Achieving Your Vision Requires a Strong Team

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- Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads.

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I'm Andy, the community pastor for Crossroads Anywhere.

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I'm just really glad that you've joined us today.

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We're back for our third week looking at

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the book of Nehemiah,

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but before we dive into our teaching,

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we're actually going to spend some time in worship.

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Now, these aren't just songs, but they are things

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that help us articulate who God is

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and who God says that we are.

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This is just 15 minutes that we focus

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our attention on God, that we slow down, that we pause,

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and that we have an opportunity to say things

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to and about God that maybe we wouldn't otherwise.

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Even if you just listen and don't sing, that's okay.

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Just think about these words

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and what they mean for your life.

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- I don't know if you're joining us online,

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but I would just -- I don't know

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what the temperature is for you online,

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where you're at, where you're watching,

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but it's been cold here. Can I get an amen?

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Like I don't have any hair, so I wear this thing.

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They tell me I look like Joe Pesci, but I'm okay with it.

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Just to keep a little warmth.

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You all came in with some more warmth tonight.

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Like, don't let a scarf, don't let a coat hold you back.

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You came in warmed up.

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So I got a question for you:

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Can we try a brand new song out with you?

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Like, I mean, so new that it could be a train wreck.

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Like, you know -- Anybody want to see that today?

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I don't, I don't, but maybe you do. Hang on one second.

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I say a train wreck because we literally played this song,

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what do you guys say? Like. Two -- Twice.

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We played it twice.

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We started playing it about two hours ago

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for the first time ever.

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And so we're going to try it out with you

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because y'all feel safe to me, okay.

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So, all right. Yeah, a little special.

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Like, don't tell anybody about it, okay?

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It's just us and the internet, okay?

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Keep it secret. All right, all right.

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So here's the thing, we've been in this study

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about this guy named Nehemiah.

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If it's your first time, great, we'll catch you up.

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But this guy named Nehemiah, he keeps coming back

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to this in Scripture that anytime

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there's something good that happens in his life,

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he says these words: the good hand of God was upon me.

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He finds favor at one point with a king, and he says,

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"The good hand of God was with me."

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The Bible teaches time and time again throughout it,

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anything that's good has a source.

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And that source is a Creator who loves you deeply.

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Anything that's good has a source,

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and that source loves you deeply.

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So just do with me, online, in the room,

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think about something in the last 24 hours that's been good.

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Last 24 hours, something small like a spot --

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A smile from my kid this morning.

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Maybe you saw a sunrise and you're like,

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"Thank you, Lord, because it's cold."

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Got it? Anything good, and now say thank you.

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It's got a source.

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I'm going to teach it to you.

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Well, I'm going to teach myself this song as we go,

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but we'll learn it together.

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Sing it to the source of everything that's good.

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It goes like this.

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- Y'all did great with that, like, better than me.

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This next part, a conversation with our Creator.

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- This song that we're singing is another song

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that comes straight from the mouth of Jesus.

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Listen to what He says in Matthew 7:

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Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine

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and puts them into practice is like a wise man

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who built his house on the rock.

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The rain came down, the streams rose

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and the winds blew and beat against the house.

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And yet it did not fall because

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it had its foundations on the rock.

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Friends, I want to tell you tonight,

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there's one thing in our lives

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that's going to be absolutely inevitable,

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that's that rain will come, opposition will come,

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struggle will come, sickness will come,

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hurt and pain will come.

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But what Jesus says is when we build

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our lives completely on Him, on what He says,

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on who He is, on the love and the grace

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and the mercy that He's given us, we will not fall.

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Amen?

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So, if you want to take

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just even a step closer to Him tonight,

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let's sing these words together.

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Let's put our trust and our faith in Him.

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- Hey, let me pray for us.

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Father, I'm grateful for all that You do.

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You have not removed the rain,

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but you have walked with me through it.

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Thank you, God. All this is gratitude for You.

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I pray all this because of You, Jesus. Amen. Amen.

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Hey, maybe you're joining for the first time online,

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or maybe you're brand new with us and you're like,

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"What in the world are these people doing?"

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Everything you just saw is gratitude

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because we believe in this God who sees us,

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who's with us, and who's so generous

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and powerful to be with us. He's given us so much.

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So it's all gratitude.

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So we don't just give our songs here.

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I give my choices to Him, my decisions to Him.

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I try to give my words on my best days,

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although my kids pull maybe the worst words out of my mouth.

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But I try to give my whole self to Him.

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And one of the things I give Him is my resources.

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So you can join me at Crossroads.net/give

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and give of that too, out of abundance and go --

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Just saying, "God, what you've given me,

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I want to give it back to you." That's all we do there.

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This place is way better together.

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So good to be with you both online and in this space.

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Why don't you turn to somebody in the room

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and say, "Hey, great to be with you."

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If you're online, so glad you joined us. Stick around.

00:28:22

[crying]

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- She's beautiful, guys.

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- Oh, so good to see you. - I know.

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- We don't want more friends, we want real friends.

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Friends who make us feel like we belong.

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Imagine being able to be yourself

00:28:56

and still be accepted. No judgments. No fine print.

00:29:01

Groups are a safe space to be who we are

00:29:03

and grow together.

00:29:05

Life is better together. Join a group.

00:29:12

- Some of the people in that video

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I've known for over a decade, and that video

00:29:17

just reminds me how important it is to have

00:29:19

a community that sees you through different life stages,

00:29:21

that is around for the long haul.

00:29:23

And I love that Crossroads is a place

00:29:25

that fosters that kind of friendship

00:29:27

and that kind of deep community.

00:29:30

Around here we believe that church isn't just

00:29:32

a building or a religious institution.

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It's not bound by a single place on the map

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or a time on the calendar.

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It's people who are living out

00:29:39

the movement that Jesus started.

00:29:41

Now, if you want to get connected

00:29:43

with other people living out this movement,

00:29:45

one of the best ways to do it is just join a group.

00:29:48

Groups are small gatherings that meet

00:29:49

every 1 to 2 weeks, both digitally and in person,

00:29:52

from life stage to shared interest,

00:29:54

spiritual growth, healing.

00:29:55

There's hundreds of groups that are ready for you

00:29:58

and they kick off for the season on January 22nd.

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You hand a crossroads.net/groups

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to find a group that fits you.

00:30:05

One of the biggest weekends of the entire year

00:30:07

is right around the corner.

00:30:08

It is the Super Bowl of Preaching.

00:30:10

It is crazy, it's fun, and you do not want to miss it.

00:30:14

And we'd actually love your help,

00:30:16

if you live near one of our physical sites,

00:30:17

making this party happen for your friends,

00:30:20

your family, your neighbors.

00:30:22

We'd love to have you sign up just for this one weekend

00:30:26

to help throw the greatest Super Bowl party

00:30:28

your city has ever seen.

00:30:30

Head to Crossroads.net/SuperBowl to sign up.

00:30:32

And hey, if you don't live near one of our physical sites,

00:30:35

our Crossroads Anywhere Community, we'd love

00:30:36

to help you throw a great party for your friends.

00:30:39

We've got kits available first come, first serve.

00:30:42

Just head to Crossroads.net/anywhere

00:30:44

to sign up and we'll mail it to you wherever you are.

00:30:47

Now today Brian is continuing in the book of Nehemiah

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and talking about having the right people around you

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can help make your vision become a reality.

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- It's your company's annual post-new year's holiday party,

00:31:22

and the karaoke contest is about to begin.

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Never mind that you were booed off the stage last year.

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You got Beyonce in your mind

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and a total lack of self-awareness.

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Buzz, buzz Queen bee.

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You insist on using your own microphone.

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You don't know where your coworkers have been,

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plus it matches your outfit, gold on gold on gold.

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- You all ready for me?

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- It's go time. Office space glory awaits.

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[lamb bleating]

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- You nailed it, Karaoke Kelly. See you next year.

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- Ha ha ha! Oh, that American tradition of karaoke.

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What is it about karaoke that's so interesting, right?

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I'm not sure what's more interesting,

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seeing somebody who thinks that they're really good

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or seeing somebody who knows they're not good,

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but they want to give everybody else

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in the room a good time. Right?

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We're going to talk about that tonight.

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We're looking at Nehemiah, how his vision was

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to rebuild the wall, which I have to tell you,

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this is really bothering me up here right now.

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Anybody who has a construction background, which I do,

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this is not the way these courses should be laid.

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They should be splitting.

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Splitting the course like this.

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Some artsy person just came up here

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and started jamming stuff in here. Not good.

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Someone who's never actually had mortar

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underneath their fingernails.

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You're supposed to stagger the joints, people.

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Don't you know these things?

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All right. I do have a little OCD.

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I'll stop right there because it's not going to get better.

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But no, no, it's really bothering me.

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Really bothering me. Oh, gosh. All right.

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That'll be fixed by next service.

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Anyway, let's pray before we do anything else.

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God, I'm thankful for our time together today.

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And I'm asking you to just quicken our hearts

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and quicken our minds and quicken my mind

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to be in sync with what You want to have said

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about You and Your people today.

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Help us connect with You.

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Help us to be different when we leave here today

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because You've given us something.

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And I'm just honored, God, that I get to talk today

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about transcendent things that are based on you.

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My most important prayer, God,

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is that I would honor You today.

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And I pray these things according to the character

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and identity of Jesus. Amen.

00:33:42

So Nehemiah is a book in the Old Testament.

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We have Nehemiah, who is a guy who has a vision,

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he has a goal, he has a resolution.

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We're using those three terms interchangeably this series,

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even though those are three different things,

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there's nuances to them.

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And he hears that the wall

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that goes around Jerusalem is down.

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And this really bothers him, because the nation

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of Israel has been defeated by Persia. They're in exile.

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Most of the people who are behind

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the walls of Jerusalem, most of the Jews,

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they're transported all over the Persian Empire

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or are slaves or as grunt laborers.

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Nehemiah is at the top of the food chain.

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He is the cupbearer to the king, King Artaxerxes,

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the most powerful man in the world, really,

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at that time, at that point in the known world.

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And it's a high, high job, tasting wine,

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making sure the king doesn't get poisoned.

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He hears about the walls being down and he's crushed.

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Oh my goodness. What? What is wrong here?

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He realizes that it's not just a sign they've been conquered

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and they don't need their defenses any longer,

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but it's a sign of their national pride.

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And he has an emotional reaction and in week one

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we took a look at how we have to pay attention to our emotions.

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Don't make a resolution or goal unless you're feeling it.

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And if you're feeling something, recognize

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it might be God trying to talk to you.

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And he goes about the task of getting this done.

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Chuck talked last week about the planning process,

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all of us have to go through a planning process.

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And today we're going to talk about

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probably most important thing to re-center us,

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and that is people. People.

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What is the most important thing that God has ever created?

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I'll tell you it's a person.

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It's you. It's the person next to you.

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God has created a lot of things.

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There's not even a close second to a human being.

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Human beings are the only thing that

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have been created in the image of God.

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We have feelings that animals don't have.

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They may have some feelings, but not to a degree we have.

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We have the ability to communicate.

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We have the ability to create.

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We have the ability to imagine things.

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We have the ability to cast vision.

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We have all kinds of things that God has.

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We have the ability to connect in unique

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and challenging ways.

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And so any goal, any vision, any resolution

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that is about you is going to come up wanting.

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Because if it's not about people,

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then God's not going to be all that involved in it.

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The most powerful things we do are things that

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we get stretched in, we get challenged in,

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and we can tie it to how other people will get blessed.

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Let's read Nehemiah 2:17-18. Here is what it says:

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Then I said to them, Nehemiah says this,

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Nehemiah tries to rally the troops and said,

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"Look at this. Look at this wall that's down here.

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Do you not notice this? This speaks poorly of us.

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This speaks poorly of our our God.

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We're being derided. We're in derision.

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People are cracking on us. This is not well.

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We don't like this, do we?"

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Nehemiah is trying to boost their self esteem,

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call them to something that's higher than

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their natural, petty preoccupations.

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It isn't about I've always wanted to build a wall.

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It's not about that.

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It's about how the people are, how they've been shamed,

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how the work of God has been thwarted.

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Every vision God gives is about people. Every vision.

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In fact, even if it's a vision for the planet,

00:37:32

to preserve the planet, it's for people

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because people need the planet to be able to

00:37:38

produce oxygen and assimilate the proper carbon dioxide.

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Because people need to be taking care of the planet

00:37:45

for people's sake and for God's sake.

00:37:48

How much do you think about these things?

00:37:50

When you think about

00:37:51

the challenges you have in your life,

00:37:53

the things you want to do, how often does

00:37:55

the welfare of other people pop up?

00:37:57

How many goals do you have or things

00:38:00

that you would like to do that benefit other people,

00:38:03

or that other people are the driver?

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If you're normal, the answer to that would be none.

00:38:09

If you're normal, average American,

00:38:11

we bought into this lie of individualistic,

00:38:14

rugged individualism, it's all about me,

00:38:17

my goals, my actualization, my feelings.

00:38:22

And we only think about other people

00:38:24

and to the degree that we need other people

00:38:26

to do what we want them to do.

00:38:29

But it's really not about them or blessing them.

00:38:31

It's really about us.

00:38:34

Nehemiah has a shot at rebuilding this wall

00:38:37

because he has been able -- Okay. All right.

00:38:44

Didn't know how that was going to go.

00:38:45

He's been able to build trust and interdependence

00:38:49

with people because he's a relational person.

00:38:52

He loves people.

00:38:53

King Artaxerxes gives him signed commendations

00:38:57

for the king's forests and for resources

00:38:59

and all that stuff, because the King sees him

00:39:01

emotionally distraught and he wants to help him.

00:39:06

When we start to be about other people than ourselves,

00:39:09

other people will want to help us.

00:39:11

But if we're only fixated on ourselves,

00:39:13

we're not going to get much help.

00:39:15

As the Nation of Israel goes about doing these things,

00:39:19

here's three -- four things that you and I need

00:39:21

if we're going to actually do the things

00:39:24

we want to do in 2024 or after that.

00:39:27

The first actually comes from Nehemiah 4:6.

00:39:29

I'll just let the Bible speak for itself.

00:39:31

Nehemiah 4:6, it says this:

00:39:34

So we built the wall and all the wall

00:39:37

was joined together to half its height,

00:39:39

for the people had a mind to work.

00:39:44

The people had a mind to work.

00:39:47

It doesn't matter how great the vision is,

00:39:49

how great the goal is, how great the planning is

00:39:52

unless somebody wants to work,

00:39:55

it's not going to get done.

00:39:57

Jesus said, "My father --"

00:39:59

Well, before I even tell you the verse,

00:40:01

what do you think God's doing right now?

00:40:03

Like right now, what do you think He's doing?

00:40:05

Do you think He's binging a show?

00:40:06

You think He's, you know, you think

00:40:09

He's making a list and checking it twice?

00:40:11

What do you think He's doing right now?

00:40:13

- Working.

00:40:14

- Yeah, according to Jesus, He's working.

00:40:15

That's what He's doing.

00:40:16

Jesus says, "My father is always at work

00:40:18

up in the present time, and I, too, am working."

00:40:22

God is working. He worked to bring you here today.

00:40:26

He's working to bring you into relationship with Him.

00:40:29

He's working on the pitfalls of your life

00:40:31

that you don't even want Him to work on.

00:40:33

He's working on other things

00:40:34

that are happening in this world,

00:40:35

and He partners with us in ways that are very mysterious,

00:40:38

because He gives us free will and we mess up His work,

00:40:41

and He depends on us for His work.

00:40:43

But He works, He works.

00:40:46

And so when we come into relationship with God, w

00:40:49

ork ethic is going to be a big, big deal.

00:40:52

It's one of the reasons why, if I'm going to hire

00:40:54

a plumber or hire somebody like that,

00:40:56

I won't hire them if I know they're a Christian.

00:41:02

Or specifically, I won't hire them

00:41:03

if they put a Christian symbol on their business card.

00:41:06

Because what they're trying to tell me is,

00:41:08

"I'm in the club. You should hire me."

00:41:10

I don't care if you're in the club.

00:41:11

I want to know if you have a mind to work.

00:41:13

In all my years of construction, I knew believers

00:41:16

that were in construction who did not have a mind to work,

00:41:20

who took shortcuts. Not all of us.

00:41:22

Certainly not all of us, but some.

00:41:24

And when someone advertises their faith

00:41:26

as their business and thinks it's going to give them

00:41:28

a little nod, I'm like, uh, normally

00:41:30

it works the opposite way.

00:41:31

Your work ethic should speak for itself.

00:41:34

Our work is critical before God.

00:41:37

God, when He puts human beings on the earth,

00:41:40

He puts us here to work.

00:41:43

Before any sin comes into the world,

00:41:45

before any fruit is eaten that shouldn't eat,

00:41:48

Adam and Eve were working.

00:41:50

They were put here to take care of the planet,

00:41:52

take care of the garden, name people.

00:41:55

Work ethic, it's a big deal.

00:41:58

You can't attract anyone that you aren't right now.

00:42:02

So you can't attract workers to your life

00:42:04

if you and I aren't a worker.

00:42:06

And we'll see in a moment that Nehemiah is.

00:42:09

The second thing that we see that happens

00:42:11

with this project as it goes up,

00:42:13

it's not just that these people come together

00:42:15

and they've got a work ethic, but they also have

00:42:17

the humility to actually follow.

00:42:22

Ours a day where, you know, people want

00:42:24

to read about leadership, go to leadership conferences,

00:42:26

leadership seminars. We want to be a leader.

00:42:28

We tell our kids to be leaders.

00:42:29

All that thing is fine and good.

00:42:31

But, you know, if you want to write a book

00:42:34

that no one's going to read,

00:42:35

write a book on how to be a follower.

00:42:38

If you want to see a loser conference

00:42:41

that no one would show up to, think about

00:42:43

a conference on followership.

00:42:46

Like, no one wants that, right?

00:42:48

Well, uh, no, everyone wants that.

00:42:51

In fact, every great leader was first,

00:42:54

and is right now, a great follower.

00:42:56

Nehemiah got this plum assignment and his work ethic

00:43:00

because he was a great follower of King Artaxerxes.

00:43:02

He had an amazing work ethic

00:43:05

and served him really, really well.

00:43:09

Jesus Christ is a great follower.

00:43:12

He says, "I do nothing I don't see the Father doing."

00:43:15

He's following the Father.

00:43:18

The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Bible says,

00:43:21

points to and glorifies Jesus.

00:43:24

You know, when I give a sermon on the Holy Spirit,

00:43:26

when I give a sermon that the Holy Spirit

00:43:29

is the X factor of God that fills you.

00:43:32

If you come in relationship with Jesus,

00:43:34

the Holy Spirit actually fills you

00:43:36

and there's an ongoing filling of the Holy Spirit

00:43:38

that gives you an X factor of power,

00:43:40

gives you a peace that passes all understanding.

00:43:43

It's amazing. It's the greatest thing going.

00:43:46

It's the greatest perk for being a follower of Jesus.

00:43:49

The thing about the Holy Spirit, when I talk about Him,

00:43:51

is that He doesn't really like to be talked about

00:43:54

because His job, according to the Bible,

00:43:57

is to point and give all glory to Jesus

00:44:00

because He's a follower of Jesus.

00:44:03

Following is a huge, huge thing,

00:44:06

and if we don't have the to follow,

00:44:09

then we will never have the strength to lead,

00:44:11

no one will ever want to follow us anyway.

00:44:13

In Nehemiah we see different people,

00:44:16

some who follow and some who don't.

00:44:18

Let's take a look these back to back verses.

00:44:20

Here's some that do, verse four, chapter three:

00:44:23

"And next to them," there's going to be a lot of names

00:44:26

today that I'm not sure I'm going to get right. Okay?

00:44:31

So just relax. You wouldn't do any better. Here we go.

00:44:51

You get the sense that they're right beside each other,

00:44:55

side by side by side.

00:44:57

And there's all these names in here.

00:45:00

I start counting up in chapter four alone,

00:45:03

I counted, I think it was 43 names in chapter four.

00:45:06

They're all dozens upon dozens upon dozens of names

00:45:09

of people who had a mind to work

00:45:13

and are working along side other people,

00:45:16

and are following the vision of Nehemiah

00:45:20

that comes from God.

00:45:22

And we know their names because they're following,

00:45:25

because they're pushing.

00:45:26

This goes against our cultural predilection

00:45:29

towards individualism.

00:45:31

We're a very individualistic culture.

00:45:34

We don't exalt following. We exalt rebelling.

00:45:39

If fact, if you're a follower, you're a loser.

00:45:41

You've checked your mind at the door,

00:45:42

or you're a lemming or something like that.

00:45:44

There's all kinds of derogatory terms for that

00:45:48

and it doesn't bode us well.

00:45:49

And we have all kinds of things that we say

00:45:51

that are just not true.

00:45:52

Well, if you want something done,

00:45:53

you got to do it yourself, right?

00:45:56

Well, that may work if you want the bathroom painted,

00:45:59

you can probably do it yourself.

00:46:00

But when you start getting into things

00:46:02

that are more complicated, you can't do it yourself.

00:46:05

And if you've trained yourself to not be a follower

00:46:08

and to not engender and endear trust from other people,

00:46:11

and to not love other people

00:46:13

and not bless other people,

00:46:15

if you've been operating that way,

00:46:17

then you'll hit a wall because it's just a matter of time

00:46:19

when you realize there's something you cannot do.

00:46:23

It's not in you. You don't have the resources to do it.

00:46:25

I'm going to talk about financial resources.

00:46:27

I mean emotional resources, mental resources.

00:46:31

America, amazing country.

00:46:33

No one founded our country.

00:46:35

There were founders who founded our country.

00:46:38

It wasn't any specific person.

00:46:41

I've been over to Rome a couple times,

00:46:43

and you go to the Vatican.

00:46:44

You got the Sistine Chapel over there.

00:46:46

Maybe, arguably the one of the --

00:46:48

Not the greatest work of art but certainly

00:46:50

the greatest ceiling in the history of the world,

00:46:52

the Sistine Chapel ceiling done by Michelangelo.

00:46:55

And actually, it was designed by Michelangelo

00:46:58

and overseen by Michelangelo.

00:47:00

But the majority of the brush strokes

00:47:03

were not Michelangelo. He had a team.

00:47:05

If he didn't do it -- if he did it all himself,

00:47:07

he never would have gotten it done in his lifetime.

00:47:10

One is too small of a number for greatness.

00:47:15

If you want to be great, if you want something

00:47:19

in your life beyond where you are right now,

00:47:20

you're going to have to learn to allow people

00:47:23

to trust you and allow yourself to trust other people.

00:47:26

Andrew Carnegie, who I think at one point

00:47:28

was the richest man in the country, if not the world.

00:47:30

He said this:

00:47:38

Nehemiah brings all of these disparate people together,

00:47:42

kings, soldiers, priests, princesses, princes,

00:47:46

merchants, tradesmen, men, women.

00:47:48

He brings them all together for this goal

00:47:51

of actually putting the wall together properly

00:47:54

and having the course lines be where they should be.

00:47:56

It's still bothering me.

00:47:57

I shouldn't be looking at this anymore.

00:47:58

It's really -- It's really freaking me out.

00:48:01

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

00:48:03

I can't even look at it. It ticks me off. All right.

00:48:07

I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. It really bothers me.

00:48:09

Where was I? What was I talking about?

00:48:13

And God loves all the people who did this prop.

00:48:15

He loves them. He loves them.

00:48:18

And they did their best, it just wasn't good enough.

00:48:22

But He loves them anyway.

00:48:27

We are all good. I trust you, we are all good.

00:48:29

All right, where was I? I lost my train of thought.

00:48:31

What was I saying? Uh, partying. Partying? Uh.

00:48:38

Ah, I know I got it, I got it was individualism, right?

00:48:42

We talk about things like

00:48:44

pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.

00:48:47

That's a fallacy.

00:48:48

That original saying was tongue in cheek ridiculousness,

00:48:52

and yet we use it that way.

00:48:54

Your bootstraps are kind of like I have on these boots here,

00:48:58

these little straps. Right?

00:49:00

Except your boot straps will be on the side

00:49:01

so you pull your boots on.

00:49:03

And then someone just made a stupid statement like,

00:49:05

"Pull yourself up by your bootstraps."

00:49:07

You can't pull yourself up by your bootstraps,

00:49:09

equal force goes down as comes up.

00:49:12

And they meant it as a joke, like it was stupid.

00:49:15

But we go, "Oh yeah, gotta pull yourself by bootstraps."

00:49:18

No, you're stupid if you say that.

00:49:20

The whole point of the people who originated

00:49:22

that saying was, you can't pull yourself up by your boots.

00:49:25

You need other people.

00:49:27

We need other people. All of us need this.

00:49:30

But we've got this myth of rugged individualism

00:49:33

which gives me the goal that I should be able

00:49:36

to do it on my own and not lean into anybody else

00:49:39

and not know anybody else.

00:49:43

I think this is personally,

00:49:45

all of us who are in the health care industry,

00:49:47

which I call myself in the spiritual health care industry.

00:49:49

All of us are scratching our heads,

00:49:51

people in my pastor, industry, counselors,

00:49:54

physicians, neuroscientists,

00:49:56

everyone is scratching their head like,

00:49:58

what is going on with the runaway increasing

00:50:02

rate of mental illness? What is going on?

00:50:08

My personal opinion, my personal opinion is that

00:50:12

we've never been more isolated and self reliant

00:50:14

than we are right now.

00:50:16

And you'll get ill if you think you can do it on your own

00:50:20

and you can be a rugged individualist,

00:50:21

and you can be a lone wolf,

00:50:23

and you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

00:50:25

You can't, you won't, you're a ticking time bomb.

00:50:28

I say that because I love you and because I believe

00:50:31

I'm your pastor and God wants you to hear things like this.

00:50:35

The way that normal America operates their life,

00:50:39

being about themselves and not people,

00:50:41

and not having a very close circle of people

00:50:43

around them does not work.

00:50:48

And the statistics and the consequences

00:50:51

are self-evident, it doesn't work.

00:50:55

Nehemiah gets his wall built because he's inside

00:51:00

of a national structure that has always known

00:51:06

that it's about the whole.

00:51:07

It's not about the individual, it's about the whole.

00:51:11

First five books of the Bible: Matthew, Mark --

00:51:14

Excuse me. That's New Testament.

00:51:15

First five books of the Bible:

00:51:17

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

00:51:20

First five books and then the Old Testament,

00:51:21

also known as the Pentateuch. Penta, five; teuch, law.

00:51:26

No, Torah's law. I'm not sure what teuch is.

00:51:28

Pentateuch, those five books get picked apart a lot

00:51:32

because there's a lot of laws in there.

00:51:35

You can't understand those laws unless you understand

00:51:38

those laws are in there to govern a people group

00:51:42

so they get along well with one another.

00:51:44

It's not that God is putting in hundreds of laws

00:51:46

just because He wants to make things up

00:51:48

for us to toe the line on.

00:51:51

There's things in there like eye for an eye, tooth for tooth.

00:51:54

Jesus when He says, "You've heard it said,

00:51:56

'Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth.'

00:51:58

But I say to you, turn the other cheek."

00:52:00

He's quoting the Pentateuch.

00:52:03

And He's saying, "You've heard this, we all know this.

00:52:08

But I say to you," and what He's doing is

00:52:10

He's not overturning that law.

00:52:12

That law was meant for a just society to give out justice.

00:52:16

If you lost your eye,

00:52:17

it wasn't okay for the other person to kill you.

00:52:20

No, it would be the judge might say, "Okay,

00:52:22

well, take out your eye, too.

00:52:24

If you maliciously took his eye out, we'll take yours out."

00:52:26

Wasn't saying that was necessarily

00:52:28

going to literally happen,

00:52:29

but saying just wise for just society there has to be

00:52:32

appropriate response, not totally overreacting.

00:52:35

And what Jesus was saying was when He said,

00:52:37

"I say to you," He's saying,

00:52:38

"Don't take the law into your own hands.

00:52:40

You're not a judge.

00:52:42

There's people who are, and that's not you."

00:52:45

You're the individual vigilante

00:52:47

who wants to make things right.

00:52:48

Jesus says, "No, no, that's not your role.

00:52:50

Your role is turn the other cheek.

00:52:52

Turn the other cheek. Get over it.

00:52:53

There's other people in society

00:52:55

who will hopefully make that right.

00:52:56

Call the cops, do whatever you want,

00:52:57

but stop thinking everything depends on you.

00:53:01

It doesn't work this way."

00:53:05

When when Crossroads first started,

00:53:08

and, you know, we just started growing like a weed

00:53:11

and, you know, like, six months in the church, I'm not kidding.

00:53:16

Around six months, a year in the Crossroads

00:53:19

was already bigger than I ever thought a dream church would be.

00:53:21

It was, um, really crazy.

00:53:25

And we're like, "We don't know what we're doing here."

00:53:30

No one was deluded, like, "Oh, I got this figured out,

00:53:33

pull myself by my bootstraps and just soldier on.

00:53:35

Got this figured out."

00:53:37

No, I knew, and everybody else around knew, like,

00:53:39

"We are way in over our heads. We know nothing.

00:53:42

We are dying here. This is not going well."

00:53:44

So we brought in a consultant and this guy came in

00:53:47

and I actually called him instead of a consultant,

00:53:49

I said that he was my insultant,

00:53:51

because all he would do would insult me,

00:53:53

the whole time he'd come in.

00:53:55

"Why are you doing that? You got to do that."

00:53:58

He's a great guy. I'm still close to him today.

00:54:00

His name is Don Cousins.

00:54:02

He's the father of Kirk Cousins,

00:54:04

who was the NFL quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings.

00:54:08

So any intensity that Kirk gets, I never met Kirk,

00:54:11

I know his dad, he gets it from his dad.

00:54:13

Very very intense, just intense guy.

00:54:17

And Don said this to me, that's always rung true.

00:54:20

He said, because we were always having problems

00:54:23

with volunteers and staff

00:54:24

and a lot of different types of problems,

00:54:27

but they all basically boil down to this.

00:54:30

Don said this, he said, "The toughest people to work with

00:54:32

are those who are deluded about themselves.

00:54:36

They think they can sing karaoke, but they can't,

00:54:40

and they can't laugh about it.

00:54:42

They think they have the gift of teaching, but they don't.

00:54:46

They think they're a leader, but they aren't.

00:54:48

They think that they're funny, but they -- no.

00:54:53

The hardest people are people who do it all themselves.

00:54:55

And the folks who are deluded about themselves

00:54:57

are almost always people who are isolated

00:55:00

and don't have people around them who tell them the truth.

00:55:04

Now, there's a humility that's necessary

00:55:08

if we're going to ask somebody to tell us the truth.

00:55:10

There's going to be humility that we need

00:55:12

if we're going to grow.

00:55:13

So right after that verse where Nehemiah names

00:55:16

all these people who are working side by side,

00:55:19

look at the very next verse. It says:

00:55:31

All of a sudden the names stop.

00:55:35

All of a sudden, people stop being memorialized

00:55:38

because they don't have a mind to work.

00:55:39

Here's what would happen, these nobles, they would --

00:55:43

They had land perhaps, they had authority,

00:55:47

they had servants.

00:55:48

And people come to Nehemiah like, "Okay,

00:55:50

put me to work, coach. Put me in, put me in.

00:55:52

What can I do? How can I how can I do all this stuff?"

00:55:54

And the nobles, it said, would not stoop,

00:55:57

or some translations say would not show their neck.

00:56:01

What does that mean? That means to stoop

00:56:04

or to show your neck comes down like this.

00:56:07

In some ancient customs this was

00:56:09

how you would lose your head, you'd expose your neck,

00:56:11

say, "Go ahead, I sacrifice." Right?

00:56:13

That's not what's happening here.

00:56:14

By not exposing your neck, not stooping,

00:56:16

what's being said is they're refusing

00:56:19

to put a yoke on them to work.

00:56:22

They're not being put to work.

00:56:25

Jesus says in the book of Matthew,

00:56:28

I'll read it for you. Matthew 11:28:

00:56:51

When you come to Christ and when you start following Christ,

00:56:54

there is a lot of difficult things that are before you.

00:56:58

Jesus does not promise you an easy life.

00:57:01

We need to reclaim a doctrine of difficulty.

00:57:04

The closer you get to God, in many ways,

00:57:07

the more difficult your life will get, because

00:57:08

the more important assignments He will give you

00:57:11

that other weenie boys and weenie girls won't do.

00:57:14

And if you want to walk close to them,

00:57:16

you'll choose to pick up your cross and follow Him,

00:57:18

because that's what Jesus told us to do,

00:57:20

"Pick up My cross," meaning embrace difficulty.

00:57:24

At some point I'll have a whole series on this.

00:57:26

I've been pretty hot on this recently.

00:57:28

But when Jesus says, "Take my yoke upon you,

00:57:31

my burden is easy," He's not saying,

00:57:33

"I'm not going to put anything on you."

00:57:35

This is what old carpenters would do.

00:57:37

You would stoop down your neck, if you were an ox,

00:57:39

and they would measure your neck,

00:57:42

and they would make you a yoke

00:57:43

that was custom fit for your neck,

00:57:45

because if it wasn't custom fit for your neck,

00:57:47

then you'd have pinch points

00:57:49

and it would be very, very uncomfortable.

00:57:51

But if you have a yoke that's cut for your neck

00:57:53

and can equally bear weight,

00:57:55

you can bear a lot of weight and be comfortable.

00:57:58

That's what Jesus is saying, "Take My yoke, My yoke,

00:58:02

the one that's designed for you.

00:58:04

Do things that I want you to do, not necessarily

00:58:06

things that everybody else wants you to do."

00:58:07

And the nobles, they refuse to to stoop their neck down

00:58:11

because they were saying, "No, you're not putting

00:58:13

a yoke on me. No, no, I'm not working." And they didn't.

00:58:18

And we don't know their names because

00:58:20

they weren't humble enough to be immortalized

00:58:23

like all the other names that I can't pronounce.

00:58:26

No work, no name.

00:58:30

When you don't work, you don't get a name.

00:58:33

When you don't roll up your sleeves

00:58:35

and go after things, you're not remembered.

00:58:37

When you do and you're thinking of people,

00:58:40

people grieve you, they want you, they need you

00:58:42

because you added value.

00:58:44

Three: communal connection. Communal connection.

00:58:47

There is communal connection with everybody here,

00:58:50

they're all doing their thing,

00:58:52

they're all hanging out with each other. Nehemiah 3:23-24:

00:59:04

And it just keeps going, naming more names.

00:59:06

And they repair beside their house.

00:59:09

Nehemiah is not dumb. He says, "I'm a leader.

00:59:11

I'm going to help you have skin in the game.

00:59:14

This means you're going to build

00:59:15

the part of the wall that's outside your house,

00:59:17

because you're going to want

00:59:18

that part of the wall to be strong."

00:59:20

And they also had all the rubble and all the rocks

00:59:22

that were there to rebuild the wall.

00:59:24

And they're doing this side by side by side.

00:59:29

Again, communal connection.

00:59:36

When I say something like, you know,

00:59:38

Jesus loves you and He died for you.

00:59:43

I'm half right when I say that. He does love you.

00:59:50

And if you receive Him, you do get the benefits

00:59:53

of His death so that you don't have to die eternally.

00:59:55

He's died for you.

00:59:57

But understand that the Bible says

01:00:00

that he died for a community:

01:00:02

For God so loved the world

01:00:03

that He gave His only begotten Son,

01:00:04

that whosoever should believe with Him

01:00:06

shall not perish, but have eternal life.

01:00:08

For God so loved the world. World.

01:00:12

The wall being built is for the community of Israel.

01:00:17

It's not for Nehemiah to have his personal thing.

01:00:21

In fact, I think right now,

01:00:22

I think Nehemiah is really bummed in heaven

01:00:24

there's a book in the Bible named after him.

01:00:27

He didn't want to book in the Bible named after him.

01:00:30

People who have a heart to work and who are followers

01:00:33

and have a heart for community, we don't --

01:00:35

We don't want our pictures up on a wall.

01:00:38

You're never going to see my picture

01:00:39

in a frame on a wall here at Crossroads.

01:00:42

It's not about me.

01:00:45

And the closer you get to God,

01:00:46

the more you recognize that it's not about you.

01:00:48

You want to give the glory to other people because

01:00:51

it's about people, you want to give the glory to God.

01:00:53

And when you do that, there's no limit

01:00:55

virtually to what can get done.

01:01:00

In doing so, we create value.

01:01:03

Last point here, we create surplus value.

01:01:06

Nehemiah 5:15 put it this way:

01:01:37

Now I'm going to sound, to some of you right now,

01:01:39

I'm going to sound to some of you

01:01:41

like a flaming liberal right now. Okay?

01:01:43

So relax, relax. But I'm going to say some things

01:01:48

that you're going to be like, "Wait a minute, that --"

01:01:53

The Bible knows very little of rugged individualism.

01:01:57

That doesn't -- We have to take responsibility for ourselves.

01:02:00

It says things in the book of Galatians like

01:02:02

everyone should bear his load,

01:02:04

so you can't be dependent and assuming

01:02:05

the government or somebody else is going to do for you

01:02:08

what you can do yourself.

01:02:09

You've got have a work ethic.

01:02:10

You got to do these things, right?

01:02:11

And at the same time, the Bible establishes again

01:02:14

and again and again and again and again and again

01:02:16

that God deals with communities. He deals with people.

01:02:21

He deals with nations, people specifically plural.

01:02:25

And God is not happy, and Nehemiah is not happy

01:02:28

that we have some of the nobles, some of the governors

01:02:31

here who are using their authority,

01:02:33

using their wealth to abuse other people.

01:02:37

They would lend at interest rates that were extreme,

01:02:39

or perhaps even worse, they would take

01:02:42

collateral for a loan, known as usury,

01:02:45

and they would have somebody give something

01:02:47

that they needed, like a winter coat,

01:02:49

when maybe they needed a coat in the winter.

01:02:52

Better to take the family jewels than the winter coat.

01:02:54

Well, one kind of family jewels.

01:02:56

Better take that than than a coat

01:02:58

or take a millstone from somebody for collateral

01:03:01

when now they can't ground flour.

01:03:04

And Nehemiah says, "You guys, you're abusing other people."

01:03:08

And we have this happen in America.

01:03:09

We have the ever widening income gap.

01:03:11

It's getting wider and wider and wider

01:03:13

and deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper.

01:03:14

And I'm not saying there shouldn't be people

01:03:16

who make a lot more money than others,

01:03:18

but I am saying people up here

01:03:20

should be really concerned about people down here.

01:03:23

Should be, that's what Nehemiah was.

01:03:25

Nehemiah forewent certain perks that came his way.

01:03:30

And he said, "Look, I deserve the salary,

01:03:32

but by the blessing of God, I'm good.

01:03:34

I'm not going to take the salary.

01:03:35

In fact, I'm going to bring people in.

01:03:37

I'm going to feed them at my own table."

01:03:40

He was creating surplus value,

01:03:42

that's what he did with his life.

01:03:43

He wasn't just trying to have a goal for him

01:03:46

to check off and say, "I'm a type A driven person.

01:03:48

I did what I wanted to do this year."

01:03:51

He was creating surplus value, stuff beyond him

01:03:56

that was a blessing to other people.

01:03:59

He was giving up his rights.

01:04:02

MLK weekend was last weekend.

01:04:04

I spoke with a friend of mine, Damon Lynch, Sr,

01:04:06

who marched with Martin Luther King years ago.

01:04:08

He said to me, he said, "You know, Martin died for my rights,

01:04:12

but Jesus died for my wrongs."

01:04:15

It was deep. It was deep.

01:04:17

And it was good what Martin Luther King did

01:04:19

and good to have rights for people who are in America.

01:04:23

And as a believer, one of the things we do

01:04:25

is we don't -- we let go of our rights as a believer.

01:04:29

I'm not talking about your rights as an American

01:04:31

necessarily, but I mean just your rights,

01:04:33

things you have to have coming to you,

01:04:34

things that you fight for.

01:04:35

Jesus gave up His rights when He left heaven, gave it up.

01:04:38

Jesus gave up His rights when He went to a Cross.

01:04:40

And humble leaders who want to add surplus value

01:04:43

will not cling to what they could keep

01:04:45

in order to bless other people and create surplus value.

01:04:50

We're trying to do that here in our church

01:04:51

for all kinds of people, including younger people.

01:04:54

We've got a really, really strong group of younger people.

01:04:58

It's called 18-24. It's actually it's called 1824,

01:05:01

not to be confused with a Yellowstone spinoff.

01:05:04

Though I will say if you're not a Yellowstone fan,

01:05:07

1923 is the greatest love story I've ever seen, you're welcome.

01:05:12

Nonetheless, in 1824,

01:05:14

we're trying to stay young as a church,

01:05:16

trying to push things out there, trying to do the right things.

01:05:19

And so we're constantly retooling.

01:05:21

And I love what's happening at The George,

01:05:23

formerly known as Crossroads Uptown,

01:05:25

formerly known from that as Old Saint George.

01:05:27

We've got hundreds of leaders, kids,

01:05:29

students 18 to 24 that are meeting.

01:05:33

They're getting built into, they're learning various things.

01:05:35

They're worshiping together. It's great.

01:05:38

And what's great about it is we as a church

01:05:40

have to keep working to stay young,

01:05:42

to lean towards the next generation.

01:05:45

Jesus was over 19.

01:05:49

Peter was 19 and over.

01:05:51

All the rest of the disciples were under 18.

01:05:53

How do we know that?

01:05:54

Because there was a miracle of Jesus retaining a fish,

01:05:57

a coin out of a fish, and it was to pay the temple tax,

01:06:01

and he has that to pay for him and Peter,

01:06:03

because everybody else is younger.

01:06:07

We as a church have to work to be younger,

01:06:09

and we're gonna work to be younger.

01:06:11

Before I finish off and close on prayer,

01:06:12

I want to tell you something that's really cool

01:06:14

and important happening around here.

01:06:16

I've been doing the same job.

01:06:17

I've been doing the same job for 28 years.

01:06:21

I was Senior Pastor when I first came to Crossroads

01:06:23

and I'm still Senior Pastor.

01:06:25

I was Senior Pastor when I was the only person on staff.

01:06:28

And just because I thought it sounded like

01:06:29

a cool, sexy title, and I'm still Senior Pastor.

01:06:32

And I'm still pretty much doing the exact same things

01:06:34

I've been doing for 28 years.

01:06:35

Responsible for the weekends going okay,

01:06:37

creative ideas, managing this department,

01:06:39

that department, just on and on and on.

01:06:41

It's all good. It's all, all really important.

01:06:44

I believe that there's another gear that God wants me to hit.

01:06:48

I believe there's been things that I've been doing

01:06:50

for 28 years that I need to be letting go.

01:06:52

By the way, I'm not leaving Crossroads.

01:06:54

I'm sorry. I know that bums you out.

01:06:55

You go, "Good. He's leaving." No, I'm not leaving Crossroads.

01:06:58

I'm still Senior Pastor, but I'm realizing there's a --

01:07:02

[audience reacts] Oh, you have to do that.

01:07:05

But we have -- we need to get some younger people

01:07:10

who are bearing some significant weight around here

01:07:13

to enable me as well to have

01:07:15

some creative breakthroughs that I think

01:07:17

God may want to do through our community.

01:07:19

What happens if God uses us

01:07:20

to bring an awakening to our country?

01:07:23

What happens if there's stuff that's

01:07:25

underneath the surface that we need to mine,

01:07:27

that we don't have the capacity to?

01:07:30

I would like to have some capacity

01:07:32

to get us to another level, but I can't do it

01:07:34

by doing the same things I've been doing for 28 years.

01:07:36

So we're opening up a new position.

01:07:38

We have a new position, new position is called Lead Pastor.

01:07:41

That Lead Pastor position is responsible for

01:07:43

all the bread and butter things that makes

01:07:45

Crossroads Crossroads on a day in, day out basis.

01:07:47

And I'm excited for you to meet him.

01:07:51

Our Lead Pastor's name is Kyle Ranson.

01:07:53

Welcome him to the stage. Come on, Kyle.

01:07:54

[cheers & applause]

01:07:59

Look at that, Kyle. They like you. They like you.

01:08:04

I like you. I like you, too. Yeah.

01:08:06

- I like you, too.

01:08:08

- Yeah. How do you feel about this?

01:08:09

- Uh, awesome. Amazing.

01:08:11

- I better sit, so I better sit.

01:08:12

- Yeah. You're just -- It just --

01:08:14

Maybe I could stand on the wall.

01:08:15

Maybe that would balance, I don't know.

01:08:17

No. I'm super pumped. I'm incredibly pumped,

01:08:20

honored, humbled, excited. Sarah and the kids are, too.

01:08:22

I want to say something really clearly

01:08:24

that's most important to me about this shift.

01:08:28

If you want to know what I'll be doing as Lead Pastor,

01:08:31

I will be following him. That's what I'll be doing.

01:08:34

There's a clear chain in the Bible of authority,

01:08:37

and I want to make sure that that stays here.

01:08:39

And as this change happens, I hope you heard Brian,

01:08:41

he's not evacuating.

01:08:43

He's elevating so he can see more of what God has for us.

01:08:47

And I've had the pleasure and the honor

01:08:49

of having him as my pastor since I was 19 years old.

01:08:53

I've been on this staff with him as my top boss

01:08:56

for 18.5 years, and I get to see something

01:09:00

that you don't get to see, which is what happens

01:09:02

when the lights go off and all of you leave

01:09:06

and the parking lot empties and he walks off the stage.

01:09:09

Do you know what happens with him?

01:09:11

Do you know what's different? Nothing. Nothing.

01:09:16

He's faithful and he's true and he's worth following.

01:09:19

And I just I just want to celebrate you in doing this.

01:09:21

This is not a move that people do.

01:09:23

- Okay? But we're here to celebrate you.

01:09:25

- I know, that's not what I wanted to do. Too bad.

01:09:28

I got the microphone, you made me Lead Pastor.

01:09:33

- Okay. You're leading. Okay, go ahead, lead.

01:09:35

- The second thing is this,

01:09:36

second thing, and then I'm almost done.

01:09:38

I just believe in what God is doing in this church,

01:09:40

I just do, I love this church, believe in this church.

01:09:44

I could go somewhere else and be a Senior Pastor.

01:09:46

I have zero interest in that.

01:09:47

I'm here for what God's doing,

01:09:49

not just in this generation, not just in the next one,

01:09:52

but I believe in generation after generation

01:09:54

after generation, I believe we're a movement

01:09:56

that God intends to change the world.

01:09:57

So I'm all in. There you go. - All right. [applause]

01:10:00

Kyle is one of those rare people

01:10:02

who has a capital L leadership gift

01:10:05

and a capital T leadership gift.

01:10:07

He's obviously very younger than me,

01:10:09

and he bears stress really well.

01:10:11

It's a very stressful job.

01:10:13

Appreciate you praying, by the way.

01:10:15

I never knew how many people prayed for me,

01:10:16

now that they're praying for me in the app,

01:10:18

I'm getting pelted. I had to turn off my notifications.

01:10:20

So all I'm doing is seeing it and it's really awesome.

01:10:23

It's amazing. I just have to do other things

01:10:25

than look at your name after you've prayed for me.

01:10:27

It means a lot to me, but you need to be hopefully

01:10:29

adding or directing some of those prayers to this guy.

01:10:31

He's going to have a lot of weight in his shoulders.

01:10:33

He has a lot of weight in his shoulders and he can bear it.

01:10:36

Let me pray for you right now. Okay?

01:10:37

God, thank you for Kyle, this godly man of Yours

01:10:40

who's been so faithful and so good

01:10:42

and so fun to be doing life with.

01:10:45

I ask that more people would get

01:10:47

to taste the fruit of his labor.

01:10:48

I ask You to fill him with creativity

01:10:50

in his mind beyond what he already has.

01:10:53

I pray you give him divine insights

01:10:55

to see things that others can't see,

01:10:58

to feel things that others can't feel.

01:11:00

I thank You for how You bless his family

01:11:02

and Sarah and his kids.

01:11:04

I ask you pour special grace on them.

01:11:06

And we look forward to our best days ahead

01:11:09

as a community with him as Lead Pastor.

01:11:11

And we all God's people, pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

01:11:16

- Amen, Amen.

01:11:17

- I love you. - I love you too, buddy.

01:11:19

[applause]

01:11:25

- Next week we'll talk about conflict

01:11:28

and difficulty and pain.

01:11:31

That's what Nehemiah has to deal with.

01:11:33

And all of us will deal with this.

01:11:36

The thing that makes us palatable is if we take on

01:11:39

the attitude of humility that we've seen today,

01:11:42

and if we allow ourselves to become expendable,

01:11:46

to be spent, to pick up our cross.

01:11:50

The most expendable people

01:11:51

are the most irreplaceable people because

01:11:53

they have a spiritual power and a perspective

01:11:56

that other self-sufficient,

01:11:58

pull myself up by my bootstraps kind of folks

01:12:00

don't get and understand.

01:12:03

But this is the model of Nehemiah,

01:12:05

and it's the model of Jesus.

01:12:06

I hope you're getting it because

01:12:07

the world needs you to get it, needs all of us to get it.

01:12:10

And a great future not just for you,

01:12:13

but for all the people around you

01:12:15

should be in store because of it. Let me pray for you.

01:12:18

God, thank You for giving us wisdom

01:12:21

that is beyond the norm and people that are beyond the norm,

01:12:25

like Nehemiah and like Kyle,

01:12:29

and like all the other names in here that I know

01:12:32

and many that I don't know.

01:12:34

I ask for Your grace to fill us, help us to see people

01:12:39

and to work hard for people and to do so to please You.

01:12:45

We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

01:12:50

-Hey, thank you for watching.

01:12:51

If you'd like to dive deeper

01:12:53

beyond the weekend teaching, which I encourage

01:12:55

and challenge you to do, one of the greatest ways

01:12:57

to do it is through the Crossroads Anywhere App.

01:12:59

You can check out daily Scripture,

01:13:01

you can engage in the Bible challenge,

01:13:03

you can connect with community,

01:13:04

you can even read articles that cover

01:13:06

all sorts of topics and what God might want to say

01:13:08

about areas like singleness or dating, marriage,

01:13:11

sports, anxiety, Taylor Swift,

01:13:13

even New Year's resolutions, and so much more.

01:13:16

Check out the Crossroads App for all the details.

01:13:18

Thank you for watching. We'll see you next week.

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