Do We Still Need The Church?

00:00:02

- Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads Church online.

00:00:04

We're so glad that you're here with us

00:00:06

in an internet literally full of stuff

00:00:07

you could be watching, we're so glad that you tuned in here.

00:00:10

Hey, my name is Andy Reider. This is Chris.

00:00:12

And we're going to be asking a question today,

00:00:15

which is, man, is the church legit

00:00:17

and what does the church even mean?

00:00:20

- Yeah, somebody, Andy, just recently asked me

00:00:22

what kind of church is Crossroads?

00:00:24

And I think there's a million ways you can answer that.

00:00:27

But I think you'd agree with me that

00:00:28

Crossroads is a church that takes risk

00:00:31

and we're also a church that likes overlanding --

00:00:34

- Middle school humor.

00:00:35

- Motorcycles, yes, middle school humor

00:00:37

and we love camping, and we're also just a church.

00:00:40

- Yes. That's right.

00:00:41

Now there's lots of different ways

00:00:42

we could answer the question what kind of church are we?

00:00:44

But maybe the best one is just to look at

00:00:46

what the word church means, because that's

00:00:48

where we're gonna be diving into today.

00:00:49

It means called out ones, like,

00:00:51

that's who we are as a church is better

00:00:53

than any adjective or descriptor or denomination

00:00:56

that I could come up with.

00:00:57

- Yeah, I love what the Bible says in James 4:8,

00:01:00

draw near to God and He'll draw near to you.

00:01:03

And we're going to do just that right now,

00:01:04

do something called worship.

00:01:06

And this is where we get to draw near to God.

00:01:08

And so you might be in a room filled with people

00:01:10

or at a coffee shop by yourself sipping on a latte.

00:01:13

Regardless of where you're at,

00:01:14

God will meet you right where you're at.

00:01:16

And so we're going to worship together.

00:10:47

- Go ahead and have a seat.

00:10:49

Whatever site you're in, we're not done here

00:10:51

connecting with God through this worship.

00:10:53

But sometimes to do that, it's really good to hear a story,

00:10:57

somebody who can talk about the power to heal,

00:11:00

the power to transform a heart.

00:11:02

We've got somebody in our community and our church,

00:11:05

our small C church.

00:11:06

I'll be talking today about the the capital C church

00:11:09

that exists of all sorts of followers of Jesus

00:11:12

from all different walks of life

00:11:13

and all different subsets of belief.

00:11:16

But this is somebody in this small C church,

00:11:17

this little church called Crossroads.

00:11:20

And I'm really encouraged by his story.

00:11:22

And we call ourselves around here

00:11:23

a real place for real people.

00:11:25

This guy has got a story.

00:11:27

And just a little shocker warning,

00:11:29

he's a bit gritty in his language, so it's all good.

00:11:34

Just don't be surprised

00:11:35

and don't be surprised to be inspired

00:11:37

to see what God is doing in the midst

00:11:39

of one of the people inside our church

00:11:41

before we continue to worship God.

00:11:45

- My mom and dad were missionaries,

00:11:47

and we're from a very conservative Pentecostal group

00:11:51

where rules and regulations,

00:11:54

and we called them holiness standards.

00:11:57

It's all about outward look and how you act.

00:11:59

By the time I was an adult, I was really [bleep] up.

00:12:03

I mean, just emotionally and mentally.

00:12:06

I was clinically depressed, had severe depression,

00:12:09

crippling anxiety, and it just really affected

00:12:12

every part of my life.

00:12:14

But, you know, the whole time, though, even as a kid,

00:12:17

I had a lot of questions.

00:12:19

It's just stuff didn't make sense, you know?

00:12:21

And I would ask questions.

00:12:23

I was one of the few that dared to even ask, you know.

00:12:26

And I would get these bullshit answers

00:12:28

that didn't make any sense to me,

00:12:30

but I figured I was the problem because,

00:12:32

you know, in that religion, you're never good enough.

00:12:34

You don't pray enough, you don't give enough,

00:12:36

you don't fast enough. You don't --

00:12:37

You're just not enough.

00:12:39

And so I just thought, well, my brain's not enough.

00:12:41

I just don't understand.

00:12:43

So I'm going to go to Bible school and I'll understand.

00:12:46

And I prayed all the time, "God help me

00:12:48

to understand this because

00:12:50

it just doesn't make logical sense to me.

00:12:52

And there must be an answer to these questions I have."

00:12:55

And finally, I just said I'm out.

00:13:02

It's so weird because it's been 35 years or so, I don't know.

00:13:09

You just still remember it.

00:13:11

My mind just clicked and I literally said,

00:13:15

"[Bleep] all you guys, I'm done."

00:13:17

And I never went back.

00:13:20

And I finally just I just decided that

00:13:23

it made more sense that to account for

00:13:27

all this evil and pain in people's lives

00:13:30

and in my own life, to account for that

00:13:33

there can't be a God.

00:13:36

Because if there was a God,

00:13:37

You wouldn't let all that happen.

00:13:39

That's how I thought.

00:13:40

And so I just said, "Okay, I don't believe in God anymore."

00:13:44

Well, yeah, for a while there I was,

00:13:47

I don't know how long, but I was an atheist. Yeah.

00:13:49

I left church and the first time I came back

00:13:51

was Crossroads was 15 years.

00:13:55

I remember one night I couldn't sleep.

00:13:57

I thought, I'm gonna go outside, you know.

00:14:00

And so I went outside.

00:14:02

It was one of those nights that was just clear,

00:14:05

you know, and you could see every star in the galaxy.

00:14:09

And I was just sitting there looking at it,

00:14:11

and that was -- that was the first time I heard --

00:14:15

I heard God speak to me in a long time.

00:14:22

I looked at the stars and He said, "Who made that?"

00:14:26

And He just said, "I'm here."

00:14:30

And I realized He'd always been there.

00:14:34

He never left. I left; He didn't.

00:14:38

I didn't run to a church.

00:14:40

Every now and then I would start to miss church, you know.

00:14:45

And I would go visit one, and I'd be there

00:14:47

about five minutes and remember why I left,

00:14:51

and I'd just head out the door. I'm like --

00:14:52

And I just couldn't find anything that connected with me.

00:14:57

And the biggest part, the disappointment I had

00:15:00

with the church, I just felt like the church

00:15:02

was missing the point.

00:15:03

I was missionally minded.

00:15:05

So, you know, like, this is what

00:15:07

we're supposed to be doing as a church.

00:15:09

So we'll be reaching outside of the four walls

00:15:11

of the church, and not just with the gospel,

00:15:14

like, the message of the gospel,

00:15:17

but actually helping people,

00:15:18

helping them with their lives

00:15:20

and making the world a better place on every level.

00:15:23

And I just didn't see us doing that,

00:15:25

and I just felt like it was a big club,

00:15:27

and I just didn't sign up for that. You know?

00:15:30

And I just felt I was wasting my life.

00:15:31

So that was always what I was looking for,

00:15:34

and I could never find it.

00:15:36

And so I started looking around, like,

00:15:38

for a soup kitchen or something

00:15:41

where I could go once or twice a month

00:15:42

and just kind of give back a little bit, you know?

00:15:44

And everywhere I looked, I ran into Crossroads online.

00:15:48

It was like looking here and, you know,

00:15:50

oh, it's connected to, sent me back

00:15:52

to the same site every time. You know?

00:15:56

I just was like, wow, that's weird. You know?

00:15:58

Crossroads is big, I guess, you know,

00:16:01

and they're doing stuff out in the community,

00:16:02

which I thought, "Well, that's pretty cool, I like that."

00:16:05

And then I ran into online Citylink

00:16:09

and that's what impressed me.

00:16:11

I looked at that and I was like, "Damn,

00:16:14

they put some money into that."

00:16:17

And where people spend their money is where their heart is.

00:16:20

I was like, "Wow, this church really gets it, you know?"

00:16:25

And I could tell a little bit online, you know,

00:16:28

it's a big church, you know,

00:16:29

but they're they're doing stuff out here, real stuff.

00:16:32

They're not just writing a check and, you know,

00:16:35

and talking about it on their website.

00:16:37

They're actually out in the community doing things.

00:16:40

And that impressed me.

00:16:41

And I remember I had looked online thinking,

00:16:43

maybe I should go check this place out.

00:16:45

I remember driving by Mason, the site, seeing it,

00:16:48

but I looked online and I saw, "Okay, oh,

00:16:52

it's kind of a fundraiser thing, you know? Hell no.

00:16:56

I'm not going during the fundraiser."

00:16:58

Because fundraisers for me were,

00:16:59

yeah, don't even get me started on that.

00:17:02

And I was just like, "Okay, they're just about money.

00:17:04

You know, they're raising money."

00:17:06

And but I just thought, you know what?

00:17:08

I like what they're doing in the community.

00:17:10

It's pretty cool.

00:17:11

I thought, "I'm going to, you know,

00:17:13

maybe I'll go check them out."

00:17:14

And Sunday morning, I woke up,

00:17:18

and I just felt this, this urge.

00:17:23

You need to go to Crossroads today.

00:17:27

And I was like, man.

00:17:28

And I just couldn't get away from it.

00:17:30

It was -- it was palpable.

00:17:33

So I got ready and went over, drove over there.

00:17:36

And I drove in and I was scared as shit.

00:17:42

I didn't know what was going to happen.

00:17:45

And I came in the side door

00:17:48

and picked the door all the way over on the right,

00:17:51

because I figured they'd be watching the middle ones.

00:17:53

I found on the other side of the the lobby,

00:17:55

there was a big fern, and I literally hid behind the fern

00:17:59

because I was like, I didn't want to talk to anybody.

00:18:01

I didn't want to -- I didn't really want to be here.

00:18:04

I didn't know why I was here.

00:18:05

It was not on my agenda for today.

00:18:07

And so they opened the doors and I went in.

00:18:10

And then I saw this up on the stage, and I got it.

00:18:15

I'm like, okay. And then I was impressed.

00:18:18

I was like, "Okay, these guys really put effort

00:18:21

into what -- I don't know what they're doing.

00:18:24

I don't know what they're trying to get across,

00:18:26

but they started it out there.

00:18:28

And then those guys, the Jehovah's Witnesses,

00:18:30

I saw there, the mission control guy.

00:18:32

I got it right away.

00:18:34

I got it, and I was like, wow.

00:18:36

I mean, I literally was like, "Wow, that's cool."

00:18:38

And that's the first time I ever said anything

00:18:40

positive about a church in 20 years, 15, 20 years.

00:18:43

And I was impressed.

00:18:45

And I said, "Well, I'm going to find

00:18:47

the darkest place in this room,

00:18:49

and I'm going to hide out there

00:18:51

and I'm just going to see what happens."

00:18:55

So I went to the left, went all the way to the back.

00:18:58

There were some other people there,

00:19:00

so I found a seat as far back as I could go.

00:19:03

They started the opener song, it was one thing.

00:19:11

And she said, "I've searched my mind.

00:19:16

I've searched my heart."

00:19:20

And that's what I've done for 20 years,

00:19:22

30, 40 years, searching my heart

00:19:24

and I couldn't find what I was looking for.

00:19:28

I just realized at that moment that God is here.

00:19:35

And I just felt like He --

00:19:41

He created that moment for me.

00:19:46

I just responded because I felt it.

00:19:51

And so for the first time in 20 years,

00:19:53

I stood up. I lift up my hands.

00:20:01

I lifted my hands, I bowed my head

00:20:03

and then just started to cry.

00:20:06

It was the most powerful spiritual experience

00:20:10

I had ever had

00:20:12

5 minutes into my first service during a fundraiser.

00:20:19

I'll never forget that.

00:20:20

That moment that I realized that God cares about me

00:20:26

and He's after me.

00:20:28

And it's been wild ever since then.

00:20:30

[applause]

00:25:34

- God, I just thank You that You are God

00:25:40

who is worthy of everything that we just sang together.

00:25:45

You're worthy of our laughing.

00:25:48

You're worthy of our silence.

00:25:51

You're worthy of all of our lives.

00:25:52

You're even worth dying for.

00:25:59

You're the only one.

00:26:00

And you're the only thing that

00:26:03

is worthy of giving everything we have to

00:26:05

because there's life on the other end with you.

00:26:08

You promised us that, and I've seen it.

00:26:11

Would You help us to see that here tonight?

00:26:14

How we love you. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.

00:26:24

- Hey, shout out to all the moms. Happy Mother's Day.

00:26:27

Hey, you deserve to be celebrated.

00:26:30

- That's right, that's right.

00:26:31

Man, you should get celebrated every day.

00:26:34

But hey, we'll start with one weekend in May.

00:26:36

We're so grateful and, man,

00:26:39

so many of the moms that I know,

00:26:40

they give and they give and they give.

00:26:42

And you might be around Crossroads like,

00:26:44

man, they always talk to the guys.

00:26:45

They got the dude camps and the motorcycles

00:26:47

and the Marlboro Reds and all the things.

00:26:49

But I want you to know, we actually have

00:26:50

some incredible stuff coming up for women,

00:26:53

moms or not, this is for you.

00:26:55

It's called the Ignite Conference.

00:26:57

It's going to be awesome.

00:26:58

We'd love for you to come from all over

00:27:00

to be there for this opportunity for women

00:27:03

to be invested in and to connect as women

00:27:06

in the larger Crossroads community.

00:27:08

All the details are at crossroads.net/ignite.

00:27:12

- I love what Brian said in that video,

00:27:14

not Brian Tome, the one who keeps swearing all the time.

00:27:17

But I love how you said the church

00:27:19

doesn't just say a bunch of stuff, but also does it.

00:27:22

And one of the ways that we have an opportunity

00:27:24

to be the church is through something that

00:27:26

we're calling Go Day, where we're going to see

00:27:29

thousands of people, tens of thousands,

00:27:31

serve in a ton of different projects

00:27:33

and actually get to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

00:27:36

And if you want to be a part of that,

00:27:37

you can go to crossroads.net/GoDay.

00:27:40

- Yes. If you're at one of our sites,

00:27:42

we've got hundreds and hundreds of projects

00:27:43

organized for you.

00:27:45

And you might be wondering, man, I live in Florida

00:27:48

or Montana or Portugal.

00:27:49

Man, all these places are places

00:27:51

where we have anywhere community members,

00:27:54

part of our church, living all across the map,

00:27:57

who are actually doing projects.

00:27:58

They're making an impact in their neighborhood.

00:28:00

It could be actually, we've got specific examples

00:28:03

of people that are helping their neighbors

00:28:05

clean up after a bad storm, or gathering supplies

00:28:08

to take to a local women's shelter.

00:28:09

There's, literally it could be anything.

00:28:12

It just has to be real and it has to make a real impact.

00:28:15

So head to crossroads.net/GoDay, sign up,

00:28:18

even if you're not sure what you want to do.

00:28:20

We'll reach out and we'll help you

00:28:21

find the right project and the right way

00:28:23

to make an impact right where you are.

00:28:25

- Oh, man. Yeah. So good.

00:28:27

When I think about stories like Brian's

00:28:29

and Go Day where impact is happening,

00:28:32

it's because of generous givers.

00:28:35

And I remember in 2018, I started giving

00:28:37

for the first time as a broke college student

00:28:40

because God radically changed my life.

00:28:42

And I just wanted to be a part of the work that He was doing.

00:28:44

And so if you want to get in the game,

00:28:46

if you want to be on the team,

00:28:47

you can go to Crossroads.net/give.

00:28:50

- Yeah. And one of the things that we hear,

00:28:52

whether it's like your story, which I actually

00:28:54

hadn't heard until today or Brian's story or others,

00:28:57

is like, there's this idea of, like,

00:28:59

my life is different, my life has changed.

00:29:01

And so I want to be a part of making an impact

00:29:03

and changing other people's lives.

00:29:05

That's the whole heart of our church.

00:29:06

That's the whole heart of why we exist.

00:29:08

And that's what the Crossroads 10X Push is all about.

00:29:12

It's about saying, "God, we want you to use us

00:29:14

all over to make an impact."

00:29:17

And so, as Chris said, you can do that

00:29:19

at Crossroads.net/10X.

00:29:21

But we also want you to hear the rest of Brian's story,

00:29:24

because as much as we heard, it's actually not over yet,

00:29:27

there's more that God did in his life.

00:29:28

- So good.

00:29:30

- I actually have a relationship with God now

00:29:33

that I never had before.

00:29:35

I mean, we went into the rest of that service

00:29:38

and, um, I kind of started figuring out

00:29:41

what was going on.

00:29:42

And Brian was talking about the four territories,

00:29:46

and that blew my mind.

00:29:48

I mean, I literally thought to myself,

00:29:50

"How can anybody even imagine that,

00:29:55

much less say it in public?"

00:29:57

I was like, 'These people are bigger missional

00:30:00

than I ever thought of being."

00:30:03

And, you know, the four territories.

00:30:05

And then he starts talking about an awakening.

00:30:08

I immediately believed in this church.

00:30:10

I bought in, especially the whole awakening thing.

00:30:13

To me, that is out of The Push, to me, that's the biggest thing.

00:30:20

It's not the money. It's not the the Wonderwall.

00:30:23

It's not new subwoofers for Mason.

00:30:25

It's not any of that stuff, although I love all that.

00:30:30

The prisons, all that stuff is fantastic.

00:30:32

But for me, the awakening thing is what really

00:30:38

what I got out of The Push personally.

00:30:41

I just think our country is in trouble just spiritually.

00:30:46

And we're looking to the wrong things to fix it.

00:30:53

And if you look through the Bible,

00:30:57

it's God coming in with His Spirit and fixing things.

00:31:03

But He has to have a group of people

00:31:07

that are united around this idea.

00:31:11

We always called it a revival when I grew up,

00:31:13

but I like awakening better.

00:31:15

I like awakening better. It's a better term.

00:31:18

But we can take this 200 million and do all this stuff,

00:31:22

and that's great. I want to do it.

00:31:26

But if we don't have a spiritual impact,

00:31:32

we can do more, have a bigger impact

00:31:36

with an awakening than we ever could with $200 million.

00:31:39

An awakening will change the world.

00:31:42

Until Brian articulated it the way he articulates it,

00:31:48

it didn't really grab me before.

00:31:49

I think maybe just because I heard

00:31:51

these buzzwords growing up and they lose their meaning,

00:31:55

but just the way it's described,

00:31:57

that's what I signed up for more than anything else on 10X,

00:32:00

because it was like, again, he has the balls to say that.

00:32:05

Who has the balls to say that in public? You know?

00:32:09

It's just -- it blew my mind.

00:32:12

And that's what I think about

00:32:13

more than anything else is the awakening.

00:32:15

Before we dismissed, I decided this is my home.

00:32:19

I found home.

00:32:21

I thought if I could have created a church,

00:32:23

this would have been it because they they do

00:32:27

and say, not only do they say it, but they do it.

00:32:33

- Really encouraging.

00:32:34

Just to clear up any confusion, yes,

00:32:36

I do have what he said that I have.

00:32:38

I actually do have those.

00:32:42

You have to take my word for it.

00:32:44

But he talks about Crossroads

00:32:48

and today I'm not talking about Crossroads.

00:32:49

But that story was an important story because

00:32:52

we're talking about the church.

00:32:54

Crossroads is a small C church,

00:32:56

but today I'm going to talk about the big C church.

00:32:59

You might be going, what's the difference between

00:33:01

big C church and small C Church, and Mother's Day?

00:33:04

Well, by the way, happy Mother's Day, everybody.

00:33:06

Happy mother's day. Good to be with you.

00:33:09

I'm going to say something for you moms in just a moment,

00:33:11

but let's pray before I go any further.

00:33:15

God, I'm thankful for mid-course corrections.

00:33:20

That's what this may be for many of us,

00:33:22

maybe not mid-course in our life,

00:33:24

but mid-course in our week.

00:33:26

We want to be going the right direction

00:33:28

and have the right thoughts and attitudes

00:33:30

about the things that you say are important.

00:33:33

And that includes the church.

00:33:36

It's an institution that is much maligned,

00:33:39

much criticized, and much ignored.

00:33:41

But we are -- I'm asking you help me

00:33:44

to communicate how quote unquote legit it is.

00:33:47

Thanks for being able to talk about transcendent things.

00:33:50

May I honor you in the process.

00:33:51

And I pray these things according to

00:33:55

the character and identity of Jesus. Amen.

00:33:59

Saint Cyprian in the third century He said something

00:34:04

that is actually a good wedding of Mother's Day

00:34:09

and talking about the capital C church.

00:34:11

Here's what he says:

00:34:12

I cannot have God as Father

00:34:14

who does not have the church as a mother.

00:34:18

He was saying, we need a mother to nurture us

00:34:21

to see things the way we should see them.

00:34:24

As I was trying to find that quote

00:34:27

I'd made up my own over the last, uh,

00:34:29

last however many years.

00:34:30

I knew it wasn't my own, but I made it my own,

00:34:32

and I adjusted in my mind.

00:34:33

I thought for sure someone said the way I had said it,

00:34:36

but they hadn't.

00:34:37

But here's my version:

00:34:38

I would not have had God as Father

00:34:41

had I not first had church as my mother.

00:34:44

The church is a flawed institution.

00:34:48

The church has its issues,

00:34:49

the church has its heartaches, and we know those.

00:34:51

We'll talk about those in just a moment.

00:34:53

But, the way we come to know God is through the church.

00:34:59

And the church is a person or people

00:35:03

who are gathered together who are connected to God,

00:35:07

and we have the commissioning to share

00:35:10

with other people who Jesus is,

00:35:12

what the love of God is,

00:35:14

what the presence of the Holy Spirit does

00:35:16

to turn a life around.

00:35:18

Now, in many ways, unlike all you mothers

00:35:22

who have been wonderful and done your hardest,

00:35:24

I've had a horrible spiritual mother.

00:35:27

The mother of the church, if you want to

00:35:29

get into a pity party, criticize the church.

00:35:31

Hey, I'll get right in there with you.

00:35:33

Because, yeah, there's a lot of things about it

00:35:35

that are difficult, that are struggling.

00:35:38

She has bored me out of my gourd.

00:35:40

She basically made me not want to be interested in God at all,

00:35:43

because for all of my youngster years,

00:35:45

it was just a boring, irrelevant experience.

00:35:48

She has rejected me because people in the church

00:35:51

have told me there's certain things that

00:35:54

I can't be if I don't agree with this,

00:35:56

or if I don't do that.

00:35:58

She's made up rules that aren't even in the Bible,

00:36:03

but rules that says, here's what you must do

00:36:06

to be a good Christian and for God to love you.

00:36:09

All these things caused me and most of us

00:36:12

to have a love hate relationship with the church.

00:36:16

And then, yeah, I'm on payroll with my mother.

00:36:19

My mom pays me, you know?

00:36:21

It's been my job here at Crossroads about 30 years,

00:36:24

and then eight years before that.

00:36:27

And I'll tell you what, you go into the belly

00:36:29

of now it's your job and you're going to find

00:36:31

all kind of new wounds, all kinds of things.

00:36:36

Lib became a mother when our oldest daughter, Lena, was born.

00:36:41

And Lib was -- we were -- I conceived along with her.

00:36:45

I had something to do with it.

00:36:47

I do have those things that Brian mentioned earlier,

00:36:49

so I had something to do with that.

00:36:51

And we were surprised. We were surprised.

00:36:56

We weren't planning on having a child, we were surprised.

00:36:58

It was Lib's fault, by the way.

00:36:59

It wasn't my fault. It was her fault.

00:37:02

So now we have a pregnancy

00:37:05

and we're not prepared to be parents.

00:37:07

We're not prepared financially to be parents.

00:37:09

It's not something we wanted, but okay,

00:37:11

we're going to do this thing.

00:37:12

And then the church I was working for

00:37:14

cut my salary by 50%.

00:37:16

Same responsibilities, same everything, just half, 50%.

00:37:21

Yeah, that was not a moment to make me love the church.

00:37:25

And yet this has been my spiritual mother.

00:37:28

I came to faith because of people

00:37:31

who were gathered together in the name of Jesus.

00:37:33

That's what the church is.

00:37:35

In the book of Revelations 19:7-9 it says this --

00:37:41

This is a prophecy or this is a a vision

00:37:44

that the apostle John has.

00:37:47

It's written in the very last book in the Bible.

00:37:50

And let's see what it says

00:37:52

about what the church looks like, verse 7-9:

00:37:57

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory,

00:38:01

for the marriage of the Lamb has come,

00:38:03

and his bride has made herself ready;

00:38:06

it was granted her to clothe herself

00:38:09

with fine linen, bright and pure.

00:38:12

It's this verse where we get the tradition

00:38:16

of women wearing white when they get married.

00:38:21

It's not you wear white because you're a virgin,

00:38:23

you come up and get married.

00:38:24

Some people think that was that. That's not what it is.

00:38:26

This traces to this verse in the Bible,

00:38:30

which is a picture of the body of Christ,

00:38:33

also known as the Bride of Christ.

00:38:35

The bride of Christ are those people

00:38:37

who Jesus has laid down His life for.

00:38:40

He's the groom and I am the bride, or I'm part of the bride.

00:38:44

We're known as the Church of Christ, the Bride of Christ.

00:38:47

And this verse says there's a day

00:38:49

where we're going to be ready because

00:38:50

the groom is coming back and we're making ourselves ready.

00:38:54

We're preparing ourselves.

00:38:56

We're doing the right things.

00:38:58

We're acting in purity.

00:39:00

This is the image of what the body of Christ is.

00:39:03

It's not a 501c3 nonprofit corporation.

00:39:07

That's not what it is.

00:39:09

Crossroads is that.

00:39:10

Churches are that in America in terms by the tax code,

00:39:13

but no, wherever there's an amalgamation of people

00:39:16

who said, "Jesus, You're my Lord.

00:39:18

I want to be filled with Your Spirit.

00:39:20

I'm giving myself to You and we're together,"

00:39:22

the church is there, the capital C church.

00:39:25

And it's a beautiful and glorious things.

00:39:30

What is a church exactly? Three things.

00:39:31

One, it's made up of individuals who have married Christ.

00:39:35

When you marry Christ,

00:39:37

when you've given your life to Christ,

00:39:38

when you've made a public vow, a public vow,

00:39:41

which what happens when you get baptized,

00:39:43

you make a public vow.

00:39:44

You get your invisible wedding ring.

00:39:47

You are a part of the bride of Christ.

00:39:50

You're part of the church.

00:39:51

The second thing is it's gathered together

00:39:53

to reflect the glory of the Father, the white reflects.

00:39:57

We gather together as a church to reflect.

00:39:59

That's why church attendance is really, really big.

00:40:01

Because you're not being the church

00:40:02

if we just skip church all the time.

00:40:04

We gather together to reflect the radiance of God.

00:40:09

And when we gather together, we're operating as a church,

00:40:12

and we're gathered together to be

00:40:15

His hands and feet in a hurting world.

00:40:19

When we talk about Jesus interceding,

00:40:21

how would Jesus intercede?

00:40:23

He intercedes through His people, through His church.

00:40:27

We are His hands and feet.

00:40:30

When somebody gets loved, it's Jesus loving them.

00:40:33

And how does He love them?

00:40:34

He loves them through people.

00:40:36

It's us, God with skin on.

00:40:39

That's why our Go days and our service days

00:40:41

and when we go all over the world to serve,

00:40:43

we're doing that because that's what the church does.

00:40:48

We're a bride that's on the move.

00:40:51

We are meant to mother people.

00:40:53

We are meant to bless people.

00:40:55

We're meant to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

00:40:59

Again, the church has done horrible things,

00:41:02

but for the rest of our time I'm going to talk

00:41:04

about what the church has done and been great.

00:41:07

And because we're so fixated on the negative things

00:41:09

that the church has done,

00:41:11

we don't see what the church has done.

00:41:12

The church is the greatest institution in the land.

00:41:17

The church is the greatest thing God's ever done

00:41:20

on green earth since Jesus has been gone.

00:41:21

I want to help you to see that.

00:41:23

And the data supports it.

00:41:24

Yes, there's problems with the church.

00:41:26

We need to move on beyond that.

00:41:27

Like, problems, like I'll just give you one last one.

00:41:29

Why in the world the church wants

00:41:31

to keep little kids from getting

00:41:33

free Halloween candy from their neighbors?

00:41:35

I don't understand.

00:41:37

Let the children have the free candy.

00:41:40

Don't make it a big deal.

00:41:42

If you don't want to go to the neighbor's house

00:41:44

who has a white sheet with bloody 666 on it,

00:41:46

great, don't go that neighbor's house.

00:41:48

But everyone else, let them have the free candy.

00:41:52

All right, got that out of my system.

00:41:53

Got that out of my system. Amen, Amen, everyone says.

00:41:57

Let's look at what Jesus says His vision,

00:42:00

His vision for the church.

00:42:03

This was before His followers even knew

00:42:06

what the church was fully going to look at.

00:42:08

This is what I would call the Lord's Prayer.

00:42:12

I say I would call it because

00:42:14

it's not what other people call it.

00:42:15

Other people call the Lord's Prayer

00:42:16

something I preached on a couple months ago,

00:42:18

which is the -- some people known as the Our Father.

00:42:20

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

00:42:22

It's a wonderful prayer. It's wonderful.

00:42:24

It's an important thing to talk about. I talked about it.

00:42:26

It's just that Jesus never prayed that.

00:42:29

That wasn't the Lord's Prayer.

00:42:31

That was the Lord teaching about prayer.

00:42:33

They said, "Teach us how to pray," so He prayed.

00:42:35

So if you want to pray that,

00:42:36

it's a wonderful thing to pray and it's fine, it's fine.

00:42:38

But here we have people

00:42:40

overhearing what He actually prayed.

00:42:42

This is actually what He prayed one time.

00:42:47

Let's -- I'm going to read part of it.

00:42:49

It comes from John 17:6 and following.

00:42:53

Here's what says, this is He's praying.

00:42:55

He's praying to God and His disciples

00:42:57

are overhearing this and they're taking notes. He says:

00:43:15

Your church, He says, have come out of the world.

00:43:17

Your people that You gave me,

00:43:20

they're in a relation with me,

00:43:21

they came out of the world,

00:43:22

meaning they came out of the ethic, the spiritual ethic

00:43:26

of the world, the spiritual ethic of pessimism,

00:43:30

cynicism, self-centeredness, isolationism.

00:43:33

They come out of that and they come

00:43:34

into something new, the church.

00:43:53

Jesus says, Father, You and I are one.

00:43:55

I'm only saying what you said.

00:43:56

And now they're coming into relationship with Us

00:43:59

because I am one with them, as I am one with You.

00:44:02

So we've got this symbiotic relationship,

00:44:04

and now they get to carry on the things that you and I do.

00:44:07

Verse 9:

00:44:19

Jesus says My prayers go specifically

00:44:23

to followers of Christ especially.

00:44:25

I go towards them.

00:44:26

He says I'm praying for them.

00:44:27

He said I'm not praying right now.

00:44:28

I'm not praying for all humanity.

00:44:30

This prayer here is for the church,

00:44:32

for people who will come into relationship with Him.

00:44:50

This is the money line right here,

00:44:52

that they may be one, even as We are one.

00:44:56

That's what I'm talking about, the capital C church.

00:44:58

We're not talking about Crossroads Church.

00:45:00

We're not talking about St. Vincent Church,

00:45:02

St. Cecilia Church. All these are fine.

00:45:05

All of them, all of them, all of them,

00:45:06

all of us under one heading who Jesus is praying for.

00:45:10

Like all, all churches, Pentecostal,

00:45:12

holy fire, crazy church.

00:45:14

You know those ones over there.

00:45:16

Crossroads Church, Vineyard Church,

00:45:18

Southland Church, The Rock City Church,

00:45:21

on and on and on and on and on and on.

00:45:23

All people who shouldn't be identified

00:45:25

as 501c3 nonprofit corporations in America,

00:45:29

but as people who Jesus has been praying for in the future.

00:45:32

And we come together and we're gathered together

00:45:35

and powerful, potent things happen.

00:45:40

So powerful that I think we've grown numb

00:45:43

to exactly how amazing the work of

00:45:47

the capital C church has been.

00:45:49

It is stunning.

00:45:50

There's nothing like it on God's green earth.

00:45:53

You and I and sociologists and historians,

00:45:56

whether you're atheistic or not,

00:45:59

look at the arc of human history.

00:46:01

And while yes, yes, there are horrible things

00:46:05

the church has done, the Crusades,

00:46:08

the witch burning trials,

00:46:10

keeping people from free Halloween candy.

00:46:13

Yes, there's horrible, horrible things that we have done,

00:46:17

and those need to be recognized and not run away for.

00:46:20

And they're real. They're real.

00:46:23

But because of that, we also ignore,

00:46:27

are afraid to recognize the crazy things that God has done.

00:46:34

The way the world has been blessed,

00:46:36

Jesus said to His followers, "Greater things will you do.

00:46:38

Greater things will you do."

00:46:40

Now, no individual has ever done

00:46:42

as great of a thing as Jesus has.

00:46:44

Nobody ever teached like Jesus.

00:46:45

Nobody's ever healed like Jesus.

00:46:47

No, nobody has regularly raised people from the dead like Jesus.

00:46:51

Nobody's ever been as loving and as moral as Jesus.

00:46:53

So when Jesus says, greater things will you do,

00:46:55

what's He talking about?

00:46:57

He's talking to a group that will be the church

00:47:00

and saying, "When you come together as a team,

00:47:03

you will do what I didn't do individually.

00:47:07

I am setting you up."

00:47:08

And here Jesus is praying for us to be one,

00:47:11

because the potency is when we are one and together.

00:47:14

In the book Under the Influence,

00:47:16

which is written by Professor of Ancient History

00:47:18

at Western Michigan University.

00:47:21

Paul Meyer says this:

00:47:22

The massive impact that Christianity has had

00:47:24

on civilization is often overlooked and denied.

00:47:26

It was Christians who invented colleges and universities,

00:47:30

dignified labor as divine vocations,

00:47:32

and extended the light of civilization

00:47:35

to barbarians on the frontiers.

00:47:39

It provided the greatest source of inspiration

00:47:41

for the magnificent achievements in art,

00:47:43

architecture, music and literature.

00:47:46

No other religion, teaching, philosophy or movement

00:47:49

has so changed the world for the better

00:47:51

and lifted civilization to the highest plateau

00:47:55

ever known, as Christianity.

00:47:59

Let's talk about that.

00:48:01

Like, what's what's he talking about?

00:48:03

These are things that happen right underneath our nose

00:48:06

that the church has done that's impacted society

00:48:11

that we need to have a fresh appreciation

00:48:13

and understanding for.

00:48:14

Let's just go through some of these.

00:48:15

Education, education.

00:48:17

You realize the public education started

00:48:20

in our country when it was the church that said,

00:48:23

"We need to teach children how to read

00:48:26

so that they can read the Bible.

00:48:28

So why don't we have public education?

00:48:30

No matter what you believe, no matter what you are,

00:48:32

let's just come together and let's teach people how to read."

00:48:37

This is a big deal, and this is why

00:48:40

the founding of every major educational institution

00:48:43

in our country was founded under the principles

00:48:47

of followers of Jesus wanting education.

00:48:49

I say every, not every. A bunch of them.

00:48:51

Let me go through some of them.

00:48:52

You might have heard of this place called Harvard.

00:48:54

You heard of Harvard?

00:48:55

Harvard was founded in 1636 by Puritan settlers

00:49:00

in Massachusetts to train pastors.

00:49:04

That's what the thing was supposed to be.

00:49:05

Purely what the thing was supposed to be.

00:49:07

In 1646, Harvard adopted their rules and precepts,

00:49:12

and here's what they said:

00:49:25

Harvard over the years, they changed their logo,

00:49:28

which was about serving Christ,

00:49:31

which was about the scriptures,

00:49:33

and that is truth to just General Veritas

00:49:36

or which is general truth.

00:49:38

And it just kept sliding and sliding

00:49:39

and sliding away from that until in 2021

00:49:43

there was kind of the defining moment of,

00:49:45

no, we are actually hateful of Christianity.

00:49:48

And the chief chaplain in 2021 at Harvard,

00:49:52

an avowed atheist, Greg Epstein,

00:49:54

got named the chief chaplain.

00:49:55

Like, Harvard is, like, if you think if you're a Christian,

00:49:58

you can't even be the chief chaplain here.

00:50:00

No, I'm not bemoaning what Harvard

00:50:03

and the board and what they may do.

00:50:04

That's their business.

00:50:06

All I'm trying to remind us, and maybe them,

00:50:08

is you only got here because of the church

00:50:11

in the 16 and 1700s.

00:50:13

Because it was the church that had the vision for education.

00:50:16

It wasn't just Harvard.

00:50:17

William and Mary was Anglican,

00:50:20

Yale was Congregationalist, Princeton was Presbyterian.

00:50:24

These were colleges meant to train people

00:50:27

in those denominations and started by

00:50:29

those kind of Christians.

00:50:30

Columbia University, these are all Ivy League,

00:50:33

the oldest in the country was Anglican;

00:50:36

Brown is Baptist; Rutgers was Dutch Reformed;

00:50:39

Dartmouth is Congregation

00:50:40

with a mission to Native Americans.

00:50:42

Penn, University of Pennsylvania,

00:50:43

that was one of them that was outside the mix

00:50:45

because Benjamin Franklin said, "Hey,

00:50:47

let's start something for deists.

00:50:49

Christians are doing everything here."

00:50:50

Benjamin Franklin was not a Christian,

00:50:52

good guy, not a Christian.

00:50:53

So he kind of like, "Hey, everyone,

00:50:55

I want to get on this game."

00:50:56

Okay, but you got the idea from the church.

00:50:59

You got the idea from the body of Christ.

00:51:03

This is the way it's worked.

00:51:05

Health care. Health care is another one.

00:51:08

How many churches do you know of

00:51:09

that are Saint this or Saint that or, excuse me, hospitals

00:51:13

that are Saint this and saint that?

00:51:14

They're all over the place.

00:51:16

Just in our city alone where I'm preaching

00:51:19

from right now in Cincinnati, we have Christ Hospital,

00:51:21

we have Good Samaritan Hospital,

00:51:23

we have Jewish Hospital, which wasn't started

00:51:25

by the capital city church, but it's within

00:51:27

the Judeo-Christian ethic, again and again and again.

00:51:31

You would be hard pressed to find any hospital

00:51:37

that wasn't started with the original charter

00:51:39

of being followers of Christ.

00:51:43

That is simply the history benevolence.

00:51:47

You'd be hard pressed to find any orphanage

00:51:51

that's ever been started outside of a church.

00:51:53

You'd be hard pressed to find any soup kitchen

00:51:57

and homeless shelter that wasn't started

00:51:59

by somebody or someones in the body of Christ.

00:52:03

Now, oftentimes it's squeegeed away,

00:52:05

later on you want to go get corporate funding

00:52:07

or you want to be more acceptable to the masses.

00:52:09

So it's like diminish it.

00:52:10

But the people who start these things

00:52:13

are always Christians, always.

00:52:15

I say you have a hard time finding.

00:52:17

Always are. It's amazing.

00:52:19

And Jesus said this is the way it's going to be,

00:52:22

because when you're one and when you have

00:52:25

My values that come from My Father, as He's praying,

00:52:29

you're going to do greater things.

00:52:31

And this is the history of the church,

00:52:34

even the symbol of the American Medical Association,

00:52:37

there's some there's some debate over it

00:52:38

with a snake around a staff.

00:52:41

There's some debate on some debate over for me,

00:52:43

the oldest book there is the Book of Exodus.

00:52:45

And we see there that the people of Israel,

00:52:48

the way they get healed and healing

00:52:49

is to look at a bronze snake wrapped around a staff.

00:52:53

That's how they would get healing.

00:52:54

And it's appropriate that that is the symbol

00:52:56

that we know for in medicine that is all over the place.

00:53:01

Then we look at other place of benevolence like the YMCA.

00:53:06

Um, it's fun to stay at the YMCA.

00:53:11

You can hang out with all the boys.

00:53:18

Even the YMCA, we hear that name YMCA.

00:53:22

And you may not know that it was originally

00:53:24

founded as Young Men's Christian Association

00:53:29

because it was believers who said,

00:53:32

"We've got these kids that

00:53:34

are basically slave labor in London."

00:53:36

They're in the drapery factories

00:53:38

and the textile factories,

00:53:40

and these kids are just getting worn down to a nub,

00:53:42

and then they're doing destructive things

00:53:44

when they're not working.

00:53:45

We should start something for these kids.

00:53:48

We should do something for these things.

00:53:49

If you look at that original, you might know the YMCA logo.

00:53:52

It's got the triangle with the Y.

00:53:54

That's tracing back to the original logo of the YMCA,

00:53:58

which was spirit, mind and body,

00:54:01

a concept that's in the Bible regularly.

00:54:04

And on the back you see the the Greek words X and R.

00:54:07

It looks like, it actually looks like X and P,

00:54:10

but actually means Christ.

00:54:12

Founded on Christ, this is what the YMCA has done.

00:54:17

It's blessed people and done huge things.

00:54:20

Even, even you could say, you could say that

00:54:22

the church actually invented basketball.

00:54:28

James Naismith. You may have heard of the Naismith rules.

00:54:32

Who invented basketball.

00:54:34

Where did he get that?

00:54:35

He got that idea at a YMCA training school

00:54:38

in Springfield, Massachusetts, as a way to promote

00:54:41

physical health along with spiritual health

00:54:44

is what the YMCA was trying to do. James Naismith.

00:54:47

Basketball was on the down line of the church.

00:54:50

That's pretty amazing. It's pretty cool.

00:54:52

Out of YMCA, we get the Swiss businessman Henry Dunant,

00:54:56

who created, you might have heard of them,

00:54:58

the Red Cross in 1863.

00:55:01

He won the Nobel Peace Prize as well,

00:55:03

again inspired by the church, inspired by his faith.

00:55:08

That's who does things like the Red Cross.

00:55:12

Atheistic cynics never create anything.

00:55:16

They just try to create fog in your mind

00:55:18

to get you away from the one God who loves you

00:55:21

and does amazing things.

00:55:22

They never create anything except discord, except anger.

00:55:27

This is the history of the church,

00:55:29

the history of the world.

00:55:31

And then one of the greatest blue letter organizations

00:55:35

in American history is the Salvation Army.

00:55:38

Salvation Army that does more than

00:55:40

just make Christmas with good ambiance,

00:55:42

with people ringing bells outside of Kroger.

00:55:45

Salvation Army that actually does more

00:55:47

than amazing humanitarian work,

00:55:49

which is why everybody in the country

00:55:53

respects the Salvation Army,

00:55:54

because it's incontrovertible that they've made

00:55:56

a massive, massive difference.

00:55:58

And I'm trying to help us, remind us here,

00:56:00

in the midst of all the black eyes the church has,

00:56:03

and there is many, many, many, many.

00:56:05

Let's not forget that these contributions

00:56:09

have been made to civilization, society, individuals.

00:56:12

There is another movement in the history of the world

00:56:14

that comes close, not another one like it at all.

00:56:18

But the Salvation Army actually wasn't created

00:56:23

only to do humanitarian work.

00:56:26

The Salvation Army was created by William Booth in London,

00:56:29

and then it came over here to the United States

00:56:32

to have a group of people who amalgamate together

00:56:35

that are an army to bring people to salvation,

00:56:38

to bring people to Christ.

00:56:40

This is what Jesus talked about and prayed about.

00:56:43

Excuse me? We prayed about.

00:56:44

Let's go back to His prayer, the Lord's Prayer

00:56:46

in John 17:14, here's what He says.

00:56:49

Here's what He prays. They hear Him praying to God.

00:57:00

The reason the church comes under the level of criticism

00:57:02

according to Jesus, prayer isn't just because

00:57:05

we've got some really stupid people in our family.

00:57:08

I mean, let's admit it, there's a lot of people

00:57:10

in the church are just horrible people.

00:57:11

Like, I don't even want to have coffee with you.

00:57:13

I can't imagine how the rest of the world stomachs you.

00:57:15

Yes, there's some horrible people who are in the church.

00:57:18

But Jesus says here, the reason there's such vitriol

00:57:21

against the church is because people in the world

00:57:27

don't like the operating standard of the Word of God

00:57:29

that we operate by.

00:57:31

Because we march to a beat of a different drummer,

00:57:34

so therefore, we're always going to have

00:57:35

a level of dissonance in culture,

00:57:37

at least as Jesus prays.

00:57:38

Verse 15:

00:57:39

I do not ask that you take them out of the world,

00:57:42

but that you keep them from the evil one.

00:57:44

Jesus says, I don't want people to be raptured away

00:57:47

and leave this. They need to be an army here.

00:57:50

They need to be our representatives.

00:57:52

They need to be our hands and feet.

00:57:53

So what I'm asking for is that You keep them

00:57:56

from destruction from the evil one.

00:57:58

Verse 16:

00:57:59

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

00:58:03

Jesus say people don't want to understand them,

00:58:05

just like they won't understand Me.

00:58:06

I'm not of this world.

00:58:08

I operate by a different constitution.

00:58:10

Sanctify them in the truth.

00:58:12

Your word is truth.

00:58:13

Bathe them in the truth.

00:58:15

Set them apart from the truth is what that means.

00:58:17

As you sent Me into the world,

00:58:18

so I have sent them into the world.

00:58:20

You are sent.

00:58:23

And this is the sad thing, the more you think

00:58:26

the going to church means just being the church

00:58:28

by going someplace and sitting passively in a meeting,

00:58:32

whether it's with high tech like we have,

00:58:34

or sitting passively in some home church meeting.

00:58:36

The more you think that's the church only

00:58:39

the more the church refuses to reflect

00:58:41

the glory of Christ because

00:58:42

we're meant to go into the world.

00:58:45

Jesus came into the world.

00:58:47

Jesus existed in heaven and He came into this world.

00:58:50

And He's sending us into this world,

00:58:52

that's what it says. Verse 19:

00:58:54

And for their sake I consecrate themselves,

00:58:57

that they may also be sanctified in the truth.

00:59:00

I do not ask for these only, but also

00:59:03

for those who will believe in Me through their word.

00:59:05

This is interesting.

00:59:07

He's praying for His disciples, His followers,

00:59:10

but he's praying for you and I.

00:59:11

He says, look at it again.

00:59:12

I'm not praying for them only,

00:59:14

but people who will believe in me through their word.

00:59:16

In other words, future generations, which is you.

00:59:18

Pretty cool. Jesus prayed for you, He prayed for you.

00:59:22

And that's why this prayer is important for you

00:59:24

right now if you're part of the church.

00:59:28

For you to be the church,

00:59:30

for you and I to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

00:59:34

I want to spend the rest of my time

00:59:38

giving you a sermon that's not my sermon.

00:59:41

His name is William Booth.

00:59:43

William Booth is the founder of the Salvation Army.

00:59:46

I read this many, many, many, many, many years ago,

00:59:49

and it formed me spiritually.

00:59:52

It deepened me.

00:59:53

It opened my eyes to the kind of power the church can be

00:59:59

and the responsibility of individuals in the church.

01:00:03

William Booth had a vision

01:00:05

and he preached about this vision.

01:00:08

And I think these are powerful, unbelievable words.

01:00:11

And it's this heart and this drive

01:00:14

which created the Salvation Army

01:00:15

and why today still it thrives.

01:00:18

So I'm going to read it for you.

01:00:19

And just, word to the wise, it's a bit lengthy

01:00:23

and it's worth it.

01:00:25

Let's go back there right now.

01:00:32

In one of my recent journeys,

01:00:34

as I gazed from the coach window,

01:00:37

I was led into a train of thought concerning

01:00:41

the condition of the multitudes around me.

01:00:45

They were living carelessly in the most open

01:00:49

and shameless rebellion towards God,

01:00:53

without a thought for their eternal welfare.

01:00:55

As I looked out the window, I seemed to see them all,

01:00:58

millions of people all around me,

01:01:00

giving up to their drink and their pleasure,

01:01:03

their dancing and their music,

01:01:05

their businesses and their anxieties,

01:01:08

their politics and their troubles.

01:01:10

Ignorant, willfully ignorant in many cases,

01:01:14

and in other instances, knowing all about the truth

01:01:18

and not caring at all.

01:01:21

But all of them, the whole mass of them

01:01:24

sweeping on and up in their blasphemies and devilries

01:01:28

to the throne of God.

01:01:29

And while my mind was thus engaged, I had a vision.

01:01:34

I saw a dark and stormy ocean,

01:01:38

over it the black clouds hung heavily,

01:01:41

and through them every now and then

01:01:43

vivid lightning flashed and loud thunder rolled

01:01:46

while the winds moaned and the waves rose and foamed,

01:01:49

towered and broke, only to rise in foam,

01:01:53

tower and break again.

01:01:58

In that ocean, I thought I saw myriads

01:02:00

of poor human beings plunging and floating,

01:02:04

shouting and shrieking,

01:02:07

cursing and struggling and drowning.

01:02:09

And as they cursed and screamed,

01:02:11

they rose and shrieked again,

01:02:13

and then some sank to rise no more.

01:02:20

And I saw out of this dark, angry ocean a mighty rock,

01:02:24

that rose up with its summit towering

01:02:26

high above the black clouds that overhang the stormy sea.

01:02:31

And all around the base of this great rock

01:02:33

I saw vast platform.

01:02:35

And on this platform I saw with delight

01:02:38

a number of poor, struggling, drowning wretches

01:02:40

continually climbing out of the angry ocean.

01:02:44

And I saw that a few of those who were already safe

01:02:49

on the platform were helping the poor creatures

01:02:52

still in the angry waters, to reach the place of safety.

01:02:59

On looking more closely, I found a number of those

01:03:01

who had been rescued industriously working

01:03:04

and scheming by ladders, ropes, boats

01:03:06

and other means more effective to deliver

01:03:08

the poor strugglers out of the sea.

01:03:12

And here and there were some who actually jumped into the water,

01:03:15

regardless of the consequences in their passion

01:03:18

to rescue the perishing.

01:03:21

And I hardly know which gladdened me the most,

01:03:24

the sight of the poor drowning people

01:03:27

climbing onto the rocks, reaching a place of safety,

01:03:29

or the devotion and self-sacrifice of those

01:03:33

whose whole being was wrapped up

01:03:35

in the effort for their deliverance.

01:03:39

As I looked on, I saw that the occupants

01:03:41

of that platform were quite a mixed company.

01:03:43

That is, they were divided into different sets or classes,

01:03:49

and they occupied themselves with different pleasures

01:03:51

and employments.

01:03:53

But only a few of them seem to make it their business

01:03:56

to get the people out of the sea.

01:04:00

But what puzzled me most was the fact that

01:04:03

though all of them had been rescued

01:04:04

at one point or another from the ocean,

01:04:06

nearly everyone seemed to have forgotten all about it.

01:04:10

Anyway, it seemed the memory of its darkness and danger

01:04:13

no longer troubled them at all.

01:04:15

And what seemed equally strange and perplexing to me

01:04:19

was that these people did not even seem to have any care,

01:04:24

that is, any agonizing care about

01:04:27

the poor, perishing ones who were struggling

01:04:30

and drowning right before their very eyes.

01:04:33

Many of them who were their own husbands and wives,

01:04:36

brothers and sisters, and even their own children.

01:04:42

Now this astonishing unconcern could not have been

01:04:45

the result of ignorance or lack of knowledge,

01:04:47

because they lived right there in full sight of it all,

01:04:51

and even talked about it sometimes.

01:04:53

Many even went regularly to hear lectures and sermons

01:04:56

in which the awful state of

01:04:58

these poor drowning creatures was described.

01:05:02

I've always said that the occupants of this platform

01:05:05

were engaged in different pursuits and pastimes.

01:05:08

Some of them were absorbed day and night in trading,

01:05:11

in business in order to make gain,

01:05:12

storing up their savings in boxes, safes and the like.

01:05:16

Many spent their time in amusing themselves

01:05:20

with growing flowers on the side of the rock.

01:05:22

Others and painting pieces of cloth, or in playing music,

01:05:26

or in dressing themselves up in different styles

01:05:29

and walking about to be admired.

01:05:33

Some occupied themselves chiefly in eating and drinking.

01:05:37

Others were taken up with arguing

01:05:39

about the poor drowning creatures

01:05:40

that had already been rescued.

01:05:44

But the thing to me that seemed the most amazing

01:05:48

was that those on the platform to whom he called,

01:05:53

to who heard his voice and felt and felt like

01:05:57

they ought to obey it, at least they said they did.

01:06:01

Those who confess to love him much

01:06:03

were in full sympathy with him

01:06:04

in the task he had undertaken, who worshiped him,

01:06:08

and who professed to do so were so taken up

01:06:11

with their trades and their professions,

01:06:13

their money, savings and pleasures,

01:06:16

their families and circles,

01:06:17

their religions and arguments about it,

01:06:20

and their preparation for going to the mainland,

01:06:25

that they did not even listen to the cry

01:06:28

that came to them from this Wonderful Being.

01:06:31

Capital W, capital B.

01:06:34

This Wonderful Being who had himself gone down into the sea.

01:06:41

Anyway, they heard it and they did not heed it.

01:06:43

They did not care.

01:06:44

And so the multitude went on right before them,

01:06:47

struggling and shrieking and drowning in the darkness.

01:06:53

And then I saw something that seemed to me

01:06:56

even more strange than anything that had gone on before

01:06:59

in this strange vision.

01:07:01

I saw that some of these people on the platform,

01:07:04

who this Wonderful Being had called to

01:07:07

wanting them to come and help him in this difficult task

01:07:11

of saving those perishing creatures

01:07:14

were always praying and crying out to him to come to them.

01:07:20

Some wanted him to come and stay with them

01:07:23

and spend his time and strength in making them happier.

01:07:26

Others wanted him to come and take away

01:07:29

the various doubts and misgivings that they had

01:07:32

concerning the truth of some letters he had written them.

01:07:35

Some wanted him to come

01:07:36

and make them feel much more secure on the rock,

01:07:41

so secure that they would be quite sure

01:07:43

they would never slip back again into the ocean.

01:07:46

Numbers of others wanted him to make them feel

01:07:49

quite certain that they would really get off the rock

01:07:52

and onto the mainland someday, because as a matter of fact,

01:07:57

it was well known that some had walked so carelessly

01:08:01

as to lose their footing

01:08:03

and had fallen back again into the stormy waters.

01:08:08

So these people used to meet

01:08:10

and get up as high on the rock as they could,

01:08:13

and looking towards the mainland

01:08:14

where they thought the great being was.

01:08:18

They would cry out, "Come to us, come, come,

01:08:21

come and help us."

01:08:23

And all the while he was down by his spirit

01:08:27

among the poor, struggling, drowning creatures

01:08:31

in the angry deep with his arms around them,

01:08:34

trying to drag them up

01:08:37

and looking up oh so longingly, but all in vain

01:08:43

to those on the rock, crying to them

01:08:45

with his voice all hoarse from calling,

01:08:48

"Come to me, come, come and help me."

01:08:55

And then I understood it all. It was plain enough.

01:09:01

The sea was the ocean of life,

01:09:03

the sea of real, actual human existence.

01:09:06

And that lightning was the gleaming

01:09:08

of piercing truth coming from Jehovah's throne.

01:09:12

That thunder was the distant echoing of the wrath of God.

01:09:16

Those multitudes of people shrieking, struggling,

01:09:18

and agonizing in the stormy sea was the thousands

01:09:21

and thousands of poor harlots and harlot makers,

01:09:24

of drunkards and drunken makers,

01:09:26

of thieves, liars, blasphemers, and ungodly people

01:09:29

of every kindred, tongue and nation.

01:09:33

Oh, what a black sea it was!

01:09:36

And oh, what multitudes of rich and poor,

01:09:39

ignorant and educated there were.

01:09:42

They were all so unlike in their outward circumstances

01:09:45

and conditions, yet all alike in one thing,

01:09:49

all sinners before God,

01:09:51

all held by and holding on to some iniquity,

01:09:55

fascinated by some idol,

01:09:57

the slaves of some devilish lust,

01:10:01

and ruled by the foul fiend from the bottomless pit.

01:10:04

All alike in one thing?

01:10:06

No, no. All alike in two things.

01:10:09

Not only the same in their wickedness,

01:10:10

but unless rescued, the same in their sinking,

01:10:13

sinking down, down, down to the same terrible doom.

01:10:19

That great sheltering rock representing Calvary,

01:10:22

the place where Jesus had died for them.

01:10:24

And the people on it were those who had been rescued.

01:10:28

The way they use their energies, gifts, and time

01:10:31

represent the occupations and amusements

01:10:35

of those who profess to be saved from sin and hell,

01:10:38

followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

01:10:41

The handful of fierce, determined ones

01:10:45

who were risking their own lives

01:10:47

and saving the perishing were true soldiers,

01:10:51

true soldiers of the Cross of Christ.

01:10:56

That mighty being who was calling to them

01:10:58

from the midst of the angry waters was the Son of God,

01:11:01

the same yesterday, today and forever,

01:11:03

who is still struggling and still interceding

01:11:06

to save the dying multitudes around us

01:11:10

from this terrible doom of damnation,

01:11:12

and whose voice can be heard above the music,

01:11:15

machinery and noise of life, calling on the rescue

01:11:18

to come and help him to save the world.

01:11:23

My friends in Christ, you are rescued from the waters.

01:11:28

You are on the rock.

01:11:30

He is in the dark sea, calling on you

01:11:32

to come to Him and to help Him.

01:11:35

Will you go?

01:11:37

Look for yourselves, the surging sea of life,

01:11:40

crowded with perishing multitudes,

01:11:42

rolls up to the very spot on which you stand,

01:11:45

leaving the vision I now come to speak of the fact,

01:11:50

a fact that is as real as the Bible,

01:11:53

as real as the Christ who hung upon the Cross,

01:11:55

as real as the Judgment Day will be,

01:11:57

and as real as the heaven and hell that will follow it.

01:12:01

Look. Don't be deceived by appearances.

01:12:06

Men and things are not what they seem.

01:12:08

All who are not on the rock are in the sea.

01:12:13

Look at them from the standpoint of the Great White Throne

01:12:16

and what a sight you have.

01:12:17

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is through His Spirit

01:12:20

in the midst of this dying multitude,

01:12:23

struggling to save them.

01:12:28

And He is calling on you to jump into the sea,

01:12:32

to go right away to His side, and keep Him in the holy strife.

01:12:37

Will you jump? Will you jump?

01:12:40

That is, will you go to His feet

01:12:42

and place yourself absolutely at His disposal?

01:12:48

All the organizations, all the organizations

01:12:51

that I mentioned today and more, they were founded

01:12:54

by people who were of the church,

01:12:57

founded by people who wanted to jump into the water,

01:13:01

founded by people who banded together and said,

01:13:04

"What is important to Jesus is important to us,

01:13:08

and our schedules will show it,

01:13:10

our checkbooks will show it,

01:13:11

our prayer life will show it,

01:13:13

our attitudes will show it.

01:13:15

Because where He went, I go,

01:13:18

and where He invites me, I go."

01:13:22

Some of us have some repenting to do.

01:13:25

Something's grown, grown cold in you

01:13:27

and you need to just recognize it and go,

01:13:29

"Hmm, okay, I need to get back on the rock

01:13:32

and from there, get back in the ocean."

01:13:34

Some of us can't remember the last person

01:13:36

we shared our faith with.

01:13:38

We're afraid of proselytizing, which, again,

01:13:40

is what the world says to people in the church

01:13:42

to shut up and stop influencing the world.

01:13:45

Can't identify the last person you led to Christ,

01:13:47

can't identify last person you shared your faith in.

01:13:50

Some of us, everybody who's around us

01:13:53

makes the amount of money we have.

01:13:54

We do the same thing with our money

01:13:56

everybody else does at our job.

01:13:57

Don't want to manage our money any different.

01:13:59

We're not funding the mission.

01:14:01

We're not funding what Jesus has done.

01:14:03

Those of us we like praying for people who are in the sea?

01:14:06

No, I judge people who are in the sea.

01:14:09

I judge people who are in places of mental illness

01:14:12

and depression and rebellion, and I judge them.

01:14:16

I actually throw rocks at them.

01:14:17

I actually feel superior to them.

01:14:18

I don't actually go befriend them.

01:14:20

I don't actually go lay my life down for them.

01:14:22

Friends, we talk about God wanting to bring

01:14:25

and move His spirit and bring an awakening.

01:14:27

The way it happens is His church gets in the water.

01:14:32

The way it happens is we go.

01:14:35

We decide to be like Jesus.

01:14:39

So God, we say sorry.

01:14:41

Sorry for not being more like Jesus.

01:14:44

Just tell Him sorry, sorry.

01:14:47

We want to double down on this.

01:14:49

And some of us, God, we want to get out of the water right now.

01:14:51

We want to get out of the raging sea.

01:14:53

We want to receive You right now. Right now.

01:14:55

We want to say, "Jesus, I grab your hand.

01:14:57

I ask your forgiveness

01:14:58

and I want to be filled with Your Spirit.

01:15:01

I want to be part of the movement you had

01:15:04

in the church of the Living God.

01:15:08

We pray these things in Your Name. Amen.

01:15:13

- Hey guys. Thank you so much for joining us today.

01:15:16

- Hey, hopefully you heard today that,

01:15:18

man, the church is a movement.

01:15:20

Like, it's not just a building.

01:15:21

It's not just a program,

01:15:23

but it's something that you belong to.

01:15:24

And Crossroads is the same way.

01:15:26

This is not just content for you to watch.

01:15:28

This is something you can be a part of.

01:15:30

And we'd love to see you get connected

01:15:32

to this church and this community.

01:15:34

- Yeah. Hey, we want to help you find your next step.

01:15:36

We also want to pray for you.

01:15:37

So you can email anywhere@crossroads.net

01:15:40

and somebody will get back to you.

01:15:42

We hope you guys have a good week.

01:15:43

- See you next week.

Jesus: Myth or Masterpiece?

Do We Still Need The Church?

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up!

Bonus Questions

That’s it for this week - see you next time!

Recent Series