Play & Purpose Journey | Week 1: Promise

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So Crossroads is doing a Journey.

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What does that even mean? >> Allow me.

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Every so often Crossroads does a Journey.

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Basically a Journey is a five-week series where everyone from kids to

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adults follow on the same topic.

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This year's topic Purpose & Play, all about why having restful play

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and meaningful purpose are critical to a life that thrives.

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Here's how to do a Journey.

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Step one: go to the weakened message.

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Kickoff weekend will be September 14th and 15th.

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Be here. Can't make it to a site?

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Just download the Crossroads Anywhere app and watch the weekend

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message there. Step two: get in a group.

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If getting in a group sounds weird, relax.

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This is not your Aunt Betty's knitting circle.

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It's not that. It's more like a dinner party with people in similar

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life stages asking similar questions.

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Step 3: do some challenges.

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No, not the dumb internet kind, challenges in the Crossroads app.

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There's a brand new feature this year and you're going to love it.

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Connect your group in the app like a text thread,

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select Play & Purpose. It will prompt your group with fun challenges

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and questions. No homework.

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Just fun ways to get engaged.

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(Aww) So to recap,

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[rewind FX] Do the journey.

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>> Is he making fun of my air quotes? Dude! >> Welcome to Crossroads.

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My name's Lena Schuler. I'm the Crossroads Anywhere Community Pastor

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and you're joining us for week one of the Play & Purpose Journey.

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We're so glad to have you from anywhere you might be right now.

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You know, there is a thriving community online, the Anywhere

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Community. And smaller communities and larger communities all over

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the country who are getting together right now to experience the Play

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& Purpose Journey and to be part of the church.

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And so in the midst of the next five weeks, we're going to get some

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great teaching and experience online together on this topic of Play &

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Purpose. And then you'll have some individual prompts that you can do

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during the week if you'd like to get you into a new rhythm, maybe a

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deeper place in your relationship with God and in you just figuring

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out who you are and what you need.

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And then there's the component of the group where you actually get

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together with other people to have fun and have purposeful

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conversations. It's gonna be really good.

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And so I'm excited to have you joining us for church today from

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anywhere you might be. I'm excited to have you for the Play & Purpose

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Journey that starts right now.

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>> The pace of life is fast.

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Sometimes it can feel like we stumble through our days running on

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fumes, endless productivitY

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Finding time to play is a luxury we can't afford.

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Having purpose is good.

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Purpose is something productive that yields results.

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The play is good too.

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Play is something unproductive that restores you.

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A life with no play is stress filled and a life without purpose is

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aimless. The Bible tells us that a life lived fully alive includes a

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healthy balance of Play & Purpose.

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A thriving life embraces the "&".

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Playful fun & meaningful purpose.

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We were designed for both: a life filled to the brim with Play &

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Purpose. And it's only when we have both that we come fully

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alive.

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>> Doesn't that song just make you want to smile?

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It brings some kind of joy to us, which is often what art and music

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do as they bring joy.

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Because so often songs and music and art paint pictures of a life

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that we could have, of a life that we want, of a life that's full and

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abundant and thriving.

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And that's actually the life that Jesus wants for you and wants for

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me. In John 10:10, Jesus says: I have come so that you might have

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life and have it abundantly.

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Jesus wants you to have a life that's full and thriving and abundant.

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And so we're gonna go into a time right now where we're going to sing

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together. We're going to do what we call worship, which is we're

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ascribing worth to God.

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And when we do this, we're saying, "I want the full life that You

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have to offer, Jesus.

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I want a thriving life, one that is abundant."

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And so regardless of if you believe these words fully or if you're

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still figuring out if you can believe in who Jesus says He is or the

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words that He says,

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we can posture ourselves right now in a way that declares to God,

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"I think you have more for me than what I'm experiencing right now.

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And I want the full abundant thriving life that you promise."

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So let's sing together right now.

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Well, I love getting to worship every weekend in this way because

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it's the time for me to spend time with God on purpose in a way that

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I might not other times during the week.

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I would encourage you maybe during this series, try to go to a new

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place with God on purpose and sing during one or two of those songs,

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if you're sitting in your car, in your living room or wherever you

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might be. And today starts the Play & Purpose Journey.

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And I'm so, so thrilled for it.

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My Journey group is getting together at my house beginning next week

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and it's gonna be great.

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And hopefully you're in a Journey group.

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If you're not, you can head to Crossroads.net/journey

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and sign up to be in a group.

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There are hundreds of groups happening all over the place, all

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different times, locations. And this is not a group where you're

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going to sit around and just sing together and close your eyes and

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ponder life. But you're actually going to get together and experience

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friendship over some food.

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It's going to be more like a dinner party.

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And then you're going to maybe plan an adventure and then you're

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gonna go do something together.

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It's gonna be active and fun and purposeful.

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You don't want to miss being in a group because it's the way that

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you're going to get the most out of this Journey.

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And I really believe that you could make some really great friends or

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go to a new place with some of your old friends in the midst of this.

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So Crossroads.net/journey

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is where you get in a Journey Group and those groups start next week.

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Week two of the journey is when that first gathering happens.

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And if you are in a group, you're going to get a guide, you're gonna

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get a Play & Purpose Guide.

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And inside of this guide are all kinds of prompts and things for you

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to do throughout the week for you to spend time alone with God to

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figure out what it looks like for you to have more purpose & play.

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And this will guide your group time.

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So if you're in a group, your group leader will receive these in the

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mail this week for you.

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If you live near Crossroads location, you could head to one of those

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Crossroads locations and pick up a guide during Crossroads services

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on the weekends. And if you want to do this digitally, you can head

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to Crossroads.net/journey

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and get a digital form of this as well.

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And don't forget, speaking of digital, to download the Crossroads app

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if you don't have that already. It's also going to be part of this

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Play & Purpose Journey. And there's all kinds of stuff in there, all

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week long, all month long, all year long for you to engage with the

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church, for you to engage with God, and for you to engage with other

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people in your group through group chat.

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And it's gonna be really, really sweet some of the new features that

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are coming out for this journey.

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Well, I know that in the midst of this Journey, I mean more play in

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my life. I'm excited to see what God reveals to me and practice some

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things to play a little bit more. And I know I need that because I

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tend to err more on the side of doing things on purpose.

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One of the places that I do things on purpose is in my finances.

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And I don't just mean I like look at the week and figure out what

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groceries and how much money I'm going to spend on them or the

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diapers I need to buy for my kid or any of those other things.

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But I purposefully set aside money at the beginning of every paycheck

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to go directly to the church.

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And you want to be purposeful about putting your money towards God's

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purposes. You can do that by heading to Crossroads.net/give

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and become a giver.

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You can sign up for a one time gift or a recurring gift.

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And you know, there are some people who are part of our church who

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have been deeply, deeply impacted by your giving.

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And they just want to say thank you.

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>> I'm Nathan.

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>> And I'm Rosalyn and we go to Crossroads.

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>> We came here in a kind of stuck in a weird rut and it was time to

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get some change. >> My family was attending Crossroads when we got

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here. So when we got here we were encouraged to go to Crossroads

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right away. It was really easy to find places to get involved in and

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different teams to be a part of in volunteering.

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And shortly after we got here, I'm In started and that was really

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stretching for us. And we had just gotten through CityLink to get him

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into school with their help.

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And then so it was just we're not in a great financial position.

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>> So money was for a long time something that we were constantly

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striving for. When we moved here Crossroads had a series of messages.

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And then when I'm In started, obviously a lot of it had to do with

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finances and you know, where are you putting your focus, where are

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you putting your money? What you focus on is kind of really where

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your heart's at. And we realized that we'd kind of made money this

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thing that was just always out there and we were striving for it.

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And we realized we're kind of striving for the wrong thing.

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So we decided to go ahead and make a commitment. >> And after we

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completed our I'm In, we decided to have a bigger family, but that

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meant we didn't fit into a car anymore.

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So we're like, hey, we're just gonna trust that even though we're

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giving when we finished our I'm In commitment it was enough money

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that we could have bought a more than reliable car with our I'm In

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commitment. Somebody -- we were just praying about what we were going

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to do about a vehicle and somebody told us to apply for wheels.

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And I said I didn't think that we would qualify for that.

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It just didn't sound like something for us.

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They told me not make the decision of whether God is gonna bless us

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through that or not. >> And the cool thing is is God has continued to

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provide through this whole situation.

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Every time it feels like we're going to end up going into debt, God

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just kind of slipped something and it goes, "No, no, no, I got you."

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Like this Wheels car just like, "Oh, by the way, you qualify.

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We have a car for you.

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We're getting it ready.

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We'll let you know when it's ready.

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And you guys can come pick it up."

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And we are like, "Oh, my gosh, that's amazing."

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Six or seven days before you delivered Azariah, that they gave us the

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call and said, "Hey, come on this weekend and pick up your vehicle.

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It's ready for you guys."

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I mean, talk about perfect timing.

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Even in times where it feels like all we can do is, you know, receive

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there's opportunity always to give at the same time.

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>> It's so amazing to be on the receiving end.

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It's such a blessing to be able to give and know you're helping

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somebody. >> Thank you. Crossroads Community, so much for being

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generous and giving.

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It has blessed our entire family more than you guys could imagine.

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And it has elevated us to continue to move forward in ways that we

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haven't even imagined. >> So the Journey has begun.

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You know, what is a Journey?

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A Journey is when you are going to a different place in all different

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aspects of your humanity is tapped into.

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Lib and I went on a journey from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati to help

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start Crossroads 23 years ago.

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It was an emotional journey, it was a spiritual journey, it was a

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physical journey. It was a relational journey.

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Different relationships. That was a journey.

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Simply flying to Florida, that's different location but it's not a

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journey. I've been out west camping before, and whenever I'm doing

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that, it is a journey.

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It's a physical journey.

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It's an emotional journey.

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It's a dirt journey.

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It's all kinds of different things.

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A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to retrace the footsteps

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of the Apostle Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament.

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Actually, I didn't retrace his footsteps.

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I was in a van that had the air conditioning broken down on it.

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So, let me tell you what, if you're in a van in Turkey and in Greece

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and the air conditioning isn't working, that's a journey.

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It stretched my rear end.

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It stretched everything.

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It was. It was difficult.

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There's something about difficulty, and this journey isn't

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necessarily going to be difficult.

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This is going to be very, very rewarding and very, very fun.

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But there's something about a multipronged approach of physical

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engagement, relational engagement, physical, emotional, spiritual.

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We're going to have it all right here now.

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And where was this birthed?

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Where did this come from?

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I had a, gosh, an epiphany about a decade or so ago about play that

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just revolutionized my life and actually revolutionized me in being

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able to be purposeful, being able to be productive in my life.

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And I've been thinking about these things and I've been --

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You've heard me talk about some of these things the last few years if

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you've been around Crossroads.

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But something really crystallized for me about a year and a half ago

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when we had a tryout out on our base camp property.

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Last weekend, if you were here, you saw a video clip that we showed,

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a little snippet of a video series we're going to stream someplace in

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January of a motorcycle trip out in Colorado with people who are

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newer off road riders.

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And a year and a half ago, we had a tryout where you could come and

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try out to be on the -- on the show.

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It was after a bunch of other things had done, we were invited I

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don't know it was 50 people or something like that to come.

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We were very clear that the best riders don't go.

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This isn't about seeing who's the best riders.

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This is about seeing that you're not going to kill yourself on a

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motorcycle. That was the main thing.

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It wasn't the riding. It was their story.

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What are you dealing with? All these kind of things.

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As we got to the end of the day, I started feeling really bad because

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a lot of these people had wrecked motorcycles.

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They had bruises on them.

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They had stood outside in the cold.

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It was sunny, but is very, very cold.

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And I realized that only, you know, I don't know what it was, one and

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one in five of them or something like that was actually going to go

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on the trip. So I started saying my apologies.

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"Hey, I'm really sorry that we're not going to be able to take

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everybody. I don't know who it's going to be, but I'm sorry we can't

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take everybody." And person after person looked me in the face and

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said, "Sorry.

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What do you mean sorry? This is the best day that I have had for

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decades. I don't -- I don't remember the last time I played.

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I don't -- I don't remember the last time I lost myself in something

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that wasn't my job.

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Whether I go on the trip or not, this has been amazing.

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Thank you.". And that was really cool to hear and it was also really

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sad to hear, Because I think that reflects probably the way most of

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us are. Most of us, either one or two things, we can't remember the

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last time we got lost in our job and just expended ourselves in

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having a purpose.

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Do you know why you are on planet Earth and this week is that making

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any difference? We can't remember the last time we were fully

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absorbed in the work week.

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And we can't remember the last time we forgot about work.

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We can't remember the last time we just were silly.

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We can't remember the last time we were unproductive or not trying to

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be unproductive.

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Play & Purpose.

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That's my heart for you, because when that happens in your life and

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my life, we get to prosper.

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In the Book of Psalms 1:3 it says:.

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He prospers. Now, take this image here for me, if you will.

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Think about this multisensory experience.

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There's a tree. It's big.

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It's lush. It's beautiful.

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It's offering shade. You're underneath of the tree.

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Beside it there's a rushing brook, babbling, rushing brook.

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We can hear the water rushing right beside you.

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And the tree is digging its roots down deep, deep in the soil.

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And you are caught up in the visual beauty of it, the audio beauty of

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it. And you reach up and you take off a fruit and you bite into that

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fruit and the juice of that fruit --

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Not the broccoli, not the brussel sprouts --

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the fruit, the juices start dripping down your chin.

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And you feel the cold breeze.

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And in that moment you feel God.

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It's like in that moment you are prospering.

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When is the last time you've lost yourself in something where you've

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-- it's like you've been transported into a different time space

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continuum and you feel -- you feel closer to God?

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We can get that.

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We can get that when we're high purpose.

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And we can get that one were high play.

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Here's a matrix we're gonna be working on in the guides that you will

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get later on.

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Imagine a life that is high on play.

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This is high, very, very high on play.

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And is high on purpose.

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This is purpose, very, very high on purpose.

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What would it be if you were in this section here, high, high

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purpose, very low play?

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What would your life be if you were all about purpose, all about

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work, all about getting stuff done.

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Go, go, go, go, go.

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Eventually it'll be painful, right?

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It would be painful.

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That is not a good way to jump into a pool.

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That is not. But when we're only purpose, we're only going, it is

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painful. Now let's look at the other extreme.

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Let's imagine it's all play.

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It's all play.

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It's all coloring books.

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It's all golf.

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It's all movies.

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It's all camping.

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It's all bicycle riding.

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It's all finger painting.

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It's all -- it's all dime store trash novels.

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It's all that. It's only that, only that on and on.

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If you were only getting play, you had no purpose in your life, your

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life would be pointless.

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Pointless. What would be the point of life if all you were doing is

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having pumpkins on our heads and going like this in the fields?

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What would be the point? Wouldn't be much of a point.

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If on the other extreme, if we were no play and no purpose, and there

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are people who are like this, by the way.

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No play and no purpose.

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There are retired people who have no purpose in life and they have no

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play. Play, as we're going to find out, is a multisensory lose

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yourself in a thing. It's not just a single solo thing you do.

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So there's retired people who don't work, have no purpose.

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Not that you have to have work to have a purpose, but they have no

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purpose. And they watch TV all day.

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This was also me, by the way, in high school.

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This is me.

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I had no college aspirations, education.

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I had no purpose when I was in school.

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I didn't understand the value of school.

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And I would just come home from school and I'd plop down and I would

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just watch F Troop or The Munsters or Speed Racer and *Chim Chim and

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Spritle. Who remembers Chim Chim and Spritle?

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Who's over 50 and white.

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Come on now. [laughter]

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Yeah. You know, when you're -- when you're this way.

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When you are low on purpose and low on actual play, your life becomes

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pitiful. Your life is pitiful.

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You're not sure what the point of the whole thing is.

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Now, where we want to get to is we want all of us to get to a place

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where we are a high play and high purpose.

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When that happens, we get to prosper.

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This is where prosperity happens.

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Where we prosper.

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Now, the thing --

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The thing about prospering here, and this -- is I'm not going to dig

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deep and play to them like a dig deep into purpose today.

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I'm going to dig into "&" today.

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I'm going to dig big into the ampersand.

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Yes, the ampersand.

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That is the stupidest name for a symbol I've ever known.

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The ampersand.

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It should just be the and sign, but it's actually called the

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ampersand.

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But we're going to deal with the "&" today because it's in the "&",

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not where we try to mash two things together and make an omelet.

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But where we keep things separate.

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Where it's purpose and play.

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And actually, in the midst of our Journey, it's going to be teaching

00:34:07

and interaction.

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It's going to be personal reflection and engagement.

00:34:14

It's going to be things on our digital devices, digital and it's

00:34:20

going to be analog.

00:34:22

And this video will tell you how.

00:34:25

>> Hey, my name's Matt Welty, I lead technology here at Crossroads.

00:34:28

And if this is your very first Journey you're ever doing with us,

00:34:31

welcome. We think it's gonna be life changing.

00:34:33

And I think this video is going to help you get the most out of the

00:34:35

Journey. If you've done a bunch of these with us, I want you to pay

00:34:38

really close attention because we've changed the entire way the

00:34:42

Journey works. In years past you've done all your individual journey

00:34:45

work, the homework leading up to your group time inside the

00:34:48

Crossroads Anywhere App. This year we got rid of all the homework.

00:34:53

There's no homework. There's no individual work for you to do inside

00:34:55

the app. Instead, you're gonna get one of these incredible Play &

00:34:59

Purpose Guides.

00:35:01

These are chock full of exercises you can do all throughout the

00:35:03

Journey to explore the concepts of Play & Purpose.

00:35:07

We've also changed up how group time is going to work.

00:35:09

In past Journeys, you've used the app to help facilitate a

00:35:13

conversation. This year if you're spending your group time, spending

00:35:16

hours answering questions in a living room, you're doing it wrong.

00:35:20

We want you to have a blast this year.

00:35:21

And so we've given your group leader a leader guide inside the

00:35:25

Crossroads Anywhere app that they can use to get conversations, going

00:35:28

to help everybody get to know each other and explore these concepts

00:35:30

together. But we mostly want you to get out there and play and

00:35:34

explore them in real life.

00:35:36

So this year, for the first time, we've added group chat to the

00:35:40

Crossroads Anywhere app. That's right.

00:35:41

You can actually create a chat with all the members of your group.

00:35:45

So now your group life can operate more like your real life.

00:35:48

And you can subscribe within that chat to the Play & Purpose Prompts.

00:35:53

These are daily conversation starters that your group is going to get

00:35:56

inside the group chat.

00:35:57

And then throughout your day, whenever it works best for you, you're

00:36:00

able to get to know each other and explore these concepts together.

00:36:03

That way, when you get together for your actual group meeting, you

00:36:07

can go out there and have a blast.

00:36:09

Let me show you how to set up a group chat.

00:36:10

Open up the Crossroads Anywhere app and go to the group chat icon

00:36:13

right down here. Start a new chat by clicking this button up here.

00:36:18

Find the people in your group and hit next.

00:36:21

Just like that, you're in a group chat.

00:36:23

Go up to the settings and turn Play & Purpose Prompts on.

00:36:27

These prompts are going to start coming week three of the Journey.

00:36:30

This Journey is going to be amazing, so make sure you get in a group,

00:36:34

you start a group chat, and you subscribe to the Play & Purpose

00:36:37

Prompts. I'm excited together in this journey to figure out how we

00:36:41

get the most out of life through Play & Purpose.

00:36:48

>> So digital and analog, when we're in multipronged things, we get

00:36:53

stimulated to a different degree.

00:36:55

I want us to think about the beauty of the "&".

00:36:59

Jim Collins, the old business guru, used to call it the genius of the

00:37:02

"&". I want to talk about the the beauty of the "&", not just digital

00:37:07

and analog.

00:37:08

But when two things that seem like they're totally separate from one

00:37:13

another, totally can't mix, when we bundled them together and put an

00:37:17

"&" in between them, something powerful often happened.

00:37:21

Let's see if you can complete these phrases of beautiful things that

00:37:25

"&" brings together.

00:37:32

We've both got to have both of them, right?

00:37:34

Fully. If you just kind of meld them and have dusk all day long, that

00:37:38

wouldn't be any good. Day and night.

00:37:41

How about..?

00:37:45

>> Sour.

00:37:48

I say salty, sour, salty.

00:37:50

Whatever. We know the beauty of when sweet mixes with something else.

00:38:00

Bourbon and..?

00:38:03

Bourbon and anything I just heard.

00:38:06

My man needs to be going to an AA meeting up here?

00:38:08

Somebody, bourbon and anything.

00:38:10

All right. >> Tea.

00:38:19

Come on. Are kidding me? This is church, we can be honest here.

00:38:22

All right. Peaches and Sonny and.

00:38:31

Penn and.

00:38:35

Penn and Teller. Yes. Staying up and sleeping in.

00:38:43

Here's one, go back over to the spiritual side of the spectrum.

00:38:50

There's this really odd thing that people have when it comes to

00:38:54

experiencing God. We have people who oftentimes don't put the "&"

00:38:59

together. So much is just all about faith.

00:39:02

It's all about what I believe Jesus has done for me by going to a

00:39:05

cross for me, me receiving Him by faith.

00:39:10

Others of us, it's all about doing the right things, obeying the Ten

00:39:14

Commandments. And I obey the Ten Commandments and I feed the poor and

00:39:17

I volunteer in Kids' Club.

00:39:18

But I do these things so I can get to God.

00:39:21

Well, neither one of these -- Both of these, I don't know, they come

00:39:25

together. Really, they do.

00:39:27

They live together. We have to have faith.

00:39:30

And when we have faith, we will have works.

00:39:33

We will want to do those kind of things.

00:39:35

Those two things separated by the "&" and is a powerful thing.

00:39:40

My favorite description of Jesus in the entire Bible is in the Book

00:39:43

of John 1:14.

00:39:45

It says:. Full of grace and

00:39:54

truth. This idea of grace and truth, you've got to have the "&" here.

00:39:59

These are two different things seemingly: grace is you get another

00:40:04

chance. God's okay with you.

00:40:07

There's forgiveness.

00:40:09

Truth is, this is the way it needs to be.

00:40:11

You it. You got to do X, Y, Z.

00:40:14

God has this very definitively.

00:40:17

Well, how did these two come together?

00:40:19

They don't you know, they don't just kind of modify each other.

00:40:22

They are separated by an "&" so we can live fully with both of them.

00:40:26

This thing blows me away this is how Jesus is described.

00:40:29

It blew me away so much that He is fully grace and fully truth that I

00:40:32

chose to tattoo myself.

00:40:34

It's the only tattoo I have on my body.

00:40:40

[laughter] I'm sorry, I should've wiped the perspiration off my body

00:40:42

after I was done working out. But that actually is my tattoo that's

00:40:45

on my tattoo on my left shoulder.

00:40:48

And the reason it's there is because I wanted --

00:40:51

[laughter] I wanted to be --

00:40:54

That's not my body either. No, it's not, but that is my tattoo still.

00:40:58

I love the image of grace and truth coming together.

00:41:02

We need the "&".

00:41:04

Check out some other verses and you see the beauty of the "&".

00:41:07

Because in this Journey, I'm not going to try to give us 50/50, 50

00:41:12

percent purpose, 50 percent play.

00:41:14

We're not gonna do that. When it's time we're going to give 100%

00:41:17

purpose. Be on task.

00:41:20

And when it's time we're going to give 100 percent play.

00:41:23

Get out and waste some time.

00:41:25

But look at how many times an "&" pops up in different verses.

00:41:29

John 10:10: And if that's not enough "&" have it abundantly.

00:41:39

Do you feel this way? Do you feel that your life is full of

00:41:44

abundance? Or you feel like someone's constantly trying to steal from

00:41:48

you? Do you feel like someone's trying to constantly take your

00:41:51

energy? Do you feel like someone's trying to destroy your peace of

00:41:55

mind? I tell you what, if most of us were honest, the average

00:41:58

American inside of us, and most of us in here are Americans, would go

00:42:02

like,. "Man, I do not feel that.

00:42:04

I feel like someone's always breathing down my neck.

00:42:07

I feel like something is always about to break.

00:42:10

I feel -- I feel like I'm spinning my wheels.

00:42:12

I feel like I'm on the treadmill.

00:42:14

I feel like I'm in the grind."

00:42:15

This is the way we feel.

00:42:18

We do not feel as Americans that we have life, let alone abundant

00:42:23

life. Friends, we need this.

00:42:25

The way to prosperity, at least -- at least two aspects of prosper,

00:42:30

there's a lot of others,

00:42:31

but the two that we're looking at is purpose, being about purpose,

00:42:34

knowing why God has put me on this planet, knowing that my life makes

00:42:38

a difference, and simply blowing off and laughing and knowing that

00:42:43

He's a dad who wants to see His children play.

00:42:48

Someone who's stolen from us and I want us to consider someone has

00:42:51

stolen the "&" from us.

00:42:54

Someone has stolen the "&" from us and told us that we can have

00:42:57

playful purpose.

00:42:58

No, we can't. And told us we can have purposeful play.

00:43:02

No, we can't. Stop stealing the "&" and you have purpose and we can

00:43:07

have play. God has work and He has rest.

00:43:13

In the Book of Exodus, Chapter Twenty it says this as God has formed

00:43:17

all of the world, he says:.

00:43:36

This is what God does.

00:43:38

He works and He rests.

00:43:42

We need to have purpose "&" we need to have play.

00:43:50

For years I've said for a long time I hate the phrase, "I need to

00:43:55

attain balance, I need work/life balance."

00:43:57

I hate that phrase: I need to attain balance.

00:43:59

I don't understand what that means.

00:44:01

Balance in my mind is one of those old balances and everything is

00:44:05

50/50. So as soon as everything's 50/50, you know, life is okay.

00:44:09

I'm going to tell you something, nothing in life is ever 50/50.

00:44:12

If you're going to be married and have a great marriage, it needs to

00:44:14

be a hundred/hundred. You need to outweigh your spouse in terms of

00:44:17

how you serve them. When you are at work, there is no like balance.

00:44:22

You need to be totally at work.

00:44:24

This balance doesn't make sense to me.

00:44:26

The reason we get some place is because I'm off balance and I can

00:44:30

walk. I'm off balance and I can walk.

00:44:32

I'm off balance and I can walk.

00:44:34

So the balance illustrates for how our life is to work I've never

00:44:38

understood. But I understand there's some good things about it.

00:44:40

There's a new one that's coming that's been out, I just found out

00:44:43

about this one. A friend of mine in corporate America said, "Yeah,

00:44:45

the thing we talk about in our business a lot is having a blended

00:44:49

life.". I said, "Blended?

00:44:50

What do you mean blended?". "Well, you know, when we're at work our

00:44:55

employer is fine that we're using company Wi-Fi to send personal

00:45:00

emails. Our company is fine that we're making personal calls during

00:45:05

the day every once in awhile.

00:45:06

The company is fine if you've got to leave in the afternoon for an

00:45:08

hour or so and do a closing on our new home, that's okay.

00:45:11

Versus the old days, No, you can't leave once you're here you're

00:45:14

here. No, you can't use the company computers for anything that isn't

00:45:18

work related." No, you get now and I understand that there's a blend.

00:45:22

And also on the other side, he said, "When you're at home, you're

00:45:24

going to be answering emails, you're going to be doing texts to

00:45:27

people, you're going to be having planning sessions and thinking when

00:45:31

the kids go to bed and ..."

00:45:33

And I thought that probably is an illustration that's more real to

00:45:36

life. But I kind of long for the old days of balance, if that's where

00:45:40

we're going.

00:45:41

Because the blend gets rid of the "&".

00:45:44

At least with a balance scale, there's two distinctly separate

00:45:49

things. Once you mash your life up into one omelet where all of your

00:45:53

play is your work and your work is your play, I'm telling your

00:45:56

friends it doesn't work.

00:45:58

It doesn't. These are two entirely different things and we need to

00:46:04

excel at purpose and we need to excel at play.

00:46:08

And some of us are excelling at play and you're gonna get smacked in

00:46:11

the mouth with purpose.

00:46:13

And some of us are excelling at play and you're going to get a kick

00:46:17

in the rear from your God.

00:46:18

Yes, God is going to kick you in the rear about play.

00:46:21

He's going to say to you, "I'm not happy that my son, my child, my

00:46:24

daughter is not having fun.".

00:46:26

No -- no parent likes to see their kids studying all the time.

00:46:32

They don't. If we don't steer a kid in the play box, sandbox every

00:46:36

once in a while or playing a sport or something,

00:46:39

we go, "What is wrong with Jill?

00:46:41

What is wrong with Bernard?

00:46:43

What is wrong here?

00:46:44

They're never -- they're never smiling.

00:46:47

They're they're never happy."

00:46:48

We need to embrace the "&".

00:46:52

And this is what I love about my God, your God, our God is that He

00:46:58

embraces the "&".

00:46:59

He lives it, and he actually commands it.

00:47:02

In the Book of Exodus 31, here's what he says: Above all, you shall

00:47:07

keep my Sabbath -- now the Sabbath is one day out of seven for the

00:47:11

ancient Jews where they were to not work at all.

00:47:14

Play is part of Sabbath.

00:47:16

I'm not going to say the play is Sabbath.

00:47:19

It can be. It can be part of it.

00:47:21

For the purposes of today and much of the other stuff I'm equating

00:47:25

oftentimes Sabbath to play, but Sabbath, there's activities that

00:47:29

happen in Sabbath that aren't necessarily play.

00:47:31

But just hang with me for a moment.

00:47:57

I love I have a God that says, "If you work seven days, I will kill

00:48:01

you." I'm serious, that's what God says.

00:48:05

He says, if you have purpose seven days, if you can't slow down and

00:48:09

do nothing. If you think everything revolves around you, you or me

00:48:13

are not good. If you're not checking out and doing nothing

00:48:17

purposeful. You have a problem with me."

00:48:19

That's awesome. Why do we think that God smite us for bad things?

00:48:23

That's a good thing Gods smites us for.

00:48:25

God still smites maybe.

00:48:26

Maybe he's going to smite some of us if we don't get our rear in gear

00:48:29

and start playing more often.

00:48:31

Because play only happens when we're off.

00:48:34

Play doesn't happen when we're trying to close the sale.

00:48:37

Play doesn't happen when I'm trying to put together the message, when

00:48:40

I'm trying to put together the sermon.

00:48:42

It doesn't.

00:48:44

It doesn't at all.

00:48:46

We need to, two things, I'm going to keep saying these over and over,

00:48:49

live playfully.

00:48:52

Let me give you another verse. This is a description from Jesus, this

00:48:55

is from the message translation.

00:48:57

Here's what Jesus says:

00:49:35

Aww, that just kind of feels good, doesn't it?

00:49:37

There's just a, there's a lightness, there's a playfulness to it.

00:49:41

We need to get more playful, friends.

00:49:44

Maybe that's one of the reason people get out of churches so much.

00:49:46

We're just not very playful.

00:49:47

We're always serious, we're upset.

00:49:50

We're all about (growls) raising the standard and (growls)...

00:49:55

Oh, man. What happens if we just live lightly, be a little free?

00:50:00

And what happens if we live purposefully?

00:50:02

The same person, Jesus, who says live freely and lightly, he says:.

00:50:18

It's like, well, wait a minute, where's the -- where's the live

00:50:21

lightly guy? Jesus, "You know how I get nourished?

00:50:25

I get nourished by being on purpose.

00:50:26

I get nourished by doing the work of God.

00:50:28

(indisernable) Wait.

00:50:30

Who are you? Are you live lightly guy?

00:50:32

Are you live freely guy?

00:50:34

Or are you get the work done, guy?

00:50:39

He's both. That's why he did what he did in 33 years.

00:50:42

That's why you'd have no understanding at all of how somebody from 30

00:50:47

to 33 could literally change the world like He did.

00:50:52

That we would date time after Him.

00:50:53

That He would be known as the greatest teacher ever.

00:50:56

That even atheists can't find anything wrong with His character.

00:51:00

How did he do this?

00:51:02

Part of how he did this was He embraced the "&".

00:51:06

He had purpose and He had worked.

00:51:08

So much work that he stretch himself out in a Cross and died.

00:51:11

So "&" -- "&" he was funny.

00:51:15

There's been books written about the humor of Jesus.

00:51:17

We don't get it because he had this weird first century Jewish humor

00:51:22

that we didn't get, but he was actually a very funny guy.

00:51:26

He was playful.

00:51:28

He let his hair down.

00:51:30

He kept the Sabbath, I think, I think.

00:51:36

Most of us in here are stuck in a rut.

00:51:39

You're stuck in a rut of purpose, trying to have everything have

00:51:42

meaning, trying to have everything have a point.

00:51:44

Trying to have everything build digits in your account.

00:51:47

Trying to have everything add value to something that you're stuck in

00:51:50

a rut there. Or you're stuck in a rut of only working so you can get

00:51:54

to the weekend. (singing) Everybody's working for the week.

00:51:58

Lover boy. You're hoping, you're just waiting for the weekend.

00:52:01

You're waiting to retire.

00:52:03

You're at your desk and you're dreaming about whatever.

00:52:06

You're you're just playing.

00:52:08

You're trying to fix. And here's the one for all of us if we're in

00:52:10

either one of these ruts, all I want us to do is just go like this.

00:52:15

Let's try the other rut this next five weeks.

00:52:18

Let's just -- let's stretch ourselves, because this rut where we are

00:52:23

is not stretching us.

00:52:26

It's killing us.

00:52:27

In fact, that's what a rut is.

00:52:29

It's a grave with the ends kicked out.

00:52:32

And we have lifeless looks on our face all over the country.

00:52:36

We have a lack of zeal, lack of zest, the lack of excitement for what

00:52:41

might be coming down the pike with our life.

00:52:43

And the reason why we're not more successful in our purpose very well

00:52:48

may be that we're not keeping Sabbath.

00:52:52

And the reason why our Sabbath, our play might not be so fresh is

00:52:56

because we can't identify the last time we were purposeful.

00:53:00

We can't. Can you?

00:53:01

Can you identify last year what's something you did last year that

00:53:06

still enduring and you're thankful you did last year?

00:53:10

You can't take us up like that, you might have a purpose outage.

00:53:14

Can you think of something you did last summer where you just lost

00:53:19

time, you lost yourself in it.

00:53:22

Can you think of something last summer?

00:53:24

If not, you may have to play outage.

00:53:26

If you can't have memories of either of those, boy, the enemy has

00:53:31

stolen from you.

00:53:33

He's stolen from you and God wants to steal you back.

00:53:37

He what -- He's not happy unless he sees somebody, one of his

00:53:42

children who has life, who has abundant life.

00:53:46

Last week, I was, um, I had -- I gave 9 different talks over five

00:53:53

days. Over a five day period I gave nine different talks.

00:53:55

And I must say I pretty much nailed them.

00:53:59

I've got to hand it to myself.

00:54:02

I got a hand it to myself. I actually know one of them not so much

00:54:07

thought. At least eight out of the nine I did really, really well.

00:54:10

And do you know why I was able to do that?

00:54:12

Is hard. I know when someone gets on stage, if they do it a lot, you

00:54:16

go, "Oh, that guy, that woman makes it look easy."

00:54:19

But there's a lot, a lot of work that goes into it.

00:54:22

It's crazy right now my adrenal glands are open right now.

00:54:26

And I'm doing everything I can to read a crowd and to anticipate what

00:54:30

you're thinking and try to sense what I need to do to keep your

00:54:33

attention. And I'm trying to be aware of how I'm getting physically

00:54:36

engaged. I'm burning serious calories running.

00:54:39

I'm telling it as it is full on full contact, all of it, mental,

00:54:43

emotional. How did I possibly over five days create and give nine

00:54:50

different talks? Because the week before that, I did nothing.

00:54:58

That's why the week before that I played.

00:55:00

The week before that I didn't think about anything that was going to

00:55:03

say. Play is when you lose yourself in what you're doing.

00:55:07

I was camping. I was out west.

00:55:09

I was a total different place.

00:55:11

And so when I hit purpose, boom, I had fresh stuff that was just

00:55:14

there in the tank.

00:55:16

This is the beauty of when we bring these two things close together,

00:55:22

separated by an "&". The Bible says 3100 times it talks about

00:55:27

prosperity. Thirty one hundred times,.

00:55:32

I have to tell you, I have to tell you when I look in the face of the

00:55:35

average person I bump into every day, not seeing prosperity.

00:55:40

When I look into the life of the average person I know, I'm not

00:55:44

seeing abundance.

00:55:45

I'm not seeing joy.

00:55:47

I'm not-- I'm not-- I'm not seeing it.

00:55:48

I'm just not. In Genesis 1:28, the last verse I'll share with you:

00:56:01

There should be a multiplying aspect of your life.

00:56:05

There should be a fruitfulness on our life.

00:56:08

It should be there.

00:56:10

I just want to ask you: where else?

00:56:12

Where else are you going to go and anywhere in culture where someone

00:56:16

is going to help you find your purpose?

00:56:19

Where would that be? Where would that be?

00:56:21

Where are you going to go?

00:56:23

Anywhere in culture where someone is going to give you a theological,

00:56:27

a practical, an encouragement, understanding of playing and

00:56:32

disconnecting and acting like a little kid again?

00:56:36

You can't get either one of those, let alone both of those.

00:56:38

Buy you can get them in this Journey.

00:56:40

Friends, I'm telling you right now, life is going to come back to

00:56:44

your faith if you take this Journey seriously.

00:56:46

I 'm telling you right now, if you push yourself and do the things

00:56:51

that we've laid out, and we've prayed about this.

00:56:53

We were working on us for a year and a half.

00:56:55

If you will do everything that we're encouraging you to do and get

00:56:59

engaged relationally, digitally, tactilely, prayerfully,

00:57:04

worshipfully. All the things that we have, I'm telling you, I'm

00:57:07

telling, I'm telling you you have a greater shot at feeling

00:57:11

prosperous, of feeling abundant life in you than anything else you

00:57:15

could possibly do in the next five weeks,.

00:57:17

I promise you, you cannot think of anything.

00:57:20

And there's nothing you can plan.

00:57:22

Nothing you can research to have a greater shot at giving you a shot

00:57:26

in the arm than what we've got planned for you the next few weeks.

00:57:28

There's nothing else that you can think of that you can look for that

00:57:32

you're going to have full program for six months and you don't have

00:57:34

to pay for it that's meant to charge you up spiritually, that's meant

00:57:38

to get you to your God.

00:57:40

How often you get that choice, how often you get that chance.

00:57:44

Take advantage of this, friends.

00:57:45

I'm telling you, take advantage of this.

00:57:48

We don't get anything from you.

00:57:50

We want nothing from you.

00:57:52

We want something for you.

00:57:55

When nothing from you wants something for you, we want for you to

00:57:59

prosper, to feel life, to smile again, to have focus again.

00:58:07

That's what your dad wants.

00:58:10

God, I thank you for being a God who isn't an ogre, who isn't a slave

00:58:15

driver. You want your children to enjoy life, to take a break, to

00:58:21

take a Sabbath. And thank you for being a God that includes us in

00:58:26

Your work and wants to put us on a path to be productive.

00:58:31

You're amazing that both of those things reside inside of Your mind

00:58:35

and reside inside of Your call for us.

00:58:38

So help us encounter that.

00:58:40

Lead us to the right groups in the next two weeks.

00:58:44

Most importantly, lead us to you.

00:58:45

And I praise things according to the name of Jesus.

00:58:48

Amen. >> Well, hey, guys, we are in it, the Play & Purpose Journey

00:58:55

has begun. So make sure you get in a group this week.

00:58:59

If you're not already in one, there are groups meeting in homes and

00:59:03

coffee shops and even online.

00:59:04

So you can head to Crossroads.net/journey

00:59:07

to get in a group right now.

00:59:10

Your first group meeting happens next week.

00:59:13

And if you live near a Crossroads location, you want to get into that

00:59:16

Crossroads location to pick up a Journey Guide.

00:59:19

Journey Guide.

00:59:20

Is it upside down? I can't tell.

00:59:22

Pick up a Journey Guide in that location if you live near one.

00:59:27

If you don't live near a Crossroads location, you're part of the

00:59:29

Crossroads anywhere community.

00:59:31

You're getting your guides mailed to your group leader and they will

00:59:37

be able to give these to you at your first group meeting.

00:59:40

Don't forget, download the Crossroads app to get more.

00:59:44

And we will see you next week for week two of Play & Purpose.

	Worship	8:47
	Community Life	17:09
	Message	24:03

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