00:57:17

So if you're here today

00:57:18

and you're in that low place in your life, I get it.

00:57:22

I actually get how it feels

00:57:24

to not want to get out of bed in the morning.

00:57:26

I get what it means to look, try to look into your future,

00:57:30

and all you see is like a black curtain

00:57:32

in front of your face. Can't picture a thing.

00:57:35

I understand.

00:57:38

I'm only asking you to entertain the possibility

00:57:41

that that view will never change if you stay in the crowd.

00:57:45

The only way, the only way you get

00:57:48

a different vantage point on the life that Jesus offers

00:57:52

is to cross the line

00:57:54

into actually following Him as a disciple.

00:57:58

Okay, okay. So down low is one place

00:58:02

that's really hard to cross a line from.

00:58:04

And the next place is up high. Up high.

00:58:10

When you're sitting up high,

00:58:11

it's hard to even see there is a line.

00:58:14

There's a group of people all the way

00:58:15

through the gospels that Jesus speaks to,

00:58:17

nd it's His harshest words, and they are the people

00:58:20

who were sitting very high up in the culture of Jesus's day.

00:58:23

They were the religious teachers.

00:58:25

They were the religious leaders, teachers of the law,

00:58:28

scribes, Pharisees, all of those words

00:58:30

would kind of encapsulate this sort of ruling class.

00:58:35

Now their culture was totally wrapped around

00:58:37

their faith, which ours is not.

00:58:39

And so maybe some of these people in your life

00:58:41

are like, I don't know, social media influencers

00:58:45

that manage to get a million followers, right?

00:58:47

And so now they have, they've got advantages.

00:58:49

They're sitting at the top of something.

00:58:51

Maybe they're just leaders or beautiful people

00:58:53

or wealthy people, whatever.

00:58:54

Maybe you just exist in a crowd and you're like,

00:58:56

"I don't know, that guy just always seems

00:58:58

to come out on top."

00:58:59

You know, there's just some people that are like that.

00:59:02

And if you're in a place where you are constantly up, high,

00:59:08

this is a very, very hard place to cross the line

00:59:11

and become a disciple of Jesus.

00:59:13

Now why would that be?

00:59:15

Let's read Mark 12. Jesus says this:

00:59:39

Jesus says, "The crowd's working for them.

00:59:44

Why in the world would you step out of the crowd

00:59:47

when every time you step in it, you get the place of honor?

00:59:50

You're the one on top.

00:59:52

You're the one that gets all the good stuff."

00:59:54

And it's really hard to see that

00:59:56

there's a life beyond a line with Jesus,

00:59:59

that there's actually more good stuff to get.

01:00:02

That doesn't compute a lot when you spend your life at the top.

01:00:06

It can be a dangerous place because

01:00:08

you can't even really imagine that there is a life.

01:00:11

And frankly, a lot of times when you're

01:00:14

consistently at the top, you're like, "I earned this."

01:00:20

These were definitely the people

01:00:22

in our discussion forum that were going,

01:00:24

"Like, I put ten hours of work in.

01:00:27

When he grades my paper, I had better also get an A."

01:00:32

And the truth is, that's the truth sometimes. Right?

01:00:35

There are people who ride the top,

01:00:38

it's just that when you're always up there,

01:00:41

you lose sight of the line

01:00:43

that is pretty far down below you.

01:00:46

And I started thinking about this.

01:00:48

There are no, like, I want to share another story

01:00:52

with you from the gospel of Mark,

01:00:53

where there's some religious leader that finally

01:00:56

comes to Jesus across the line,

01:00:59

and there's not one there.

01:01:03

Most of them never did.

01:01:06

We get a glimpse of one and one of the other gospels

01:01:08

who's really compelled toward Jesus,

01:01:11

and the best he can do is show up at night

01:01:13

under cover of darkness and start asking some questions.

01:01:16

And that's good.

01:01:17

In my book, he probably did end up as a follower,

01:01:19

maybe he's the one.

01:01:21

But in any case, we don't have a wonderful story,

01:01:26

and there's probably a reason why.

01:01:30

And I started thinking about my most favorite,

01:01:34

like, followers of Christ that I've known in my life.

01:01:36

And they had practices. They all have little practices.

01:01:39

I started to pick this up, I don't know, years ago,

01:01:42

just again, talking to people,

01:01:44

knowing them more intimately in their life.

01:01:46

And I want to share a couple of these with you

01:01:48

because I think it's a great way to,

01:01:50

even if you're in an amazing phase of your life,

01:01:53

which God bless you, I'm happy about it.

01:01:55

But we just need this, we need these regular rhythms

01:01:59

of coming down low so we can see the line

01:02:02

and we can cross over with Jesus

01:02:04

so we don't go thinking

01:02:05

we're building our own life at the top. Right?

01:02:08

And so all, all of my favorite Jesus followers

01:02:11

have all had these little practices

01:02:13

that only them and Jesus really ever knew about.

01:02:16

And they were all little practices of dipping down low.

01:02:21

One is a woman that I've known

01:02:23

for many years here at Crossroads.

01:02:25

She's incredibly gifted in many different ways,

01:02:27

and she serves on the facilities team

01:02:29

and she cleans the toilets.

01:02:32

And I said, "What are you doing?"

01:02:35

And she's like, "It's good for me to remember

01:02:37

that I'm not above this. This is my practice.

01:02:40

This is how I do it." Wow.

01:02:43

I know somebody else who at her office

01:02:47

she was a vice president of somewhere or other.

01:02:50

And her practice was a communal printer

01:02:53

that was shared around their group,

01:02:55

and it was always out of paper.

01:02:57

And nobody knows what toner is.

01:02:58

Nobody knows what toner is.

01:03:00

And so she took it upon herself

01:03:02

to understand how to replace the toner.

01:03:04

And then every time she passed the printer,

01:03:06

she would check the paper tray and refill it

01:03:09

so that the whole group always had a functioning printer.

01:03:12

Now, a lot of you who are, I don't know, below 35

01:03:16

are like, "Why would you ever print something? What?"

01:03:20

Back in the day, we used to print things out

01:03:23

and it was a real pain when there was no paper in the tray.

01:03:25

And she took that on for years,

01:03:28

the vice president of their division

01:03:30

refilled their toner and paper.

01:03:32

Not her job, but her regular practice between her and God,

01:03:37

of a way of coming down, dipping down,

01:03:39

making sure she wasn't living her life at the top.

01:03:41

I'll tell you mine.

01:03:44

Now, if you knew me, if you followed me home,

01:03:46

you would know that I actually hate to cook.

01:03:50

I like to bake, but I hate to cook.

01:03:53

I feel like you either like one or the other.

01:03:54

Do you think that's true?

01:03:56

I don't know, maybe there's some crazy people that like both.

01:03:58

So I like to bake. I hate to cook,

01:04:00

but I have four kids, family of six,

01:04:01

so I deal with food all the time.

01:04:04

I feel like for many, many years, all I do

01:04:06

is prepare food for other people to eat.

01:04:09

And so I adopted this practice between me and Jesus

01:04:13

many, many years ago because I noticed

01:04:15

my own tendency to take the best piece for myself.

01:04:20

I'm like, "I'm the one who's been standing here all day.

01:04:23

I'm going to take the best brownie."

01:04:25

And pretty soon I adopted this practice with Jesus,

01:04:28

where every time I plated something, divided something,

01:04:31

cut something up, shared a serving, every time

01:04:34

I had to choose pieces to go on people's plates,

01:04:37

I would choose the lesser of the two.

01:04:41

And it was just my daily practice with Jesus going,

01:04:44

"I can dip down.

01:04:46

Yes, I'm in control of this food situation,

01:04:49

and I can take the lesser piece."

01:04:52

So it was just these little practices

01:04:54

that we can adopt in our life for real,

01:04:56

that actually, even when everything's fine.

01:04:58

And again, bless you if you're in a season

01:05:00

where you're at the top, enjoy it,

01:05:03

and dip down because you can only see,

01:05:06

you can only feel the reward of a life in the Kingdom

01:05:10

when you actually set aside

01:05:14

the reward of the life that you've got here.

01:05:17

And so the line becomes a little bit more apparent.

01:05:21

Okay. So, last place. We've done up high, down low.

01:05:25

And now the middle, obviously, is the third one.

01:05:31

Pretty much covers all of us, that's the point.

01:05:35

But from the middle, the crowd who's in the middle

01:05:41

struggles to cross the line

01:05:42

for a completely different reason.

01:05:44

Now these are regular old, decent people,

01:05:47

which is almost everybody, right?

01:05:49

Almost everybody would say, like, "I go to my job,

01:05:52

I do my schoolwork, I take care of my kids.

01:05:55

I try to be a decent neighbor.

01:05:56

Like, I'm a regular, old, decent person."

01:05:59

I feel like the crowd for this person makes us feel good.

01:06:05

It makes us feel like we're all in this together.

01:06:08

There's no line necessary.

01:06:09

You're good, we're good. We're all good here. Right?

01:06:12

I actually need you to tell me

01:06:13

that we're good about something,

01:06:15

because I made what I now know to be a huge mistake.

01:06:19

And I just want to feel like we're in this together. Okay?

01:06:22

So, like, six weeks ago, I got lured into some ads online.

01:06:28

I feel like they targeted me because I'm in Ohio,

01:06:30

where it was 92 days in a row of gray and 39 degrees.

01:06:35

And it was like sunshines and bathing suits.

01:06:39

And I actually purchased a bathing suit online in January.

01:06:44

I'm just going to tell you right now,

01:06:45

it's a big mistake. Do not do it.

01:06:48

Am I the only one that should not be

01:06:50

trying on bathing suits in January?

01:06:52

Can I get a show of hands? Not a great idea.

01:06:55

And I just feel like that's exactly how the crowd,

01:06:58

like, I need you to tell me

01:06:59

that I'm not the only one in the boat.

01:07:02

We just ate 14 Christmas dinners in a row.

01:07:05

It's not the month to be buying bathing suits,

01:07:07

but I feel like I got entrapped.

01:07:09

I did it, it was a mistake.

01:07:10

And we're all in that boat together, you know?

01:07:12

We look at each other and we're like,

01:07:14

"Um hum, um hum. Bad idea."

01:07:16

My husband was like, "What are you doing?

01:07:18

That's a terrible idea."

01:07:19

Anyway, the crowd makes us feel like,

01:07:23

whatever it is, we're all in this together.

01:07:25

We're good.

01:07:26

Surely God can't want something beyond

01:07:29

the good things that I'm trying to do

01:07:31

and my good intentions.

01:07:33

He can't surely want something beyond that, can He?

01:07:38

At least I'm not like that guy, jerky superior guy,

01:07:41

or her who's down low all the time. I'm good.

01:07:46

Jesus had some words for a crowd

01:07:48

with a ton of people in the middle,

01:07:50

a lot of decent folk in this crowd.

01:07:52

It was his biggest sermon.

01:07:53

Mixed listeners from all over the place.

01:07:56

Tons of good, decent folks.

01:07:58

And here's what He says to them. Take a deep breath.

01:08:24

I never knew you. I never knew you.

01:08:27

Guys, knowing Jesus is the privilege of the disciple.

01:08:33

Knowing Jesus does not happen in the crowd.

01:08:36

Knowing of Him, knowing about His ways,

01:08:38

getting a glimpse of Him,

01:08:39

even receiving good things from Him.

01:08:41

Yes, all of that, and wonderful.

01:08:43

And knowing Him to the point where we are able

01:08:48

to follow Him into what He is doing

01:08:51

because that's what His Father is doing,

01:08:53

and that's where the life of the Kingdom of God is.

01:08:55

That is the privilege of a disciple.

01:08:59

And that's the kind of relationship that Jesus wants

01:09:01

with you and with me and with everybody that

01:09:05

He welcomes and loves into the crowds around Him.

01:09:09

And I know I joked about saying whether you're down low

01:09:12

or up high or in the middle, it's pretty much all of us.

01:09:15

But it is true, because no matter where we sit in our life,

01:09:19

it's never actually going to be easy because

01:09:21

it always looks like the potential to lose something.

01:09:26

Whether it's your own self-respect

01:09:28

or the reputation of people around you,

01:09:30

nothing the middle crowd hates better

01:09:32

than somebody who tries to leave it, right?

01:09:35

You're a hater. You're too extreme.

01:09:37

What do you mean, it's unnecessary?

01:09:40

We're all good here.

01:09:42

It never looks easy from the vantage point of the crowd,

01:09:47

it's always easier to stay, but life as a disciple

01:09:50

is crossing that line, not just once,

01:09:52

but over and over and over again,

01:09:54

and slowly realizing along the way

01:09:57

in little snowballing ways that

01:10:00

every time you cross it, it's not actually a loss.

01:10:06

That your life becomes more and more and more alive,

01:10:11

and that the losses you feared,

01:10:12

they're actually weirdly gains in the Kingdom of God,

01:10:16

that there there is nothing happening

01:10:18

that isn't better than it was before.

01:10:21

And it's a slow process,

01:10:24

and it takes so many times crossing over that line.

01:10:27

And I believe that there's a line

01:10:29

that God has put in front of you.

01:10:31

I believe that every single one of us, from up high,

01:10:34

from down low, from somewhere in the middle,

01:10:36

that there's an opportunity to cross the line

01:10:38

into a greater level of disciple of Jesus.

01:10:45

And it might be the very first time

01:10:47

that you've ever said, "I want to follow You."

01:10:49

And it might be the 175th time.

01:10:51

It might be the 12th time on the exact same issue.

01:10:54

And you keep hopping over the other side of the line,

01:10:56

and now we're going to go back again. That's fine.

01:10:58

Jesus offers that to us, free and clear,

01:11:02

no matter what has happened in the past.

01:11:04

And I want you to think about what that line might be

01:11:07

while I give you a visual that I hope encourages you.

01:11:10

I had a dream over a decade ago, and I don't remember

01:11:15

what I thought about it at the time,

01:11:17

but it was so striking to me.

01:11:18

It was so encouraging to me that I wrote it down.

01:11:20

And for some reason I never forgot it.

01:11:22

Do you ever have dreams like that

01:11:23

where you just return to them in your mind?

01:11:25

Hopefully it's a good one. This is a good one.

01:11:27

And I want you to have this visual in your mind

01:11:29

as you think about what line you might want to cross

01:11:33

into a new space with Jesus.

01:11:35

So I was a soldier on a battlefield

01:11:38

and night was about to fall.

01:11:40

So the battle had kind of died down.

01:11:42

And I had come into this space where I wasn't very protected.

01:11:45

And so I chose this like little bush that I,

01:11:48

I was like, "Oh, this might hide me for the night."

01:11:51

And, but I'm going to be exposed.

01:11:53

Like, it kind of hid me, but not really.

01:11:55

And night fell and I got super stressed,

01:11:57

and I knew that the light was going to come up

01:12:00

and I was going to be exposed,

01:12:02

that I wasn't really hidden where I was.

01:12:05

And so I made a decision as the dawn came

01:12:09

and I decided the best thing I can do is actually

01:12:13

to stand up above the line of sight of this bush,

01:12:15

because then maybe, maybe, just maybe,

01:12:18

there would be somebody that was in my company

01:12:21

of soldiers nearby that could help me.

01:12:22

So I'm just going to pop up.

01:12:24

That's the best thing I can do.

01:12:25

So the dawn comes and I do that,

01:12:28

I pop up above the line and I'm terribly nervous.

01:12:31

And I think I'm probably going to get shot.

01:12:33

And then everybody around me, hundreds of people

01:12:38

in the same uniform that I'm in, stand up all around me.

01:12:43

I was completely surrounded the entire night

01:12:46

by my own soldiers, on my own company and my own team.

01:12:52

And I say that to say that from

01:12:54

the vantage point of the crowd,

01:12:55

it always looks like it's going to be a loss.

01:12:58

It always does.

01:12:59

And when you choose to cross the line

01:13:01

into a new place with Jesus, what you will find

01:13:05

is that He will never leave you alone.

01:13:07

There will always be people.

01:13:09

There will always be people that He surrounds you with

01:13:12

and there's life everywhere that you look.

01:13:16

And all through the night, I was convinced that

01:13:19

what was going to happen was death,

01:13:21

and instead what I found was life.

01:13:25

And so as I leave you here today,

01:13:28

I want you to look for this line.

01:13:30

There's a bright orange line.

01:13:33

And now, if you're anywhere at any of our sites,

01:13:36

you will see a bright orange line when you leave this.

01:13:39

Maybe you saw it on your way in.

01:13:40

Maybe it wasn't even there.

01:13:42

Maybe you weren't looking for it.

01:13:43

Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't.

01:13:44

But you're certainly going to see it on the way out.

01:13:47

And if you're at home, find a line.

01:13:49

This is a moment for you and God.

01:13:51

You got a hardwood floor or a threshold of a doorway,

01:13:55

you've got some kind of line around you,

01:13:57

and I want you to consider crossing it

01:13:59

and having a moment with God where you tell Him,

01:14:02

"This is the line I'm crossing." Let me pray for you.

01:14:08

Father, thank You for dealing with us so individually.

01:14:10

I pray that every heart here would know

01:14:13

beyond a shadow of a doubt, the line

01:14:16

that You're inviting them to step across.

01:14:17

And I pray that You would give them

01:14:19

the courage to cross it.

01:14:23

And I ask that You would meet them,

01:14:24

surround them with life. In Jesus's name. Amen.

01:14:30

- Jesus is putting lines in front of all of us,

01:14:33

and He's inviting us to cross those.

01:14:35

He has good things on the other side for you and for me.

01:14:38

I don't know what area of your life it is,

01:14:40

if it's your relationships or your marriage

01:14:42

or your career or your friends, I don't know,

01:14:44

but God has good things for you.

01:14:47

And I want to encourage you to be bold

01:14:48

and take that next step and cross that line.

01:14:51

And these moments aren't meant for you to walk through alone.

01:14:54

I'd love to connect with you personally

01:14:55

and pray for you and help you get connected

01:14:57

to others in our Crossroads community.

01:14:59

I'd love if you'd email me at

01:15:01

Andy.Reider@crossroads.net,

01:15:02

let me know what your line is

01:15:04

and how I can be praying for you.

01:15:05

And whether or not you just chose

01:15:07

to cross the line and go deeper,

01:15:08

there's just a few things I want to put on your radar

01:15:10

that are meant to help you grow.

01:15:12

I'd highly recommend you check out one of our upcoming cohorts.

01:15:14

These are asynchronous, meaning you can just do them

01:15:17

when it works for you on your own timetable,

01:15:19

and you get to do them alongside other people.

01:15:22

They involve small daily challenges,

01:15:23

some weekly input and training,

01:15:25

and way more to help you get traction

01:15:27

in a specific area of your life.

01:15:29

Starting in just a few weeks, we have

01:15:31

21 Days to Build a Marriage That You'll Love.

01:15:33

That's led by my wife, Rachel and I,

01:15:35

and 21 Days to Dating Better.

01:15:38

You can find more information about these

01:15:40

and sign up at crossroads.net/cohorts.

01:15:42

Lastly, the Anywhere team is coming to Orlando

01:15:46

alongside Crossroads music

01:15:47

and we want to spend the evening with you.

01:15:50

We'll enjoy live, worship and music,

01:15:51

along with drinks and appetizers throughout the night.

01:15:54

Most importantly, you'll have the chance

01:15:56

to meet other community members

01:15:57

from Crossroads Anywhere in Florida.

01:15:59

We cannot wait to see you there!

01:16:00

Head to Crossroads.net/Anywhere for more info.

01:16:03

Hey, thank you for joining us.

01:16:04

We'll see you back next week.

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