What Are You Afraid Of? | The Adventurous Life Week 4

Fear will always stand in the way of the adventurous life that God has for you. Today Alli shows us how to push through that fear and take the “ride of your life.”

  • 00:00:00
    Life with God doesn't have to be boring.
  • 00:00:02
    You were made for adventure.
  • 00:00:04
    It can be a pulse pumping, heart pounding life of purpose.
  • 00:00:07
    Join us every weekend for 30 minutes of challenge, hope
  • 00:00:11
    and encouragement to guide you on your spiritual adventure.
  • 00:00:16
    - Hey, I'm Kyle, one of the teaching pastors at Crossroads.
  • 00:00:19
    Welcome to Crossroads Church.
  • 00:00:21
    We're in a series called The Adventurous Life,
  • 00:00:23
    where we're digging into the full, adventurous life
  • 00:00:26
    that God has designed for each of us.
  • 00:00:29
    Now, to get that adventurous life, everyone must face and overcome fear.
  • 00:00:35
    Think about this for a moment. You know this.
  • 00:00:37
    Every great movie that you love, the hero, the main character
  • 00:00:41
    must face and overcome a fear from classics like Harry Potter
  • 00:00:44
    and Star Wars, the soon to be classics
  • 00:00:46
    like Eurovision, Will Ferrell's new movie,
  • 00:00:48
    you must face and overcome a fear, and your life is no different.
  • 00:00:52
    Today, we're gonna hear from Alli Patterson about how to,
  • 00:00:56
    with God's help, face and overcome fear. Let's get started.
  • 00:01:07
    - The first time I was ever on a horse was my last semester in college.
  • 00:01:11
    I had some random credit I needed to graduate on time
  • 00:01:14
    and for whatever reason, horseback riding fulfilled that credit.
  • 00:01:18
    So I signed up for a little adventure.
  • 00:01:20
    My name is Alli Patterson,
  • 00:01:22
    I'm one of the teaching pastors here at Crossroads.
  • 00:01:24
    And I am still no horseback rider.
  • 00:01:27
    I walked into that class on the first day and I had a vision.
  • 00:01:31
    I had a vision of like a Derby style horse
  • 00:01:34
    that ate an apple out of the palm of my hand
  • 00:01:37
    and just my hair was flowing in the breeze as I galloped through the meadows.
  • 00:01:41
    And then (record screeching) I met Holly.
  • 00:01:44
    I walked into the stall and there was this huge old white, stinky horse
  • 00:01:51
    and she bit me on the shoulder five minutes after I was in her stall.
  • 00:01:55
    The instructor actually said to me,
  • 00:01:58
    "Alli, you can't let her know that you're afraid."
  • 00:02:02
    And I left thinking, I didn't even know I was going to be afraid.
  • 00:02:06
    I wanted an adventure and I ran straight into fear instead.
  • 00:02:11
    And today we're gonna ask ourselves
  • 00:02:13
    how much do we really want an adventure for our life?
  • 00:02:16
    Because if you say yes to that,
  • 00:02:18
    then you are going to run smack into fear as well.
  • 00:02:21
    And fear has one job.
  • 00:02:23
    Fear's job is actually to keep you exactly where you are today,
  • 00:02:28
    to paralyze you and keep you from moving.
  • 00:02:32
    I felt this kind of fear as I watch my kids get in the car last week.
  • 00:02:36
    They were driving off for a weekend at their grandparents house.
  • 00:02:39
    And I felt that stab of fear,
  • 00:02:41
    that need to just kind of like grab 'em and bring 'em back to me.
  • 00:02:45
    And I just kept thinking, what if something happens to them
  • 00:02:48
    or what if there's an accident?
  • 00:02:49
    What if the grandparents are too old to drive them?
  • 00:02:52
    Maybe the risk just isn't worth it.
  • 00:02:56
    If we're going to live a life of adventure,
  • 00:02:58
    we are going to need to learn to expect those words,
  • 00:03:01
    "Maybe the risk just isn't worth it."
  • 00:03:03
    Fear loves those words, but if you wanted adventurous life,
  • 00:03:06
    you're going to have to hear those and decide to take a risk
  • 00:03:10
    right through fear and move anyway.
  • 00:03:14
    You know what? Not all fears actually are worth the risk, right?
  • 00:03:19
    We're not thrill seeking.
  • 00:03:20
    We're not swimming with sharks.
  • 00:03:22
    We're not doing what my son calls the duck and roll.
  • 00:03:24
    He's like, "Mom, Mom, mom, when we get in the driveway,
  • 00:03:27
    just slow the car down and I'm going to roll out."
  • 00:03:31
    And I'm like, "Not on my health insurance you're not."
  • 00:03:34
    He calls that the duck and roll.
  • 00:03:35
    That's not the kind of risk we're talking about today.
  • 00:03:39
    Today, we want to be able to identify the risks
  • 00:03:42
    that are sitting right in front of us
  • 00:03:45
    that have the ability to bring us closer to God.
  • 00:03:48
    And we want to push through those, even in the face of fear.
  • 00:03:51
    An adventurous life always has to push through fears to keep moving forward.
  • 00:03:58
    I actually picked out an adventure for my own life.
  • 00:04:01
    This adventure was all planned out.
  • 00:04:03
    I was going to go to Proctor and Gamble
  • 00:04:06
    and I was going to learn to run a business.
  • 00:04:08
    I was going to travel the world.
  • 00:04:09
    And that was my chosen adventure
  • 00:04:10
    and I actually got a job there out of school.
  • 00:04:13
    I got a passport.
  • 00:04:14
    I saw some pieces of the world I never thought I'd see.
  • 00:04:17
    I had a clear path ahead of me that was very appealing into the future.
  • 00:04:22
    And frankly, I thought running a business was pretty cool.
  • 00:04:26
    Right about this time in my life, too, though,
  • 00:04:29
    I decided to kind of reinvestigate who is this guy named Jesus?
  • 00:04:34
    And I started to rediscover what it might mean to actually follow Him.
  • 00:04:39
    And there were these two parts of me
  • 00:04:41
    that started this tug of war on the inside.
  • 00:04:43
    One part of me wanted to be tough and shrewd and say things like,
  • 00:04:47
    "I'm going to go to L.A. for a shoot next week."
  • 00:04:49
    And the other part of me was very uncomfortable,
  • 00:04:53
    like increasingly concerned that somehow, someway
  • 00:04:57
    I was in a place that I just shouldn't be.
  • 00:05:01
    And I'm not talking about those moments that we all have,
  • 00:05:04
    like when we come home and throw our bag down and go, "I hate my job."
  • 00:05:08
    It wasn't like that.
  • 00:05:09
    Actually, I think that God calls people
  • 00:05:12
    to all kinds of different jobs
  • 00:05:13
    in all kinds of different places all over the world.
  • 00:05:18
    But me, I went to P&G, not for God.
  • 00:05:21
    I went there for money, for success, for what I thought would be adventure.
  • 00:05:29
    I started to have these thoughts that maybe I should leave.
  • 00:05:32
    And I couldn't get rid of them.
  • 00:05:33
    They just kind of plagued me and I blew them off.
  • 00:05:36
    I was all, "no way. This is exactly what I worked for,
  • 00:05:39
    and also leave for what? To where?"
  • 00:05:44
    It turns out there's a guy in the Bible, his name's Abram,
  • 00:05:46
    and he faced exactly that question.
  • 00:05:48
    God comes into his life and you can read his story in Genesis 12:1:
  • 00:06:01
    Wait, what? That's it, God? Just go, leave?
  • 00:06:07
    You're not going to give me any more information
  • 00:06:08
    on the route, the destination? Just get up and go?
  • 00:06:12
    So I read his story and I thought, "Well, that's fine
  • 00:06:15
    for some big guy that ended up being important in the Bible,
  • 00:06:17
    but probably not me."
  • 00:06:20
    Then I read through the life of Jesus
  • 00:06:23
    and people would come around Him all the time
  • 00:06:25
    interested in what kind of adventure He was on,
  • 00:06:27
    because it's obvious He was.
  • 00:06:29
    And he would just issue an invitation.
  • 00:06:31
    He would say, "Come, follow me."
  • 00:06:34
    God seems to have some sort of pattern
  • 00:06:37
    calling us into adventures where He's the guide
  • 00:06:40
    and we need to go.
  • 00:06:42
    As I took the thoughts of leaving P&G a little bit more seriously,
  • 00:06:46
    the waves of fear started to hit.
  • 00:06:48
    You can imagine what these were.
  • 00:06:50
    This is what I'd plan to do with my life.
  • 00:06:52
    First wave of fear was something like, "You don't --
  • 00:06:55
    you don't really hear anything from God.
  • 00:06:57
    He's not really trying to give you any direction."
  • 00:07:00
    And then it was kind of, "Well, what if He is?
  • 00:07:03
    It's just some hard lesson He wants to teach you.
  • 00:07:05
    It's gonna be bad, unpleasant, some big cosmic rug pull."
  • 00:07:10
    Then a whole bunch of fears about
  • 00:07:13
    what am I actually going to do with my life if I --
  • 00:07:16
    if I'm not doing this, who am I?
  • 00:07:18
    What am I going to do? I want meaningful work.
  • 00:07:20
    And actually, what about all the money I've been making?
  • 00:07:24
    Am I just gonna be some big failure?"
  • 00:07:28
    Through all the wrestling, all I kept thinking
  • 00:07:31
    was those words that God said to Abram,
  • 00:07:33
    "Leave and go where I show you."
  • 00:07:35
    And when I finally decided to do that,
  • 00:07:37
    I walked into my boss's office on the last day
  • 00:07:40
    and she asked me a question that haunted me on the way out the door.
  • 00:07:43
    She said, "Alli, do you really know what you're doing?"
  • 00:07:47
    I did not know what I was doing.
  • 00:07:49
    No is the answer to that question,
  • 00:07:51
    but God was calling me to an adventure,
  • 00:07:54
    and I needed a push through the fear
  • 00:07:56
    of leaving behind what I had planned.
  • 00:07:59
    Is there something in your life that
  • 00:08:00
    you know you should be doing right now?
  • 00:08:03
    You just feel you should move through it,
  • 00:08:05
    but you can't quite bring yourself to push through the fear
  • 00:08:09
    of giving up what you'd always planned.
  • 00:08:13
    Or maybe you're actually the adventurous type by nature.
  • 00:08:16
    You're about to run some ultra marathon in Spain next month.
  • 00:08:19
    Well, you need to deal with the question,:
  • 00:08:21
    whose adventure are you on?
  • 00:08:25
    Is it God's adventure for you or is it your own?
  • 00:08:30
    Because God's invitation to His adventure for so many of us
  • 00:08:34
    is gonna start with the words: leave and go where I show you.
  • 00:08:41
    - I remember I graduated college.
  • 00:08:43
    I'm sitting in my room and the Lord was like, "It's time to go to LA."
  • 00:08:46
    The reality of, "I have no money."
  • 00:08:50
    And I'm sitting there like, "What am I going to do?"
  • 00:08:55
    So this fear of not knowing kind of set in.
  • 00:08:59
    I pushed through the fear though, and I went.
  • 00:09:03
    Man, like I've been trying to get a job out here.
  • 00:09:06
    I was trying to chase this dream of doing music and acting and everything.
  • 00:09:10
    This is all new to me. What am I doing?
  • 00:09:13
    And so I started booking commercials and God showed me in a moment
  • 00:09:17
    like, "Hey, I know you're afraid, but I still take care of you.
  • 00:09:22
    Like, I still got you. Don't worry about it."
  • 00:09:24
    It taught me that even a yes, it's okay to still be afraid.
  • 00:09:29
    And I was able to to do movies
  • 00:09:31
    and making more money than I ever made in my life.
  • 00:09:34
    So fast forward, you know, it's like 2017 and things are good, you know.
  • 00:09:40
    Got a place to live. My career's going great, still got a job.
  • 00:09:44
    And the Lord was like, "You're going to leave."
  • 00:09:50
    "I'm going to do what? Leave. I just just got here.
  • 00:09:55
    Like, things are going good. Like, no complaints.
  • 00:09:58
    Things aren't perfect, but I'm making things work.
  • 00:10:02
    Now you telling me I'm about to go?
  • 00:10:05
    Come on now. Jesus, like we supposed to be homies.
  • 00:10:07
    We supposed to be friends, boys. Like, come on, man."
  • 00:10:13
    And that fear set in again of what am I going to do when I get there?
  • 00:10:19
    I come back to Cincinnati.
  • 00:10:21
    That fear of like of society saying what a man is
  • 00:10:26
    started setting in like I don't -- I can't provide,
  • 00:10:29
    help my family the way I want to.
  • 00:10:32
    Like what am I gonna do?
  • 00:10:34
    You know, I'm filling out applications literally every day.
  • 00:10:38
    I'm not getting a call back. I don't know why.
  • 00:10:43
    What's coming next?
  • 00:10:45
    And I want to know.
  • 00:10:47
    I remember I got a phone call from Delta Airlines
  • 00:10:51
    and it was like, "Hey, we want to bring you in for interview."
  • 00:10:55
    I was like, "Yes, please, let's do it. I need the money."
  • 00:10:59
    That was February of this year.
  • 00:11:03
    And here we are in the middle of a pandemic
  • 00:11:05
    and I'm still able to provide for myself, my family,
  • 00:11:10
    my loved ones, and pay my tithe on top of that.
  • 00:11:13
    It proved to me that just because I say yes
  • 00:11:19
    doesn't mean everything is going to go the way I want them to go.
  • 00:11:23
    Even to this day, I'm still afraid because
  • 00:11:27
    I don't know what's going to happen next
  • 00:11:28
    in the middle of this pandemic.
  • 00:11:30
    I don't know if I'm going to have a job come September.
  • 00:11:34
    But what I do know is the same God who got me through L.A.,
  • 00:11:40
    got me through this job,
  • 00:11:42
    and got me here right now is still with me.
  • 00:11:47
    And it's okay to be afraid.
  • 00:11:51
    You just can't let the fear stop you from saying yes
  • 00:11:55
    and still moving.
  • 00:12:01
    - You know, God at many times in my life called me to face fear
  • 00:12:05
    to bring me to a new place.
  • 00:12:07
    Whether it was something like facing the fear of dating
  • 00:12:10
    and asking a girl out for the first time,
  • 00:12:12
    or the fear of quitting my job and moving across the country
  • 00:12:15
    to go work at a place called Crossroads,
  • 00:12:17
    where now it's my job to help you on your adventure.
  • 00:12:20
    In fact, if you want, you can text ADVENTURE20 to 313131
  • 00:12:25
    and we'll send you inspiring and challenging texts
  • 00:12:28
    throughout the week to help you on your adventure.
  • 00:12:31
    Now, one of the adventures that God calls each of us to
  • 00:12:34
    is the adventure around money.
  • 00:12:36
    And there's a lot of fear in it, not fear of having money so much,
  • 00:12:38
    but the fear of the money leaving our wallet that moment.
  • 00:12:43
    It's one that God wants to help each of us through.
  • 00:12:45
    And the way He does it is He asks us to trust Him with our money.
  • 00:12:50
    Now that looks like giving 10% of your income to our local church.
  • 00:12:54
    If that's something you want to do
  • 00:12:55
    or something you want to know more about,
  • 00:12:57
    you go to Crossroads.net/give
  • 00:12:59
    or you can text CROSSROADS to 313131.
  • 00:13:04
    Let's hear some stories of people's adventures in our own community.
  • 00:13:14
    - I'm Melissa and I'm a nurse.
  • 00:13:17
    Taking care of others is my adventure.
  • 00:13:20
    - I'm Faith. I volunteer at Woman's Camp.
  • 00:13:21
    Taking others to new places is my adventure.
  • 00:13:25
    - I'm Jairus. I lead a small group.
  • 00:13:26
    Investing in others is my adventure.
  • 00:13:28
    - I'm Melissa. I'm a college student.
  • 00:13:30
    Learning as my adventure.
  • 00:13:32
    - I'm Kirk. I'm a foster parent.
  • 00:13:34
    Supporting families in crisis is my adventure.
  • 00:13:37
    - I'm Reece and I started a charity.
  • 00:13:39
    Caring for the homeless is my adventure.
  • 00:13:42
    - I'm Regina and I'm a newlywed.
  • 00:13:44
    Building a strong marriage is my adventure.
  • 00:13:46
    - I'm Calvin. I'm a business professional.
  • 00:13:49
    And building a career is my adventure.
  • 00:13:51
    - I'm Margo. I volunteer in Kids' Club.
  • 00:13:54
    And teaching the future is my adventure.
  • 00:13:56
    - I'm Thandiwe and I volunteer at Student Ministry.
  • 00:13:58
    And leading teens is my adventure.
  • 00:14:00
    - I'm Juanita and I lead GO Trips.
  • 00:14:03
    Taking faith to all the corners of the earth is my adventure.
  • 00:14:17
    - When I got pregnant with my second baby,
  • 00:14:19
    I had no idea that God, me, and fear
  • 00:14:23
    were about to have another confrontation.
  • 00:14:26
    My husband and I started a conversation about
  • 00:14:28
    whether it just might make sense practically
  • 00:14:30
    based on where we both were in our work and life at that point,
  • 00:14:34
    to maybe consider me staying home and taking care of
  • 00:14:37
    at home what would be two pretty young babies.
  • 00:14:40
    And I was game for what might work for us,
  • 00:14:42
    but to be honest, this was not on my list
  • 00:14:45
    of life adventures that I was looking forward to.
  • 00:14:48
    It actually kind of went against some of the ways
  • 00:14:51
    that I saw myself,
  • 00:14:52
    probably the most important of which was independent.
  • 00:14:56
    I was kind of used to having my own thing going on.
  • 00:14:59
    And as we started to discuss what might be best,
  • 00:15:02
    it kind of hit me that I would be more dependent than ever on Bill.
  • 00:15:06
    We would sort of be putting all the eggs in the basket
  • 00:15:09
    of our marriage for maybe the first time.
  • 00:15:11
    And did we really want to put life together
  • 00:15:14
    to intentionally and only function as a team?
  • 00:15:17
    Would I be enough for him and two small babies
  • 00:15:21
    and would he really come through for me?
  • 00:15:24
    The truth is, I was afraid of that kind of dependence.
  • 00:15:28
    I think a lot of us have been hurt
  • 00:15:30
    when we've depended on the wrong person,
  • 00:15:32
    we've invested in the wrong place,
  • 00:15:35
    we've trusted the wrong people.
  • 00:15:36
    And maybe you, like I have, have a moment in your past
  • 00:15:39
    where you can look back and think,
  • 00:15:42
    "I guess I can really only rely on what I can do for myself."
  • 00:15:47
    When I'm up on the horse,
  • 00:15:49
    dependence was actually part of my fear of doing that.
  • 00:15:53
    I would be completely dependent on the behavior
  • 00:15:55
    of this thing that I wasn't sure I could control.
  • 00:15:58
    What if he doesn't do what I say?
  • 00:16:01
    What if he kicks me in the face when I'm in the stall?
  • 00:16:03
    What if he throws me to the ground?
  • 00:16:04
    Or what if we take off running and I can't control him?
  • 00:16:09
    The adventurous life with God is actually just like this.
  • 00:16:13
    It's a life of total dependence upon a God that we can't control.
  • 00:16:19
    Sometimes I know I think it feels better to opt
  • 00:16:23
    for what's manageable, what I can compartmentalize,
  • 00:16:26
    what I can keep my hands around.
  • 00:16:28
    But I'm telling you today, your adventure
  • 00:16:30
    will only be as big as you let your God be.
  • 00:16:34
    And for far too many of us, our picture of God is way too small.
  • 00:16:40
    As a matter of fact, I know what size it is.
  • 00:16:43
    The size of adventure that most of us are living
  • 00:16:46
    is about the size of what we think we can handle.
  • 00:16:52
    There was a guy named Moses in the Bible
  • 00:16:54
    who God came and invited into a huge adventure.
  • 00:16:58
    God shows up in a Moses's life, and he says, "Guess what?
  • 00:17:02
    I have a big adventure for you.
  • 00:17:03
    I want you to be my guy that goes into Egypt,
  • 00:17:06
    talks to Pharaoh,
  • 00:17:07
    and gets him to let all of my people out of slavery,
  • 00:17:10
    the entire nation.
  • 00:17:11
    We're just gonna go get them out of slavery."
  • 00:17:14
    And Moses, right then, he needed a bigger picture of God too.
  • 00:17:19
    Listen to what he says to God in Exodus 3
  • 00:17:22
    after this big invitation to this amazing adventure:
  • 00:17:39
    Five little words: I will be with you.
  • 00:17:43
    Moses was all, "Really, God? How's this going to work?
  • 00:17:46
    Are you -- Are you sure it's me?"
  • 00:17:48
    And God says, "I'll tell you what. Here's our big plan.
  • 00:17:52
    Ready for the strategy? I'm going with you."
  • 00:17:57
    When I first started to stay home with the kids
  • 00:18:01
    I told God the same thing.
  • 00:18:03
    I said, "It doesn't seem like this is going to work very well.
  • 00:18:05
    Are you sure you meant me?"
  • 00:18:08
    I really did think He was behind this decision.
  • 00:18:10
    I actually thought He was in favor of me doing this in my life.
  • 00:18:14
    And I couldn't figure out why, at least until the moment
  • 00:18:18
    I heard it come out of my very own mouth.
  • 00:18:19
    Do you ever do the thing where you go, "Yeah, I heard it.
  • 00:18:22
    I heard it"?
  • 00:18:24
    I did that the day that I grabbed Bill by the shoulders.
  • 00:18:28
    And we'd been struggling to put a life together
  • 00:18:29
    that we were both kind of happy and satisfied with.
  • 00:18:32
    And I grabbed his shoulders and I said to him,
  • 00:18:34
    "Listen to me.
  • 00:18:35
    I know that I've been sending you all kinds of messages
  • 00:18:40
    in big and small ways for years, that I've got this,
  • 00:18:43
    that I can do it by myself.
  • 00:18:45
    But the truth is, I can't. I need you."
  • 00:18:50
    Bingo.
  • 00:18:52
    It was the biggest thing that God did for me
  • 00:18:54
    in the seven years that I stayed home with my kids.
  • 00:18:57
    And just like Bill and I had to learn what it meant
  • 00:19:00
    to put life together as a team, to go on an adventure
  • 00:19:04
    where we could only operate dependent on one another,
  • 00:19:07
    that's exactly the kind of relationship
  • 00:19:09
    that God invites you and me into.
  • 00:19:12
    He wants us to operate that exact same way with Him.
  • 00:19:16
    So where are you holding out?
  • 00:19:19
    Where are you refusing to rely on God?
  • 00:19:22
    Or maybe you're refusing to rely on others.
  • 00:19:24
    Whatever it -- wherever that is in your life,
  • 00:19:26
    that is the place that will limit the size of your adventure.
  • 00:19:39
    - How are you?
  • 00:19:40
    It's nice to meet you.
  • 00:19:41
    - Am I allowed to touch her?
  • 00:19:43
    - You can touch her everywhere.
  • 00:19:44
    - OK. Do I go in front of her, behind her?
  • 00:19:46
    - You can come around right to the front.
  • 00:19:48
    - Yeah.
  • 00:19:50
    - Perfect. And come right around the back of the horse
  • 00:19:54
    as you're touching her.
  • 00:19:55
    Yep, keep touching her. There you go.
  • 00:19:58
    - I'm glad you're confident.
  • 00:20:00
    - Do you feel good?
  • 00:20:02
    - I don't feel bad.
  • 00:20:05
    - Paula says she's kind of a small horse,
  • 00:20:08
    but she still seems big to me.
  • 00:20:09
    I'm nervous I'm going to hurt her.
  • 00:20:11
    - Oh, no, you're not. I promise you.
  • 00:20:15
    Nicely done.
  • 00:20:18
    - Fear always wants to tell us that we need to see
  • 00:20:21
    all the pieces laid out before us of our adventure
  • 00:20:24
    before we start to move.
  • 00:20:26
    Man, as a planner -- Whoa, whoa, whoa, Candy.
  • 00:20:30
    Let's go, walk on.
  • 00:20:32
    As a planner, I would love to know
  • 00:20:34
    where this horse is even going right now.
  • 00:20:35
    Keep going. Let's go.
  • 00:20:38
    But God just doesn't work like that.
  • 00:20:41
    He doesn't lay out all the pieces of our adventure
  • 00:20:43
    before we even take the first step.
  • 00:20:45
    The adventurous life -- Whoa, Candy --
  • 00:20:48
    actually starts to unfold as we move.
  • 00:20:51
    When I'm up on this horse I remember from school
  • 00:20:55
    when I took horseback riding, I remember
  • 00:20:57
    I actually feel better on the horse.
  • 00:20:59
    You couldn't tell it now, but I can --
  • 00:21:02
    I can feel her. I can see her.
  • 00:21:03
    I can talk to her in a new way.
  • 00:21:06
    And I can actually gently guide her with the easiest commands.
  • 00:21:10
    Unlike in the stall, where if I tried to move this horse,
  • 00:21:13
    she would go absolutely nowhere.
  • 00:21:15
    But up here I can ask her to stop with a little whoa
  • 00:21:20
    and then I can ask her to go again.
  • 00:21:22
    Let's walk on.
  • 00:21:24
    She can hear me and see me as we move together.
  • 00:21:26
    You know, a couple years ago --
  • 00:21:28
    Let's walk a little slower, babe.
  • 00:21:30
    A couple years ago, I was debating a decision in my own life.
  • 00:21:34
    Whoa.
  • 00:21:35
    And I didn't know which way to go because I couldn't see the end.
  • 00:21:38
    I wanted the end laid out before me.
  • 00:21:40
    I wanted to know which path should I walk down and why,
  • 00:21:42
    and have all the pieces arranged.
  • 00:21:44
    And it was really about going back to school.
  • 00:21:46
    I wanted to go back because I wanted to teach
  • 00:21:49
    as well as I possibly could.
  • 00:21:50
    And I kind of thought, I'm going to need some help.
  • 00:21:53
    I'm going to need some more education for this.
  • 00:21:55
    And when I applied to seminary, I realized
  • 00:21:58
    I need the recommendation of my senior pastor.
  • 00:22:00
    So I made a -- I made an appointment.
  • 00:22:02
    I went to see Brian.
  • 00:22:03
    And we've known each other for years,
  • 00:22:04
    so I just talked to him about some of my uncertainty,
  • 00:22:07
    thinking I don't even know if I want to get a degree,
  • 00:22:09
    and if so, which one and all of that.
  • 00:22:11
    And he said, "Yes, I'm happy to write your recommendation
  • 00:22:14
    if you decide you want to do it."
  • 00:22:15
    And I got up to leave his office
  • 00:22:16
    and he kind of called out after me.
  • 00:22:18
    He said to me, "Hey, Al."
  • 00:22:21
    And I turned around and he said, "Don't forget,
  • 00:22:23
    it's always easier for God to steer a moving ship."
  • 00:22:27
    And I walked out thinking, "Huh?
  • 00:22:29
    It's always easier for God to steer a moving ship."
  • 00:22:33
    Those words gave me the freedom that I needed
  • 00:22:35
    to actually make a move without knowing the end.
  • 00:22:38
    It didn't mean something was wrong.
  • 00:22:40
    It just meant that God was only going to take me the first step
  • 00:22:43
    until I moved with Him.
  • 00:22:46
    Every time we see the real faith at work in the Bible,
  • 00:22:50
    that's always what happens.
  • 00:22:52
    God is not going to lay out the steps.
  • 00:22:54
    Our adventure is going to unfold as we move.
  • 00:22:58
    Let's go.
  • 00:23:05
    The adventurists life is really a life of real faith.
  • 00:23:09
    And faith is just the willingness to risk something real
  • 00:23:13
    on God himself, on the plans of God,
  • 00:23:16
    on the character of God, on the reality of God,
  • 00:23:20
    on His ability to care for you, on His desire to love you.
  • 00:23:25
    I want to encourage you today
  • 00:23:26
    that if you don't have any history with God,
  • 00:23:28
    you don't feel like you know Him,
  • 00:23:30
    you don't feel like you have a relationship with Him,
  • 00:23:33
    that the first move of faith is always the hardest.
  • 00:23:37
    And as we move, we meet a God who not only has good plans for us,
  • 00:23:41
    He has an adventure that He wants to share.
  • 00:23:45
    I've met a lot of people who say they have faith,
  • 00:23:48
    but have never put anything on the line with God.
  • 00:23:50
    They've never actually risked a job or relationship,
  • 00:23:54
    any of their money or anything.
  • 00:23:55
    And that is not real faith.
  • 00:23:59
    You want to know how to find the adventure that God has for you?
  • 00:24:03
    I can tell you how.
  • 00:24:05
    You look at the risk in front of you right now
  • 00:24:08
    and push through the fear, risking something
  • 00:24:11
    on the reality of a God
  • 00:24:13
    who's going to go on that adventure with you.
  • 00:24:19
    So what is it?
  • 00:24:20
    What is the risk that you're thinking of right now,
  • 00:24:23
    the one you know would lead to the first step
  • 00:24:26
    on an adventure for you,
  • 00:24:28
    the one you wish God would tell you more about,
  • 00:24:30
    the one you'd love to have the plan all laid out for.
  • 00:24:34
    And do you know? Can you see what the fear is
  • 00:24:37
    that's trying to paralyze you and hold you
  • 00:24:40
    exactly where you are today?
  • 00:24:42
    You don't have to get it right. You really don't.
  • 00:24:45
    You don't have to see the end.
  • 00:24:46
    All you have to do is know that God thinks
  • 00:24:51
    it's a lot easier to steer a moving ship.
  • 00:24:54
    I want you to remember 2 Corinthians 5:7, maybe even memorize it.
  • 00:24:59
    It says:
  • 00:25:04
    That doesn't mean we check our brains at the door
  • 00:25:06
    or we don't want counsel or wisdom to go with us.
  • 00:25:08
    It just means that we're not afraid to take a step
  • 00:25:12
    not knowing the end, because we have a God who is going with us,
  • 00:25:16
    who wants a better adventure for our life
  • 00:25:18
    than anything we could ask or imagine for ourselves.
  • 00:25:22
    Let's go.
  • 00:25:38
    - One of the best ways to tell God
  • 00:25:40
    that you want to be in motion towards Him
  • 00:25:43
    is to simply talk to Him.
  • 00:25:44
    And you can do that through songs
  • 00:25:46
    like the one we're about to sing right now.
  • 00:25:47
    This is words that God said to a guy named Joshua
  • 00:25:50
    thousands of years ago, but they're the same ones
  • 00:25:52
    He says to you and I right now.
  • 00:25:54
    He says, "Be strong, take courage.
  • 00:25:56
    I'm on the adventure with you."
  • 00:25:59
    Let's sing these words together right now.
  • 00:35:39
    - Don't let your adventure stop here.
  • 00:35:41
    If you want, remember you can text ADVENTURE20 to 313131
  • 00:35:45
    to receive encouraging and challenging texts throughout the week.
  • 00:35:49
    Or if you're ready for more than that, you can get a guide,
  • 00:35:51
    someone to help you on your journey, answer questions,
  • 00:35:54
    help you take your next step, and even pray for you.
  • 00:35:57
    If that's something you're interested, you can go to
  • 00:35:59
    Crossroads.net/adventure and chat with us.
  • 00:36:02
    Or if this message has impacted you
  • 00:36:04
    and you want to help other people experienced that,
  • 00:36:07
    you can give the support us and support this message,
  • 00:36:09
    you can go to Crossroads.net/give to do that.
  • 00:36:13
    Next week are going to continue in our series,
  • 00:36:15
    The Adventurous Life.
  • 00:36:16
    Brian's going to be talking to us about
  • 00:36:18
    how adventurous people change the world literally
  • 00:36:22
    and not just talk about it, but actually give each of us
  • 00:36:25
    an opportunity to do exactly that next week.
  • 00:36:28
    You're not going to want to miss it.
  • 00:36:29
    Lastly, you can stay tuned right now
  • 00:36:32
    to hear about how you can connect to people around you.
  • 00:36:36
    - Crossroads has communities all across the country
  • 00:36:39
    and I want to help you get connected.
  • 00:36:41
    I'm Greg Aukerman and I lead the online church team
  • 00:36:43
    whose job is to do exactly that.
  • 00:36:46
    I'd love to help you find your people,
  • 00:36:47
    get support and prayer
  • 00:36:49
    and take your next step on your spiritual adventure.
  • 00:36:52
    Connect with us at Crossroads.net/onlinecommunity.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend Follow Up.

  1. Ok, you daredevils. It’s story time. What’s the wildest adventure you’ve ever been on? No rails — you get to define your adventure here.

  2. Read Genesis 12:1. Put yourself in Abram’s shoes, and imagine God is saying this to you now. How do you feel towards God for asking this of you? How would you respond to Him?

  3. God’s likely inviting each of us into a new adventure. Take two minutes of silence to listen for God. You probably don’t have the details, but share with the group what you think this next adventure is. (Hint: it probably includes some level of risk, overcoming fear, and depending more on Him.)

  4. Taking the first step is often the hardest, but it’s always easiest for God to steer a moving ship. Now take two minutes to think about what first step you could take to move into the unknown, trusting God and the adventure he wants to take you on.

  5. Fear paralyzes us. Read Joshua 1:9. Now take a deep breath. Share with the group the fear that you need to overcome to take this next step. Then each person take turns praying for one another.

    Need more encouragement? Genesis 12:1 2 Corinthians 5:7 Exodus 3:11-12 Joshua 1:9.

0 people are discussing these questions

(This stuff helps us figure out how many fruitcakes to make come December)

You must include at least one person

Got it! Enjoy your discussion.


Jul 18, 2020 37 mins 39 sec

Recent Series