Become Ready

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- Well, hey, everybody. How are we today?

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Hope you're well. My name is Kyle if you've never met before.

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I'm our lead pastor here at Crossroads.

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So good to be with you today.

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Everything we're going to talk about today

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is about what's going on under the surface,

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the behind the scenes stuff,

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the stuff that no one sees, no one celebrates.

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But if you've ever led anything, a business,

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a church, a family, you know that the stuff

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that happens under the surface is what actually

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determines whether you win or whether you lose.

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We're going to look at many of

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the most important teachings of Jesus today.

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One of them was in that video that you just saw.

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It came from Matthew 6:6. It said:

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But when you pray, go into your room

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and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.

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And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

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In this moment, Jesus is talking about how to pray

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and what does it look like?

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And He goes into the Lord's Prayer.

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We sang that song about just a few minutes ago.

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And He says, when you do that,

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don't focus on the outer stuff,

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all the right words and the right posture

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and the right whatever.

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Instead, He says God cares most about the unseen stuff.

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That unseen stuff has a name. It's called infrastructure.

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It's if you peel back the walls of a building,

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it's the steel beams that you would see.

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It's the cabling, the inner workings of everything.

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And again, it's where our lives are won or lost.

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It's true for you. It's true for me.

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It's true for Crossroads.

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Back in the fall here at Crossroads,

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we went public with a vision, a big outward facing vision

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that said we feel like God's calling us

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to pursue an awakening.

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Awakenings are these periods of time in history

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where not just a few people come into faith,

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but like an entire nation turns, an entire nation changes.

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We said, man, what would it look like

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to press in that direction?

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And kind of said it might look like

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us pursuing 10X growth as Crossroads

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over the next ten years.

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We called it the 10X Push.

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Many of us in this room, many of us watching online,

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we committed above and beyond our regular giving

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to support that vision for the next three years.

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And over the time since, it's been about nine months

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since we launched the 10X Push,

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we've been doing these monthly updates

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and we've been doing them because right now

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turns out to be the most critical time of the journey.

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See, when stuff is big and it is above the surface

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and you can see the vision and you can see what's happening

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and you get swept into the possibilities

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it's easy to say yes and it's easy to step forward.

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But it's when things go below the surface,

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when the hard inner work called faithfulness

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and fulfillment set in, that things get more difficult.

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And so we're doing these updates to encourage you

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and to encourage me.

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And we're going to do one of those again right now.

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I hope it's encouraging. To me it is.

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It's just amazing, just absolutely amazing.

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We've had more above ground wins

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than we could have ever anticipated

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so far in this 10X Push.

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But what I'm actually more excited about

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is the unseen under the surface infrastructure level work

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that's happening across all of the projects.

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To give you a quick picture of what that is,

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we made this slide right here of a chart.

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You can see, oh, where is it Come on slide you can -- Yes!

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There it is right in the middle there.

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So you can probably see exactly what's happening

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based on that chart. Right?

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Pretty easy to read. No problems at all.

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Some of you in here are project managers

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and you're like, "Oh my gosh, it's beautiful.

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I love spreadsheets. Oh my gosh."

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That's so good for you. I --

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You're like electricity to me.

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I don't understand how you work,

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but I'm so thankful for you and that you exist

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because you make our lives better.

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Now, this is the complicated version.

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Obviously, that's just to make a point of

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there's lots of things happening.

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Here's the simplified version of all of our work,

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all of our projects.

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You can sort everything we talked about in the 10X Push

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into one of three buckets.

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And the three buckets have to do with when we believe

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the majority of that work will actually pop above the surface,

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be publicly visible and big things happening.

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But what I'm excited to tell you is that there is

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below the surface work happening

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in every single one of these, which is incredible.

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I'd love to highlight just a couple of these for you today.

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One of them is our prisons work, prisons work.

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You've heard us talk about this.

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This is something that we've cared about

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for a long, long time.

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And what we did in this 10X Push is we said,

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what if we could reach every prison in America?

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Now, that might sound crazy.

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How in the world would you do that?

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Well, it turns out that in our system,

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newly incarcerated persons receive one of these.

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This is a tablet.

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And the point of this tablet is to deliver content

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and experiences that help that person change.

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And we said, what would help someone change better

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than getting to know Jesus in a language they could understand?

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And so what if we leverage this thing that they already have

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to give them that message?

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And we were excited and we said this not too long ago,

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we had reached a way to figured out

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how to get into 36 states already.

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Well, that launched eight days ago. Eight days ago.

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Do you know what's happened in eight days?

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A couple things have happened.

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I don't know if you find any of these encouraging or not.

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There's been 595,900 minutes of content viewed already.

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[cheers and applause] What?

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148,975 views, 5683 subscribers,

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513 prayer requests submitted by people

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and prayed for by us.

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And this is the most amazing part,

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233 incarcerated people have said yes to Jesus

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for the first time in their life, in the last eight days.

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[applause] Amazing. Unbelievable.

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Now all of that work, that's above the surface stuff,

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all of that is built on a foundation of years

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and years of doing the hard work, of figuring out

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how do you help serve people in prisons?

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What does that ministry look like?

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How do you make great digital content?

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How do you get your stuff into an app? How do apps work?

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All of that stuff sits on the below the surface work

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that leads to above the surface wins happen.

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It's absolutely amazing.

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We also got some reviews from some of

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the incarcerated folks who've been watching the content.

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I find these very encouraging.

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Here's one from someone in New Mexico.

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They say, "I have accepted Jesus as my Lord

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and Savior for the first time.

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Thank you for this content.

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I can watch every day to stay focused."

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Amazing! This one is a person in Kansas.

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"I've accepted Christ and I wanted you all to know

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how much I love this Garage Bible Study."

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If you don't know Brian from time to time

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releases episodes what we call Garage Bible Study.

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It's literally just him and his garage working on stuff

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and then also talking about the Bible

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and how it kind of relates.

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He says, "I'm a very big fan of vehicles,

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and this caught my attention, and I love the relation

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to vehicles and how it can relate to God's Word.

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Thank you all and God bless."

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And then there's this review.

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This is called the Unfiltered review.

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"Bible study in a garage? You got my attention.

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Blank. This mother blanker is legit."

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Somebody in Florida said that. It's great.

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[laughs]

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Making a difference. Making a difference.

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I love that if you're a Push contributor,

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I hope that encourages you.

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One other I'd love to highlight

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that's in the below the surface stage

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is our work with 1824.

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1824 is not the newest spin off of Yellowstone.

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If you thought that's what it is, sorry to disappoint you,

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yet that I know of.

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It's our ministry to folks in that age range of 18 to 24.

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Some of them are in college,

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some of them are out of college or working other jobs.

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That's our ministry for those folks.

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And that's part of this Push, we said,

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"We feel like God's calling us to go after this generation,

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to run after them in a way that we never have before

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in Cincinnati and in every city, eventually,

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where we have a Crossroads."

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And I'm so excited to tell you, one of the biggest pieces

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of the under the surface work was locating

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the right leader to drive it.

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Because you don't go far without the right person

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in the right spot pushing the vision forward.

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And we spent months and months and months

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on searching for the right person,

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praying for the right person who would answer the call,

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hear the call, and come and join us.

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And I'm so excited to tell you that person

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is now on staff, on board.

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And I would love you to meet him.

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His name is Jordan McClendon. Come on, Jordan, come on up.

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[cheers & applause]

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Let's go. What's up, man?

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That's your beautiful family.

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- That is a good looking family right there.

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- You guys did not start in Ohio, Kentucky,

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where we kind of are with Crossroads.

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You were farther away. Yeah?

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- North Carolina, Wilmington. North Carolina, yeah.

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- So tell us, what was it about this call

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and this opportunity that grabbed you guys

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and made you go like, "Yeah, we're going to

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uproot our family, move and come be a part of that thing"?

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- Yeah, we saw some things that Crossroads was doing.

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We knew some people that were connected.

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We actually have a unique and long history with Crossroads

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that I don't have time to get into today,

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but that's really special to us.

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And when we heard about what God was doing

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through this ministry, through the 10X Push

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and through the opportunity, it was a no brainer.

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And we just got to a point where we said

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we would regret if we chose to not be a part of this.

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And it was going to be disobedience for us to say no,

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and so here we are. Yeah.

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- That's amazing. Amazing.

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Now you've been on staff for, like,

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like four days or something, right?

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- Two months. - That's okay. Yeah.

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So you've got it all figured out. Everything's going --

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- Totally, yeah. - No, of course not.

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You're doing the work right now to plan your ministry,

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get things going.

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I have a question from two different perspectives that,

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that said, one, if I'm a volunteer and I hear this

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and I go, "Man, I feel like I want to help in this age range."

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This is the age range, maybe,

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where somebody met Jesus for the first time

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or wishes that they had.

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They'd love to jump in. What do you do?

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And then part two of that question is

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what if I'm in that 18-24 range right now and I see this,

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I hear you and I go, "Great, there's a ministry?

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How do I get involved?"

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- Of course, yeah, it's a great question.

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A lot of things are in the early building block stages

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right now, but this may connect with you.

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As I've stepped into this role, I've been thinking

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a lot about myself as an 18 year old

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and myself as a 22 year old.

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And it was a weird season of life for me.

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And I actually, as I've reflected on it,

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I've realized I made some of the biggest decisions

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of my life in the age range of 18 to 24.

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I don't know if that's true for you,

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but what was true for me at that time was also,

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it was one of the hardest seasons of my life,

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primarily because I did not have a faith community

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that I was connected to, to belong to.

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I didn't have a mentor that was guiding me,

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and because of that, I didn't really have

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a mission to fight for.

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And so the opportunity that we now have as a church,

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which is amazing, is that we get to build something

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that I believe will impact thousands of college students

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and young adults and create a space

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that is a community for them to belong to,

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a mission to fight for.

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And you could be a mentor to a young person

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as you walk alongside them in faith.

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And so really, the opportunity that we have right now

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is for mentors and people to say,

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"I would be willing to lead a young person."

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And the best way to do that, we're building the systems now.

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I'm just going to put my email address up here.

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- Let's do it.

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- Because that's just the best way

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that I can connect with you right now.

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And I'd love to meet with you and share any information.

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If you're a student, a college age person,

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or a young adult in the room in the Cincinnati area

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right now on Monday nights at The George,

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which is on the University of Cincinnati's campus,

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we have Monday night groups.

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They're happening right now, and you can jump in.

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If you're at a city or a site that is not in Cincinnati,

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we've got some things coming for you.

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They're on the way and more details to come.

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- Awesome. That's amazing. Can we thank Jordan?

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Incredible. [cheers & applause]

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Hey, I'd also I'd love to take the moment as a church

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to just pray over Jordan and bless him,

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his leaders in this ministry.

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So if you want to join in that,

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if you're part of Crossroads, you're part of the 10X Push,

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just extend a hand out

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and we're going to pray for him together.

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God, thank You so much for Jordan.

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Thank You for him hearing Your call

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and having the courage and the boldness

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and the strength to say yes to it.

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I'm asking that You would fill his ministry with fruit,

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God, that you would give him everything he needs

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to see more than he could ever possibly hope,

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imagine, or expect happen in this ministry.

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Would You work through him?

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Would You work through us to reach this generation for You?

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Amen. Amen. Thanks, man. Thanks.

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Well, today, this message really is what's been

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most on my heart right now for not just our church,

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but for each and every one of us who are here.

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Maybe you've been part of Crossroads for a long time.

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Maybe it's your first time ever stepping foot in a Crossroads.

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Either way, this is exactly the thing

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that's on my heart for you.

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See these 10X projects, these big plans,

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these big dreams that we have.

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Maybe you have big plans.

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You have big dreams for your life.

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All of those things that we have dreamed up,

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they're all just amplifiers. Just amplifiers.

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And what they amplify is who we are,

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how we love God, how we love people,

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the wisdom that's in us, all that stuff.

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And it's what steps up to the microphone

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when the stuff pops above the surface

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isn't conformed to Jesus, we have very little

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to offer the people who listen.

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And so my question for myself first

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and for all of us is are we ready?

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And if we're not, how will we become ready?

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Become ready.

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You know, God shoved this idea to the top of my mind

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a few months ago. It was a Sunday morning.

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And when I'm not teaching here in Oakley,

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I attend the East Side out in East Gate,

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Cincinnati, out that direction.

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I was out there and service had started, worship was happening.

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My family wasn't with me this morning

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and so I was in the back against the wall,

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probably looking very strange because

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when I'm in a Crossroads by myself, I want to see it

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and experience it from every angle

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and make sure does it look right from over here?

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And how does it sound in this section?

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And so I'm against the back wall kind of crouched like this.

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And I'm just kind of looking around.

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Wow. How's that sound over there? How does that look?

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When the producer of the East Side, J.D., stop by,

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tapped me on the shoulder and goes,

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"Hey, the internet's down.

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We don't have a message to give. Do you want to teach?"

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I was like, "Uh, now?" He's like yeah.

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"Um, okay."

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And so I followed JD on stage

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and this is what happened. Check this out.

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- You want me to get you a table? That mic should work.

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- Let's do that.

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- Great. I'll get you a table.

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Oh, wait. I'll introduce him.

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If you don't know, if you're new here.

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This is Kyle Ranson.

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He is our Lead Pastor here at Crossroads,

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who happens to live on the east side of Cincinnati

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and attend here when he's not preaching.

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So while today was not his message,

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you get a treat of getting Kyle Ranson

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live in the building today.

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We get to hear directly from Kyle

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what God is stirring in him as it relates to prayer.

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And I'm just buying him some time right now

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to talk with our technical people

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about what's going to happen next.

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- Oh my gosh, this is great.

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You guys, I woke up this morning to come to church

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and I was sitting in the back.

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I was having a great time during worship, it was amazing.

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And then our producer JD came up and he was like,

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"Um, do you want to preach a message right now?"

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I was like, "Well, I mean, sure, yeah, let's go for it."

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- You got it. We'll get you a table.

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- All right. Hey, thanks. JD.

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This is JD our producer, by the way.

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He's here every week making everything awesome.

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You can raise that up for me?

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Not too high. I'm kind of short, so relax, JD. Okay.

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Um, this series that we're doing,

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we're doing for a really particular reason.

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There are a lot of questions that people have about God.

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And a lot of them sort of are surface level questions.

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And for a lot of folks, they never go deeper with God

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because they get stuck at the surface.

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And we know that there's a lot about the surface

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that's very, very appealing.

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And yet we also know that if you want to strengthen life,

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if you want a life that's resilient,

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if you want a life that can, like,

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in the Crossroads App this morning,

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we're reading in Thessalonians who are a people

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who were unusually joyful despite their circumstances.

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If you want that kind of life,

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you have to break past those surface level questions

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and get to the deeper, meaningful ones underneath.

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That's what we're doing in this series.

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We're starting with prayer today.

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Oh my gosh, a water and a Bible. Thank you, Lena.

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This is a very tiny Bible.

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It's fitting, I suppose. That's great.

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Uh, we've got a video that we can play for you

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that says a little bit more, describes about the series.

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Just a little -- And a beer! We'll see how this goes.

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I've got water, coffee, beer. Okay.

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You'll know how it's going based on which one I pick up.

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Perfect. Fantastic. [applause]

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Only at Crossroads do they bring you a beer just in case.

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It was 9:15 in the morning. [laughter]

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The most amazing part about that experience for me

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was that the whole time, everyone in the audience

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was holding a candle and I had no idea why. Still don't.

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Sorry if you were there and you had the candle.

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I don't know.

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Afterwards, people sent me a lot of encouraging texts

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and emails and things saying great job.

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My own sister-in-law sent me a text and she said,

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"You know, I think that's the best message you've ever given."

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And I was kind of insulted because I usually prepare.

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I got a lot of thank yous.

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What was interesting is that the tone of the thank you's

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made it sound like

00:18:34

I had performed some kind of a magic trick.

00:18:37

How did you do that?

00:18:39

And to be clear, I didn't perform any kind of magic trick.

00:18:44

What happened was there was a moment in life

00:18:47

when I was called into more, and I happened to be ready.

00:18:51

That's it. I was ready.

00:18:54

And in your life there's a moment coming your way

00:18:59

that you'll either be ready for or you won't.

00:19:02

Don't worry, it's unlikely to be you preaching

00:19:04

in front of thousands of people impromptu.

00:19:06

Just relax. Not that.

00:19:09

But there'll be another moment coming your way.

00:19:11

Now, in my life, I've many times also been not ready

00:19:16

when the moment came up.

00:19:17

Many times in my ministry, many times in my marriage,

00:19:20

many times as a dad, something has come up

00:19:22

and I've not been ready for the moment.

00:19:25

See, in our lives we will either be ready

00:19:27

or we won't be ready.

00:19:30

In these moments, they're not the ones that we plan.

00:19:33

The moments that define our lives,

00:19:35

the moments that shape us, these crossroads moments,

00:19:38

if you will, are the ones that do not show up on our calendar.

00:19:42

Instead, they blow up our calendar.

00:19:45

Sometimes there are moments of possibility and opportunity.

00:19:49

Sometimes there are moments of pain.

00:19:51

On the possibilities side, sometimes you get a job offer

00:19:55

or someone reaches out to you, "Hey, I've got this job

00:19:58

and you might be the perfect person for it."

00:20:00

Or maybe it's a volunteer opportunity at Crossroads.

00:20:03

Or maybe you're single and it's the right person

00:20:05

finally shows up, finally out of nowhere.

00:20:08

I'm here at Crossroads, by the way, to the 10X stuff.

00:20:11

There will be these moments coming. Just to warn you.

00:20:14

One of our big pushes is to be in ten cities in ten years.

00:20:18

We said if there's going to be

00:20:19

an awakening across our nation, we need

00:20:21

the message of Jesus in a language you can understand

00:20:24

in every city around that we can get to.

00:20:26

And so we're going to new cities.

00:20:28

And one of my hopes and my prayers is that

00:20:30

when we go to our next city, when we announce where that is,

00:20:34

that there will be dozens of people who are ready to say,

00:20:38

"Send me," ready to say,

00:20:40

"I'll go help start that place."

00:20:42

The moment will come,

00:20:44

will you be ready or will you not be ready?

00:20:47

Now, being ready doesn't have anything to do

00:20:50

with wanting to be ready.

00:20:51

It's not about mindset. It's not about beliefs.

00:20:54

Plenty of times I've seen people with the right beliefs.

00:20:56

If you gave them a quiz, what's the Bible say about X?

00:20:59

They would answer all the questions correctly.

00:21:01

But when the weight of life came,

00:21:03

they could not stand up and they collapsed.

00:21:07

It's not about beliefs alone.

00:21:09

Sometimes the moments that comes our way

00:21:11

they're not possibility focused.

00:21:12

Sometimes they're more about the pain.

00:21:14

Sometimes it's adversity brought on by our own decision making.

00:21:18

Maybe we made a poor choice.

00:21:20

This is where Sarah and I find ourselves right now in our life.

00:21:24

We've recently made a massive mistake.

00:21:27

We got another puppy.

00:21:30

And it was -- don't say awe, or don't awe. Not awe.

00:21:33

That chew toy is my sanity and he's shredding it every day.

00:21:40

This is rooster. He is cocky.

00:21:42

Do not be fooled. Terrible decision.

00:21:46

We read on the internet.

00:21:47

We have one high energy dog, Annie.

00:21:49

And we read that the way to get Annie to calm down

00:21:52

was to get another high energy dog.

00:21:55

Just like math says,

00:21:56

negative times negative equals a positive.

00:21:58

We have yet to see this play out in our house.

00:22:01

It's just worse than it was.

00:22:04

Don't get a puppy.

00:22:05

Sometimes these moments that come our way,

00:22:06

they're brought on by bad decisions.

00:22:08

Sometimes the moments that come our way,

00:22:10

sometimes the pain is not a decision that we made,

00:22:12

it's something entirely outside of our control.

00:22:15

Sometimes it's the diagnosis that we get.

00:22:17

Sometimes it's the news we get

00:22:18

when we get called into our boss's office,

00:22:20

and we're told that the company is laying off

00:22:22

entire divisions, departments,

00:22:24

and our job is no longer safe and we've been let go.

00:22:27

These moments come our way.

00:22:30

Will we be ready when they do?

00:22:34

Again, it's not about the right beliefs.

00:22:36

It's not about the mindset of wanting to be ready.

00:22:39

See becoming ready comes down to one thing:

00:22:42

Are we paying attention to and working on

00:22:45

our inner world every single day? That's it.

00:22:50

And I don't know if you've thought about this way.

00:22:52

We actually inhabit two worlds at the same time.

00:22:57

There's an outer world, and there's an inner world.

00:23:01

The Bible describes it this way. 1 Samuel 16:7 says:

00:23:05

The Lord does not look at the things people look at.

00:23:09

People look at the outward appearance,

00:23:11

but the Lord looks at the heart.

00:23:14

Look at the two worlds right here.

00:23:16

Outward appearance is the outer world.

00:23:18

The heart is the inner world.

00:23:21

And God says, "You look at one of them and focus on it,

00:23:25

and I look at the other and focus on it."

00:23:29

Now, all of us, by default,

00:23:31

we focus on the outward appearance,

00:23:32

exactly like that verse says, the outer world.

00:23:36

Because everything is designed to get us to focus there.

00:23:39

The outer world is things like the right GPA,

00:23:42

the right job title, the office in the right spot,

00:23:45

the right car, the right clothes, the right house,

00:23:48

your kids in the right school,

00:23:50

on the right club sports teams or whatever.

00:23:52

It's all the outer stuff.

00:23:54

And the idea of focusing on the outer stuff,

00:23:56

the promise that we have is that an outer focus

00:24:00

will deliver the inner results that we're after.

00:24:03

So if we want the inner result of feeling confident,

00:24:06

we believe we'll get there by focusing

00:24:09

on the outer thing called the right job, the right car.

00:24:14

If we want the inner thing called joy,

00:24:16

we believe we'll get there by the outer focus

00:24:18

called find the right vacation

00:24:20

or the right new person to date

00:24:21

or the inner thing of being successful.

00:24:24

That will happen if we get the outer focus

00:24:26

of hitting the right numbers.

00:24:28

And what God says is that will never, ever, ever work.

00:24:33

If you live your life focusing on the outer stuff,

00:24:37

hoping it produces inner results,

00:24:39

you will be very disappointed.

00:24:41

That's a path to burnout, blow up and break down.

00:24:45

That's it. That's what the end of that road is.

00:24:47

But what God says is He focuses on something different.

00:24:51

What He thinks about whether you'll become ready or not,

00:24:54

ready for more in your life when it comes your way.

00:24:57

God says He focuses on the inner world,

00:25:01

your thoughts, your character, your soul,

00:25:04

your fears, your dreams, who you are becoming.

00:25:08

God says if you have an inner focus,

00:25:10

what you'll find is outer results in your life,

00:25:13

the things that you want to be true,

00:25:15

those will happen in powerful ways because of who you are.

00:25:20

And to be clear, when I talk about God's viewpoint,

00:25:22

I'm not talking about the religious ritual stuff.

00:25:27

There's a version of the outer focus

00:25:29

that wears religious clothes,

00:25:30

and it can be kind of tricky to see.

00:25:33

But it's the same as the outer focus of the world.

00:25:36

Instead of GPA's and the right car and whatever,

00:25:39

it's saying the right prayer, in the right order,

00:25:43

with the right words, the right number of times,

00:25:46

stuff like that.

00:25:47

Well, that is the same empty path.

00:25:50

That'll only lead to judgmentalism,

00:25:52

hypocrisy and burnout.

00:25:54

Do not follow that path.

00:25:57

Jesus, His main opposition when He was on earth,

00:26:01

preaching, doing his ministry, were the Pharisees.

00:26:04

And these were the outward, religious focused people.

00:26:06

These were the ones who said, when you pray,

00:26:09

do it with the right words and the right form

00:26:11

where everybody can see you.

00:26:12

You read that verse earlier where Jesus says

00:26:15

don't be like them. Don't be like the hypocrites.

00:26:17

Instead, go into secret.

00:26:20

And your Father, who sees in secret,

00:26:21

who sees your inner world, will reward you.

00:26:26

Now that section comes from what's called

00:26:28

the Sermon on the Mount.

00:26:29

It was kind of Jesus's coming out party,

00:26:31

Matthew chapter 5 and 6, if you want to read it.

00:26:33

Many of His most famous teachings all come from

00:26:35

The Sermon on the Mount, tons of different stuff.

00:26:38

But if you step back and you said,

00:26:40

"What's the theme across The Sermon on the Mount?"

00:26:43

What you would see is it's this idea of

00:26:45

the inner world versus the outer world, the entire thing.

00:26:49

And if you go all the way to the end of Jesus's ministry,

00:26:51

the last week before He's crucified, you'll see Him

00:26:54

still talking about the inner world versus the outer world,

00:26:58

still battling, by the way, the Pharisees.

00:27:01

If you've never read the teachings

00:27:02

of the last week of Jesus's life, you just should.

00:27:05

They're just fantastic because Jesus is in,

00:27:08

like, let it rip mode.

00:27:10

He's in, like, "I got no more patience, you know,

00:27:12

we're fresh out of nice right now. Come back later."

00:27:16

Parents, this is you after your kids are --

00:27:18

When they're up past bedtime, you're like,

00:27:20

"Just go to bed. Just go to bed."

00:27:22

That's Jesus in these moments,

00:27:24

you can kind of hear it coming through.

00:27:26

Matthew 23, He says,

00:27:27

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

00:27:30

For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate,

00:27:33

but inside they're full of greed and self-indulgence.

00:27:37

You blind Pharisee!

00:27:39

First clean the inside of the cup in the plate,

00:27:42

that the outside may also be clean.

00:27:45

I wish my kids would take this as literal advice

00:27:48

when washing the dishes. That would be great.

00:27:50

They play sports.

00:27:51

They'd take their water bottle for a week.

00:27:53

It gets all nasty and gross.

00:27:54

They take it to the sink and they do like a little spritz.

00:27:57

Clean, put it down the drying rack.

00:27:59

"No, not clean. Smells like rotten eggs inside.

00:28:01

You're going to die if you drink out of it again.

00:28:03

No, you got to clean the inside."

00:28:05

Jesus says this is us with our life.

00:28:07

We think it's the little spritz on the outside,

00:28:10

just a little bit better of something,

00:28:12

maybe just a new outfit, I don't know,

00:28:14

maybe something better on our resume.

00:28:16

Maybe just a new friend to make us feel.

00:28:18

We think this is going to fix the inside.

00:28:21

He's like, no, no, no, no, no.

00:28:23

The way the whole thing improves is

00:28:26

if you go to the inside of the cup and you clean that first.

00:28:31

If you want to win in your life, it will only happen

00:28:34

by focusing on the things that your neighbors

00:28:36

are unwilling to focus on, your inner world.

00:28:40

Sadly, most people ignore their inner world

00:28:43

and pay the price.

00:28:45

See, the consequences of ignoring your inner world

00:28:48

aren't just you miss out on the best of of life.

00:28:51

It's that you're guaranteed a collapse.

00:28:54

Might not happen today, might not happen tomorrow.

00:28:57

But make no mistake, it is coming

00:28:59

if you do not spend time on your inner world.

00:29:03

One of the most impactful books I read

00:29:05

early in my faith journey is this one right here.

00:29:09

It's called Ordering Your Private World

00:29:11

by Gordon McDonald.

00:29:12

And I learned about this book when I came to

00:29:15

a Summer Nights at Next Level,

00:29:17

for anybody who remembers that way back in the day.

00:29:20

This is -- I was probably 20 years old or so.

00:29:23

And what we used to do, Brian, would invite in

00:29:25

these guest speakers, people who had impacted him.

00:29:27

And so he invited in Gordon McDonald

00:29:28

to kind of share a message with us.

00:29:30

He talked about this idea of ordering your private world.

00:29:33

And it was mind blowing to me,

00:29:35

because at this moment in my life I'm in college.

00:29:38

And I did it good, a good college. I had a good GPA.

00:29:42

I was in a good fraternity.

00:29:43

All the outer upper stuff I was focused on,

00:29:46

get the right job and the right internship

00:29:48

and all this stuff.

00:29:49

And here's this old guy named Gordon who walks on stage,

00:29:53

and he goes, "All that stuff you're focused on,

00:29:56

it doesn't matter." I was like, "What? Are you kidding? What?"

00:30:00

I was bothered, so I got the book and I read it

00:30:03

and it helped change my life.

00:30:05

So, no, no, no, no, no.

00:30:07

If you want to be the kind of person you're hoping to be,

00:30:11

it will only happen if you focus on your inner world.

00:30:15

Now, in the book, MacDonald talks about what he calls

00:30:18

the sinkhole syndrome. Sinkhole syndrome.

00:30:21

Just picture the news headlines you've seen

00:30:25

of a city street, or maybe a neighborhood

00:30:28

and everything is fine.

00:30:31

But then all of a sudden, overnight, a sinkhole opens up

00:30:34

and there's this giant pit.

00:30:36

You've seen these stories, you know.

00:30:38

Sinkhole opens, swallows ca,

00:30:40

and you're like, "That's terrible.

00:30:41

Is there a sinkhole in my yard?"

00:30:43

No one knows. I don't know. Who knows? Who knows?

00:30:47

These grab headlines because

00:30:49

they're sudden and they're severe.

00:30:51

But make no mistake, if you study the geology of a sinkhole

00:30:56

while the collapse itself is sudden,

00:30:59

what got us to this point never is.

00:31:02

The way a sinkhole develops is years and years

00:31:05

and years of erosion.

00:31:07

Water moves in from one side, guts underneath,

00:31:10

grabs some of the soil, goes out the other way.

00:31:12

Water takes the soil with it.

00:31:13

That happens day after day, week after week,

00:31:16

month after month, year after year, and eventually,

00:31:19

under the surface, unseen is a void.

00:31:24

And at some point the void becomes so big

00:31:27

that it cannot support the surface

00:31:31

and so there's a sudden collapse.

00:31:34

If you've ever seen somebody in your spheres

00:31:36

who's had a sudden collapse in their life,

00:31:39

you can hear it and go like, "Wow, where did that come from?

00:31:43

What happened last night?"

00:31:45

Nothing happened last night. Nothing.

00:31:48

What always happens is years and years

00:31:51

and years of slow erosion.

00:31:53

Years and years and years of ignoring an inner world

00:31:56

until there's a void and it cannot support

00:31:59

the surface of even a normal life,

00:32:01

and not much less one where the bigger moment comes your way.

00:32:04

Somebody who wasn't ready. Will you be ready?

00:32:09

On the other hand, whenever you see somebody

00:32:13

who's fruitful for decades,

00:32:15

whenever you see somebody who you can trust with more,

00:32:18

whenever you see somebody who's weathered the storms,

00:32:21

you'll find somebody who has not paid attention

00:32:24

to the outer stuff,

00:32:25

who has not made that their focus and ambition,

00:32:27

but instead has made their focus and ambition

00:32:29

their inner world becoming like Jesus.

00:32:33

This is the secret to success at Crossroads.

00:32:36

This is why I think God has blessed our church.

00:32:40

And when you come in for the first time,

00:32:42

it's hard to see that, because what grabs your attention

00:32:45

is all the visible stuff, what a big place

00:32:48

and the free coffee and all the LEDs and lights and stuff.

00:32:52

That's what grabbed my attention the first time I came.

00:32:55

And so you can think like, "Oh, this must be the thing."

00:32:58

No, it's not the thing.

00:33:00

It's important. It's super important.

00:33:04

Paul said, to a Jew, be a Jew to a Greek, be a Greek.

00:33:06

That means to a 21st century American,

00:33:08

be a 21st century American.

00:33:10

That probably means don't try to capture attention

00:33:13

with pipe organ music and overhead transparencies.

00:33:17

So we have stuff to make it more engaging.

00:33:21

But the stuff isn't the focus.

00:33:24

The stuff is never the focus.

00:33:25

The focus is the under the surface inner work.

00:33:29

Crossroads has always been powered by people

00:33:32

who are pursuing inner world transformation through Christ.

00:33:35

Always has been. Always will be. That's our church.

00:33:42

When I when I first came, I saw Brian from stage,

00:33:45

and it was the outer stuff that grabbed my attention about him.

00:33:48

The way he dressed, the way he talked.

00:33:49

You know, just a normal guy.

00:33:51

Like, that guy seems pretty cool.

00:33:52

I'd love to have a beer with him.

00:33:54

That's kind of what I thought.

00:33:55

But when I joined our staff team,

00:33:58

and I've gotten to know him as a mentor

00:33:59

and a friend over the last 20 years, I'll tell you,

00:34:02

the most remarkable thing about him is not the outer stuff.

00:34:06

In fact, he doesn't pay a ton of attention to it.

00:34:08

He is an inner world focused person,

00:34:11

which is why he's been faithful.

00:34:12

And by the way, why he's ready.

00:34:15

He is ready for what's come his way.

00:34:18

If you were here last week, you heard him talk about

00:34:21

the adventure that him and his wife, Libby,

00:34:22

are on called cancer.

00:34:24

If you weren't here, go back. Watch that message.

00:34:26

Also, if you're part of our email distribution list,

00:34:28

we sent everybody an email clip of it.

00:34:30

Check your spam folder if you didn't get it.

00:34:33

I highly encourage you to go watch that.

00:34:35

But him and Libby are ready.

00:34:37

And they're ready because of years and years and years

00:34:40

of paying attention to their inner world.

00:34:42

So you cannot manufacture,

00:34:45

you cannot microwave overnight inner strength,

00:34:47

it doesn't happen.

00:34:49

Only way to get there is years and years

00:34:52

and years of spending time with God.

00:34:54

Sorry if that's discouraging, that's the truth.

00:34:57

Now you might be like, "Oh, this is kind of --

00:34:59

That's kind of discouraging, Kyle.

00:35:00

I mean, that's -- I don't know.

00:35:02

I don't know if I want to do that.

00:35:03

And you're saying I got to do all this work?

00:35:05

I gotta I gotta build myself up?"

00:35:08

No, no, let me tell you the good news of the gospel.

00:35:11

You can't build yourself up.

00:35:13

You can't do the inner work.

00:35:14

Great news thoughH God says he'll do it for you.

00:35:17

This is not a self-help message. This is a gospel message.

00:35:21

Psalm 51:6 says:

00:35:23

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,

00:35:26

and You, God, You teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

00:35:32

God says, "If you'll just spend time with Me.

00:35:35

If you'll just open up your inner world to Me every day,

00:35:39

I'll do the work."

00:35:42

You show up, God provides the meal.

00:35:45

That's how it works.

00:35:46

And that's literally how He talks about it, by the way.

00:35:48

You ever notice there's tons of stuff

00:35:50

about bread in the Bible all over the place?

00:35:52

And in the middle of the Lord's Prayer,

00:35:54

we sang a song about that earlier.

00:35:55

Father, let Your Kingdom come. Father. That song.

00:35:58

In the middle of the Lord's Prayer,

00:36:00

which is where Jesus describes this, is how you should pray,

00:36:04

He has this line about bread.

00:36:06

Matthew 6:9, three verses after the one we started with,

00:36:09

Jesus says, pray like this:

00:36:10

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.

00:36:14

May Your Kingdom come.

00:36:16

May Your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

00:36:20

Give us this day our daily bread.

00:36:23

And we all, you've heard this before.

00:36:25

Maybe you grew up in Catholic church, Protestant church,

00:36:27

whatever, you you heard some version of this

00:36:29

and we all just kind of pray it and don't even think about it.

00:36:32

It's weird, you guys.

00:36:35

Think about it, in the middle of this cosmic prayer

00:36:38

that Your Kingdom come on Earth as it is in heaven.

00:36:41

Cosmic big stuff.

00:36:43

Also, could we have some bagels today?

00:36:47

Maybe some everything bagels on one side

00:36:49

and some plain bagels for the weirdos

00:36:51

who don't like stuff on their bagels. And maybe I'm --

00:36:53

I don't want to stretch you, God,

00:36:55

some blueberry would be great, too.

00:36:58

Weird, praying for bread.

00:37:00

Especially weird if you know what the Bible says

00:37:02

about bread in the rest of it.

00:37:05

Quick overview. The first time God ever talks about bread

00:37:08

is in the very beginning of the Bible, Genesis 3.

00:37:10

This is right after humanity has completely ignored

00:37:13

His Word, rejected His Word, and instead chosen

00:37:16

that they're going to live their life.

00:37:18

They're going to be an outward focused upper person,

00:37:20

not the inner work with God.

00:37:22

And this is God's response. Genesis 3:

00:37:25

Cursed is the ground for your sake;

00:37:28

in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

00:37:32

In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread

00:37:35

till you return to the ground,

00:37:37

for out of it you were taken;

00:37:39

for dust you, and to dust you shall return.

00:37:42

God goes, "I'm going to give you something

00:37:44

to remind you you're going to die.

00:37:46

It's called bread. Bread, dead. Get it? Bread, dead."

00:37:50

It's literally, it's not the bread of life.

00:37:52

It's the bread of death.

00:37:54

A symbol that you can't survive on your own

00:37:57

apart from the Word of God. You can't.

00:38:01

The next time bread shows up is in the Exodus.

00:38:04

The people of Israel are in Egypt, and they're slaves.

00:38:07

And Moses comes and under God's direction,

00:38:09

He walks him out of slavery.

00:38:11

They get to the desert and they immediately

00:38:12

start complaining, just like your kids on a road trip.

00:38:15

I'm hungry. Can we stop? I'm so tired.

00:38:18

And so God's like, okay, listen,

00:38:20

I'm going to give you food, okay?

00:38:21

Just bread every day.

00:38:23

Now, he doesn't send a giant dump truck full

00:38:27

of unending food, like, one time.

00:38:29

Here you go. Leave me alone. Just eat this forever.

00:38:31

It's going to last you for years."

00:38:33

It doesn't say that.

00:38:34

Instead He says, "I'm going to send you miracle bread.

00:38:37

It's called manna. It's going to show up every morning.

00:38:41

But if you try to save it for tomorrow,

00:38:43

it's going to spoil.

00:38:45

And so you're going to have to wake up the next day

00:38:47

and also go look for bread.

00:38:49

And then the next day also go look for bread.

00:38:51

And the next day also go look for bread."

00:38:54

Now, if you've heard this story taught,

00:38:55

you might have heard it taught in the context

00:38:57

of God's amazing, miraculous provision.

00:38:59

Yes, there's probably a lesson there in that,

00:39:01

that's totally legitimate.

00:39:03

But it's not what the Bible says

00:39:05

the point of the story actually is.

00:39:08

Deuteronomy 8:3 describes it this way.

00:39:11

So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger,

00:39:15

and fed you with manna which you did not know

00:39:18

nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know

00:39:22

that man shall not live by bread alone;

00:39:25

but man lives by every word

00:39:27

that proceeds from the mouth of God.

00:39:31

He goes, the whole point of the bread was not my provision,

00:39:35

it's is that if you look for your life

00:39:38

in the outer, above the surface stuff,

00:39:40

you're only going to find death.

00:39:43

It's a symbol of you're going to die.

00:39:46

Everybody who ate the bread, by the way,

00:39:48

all but two guys, Jacob -- Or sorry, Joshua and Caleb,

00:39:50

they all died. All die.

00:39:53

So did Jesus know this story when He said pray for bagels?

00:39:57

Yeah, He totally did. That's Matthew chapter six.

00:40:00

Matthew chapter four, two chapters earlier

00:40:02

is the temptations of Jesus.

00:40:04

He had fasted for 40 days.

00:40:05

He's in the desert and He's starving.

00:40:08

And one of the temptations of Satan was he goes,

00:40:11

"Hey, turn these rocks into bread."

00:40:14

And Jesus response is, "No, man doesn't live by bread alone.

00:40:17

Man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God."

00:40:21

He quotes it to him.

00:40:23

And so why in the world in the middle of the thing

00:40:27

that is Jesus's like magnum opus on prayer, pray this way,

00:40:31

would He say ask for bread every day?

00:40:34

Well, the answer comes right after

00:40:36

one of the other major stories about bread.

00:40:38

It's the feeding of the 5000.

00:40:40

Jesus is doing an outdoor service.

00:40:42

It's awesome, He's preaching. People show up.

00:40:45

Everybody forgets lunch, except for one kid.

00:40:48

Like, literally no one brings food.

00:40:50

And so Jesus takes this kid's lunch, it's fish and bread.

00:40:53

He takes the bread, He multiplies it.

00:40:55

And everybody has bread to eat, and they love it.

00:40:57

So much bread there's extra.

00:40:59

Jesus finishes the sermon and says Amen

00:41:01

and then just starts walking to across

00:41:03

to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

00:41:04

And he's walking, He looks over His shoulder

00:41:07

and all the people are following Him, all of them.

00:41:11

And they're not following Him

00:41:12

because they want more of the Word of God.

00:41:15

They're following Him because they want more bread.

00:41:18

And Jesus knows this.

00:41:20

So He turns around and looks over His shoulder

00:41:22

and says this, John chapter six:

00:41:24

Do not work for the food that perishes,

00:41:27

but for the food that endures for eternal life,

00:41:30

which the Son of Man will give you.

00:41:33

I'll give it to you.

00:41:36

Now the people they just wanted bread.

00:41:38

And so they're like, "Okay,

00:41:40

not what we wanted to have happen.

00:41:41

Let's put our heads together real quick.

00:41:43

Quick, circle up over here. Jesus, we'll be right back."

00:41:45

They go over here and they're like,

00:41:46

"Okay, we need to get bread.

00:41:47

How can we convince Him to still give us bread?"

00:41:51

Got it, and they have an idea. This is what they say back.

00:41:54

So they said to Him,

00:41:56

"What sign are You going to give us then,

00:41:59

so that we may see it and believe You?"

00:42:01

Because, Jesus, we would love to believe You,

00:42:05

obviously, we're here.

00:42:07

But we're going to need something.

00:42:08

"What work are you performing?

00:42:10

Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness;

00:42:14

as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'

00:42:18

So the Bible says it. Jesus,

00:42:20

You should probably make us more bagels.

00:42:23

And unfortunately the Bible was written before emojis,

00:42:28

which I found frustrating.

00:42:31

But if there were emojis, this is the single text

00:42:34

Jesus would have sent back right here.

00:42:38

It's like, okay, uh, okay,

00:42:42

let me try to break this down for you.

00:42:44

Here's His actual words.

00:42:46

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life.

00:42:50

Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,

00:42:54

whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."

00:42:57

This is the bread, taps Himself.

00:42:58

This is the bread that came down from heaven.

00:43:02

Not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died.

00:43:06

Bread, dead, guys, do you not get it? Bread, dead.

00:43:08

"But the one who eats this bread will live forever."

00:43:13

What you might not know about Jesus is that

00:43:15

He's the connection point between all the major themes

00:43:19

and ideas in the entire Bible.

00:43:22

So John 6 here He says I'm the bread of life.

00:43:25

John 1 says He's the Word of God.

00:43:27

And so the bread of life is, ta-da, the Word of God.

00:43:33

And so maybe, just maybe, when Jesus says

00:43:37

pray for bread every day, He doesn't just mean a new donut.

00:43:42

That would be awesome.

00:43:44

I think He means pray for the Word of God

00:43:46

because you don't live by bread alone.

00:43:48

You live by ingesting the Word of God.

00:43:51

Because you see, the Word of God has the power

00:43:53

to do something that nothing else can.

00:43:55

If you'll take it into your inner world,

00:43:57

it can transform you.

00:44:03

Hebrews 4:12:

00:44:04

For the Word of God is living and active,

00:44:07

sharper than any two-edged sword,

00:44:08

piercing to the division of soul and spirit,

00:44:11

of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts

00:44:13

and intentions of the heart.

00:44:16

Your inner world.

00:44:18

The Word of God is not a sword to cut you down.

00:44:21

It's not a it's not a sword to put you down.

00:44:23

It's a sword to do surgery on you.

00:44:25

It's a scalpel so sharp that it can go

00:44:29

to the deepest places of you,

00:44:32

that it can cut apart the place that you're stuck

00:44:34

and produce freedom in you.

00:44:37

This is the Word of God.

00:44:40

My question is, do you want to be ready?

00:44:42

Because if you want to be ready for what comes your way,

00:44:45

the only way to do it is to develop a habit

00:44:48

of spending time with the Word of God every single day.

00:44:51

Spending a habit of developing your inner world

00:44:55

through engaging God in it.

00:44:58

Every day I pray the Lord's Prayer every morning.

00:45:01

It helps keep me focused.

00:45:03

And I get to the part about daily bread.

00:45:05

I do ask God to provide my needs.

00:45:07

God, You provide for me? Yes, please.

00:45:09

Actual bread would be awesome.

00:45:11

And though over and above that, God,

00:45:12

I need Your Word today because I don't know

00:45:14

what moments it's going to come my way.

00:45:16

I don't know when I'm going to call to step up.

00:45:18

I don't know whether it's going to be

00:45:20

an amazing possibility or whether it's going to be

00:45:22

a tragic, painful thing.

00:45:24

But I know without Your Word,

00:45:27

I will have a void inside and I will collapse.

00:45:29

And I don't want to collapse.

00:45:31

I want to go, and I want to accomplish

00:45:33

everything that God has for me.

00:45:35

Listen, if you want to know what to expect

00:45:37

at Crossroads over the next year,

00:45:39

you can expect an outward push to reach our friends

00:45:43

and neighbors who don't yet know God

00:45:45

driven by people with an inner push

00:45:48

to have their inner worlds transformed by Christ.

00:45:51

That's where we're going.

00:45:54

Now, most importantly at the end,

00:45:57

this is not a place we fake it.

00:45:58

We are not a fake community.

00:46:00

We're not to pretend like you have it all together.

00:46:02

We're not to come in and wave hello and,

00:46:04

"Oh, things are going so good." That's not what we are.

00:46:07

And so as we get here, I want you to to put that hat on.

00:46:11

Do not fake it right now.

00:46:12

But I want you to have a conversation

00:46:14

just with yourself and God over these next few minutes.

00:46:16

We're going to do an experience

00:46:18

called communion in just a minute.

00:46:19

You can continue through that.

00:46:20

But I want you to start right now.

00:46:22

Where are you with your inner world?

00:46:25

Have you been an outer world focused person,

00:46:28

or are you an inner world focused person?

00:46:31

And what would it look like to become

00:46:32

more of an inner world focused person?

00:46:35

You might find yourself in one of three places

00:46:38

as you consider that question.

00:46:40

Maybe you're a person with so many plates in the air,

00:46:43

so many balls to juggle, so many pressures and priorities

00:46:46

that your honest response is sending through this message

00:46:49

is like, "Great! Another thing to do. Thank you, Kyle."

00:46:57

If that's you, let me just tell you the words of Jesus

00:47:00

from Matthew 11:28. He says, "Come to me,

00:47:03

all you are weary, and I will give you rest."

00:47:06

This is not about performing for God.

00:47:08

This is not about adding another thing on your plate.

00:47:11

This is about allowing Him to give you, to reward you

00:47:16

with the inner strength that you're looking for.

00:47:19

Maybe you find yourself in a different place.

00:47:21

Maybe you're somebody who already collapsed.

00:47:23

You're like, "That sinkhole thing, that was great.

00:47:25

It would have been better if it was six months ago

00:47:27

when I heard that, because I've already collapsed

00:47:30

and it's just too late for me."

00:47:32

Good news for you, if that's where you're at,

00:47:34

it's never too late.

00:47:36

We don't serve a God who says,

00:47:37

"Man, if I'd only known earlier."

00:47:40

We serve a God who brings the dead back to life.

00:47:43

And so whatever's broken,

00:47:44

whatever seems too far, it's not.

00:47:46

Start now on the inner world.

00:47:47

Tell God, "I'm sorry for the outer focus.

00:47:49

I wish the collapse hadn't happened.

00:47:51

Will You rebuild me stronger than I could possibly imagine?"

00:47:54

Or maybe you find yourself in a third spot

00:47:57

where you already have good rhythms of engaging with God.

00:48:00

My question for you is, have you decided it's good enough?

00:48:03

It's a dangerous place to get to.

00:48:05

Again, not about performing for God,

00:48:06

not about trying to dance more.

00:48:08

But have you decided you have enough of Him,

00:48:11

or is there more for you to press into?

00:48:13

What would doubling down on God's Word

00:48:16

and the inner work look like in your life?

00:48:18

That's the question I want you to consider.

00:48:20

As we close, we're going to do an exercise called communion.

00:48:23

Right now, you can take out this little cup

00:48:25

that you got when you walked in,

00:48:26

in case you were curious what it was for.

00:48:28

It's not just a snack in case you got hungry.

00:48:30

If you already ate it, that's okay.

00:48:32

This is to help us do something called communion

00:48:35

or the Lord's Supper,

00:48:36

also called the Eucharist in some faith traditions.

00:48:39

And it has to do with the last meal Jesus ever had

00:48:42

with his disciples where He took bread, He took wine.

00:48:44

He broke the bread.

00:48:45

He passed around the cup of wine.

00:48:47

He said, "This is My body broken for you.

00:48:49

This is My blood shed for you."

00:48:52

And He commanded us to do this in remembrance of Him.

00:48:56

Not by coincidence, this is an experience

00:49:00

of taking Jesus, the bread of life, and allowing Him

00:49:05

to get into the deepest parts of us, the Word of God.

00:49:11

So you can go ahead and peel off the bottom

00:49:14

of your container there.

00:49:15

Exposed that little piece of bread.

00:49:17

And by the way, this is really for folks

00:49:19

who decided that Jesus is who He said He is.

00:49:22

If that's not you, I'm so glad that you're with us.

00:49:24

Honored that you're here,

00:49:25

Again, we're not a fake place, so please don't fake it.

00:49:27

It's okay. This is not for you.

00:49:29

You can just keep that in your pocket.

00:49:31

Or maybe you're somebody who's never taken communion.

00:49:34

But maybe you want today to be your first ever communion.

00:49:36

The first time you say,"

00:49:38

Jesus, I believe You are who You say You are."

00:49:40

If that's you, welcome to communion.

00:49:42

There's no performance. There's nothing else.

00:49:43

If you say, "Jesus, I believe You are who You say You are,"

00:49:46

then congratulations.

00:49:47

Pull up a seat to the table with the rest of us.

00:49:50

And for those of us who do follow Jesus, this is for us.

00:49:53

And I'll just remind you that the bread He gives you

00:49:56

is broken bread, not just His Word every day,

00:49:59

but grace, that's what broken bread is, every single day.

00:50:03

So if you need His grace right now,

00:50:05

I want you to just take this.

00:50:06

On the night He was betrayed,

00:50:08

Jesus took the loaf of bread on the table and He broke it.

00:50:11

And He said, "This is My body broken for you."

00:50:13

Friends, this is the body of Christ broken for you.

00:50:17

Let's eat it together in remembrance of Him.

00:50:30

You can peel back the top layer of that cup.

00:50:33

Expose the tiny container of juice.

00:50:36

Same night, a cup of wine on the table.

00:50:39

Jesus takes the cup of wine.

00:50:41

He held it up and He said, "This is my blood shed for you."

00:50:46

Friends, this is the blood of Christ shed for you.

00:50:48

Let's drink it in remembrance of Him.

00:50:57

Let me pray for you.

00:50:58

God, thank You for being a God

00:51:02

who doesn't leave us where we are,

00:51:05

who doesn't say good luck,

00:51:07

who doesn't say, I gave you a word years ago. Good enough.

00:51:14

But who every day offers a show up

00:51:17

and to feed us the thing that can transform us

00:51:19

and help us be ready for whatever's coming our way.

00:51:21

God, I'm asking for everybody here,

00:51:23

everybody watching online, You know the moment coming.

00:51:27

Would You give us the vision and the tenacity

00:51:32

to work on the inner world, to allow Your Word

00:51:35

to come in and change us, God?

00:51:37

I know You're faithful and I know You will do it.

00:51:41

Thank You for Your Word. Amen.

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