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Well, welcome to Crossroads.
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00:00:02
My name's Lena Schuler.
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I'm the Crossroads Anywhere Community
Pastor and it's so good
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to have you from anywhere you
might be joining us from today.
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You know, we're one church with
lots of communities all over
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the country and a
thriving community online.
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And so I'm so excited
to be with you today.
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00:00:18
And we get to have my good
friend Matt Castleman with us, too.
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>> Hey, thanks for having me.
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>> Yeah, I get to be
the Community Pastor of Crossroads West
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Side of Cincinnati.
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So I grew up there.
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It's my church home.
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And I actually found God
through this place called Crossroads.
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One of the things we're actually
getting a chance to do right
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now that I grew in an understanding
of was worship, why we sing
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songs out loud to God.
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>> And, you know, today we're
gonna sing a new song, a
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Crossroads original song.
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And this is important because
all throughout scripture, we get
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to see people singing
new songs to God.
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00:00:50
I was in the Crossroads App this
week in Psalm 144, and in
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verse 9 it says, "I will sing
a new song to you, oh, God.".
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And so we're going to do that.
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We're gonna sing a new
song to God today.
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And I want you to hear a
little bit about this song from my
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friend Austin.
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wherever you lead us...
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>> The song Laying It All Down came
from a spot that I was in,
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where I was in my office and
I wrote the music front to back.
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And as I listened to it, I
was keeping our church Crossroads in
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mind of what are
songs that we need?
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And one was we need --
We need upbeat songs, just frankly.
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And two, I was looking at the
character of our church and I
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noticed that one thing that we
are is we are obedient.
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And when there is a
disaster, we move towards that.
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There's something we want to raise
funds for, we move towards
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it because we believe that God
calls us to certain things.
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This is what the
Bible says about obedience.
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It says in 1 Samuel 15:22:
Samuel replied, "What is more
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pleasing to the Lord, your
burnt offerings and sacrifices, or
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your obedience to his voice?
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Listen, obedience is better than
sacrifice, and submission is
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better than offering the
fat of rams.".
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Now, I don't know a ton about the
fat of rams, but I do know
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that in my life it has been
so beneficial to be obedient to
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God.
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And what this song is essentially
saying is that, hey, my
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money, You can have that.
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My car, my technology, whatever it
is, You can have it all.
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I'm laying it all down because I
want to show You, God, that
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You are worth it and I
want my obedience to reflect that.
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So if You call me
to something, I'll go.
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And ultimately, I hope that's
not just something that impacts
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my life, not just our church,
but the church at large.
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I want us to be obedient and I
want us to show God that we love
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Him by when He calls
us out, we go ahead.
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(music) We're laying it all,
we're laying it all down
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>> Well, I'm so
excited for College Camp.
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I got the joy of being there
and speaking at it last year and
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will once again be there this
year and be speaking at it.
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And I care about College Camp
because my life was transformed
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by Jesus in college and I
saw my friends' lives totally change
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when they came into relationship
with God in college.
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And I want that for you.
I want that for your friends.
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Regardless, if you go to UC,
go Bearcats or if you're at
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Pepperdine or you're at University
of Texas or anywhere else,
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this is worth traveling
in for and experiencing.
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>> It's college camp?
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>> I actually thought
it was Collage Camp.
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>> Nope. You clearly
didn't watch the video.
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>> It's going to be awkward
for the people I sent.
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00:13:19
>> Yeah, no.
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>> One of the things about
College Camp, but camps in general
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is that something happens when we
get outside of our comfort
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zones, we get outside of our zip
codes where God speaks to us
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in a new and unique way.
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Whether that's collage camp --
College Camp, Man Camp, Woman
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Camp, Couples Camp, all kinds of
camps that we get to
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experience God.
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There's people coming in from all
over the country and it's
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Make it a priority in your life.
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You go
to Crossroads.net/collegecamp
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to find out more.
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>> College Camp is
not until October.
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Lots of the camps
aren't still further away.
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What's happening now?
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> Oh, right now, let me think if
I can think of -- The Journey
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>> The Journey!
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00:14:00
>> Yeah, the Play & Purpose
Journey is coming up next weekend.
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I'm excited about this because
my first experience at
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Crossroads was in a group of
people that were processing this
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Journey together.
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If you're going to prioritize one
thing all year long, let this
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be the thing because your growth
is guaranteed to skyrocket if
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00:14:23
>> Journey groups are just fun.
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00:14:25
>> They're fun. You make new friends
or you get to do something
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new with old friends. Either
way, it's a win.
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00:14:30
>> Yeah, I used to think
they're like the kumbayah Bible study,
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hold hands, sit around in a
circle and make collage work of
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But they're more like just hanging
out with your friends over
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some food, which is what my
first Journey group was like.
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>> So you can sign up to be
in a Journey group today by heading
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to Crossroads.net/journey.
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And there are groups happening
all over the country, groups
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that are happening online, groups
that are happening in sites.
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There is a group for you out
there and this might just be the
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catalyst for total life change or
a whole new trajectory for
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your life that's more fun and
more meaningful with Play &
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Crossroads.net/journey is where you
can do that.
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00:15:10
You know, one of the ways that
we can have a little bit more
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purpose in our life is by deciding
where we want our money to
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go.
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>> One of the reasons my family
gives isn't just because we get
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to see the amazing things that
God does through our generosity,
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like the Journey
that's coming up,
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but because we see it in God's
character as well, we see in the
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Bible where it says: where your
treasure lies there, your heart
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lies also.
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For my wife and I, we give
because we see treasure, not just in
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the things around us, like the
stool I'm sitting in or the
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clothing that we wear or this
cool backdrop, but in lives
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Our treasure is where our hearts
are and my heart is helping
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others experience that same freedom
that is through Jesus,
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which is found in
this church community.
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So you go to Crossroads.net/give
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to be a part of the team,
set up a recurring electronic gift
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that way like my wife and I
do, and be a part of transforming
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lives.
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>> That's right. And you know,
we're just really excited for
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you to experience what God has
for you in The Journey.
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And it's because of generous givers that
we even get to go on
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this Play & Purpose Journey.
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00:16:11
Speaking of Journey, what the
heck is a Journey anyways?
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>> So Crossroads is
doing a Journey.
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What does that even mean?
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>> Allow me every so
often Crossroads does a Journey.
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Basically a Journey is a five
week series where everyone from
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kids to adults follow
on the same topic.
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This year's topic Purpose & Play
all about why having restful
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play and meaningful purpose are
critical to a life that
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thrives.
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Here's how to do a Journey.
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Step 1: Go to
the weekend message.
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Kickoff weekend will be
September 14th and 15th.
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Be here.
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Can't make it to a site?
Just download the Crossroads Anywhere
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app and watch the
weekend message there.
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Step 2: 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 Betth's knitting circle.
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It's not that.
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It's more like a dinner party
with people in similar life
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stages asking similar questions.
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Step 3: do some challenges.
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No, not the dumb Internet kind.
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00:17:22
Challenges in the
Crossroads App.
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There's a brand new feature this
year and you're gonna love it.
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Connect your group in the
app like a text thread.
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Select Play & Purpose.
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It will prompt your group
with fun challenges and questions.
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No homework.
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Just fun ways to get engaged.
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So to recap: (rewind EFX)
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do the journey.
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>> Is he making fun
of my air quotes?
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Dude!
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>> Man, that's gonna be great.
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I'm telling you right now it's going
to be one of the best five
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week blocks you ever
had around Crossroads.
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I hope you're getting ready for
it cause, man, I'm really
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00:18:03
looking forward.
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00:18:04
Before I get into into what I'm
going to talk about today, I
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just want to just remind us, those
of us who got emails because
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you're really engaged around
here financially and we're
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I just want to remind you that
we have a family meeting this
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Wednesday night.
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And I look forward to sharing
some stuff with you and seeing
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you then.
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I think there's just really good stuff
for us to see and be
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aware of and we're on a
good, good Journey right now.
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00:18:24
And I want to pray before I
do anything else and talk about the
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things that I'm pretty
fired up about today.
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00:18:31
God, thank you for
this time right now.
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00:18:36
We could be other places doing
other things, but we're here
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right now.
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00:18:39
I think everyone is here and
listening because we want more of
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00:18:43
We want to feel more life.
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00:18:45
And we're wondering what that means for
You to be more in our
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00:18:48
life.
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00:18:49
So help me to be clear
today, to be helpful and most
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importantly, to be in
alignment with Your truth.
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00:18:54
And I pray these things,
according to the character and
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identity of Jesus.
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00:18:58
Amen.
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00:19:01
Well, today I want to get
you to a new place.
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Who wants to go to
a new place today?
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00:19:05
Anybody? Anybody?
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00:19:06
Yes. Okay.
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00:19:07
Today, I want to get you to
a new place in your spiritual
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growth.
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00:19:12
And we have to wonder -- notice
that all of us have two
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competing desires.
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00:19:19
As Carl Sandburg said, the great
American writer, he said some
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days I want to soar like an eagle
and other days I just want to
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lie in the mud
like a hippopotamus.
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00:19:28
And this is the way we are.
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00:19:30
We just kind of
want to sit around.
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00:19:31
And oftentimes spiritual growth gets
pawned off as something
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00:19:34
where you sit and you meditate
and you reflect and you think.
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00:19:39
And I'm all for sitting,
reflecting, meditating and thinking.
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00:19:42
I am. I'm all for that.
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I'm all for
those hippopotamus behaviors.
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But I'm also all for
understanding that this often happens
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right after we've pushed
and we've soared.
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This often happens right before
we push and we soar.
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00:19:59
To get to a new place, this is
going to be a dream message from
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me today, classic
preacher message.
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00:20:05
I've got four points. They all
start with the same letter.
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00:20:08
Yeah. The letter V.
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00:20:10
That's some good
stuff right there.
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All start with the letter V.
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This is gonna be about pushing
to enable us to spiritually
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grow.
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In the book of 2 Timothy chapter
2, I want you to listen to
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what the metaphors are
for spiritual growth.
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00:20:28
I'm not going to unpack this
verse entirely, but just look at
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what the metaphors are?
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. No soldier gets entangled in
civilian pursuits since his aim
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is to please the one
enlisted who enlisted him.
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00:20:52
Soldier, athlete, farmer, these
are very rigorous, engaged
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00:21:00
metaphors.
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00:21:01
It's not poet,
philosopher, thinker.
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00:21:05
While I love poets, philosophers
and thinkers, there's a place
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00:21:08
But the dominant metaphor for
getting ahead spiritually in a
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00:21:13
new place in the Bible are
things like athletes who train,
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soldiers who kill, hardworking farmers
who sweat and cut and
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bleed.
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00:21:28
These are very rigorous metaphors and
I really think that maybe
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the reason why many of us are
a bit frustrated with why I don't
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feel God
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00:21:38
or why my faith has challenges
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00:21:40
or why I feel stagnant
is we're too hippopotamus like.
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00:21:44
We're too thinking like.
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00:21:46
We even call it:
Are you a believer?
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Like a believer,
like thinking, philosophizing.
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No, it's about doing, it's about
pushing, it's about getting to
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a new place.
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To ascend to a new place, to
elevate, to fly to a new place
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00:22:01
means that you will have
to go through excruciating difficulty.
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00:22:07
It means that you
will have to sweat.
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00:22:10
It means that you will have
things that are rough and just
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cause you to hang on.
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00:22:18
A key moment my life where this
came to fruition for me was in
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2013.
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00:22:25
I shared this story
way back when.
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00:22:27
Many of us haven't
heard or we've forgotten.
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00:22:29
I'll give you a little
briefer synopsis of it.
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00:22:31
I was on a bike trip
with some friends of mine.
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00:22:34
We went for the bottom of Colorado
to the top of Colorado all
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on dirt and we
camped the whole way.
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00:22:39
And we made better time
than we thought we would.
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00:22:41
We get to the very end of
Colorado we realized, "My gosh, we've
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00:22:45
still got another day left.
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00:22:46
Let's just keep going, let's
go up into Wyoming.".
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00:22:48
So we head up into Wyoming.
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00:22:50
We get on this this dirt
path in this national forest.
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00:22:54
And we look at this at the map,
we see a little little blue dot
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00:22:57
that means there's a body of
water there, which is a great
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00:22:59
place to camp
wherever there's water.
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00:23:02
And we said, "Let's go there.".
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00:23:04
Well, we didn't know was from where
we were to where that was,
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00:23:07
even though it was just like this
much space on a map and was
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00:23:12
only a few miles, I think
six miles or something like that.
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00:23:15
It was the most difficult riding
that we had done that entire
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00:23:18
trip.
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00:23:19
In fact, this would be the
most difficult riding I would have
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00:23:23
done in my entire life
up to that point.
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00:23:26
Now everyone has a different
opinion and interpretation and
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00:23:29
memory of what happened next.
-
00:23:30
But I have the microphone, so I"m
going to give you my opinion
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00:23:34
and my memory.
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00:23:35
As we went to Phantom Lake, the very
end of it was a very, very
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00:23:40
steep, rocky incline.
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00:23:42
I found this all the time.
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00:23:43
The best views always come
after the roughest inclines.
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00:23:49
The best most fulfilling campsites
oftentimes come when you ask
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00:23:54
them, "What in the heck
are we doing here?
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00:23:57
We can't be doing this here."
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00:23:59
And we got in this last stretch,
it was very steep, it was very
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00:24:02
rocky.
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00:24:03
These loose rocks and I'm bouncing
around me and I'm trying to
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00:24:07
I get up there and
and I turn around.
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00:24:09
There's virtually no one there.
-
00:24:12
And we basically chose to stay down
at the bottom of this pass
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00:24:18
and we camped there.
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00:24:19
And it was a very
tumultuous, very, very tense time.
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00:24:21
My memory of it, my memory and
my application of it as I was
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00:24:25
coming down that pass, I thought,
"You know, this is really
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00:24:28
symbolic for my life right now.
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00:24:32
There's some things that I want
to do that are new.
-
00:24:35
There's some things that I feel,
God, that You're asking me to
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00:24:37
do.
-
00:24:38
And many people who I'm doing life
with right now don't want to
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00:24:41
do the climb.
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00:24:43
Many people I'm doing it
with would rather be hippopotamuses"
-
00:24:45
I didn't think this because I
didn't that quote until I was
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00:24:47
preparing for this message --
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00:24:48
would rather be hippopotamus
is than eagles.
-
00:24:52
And I sensed God promised me saying,
"Hey, man, if you want to
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00:24:55
climb you just need to tell
people who you're with you need
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00:24:58
--you're going to climb whether
they're with you or not."
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00:25:01
All right, I'll do that.
-
00:25:02
So I came back and I
started having a conversation with people
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00:25:05
and casting a vision.
-
00:25:07
There was a lot of people who
just like, "Yeah, I'm not -- I'm
-
00:25:12
not interested in that.".
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00:25:14
And really, really good people, love
God, and just really good.
-
00:25:18
And I still have a
relation with many of them.
-
00:25:19
But I just like, hey, we're going
to go on a push here, because
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00:25:22
up to that point, like
2011, 2012, 2013, Crossroads really
-
00:25:28
hadn't grown at all.
-
00:25:29
We had some good stuff going
on, but we were stagnant.
-
00:25:32
We were like on a plane for
multiple years, which means no new
-
00:25:35
people were experiencing God, which means
we were having a lot
-
00:25:38
of discussion about how to just
keep things sane, how to keep
-
00:25:40
things okay and how to have staff
be happy and all these kind
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00:25:45
This is not why we started
doing what we're doing here.
-
00:25:47
So I just kind of came back
and like said, "Hey, I'm going to
-
00:25:50
Phantom Lake, whether you're coming
or not, I'm going."
-
00:25:52
And what do you
know, my goodness.
-
00:25:54
What I looked at things in
the last several years, what's
-
00:25:58
happened from 2013 when we as
a church were stagnant for three
-
00:26:02
years, what happened from
there to here?
-
00:26:05
I had to write them down.
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00:26:06
I'll just read some
to you really quickly.
-
00:26:08
Crossroads West Side has
opened since then.
-
00:26:10
Mason moved into a new building.
-
00:26:12
Crossroads Uptown happened.
-
00:26:14
Crossroads Central Kentucky, our
merger acquisition -- our
-
00:26:16
merger adoption rather
happened, took place.
-
00:26:19
Crossroads Oxford took place.
-
00:26:21
Crossroads East Side opened.
-
00:26:23
We had a Compassion International
weekend and took 6000 kids.
-
00:26:27
Every kid that Compassion International
had in Nicaragua, not
-
00:26:30
just our central of Kentucky
churches and Bolivia, but every
-
00:26:33
kid in Nicaragua that was available,
we scooped them all up in
-
00:26:35
one weekend.
-
00:26:36
And we're still feeding and educating
those kids, just that --
-
00:26:39
You can clap and be happy at
any one of these things, if you
-
00:26:41
want, by the way.
-
00:26:42
[applause]
-
00:26:43
600,000 meals shipped
to South Africa.
-
00:26:45
We had a 600,000 meals
shipped to South Africa.
-
00:26:48
We had a campaign called
I'm In, 83 percent fulfilled.
-
00:26:51
Good job.
-
00:26:52
We had others, folks who are
still engaging in the and
-
00:26:54
fulfilling your Obsessed Journey
at 23% still pushing.
-
00:26:58
Crazy stuff that's
happened there.
-
00:27:00
We took Awaited, a church show, a
nice show and leaders in the
-
00:27:04
arts in Cincinnati said, "Hey, we'd
like to play that in the
-
00:27:07
Aronoff. Would you use
that at the Aronoff?"
-
00:27:09
My gosh, to be able to
have the elite, elite performance center
-
00:27:13
in the entire tri-state area saying
we want your thing here,
-
00:27:16
because we --
-
00:27:17
that is amazing. Amazing.
-
00:27:19
That is new rocky territory.
-
00:27:21
We've had probably about, as best
I can estimate, 5000 people
-
00:27:25
baptized since 2013.
-
00:27:27
We're bought 435 acres of camps.
-
00:27:29
We had 15,000 people go through
Man Camp, 10,000 do Women Camp.
-
00:27:32
We have Couples Camp, College
Camp, Veterans Camp, Father/Son
-
00:27:36
Camp,
-
00:27:37
disabled dog camp. I mean
just all of them.
-
00:27:40
[laughter]
-
00:27:41
I'm kidding there. No, we don't
have a -- "Disabled dog camp?
-
00:27:44
No, we don't.
-
00:27:45
Not that one. We
don't have that one.
-
00:27:46
By the way, camps for
this fall, registration closes soon.
-
00:27:51
So if you want to get in
on Couples Camp, College Camp, Man
-
00:27:54
Camp registration shuts down in
a week or so.
-
00:27:57
So get on it now.
-
00:27:58
That's just -- that's
just some of it.
-
00:28:00
All that represents
great stuff, mountaintops.
-
00:28:02
I tell you what,
grueling, backbreaking work.
-
00:28:07
Utterly grueling, backbreaking.
-
00:28:11
And that's just for me
on my professional side.
-
00:28:13
That's not my personal side.
-
00:28:15
My goodness, the things God has done
in the last few years on
-
00:28:19
my personal side is nuts-o.
-
00:28:21
We've had 32 years of marriage.
-
00:28:25
And this last year, it was
the hardest year of marriage we've
-
00:28:29
ever had.
-
00:28:30
First year marriage was awful.
-
00:28:32
Seventh year of marriage, there
is a seven year itch.
-
00:28:34
It was difficult.
-
00:28:35
Those things pale in comparison to
how tough our 32 year was.
-
00:28:41
I can't go into all of it,
I'm just telling you, man, it has
-
00:28:43
been a steep, rocky climb and we
are greater now, Lib and I,
-
00:28:48
than we have ever been.
-
00:28:50
The view is fantastic, but it's
only because we said, "Oh my
-
00:28:53
gosh, marriage is supposed to
be hard, isn't it?
-
00:28:56
Oh, my gosh. Maybe God is
using marriage to spiritually form us
-
00:29:01
more than He is wanting to
give us a beautiful hallmark card.
-
00:29:04
Maybe the difficulty God wants you
to go after is purely
-
00:29:10
because He's going to grow you
in the midst of that difficulty.
-
00:29:14
We've had in the last few years
we had two kids married off,
-
00:29:18
two amazing spouses come into our life,
new in law, son in law,
-
00:29:23
daughter in law thing.
-
00:29:24
Amazing. Amazing.
-
00:29:25
I've become a grandparent.
-
00:29:27
I'm not even taking Metamucil
yet, but I'm a grandparent.
-
00:29:30
My goodness.
-
00:29:32
Geeze, wrote Five Marks of a Man
that's taken off as a good --
-
00:29:35
I got another devotional that's coming
out this next -- in a
-
00:29:39
couple of months.
-
00:29:40
And all of this to say
these things sound really good, like,
-
00:29:43
woo, great.
-
00:29:45
But man, it is a slog.
-
00:29:47
It is an utterly difficult
climb up a rocky mountain.
-
00:29:53
They've been:
-
00:30:04
That's what spiritual
growth is like.
-
00:30:07
That's what it's like.
-
00:30:09
Now in a little bit I'm going
to give you a little snippet of
-
00:30:12
another upward climb
that we've had.
-
00:30:16
And I'm going to give you a
little snippet of a video project
-
00:30:19
that we asked all of you
about a year and half ago,.
-
00:30:21
"Hey, we're gonna do like motorcycle
bike trip thing and we're
-
00:30:24
If you like to come, apply.
-
00:30:26
We had a bunch of people apply.
-
00:30:27
I'm going to show you a
little short snippet of it today.
-
00:30:29
It's going to be
11 minutes long.
-
00:30:31
It's actually going to be
a seven part series.
-
00:30:35
We're trying to get it on
a streaming platform in January.
-
00:30:38
But for the purposes of today, I
want to use eleven minutes of
-
00:30:42
because it's going to really
articulate and highlight some of
-
00:30:48
the four things I'm going
to give you today.
-
00:30:50
Number one. Number one.
-
00:30:52
Number one is vision.
-
00:30:54
If you want to get to a
new place, you need to have vision.
-
00:31:00
Jesus gives us a vision of
what spiritual growth is going to
-
00:31:04
look like and in Matthew
7:13, he says this:
-
00:31:26
Jesus says if you want to be
like the masses, if you want to
-
00:31:29
have a spirituality like the
masses, which is entirely comfort
-
00:31:33
based, you are on
the wide highway.
-
00:31:38
Why is a highway
wide and smooth?
-
00:31:40
It's because the masses go there
and because it needs to be
-
00:31:44
simple and it needs to
be comfortable for the masses.
-
00:31:47
I mean, think about that when you're
in a car, it's like it's a
-
00:31:50
pretty road. it's
just, you know.
-
00:31:53
But you get off on dirt, on
rock especially if you get off on
-
00:31:56
two wheels, you start bouncing all
over the place and you start
-
00:32:01
modeling the life of Jesus.
-
00:32:03
Because Jesus, if you want to be
where Jesus is, He's on the
-
00:32:06
narrow, difficult path.
-
00:32:09
He's not on the wide path
that everyone loves that's easy.
-
00:32:13
He's on the
narrow, difficult path.
-
00:32:16
It's the path that
leads to true life.
-
00:32:19
We need to have vision.
-
00:32:20
What kind of vision do you have?
-
00:32:22
Is there a place that
you're going that requires difficulty?
-
00:32:25
If not, it's not vision.
-
00:32:26
It's a daydream.
-
00:32:28
Is there a place where you can
see in your mind that you can't
-
00:32:33
be there right now, you can't
handle it right now, you don't
-
00:32:36
have it right now, but you want
it and you're working at it?
-
00:32:40
If so, that's vision.
-
00:32:43
The Book of
Proverbs 29:18 says:.
-
00:32:48
When we don't have vision, a
picture, knowledge of where we're
-
00:32:52
going we end up having lifeless
lives stuck in the mud, not
-
00:32:58
feeling the rigour, the rigor of
a full walk with Jesus.
-
00:33:06
Forbes.com some time ago
it said this:.
-
00:33:16
That's all he is, invest -- he
or she invests the time to
-
00:33:21
create a forward shared meaning.
-
00:33:23
It's not this amazing idea no
one's ever thought of, "Whoa,
-
00:33:26
she's a visionary."
-
00:33:27
No, it's I see where I want to
go and I'm trying to collect the
-
00:33:33
energy of others to
go in that place.
-
00:33:36
And when we have that vision,
it's always going to take vigor.
-
00:33:39
That's point 2: vigor.
-
00:33:40
Starts with vision.
-
00:33:41
The fact that we don't have it
and we haven't seen it with our
-
00:33:46
own eyeballs.
-
00:33:47
The reason why we haven't seen
it with our own eyeballs is
-
00:33:49
because it's gonna be difficult.
-
00:33:51
If it was gonna be easy and be
handed to us, then we'd have it
-
00:33:53
right now.
-
00:33:55
Vision always requires vigor.
-
00:33:58
It requires sweat.
-
00:34:00
It requires sacrifice.
-
00:34:02
It requires pain.
-
00:34:04
I don't know where we ever got
this idea the closer I get with
-
00:34:06
God, the easier my life
is going to be.
-
00:34:08
Not true.
-
00:34:10
The closer I get with God,
the more vision He gives me.
-
00:34:12
The closer I get to God, the more
I see I want to be where He's
-
00:34:16
going and He's going
in the narrow path.
-
00:34:17
He's going to a difficult place.
-
00:34:19
It is fulfilling. There is joy.
-
00:34:21
There can be a sense
of peace and joy.
-
00:34:24
But coming to Jesus to
escape difficulty never works.
-
00:34:30
Never works. Never has worked.
-
00:34:32
Never will work.
-
00:34:33
Every biblical hero that we know of
in the Bible is a hero
-
00:34:39
because of the difficulty
they went through.
-
00:34:42
Every inspirational story that's in
the Bible and recorded in
-
00:34:46
the Bible is there
because it was difficult.
-
00:34:48
That's why it's inspirational.
-
00:34:51
A guy building a boat out
of his own hands, Noah.
-
00:34:55
Prophets standing against the tide
and saying things no one
-
00:34:58
wanted to hear.
-
00:34:59
Jesus doing things that
no one's seen before.
-
00:35:01
His followers getting on boats
and getting shipwrecked, going
-
00:35:04
all over the place, going on
massive, massive adventures to let
-
00:35:07
people know who He was.
-
00:35:08
That was crazy and amazing.
-
00:35:13
I believe -- I believe that
there are things that we do
-
00:35:16
physically that prepare us
for things spiritually.
-
00:35:21
I believe if you don't want
to do difficult things physically,
-
00:35:26
you won't do
difficult things spiritually.
-
00:35:30
I believe if you don't get
to a new place physically, it's
-
00:35:34
because you haven't been
doing difficult things physically.
-
00:35:37
And if you can't get to
a new place spiritually, it's because
-
00:35:40
you haven't been doing
difficult things spiritually.
-
00:35:44
They mesh up.
-
00:35:46
So we took this trip of a
bunch of new riders because the idea
-
00:35:50
was just that: if we can get
people to do something that's very
-
00:35:53
difficult and physical,
-
00:35:54
this might prepare them for the
real adventure in their life.
-
00:35:56
The real adventures in our life
is not the mountain climbing
-
00:35:58
trip.
-
00:35:59
It's not the motorcycle trip.
-
00:36:00
It's not the rafting trip.
-
00:36:01
Those were great. Those are
wonderful moments of play that
-
00:36:03
we'll talk about in
the next series.
-
00:36:05
But what really happens are those
things enable me to be about
-
00:36:09
the real adventure of my life,
which might be starting a
-
00:36:11
business, kicking an addiction, getting
married, having a kid,
-
00:36:14
keeping a marriage together,
losing 50 pounds, whatever.
-
00:36:19
Those are the real adventures,
the ones that really matter,
-
00:36:22
understanding how God wants to
take over my life.
-
00:36:26
So I want you to watch and
in this little 11 minute snippet,
-
00:36:31
watch for just here where you
see the first two points of
-
00:36:34
vision and vigor.
-
00:36:42
>> Across the rugged terrain
of Colorado and Wyoming
-
00:36:47
ten unlikely riders pursue an
elusive mountain top destination
-
00:36:53
called Phantom Lake.
-
00:36:57
Among them were a
single grad student.
-
00:37:00
>> It's just me and Alexa.
-
00:37:01
Alexa can't give me a hug.
-
00:37:02
>> A photographer and tinkerer.
-
00:37:04
>> This is very sweet.
-
00:37:05
If you know how pair of
these, you need to get 'em.
-
00:37:07
>> An adventure
starved accountant.
-
00:37:09
>> I'm domesticated.
-
00:37:11
I need an adventure please.
-
00:37:12
>> A second career jazz singer.
-
00:37:14
>> This really is real.
-
00:37:15
This is really happening.
-
00:37:16
>> A college student.
-
00:37:17
>> This is my valid motorcycle
license, in case you were
-
00:37:19
>> A
multi-business entrepreneur.
-
00:37:22
>> As far as my off
roading experience, there's first time for
-
00:37:24
everything. Take that, Rockies.
-
00:37:26
>> A semi retired lobbyist.
-
00:37:28
>> You gotta keep that smile.
-
00:37:30
Oh, yeah.
-
00:37:31
>> A quiet engineer.
-
00:37:33
>> Hopefully I make some more
close friends on this trip coming
-
00:37:36
>> And a diligent young father.
-
00:37:38
>> I have a fear of
heights, and I've overcome that fear.
-
00:37:40
A long time pastor, adventurer
and father figure Brian Tome
-
00:37:45
will lead the way.
-
00:37:46
>> Jesus tells a
story about God.
-
00:37:47
He says what God does
is He gives --
-
00:37:50
>> To make it to the
end they must overcome mental fatigue,
-
00:37:55
physical fatigue, and even
the landscape itself.
-
00:38:02
Will these riders have the
determination, stamina and courage
-
00:38:06
to make it to the end?
-
00:38:09
>> I wake up every day and
I say to God, "God, whatever you've
-
00:38:11
got going on today, I want
to be a part of it."
-
00:38:15
We're going to do
something really unorthodox: taking
-
00:38:18
inexperienced riders on
this trip.
-
00:38:20
You've gotta be in a situation
that's foreign to what you're
-
00:38:23
New riders are going
to be challenged.
-
00:38:27
I have this feeling that everyone
has an adventure that they're
-
00:38:30
I want to see real people in
the real world with real life
-
00:38:33
adventures learn how
to conquer them.
-
00:38:34
That's why I want to do this
trip with people that need it.
-
00:38:39
If we're not in a difficult position
we don't grow the way we
-
00:38:42
could grow.
-
00:38:43
I learn when
things are difficult.
-
00:38:45
I learn when I get
smacked in the mouth.
-
00:38:47
I learn when I fall down.
-
00:38:48
I don't want to fail because
I didn't try hard enough.
-
00:38:52
Some people would say, "Well,
you're a pastor, shouldn't you
-
00:38:54
just be doing Bible studies?".
-
00:38:55
I'm about making real men and women
stronger and this in a way
-
00:39:00
that I found that does it.
-
00:39:16
If there's anything that you can
do to help yourself, it's to
-
00:39:22
teach yourself not to be
freaked when your bike bounces.
-
00:39:25
There's a lot of
rocks called baby heads.
-
00:39:28
A lot of baby heads up there.
-
00:39:30
Your bike is going
to be jumping around.
-
00:39:33
That feeling that you feel
on pavement where everything's
-
00:39:36
planted or even on gravel,
that feeling is gone.
-
00:39:39
You and your bike will
go where you look.
-
00:39:42
It's the weirdest thing.
-
00:39:44
You need to make sure you are
looking 30 feet in front of where
-
00:39:48
you're going. 30 feet.
-
00:39:50
You are never this. Never.
-
00:39:52
This never helps you.
-
00:39:53
Momentum is your friend.
-
00:39:57
You start to go,
throttle helps you.
-
00:40:00
Throttle helps, if you
start to spin, throttle.
-
00:40:02
If you go down. You go down,
you're not going to get hurt going
-
00:40:07
10 miles an hour, you're not
going to get hurt, you're not.
-
00:40:10
But if you can get up this
somehow, some way, it's a good omen
-
00:40:13
for the rest of your trip.
-
00:40:18
It's important to point out here
that we're about to do our
-
00:40:20
first big pass and these guys haven't
even had a chance to ride
-
00:40:24
on basic flat dirt.
-
00:40:25
>> We don't have any
off road experience at all.
-
00:40:29
What I do have and what I do
have to offer is a willingness to
-
00:40:34
learn.
-
00:40:39
(grunting) I'm down.
-
00:40:40
I'm down but okay.
-
00:40:42
>> All right, Thomas, I'm
going to keep going.
-
00:40:45
>> Tommy's down.
-
00:40:46
>> You passed him? You
didn't stop and help him?
-
00:40:51
Do I have any
off road experience?
-
00:40:53
Yes, I do, actually.
-
00:40:54
You know, with
a non-motorized cycle.
-
00:40:58
>> Oh, shoot, oh, shoot.
-
00:40:59
>> Good, Randy.
Good, Randy. Whoo!
-
00:41:04
>> I was stopping for Tommy.
-
00:41:07
>> I thought you were about
to die right there, man.
-
00:41:09
>> I almost went over that edge.
-
00:41:11
>> Zach doesn't have a lot
of skill, but he's got the
-
00:41:14
confidence to just stay behind me
and get to the top.
-
00:41:18
>> Oh, get up back
up on this beast.
-
00:41:27
>> Darn it, I'm down.
-
00:41:28
>> The worst part was when I when
I was a little afraid of the
-
00:41:32
right hand lane just because it was
closer to the cliff, but it
-
00:41:35
was a clearer path for sure.
-
00:41:37
>> Zach was really
a pleasant surprise here.
-
00:41:41
Zach has had very little
motorcycle experience, very little off
-
00:41:45
road experience.
-
00:41:47
And what do you know?
He got up the hill.
-
00:41:53
>> Oh, here's the
baby heads. (grunting)
-
00:42:03
>> To get people up a
mountain, you have to push.
-
00:42:07
Don't give up. Let's go.
-
00:42:08
You've got to be that stern
and have an attitude of believing
-
00:42:13
in that person and calling them to
a place where they might not
-
00:42:15
even want to go themselves.
-
00:42:16
But you can only challenge them
as far as you previously
-
00:42:19
encouraged them and
built into them.
-
00:42:21
You need to tell those guys when
they get to those guys who are
-
00:42:24
down, the calvary is
not coming for 'em.
-
00:42:26
They've got a freaking
figure it out.
-
00:42:28
We've had some difficulties on this
trip, but this is where it
-
00:42:31
gets genuinely difficult.
-
00:42:34
Like something's going to
take care of itself.
-
00:42:36
No, it's not. They've got
to push their freaking bikes.
-
00:42:39
Those guys just sit in the
ground defeated, they're not --
-
00:42:42
This is not a luxury trip.
-
00:42:45
>> You got it.
-
00:42:46
>> This pass stands at
11,700 feet above sea level.
-
00:42:49
There's not much oxygen out here
and the bikes weigh between
-
00:42:52
450 and 650 pounds fully loaded.
-
00:42:56
You're on a slippery terrain
and an incredibly steep grade.
-
00:42:59
You're in protective riding gear,
which is hot and limits
-
00:43:03
mobility.
-
00:43:04
This is way more difficult
than it looks on video.
-
00:43:09
Picking up a motorcycle on a trail
like this is like trying to
-
00:43:12
pick up a piano in a space suit
on the side of a mountain after
-
00:43:17
sprinting a mile.
-
00:43:23
>> I have Chuck's bike
down, Dave's bike down.
-
00:43:26
Randy just stopped and
John went down.
-
00:43:31
Tommy went down.
-
00:43:32
So they're working on
getting everybody up.
-
00:43:36
>> Okay. Am I
need it down there?
-
00:43:38
Do you need me
to come down there?
-
00:43:42
>> I think -- I think these
guys could use your challenge and
-
00:43:45
your coaching.
-
00:43:47
>> Okay. All right.
-
00:43:48
I'll keep my chew in
and come down there.
-
00:44:00
Give it more gas. That's it, you're
not getting a lot of gas.
-
00:44:03
More and more, there you go.
-
00:44:08
>> Are you all right?
-
00:44:09
>> Yeah.
-
00:44:12
I had to make a
decision to turn around.
-
00:44:13
The guys were just not able
to keep going and sometimes retreat
-
00:44:18
is the best option.
-
00:44:20
>> How much gas I'm giving
that so it doesn't stall?
-
00:44:24
I'm kind of being looked at as
a villain right now with some of
-
00:44:26
these guys.
-
00:44:27
I'm looked at as maybe a
little heartless or something like
-
00:44:31
that with some of them.
-
00:44:32
That's what looks like to lead,
you're taking people where they
-
00:44:35
don't want to go.
-
00:44:36
You have to go.
-
00:44:37
You cannot creep.
-
00:44:38
You've got to get speed.
-
00:44:40
You've got to get down.
-
00:44:41
It's not fun being seen as,
I don' know, somewhat heartless.
-
00:44:46
You got up this far.
-
00:44:47
Going down is twice as
easy as coming up.
-
00:44:50
>> Gotcha.
-
00:44:51
>> Twice as easy.
-
00:44:52
>> I heard that before.
-
00:44:56
>> Thanks, man. It's
a lot of work.
-
00:44:57
>> Yeah, it is.
-
00:44:58
>> It's all worth it.
-
00:45:03
>> Okay? I'm ready when you are.
-
00:45:04
>> I'm ready. Okay.
-
00:45:07
>> That's it, pump
those brakes. That's it.
-
00:45:15
Okay, here he comes.
-
00:45:16
It's that fast. There you go.
-
00:45:18
You're good. Perfect. Perfect.
-
00:45:20
That's exactly right.
-
00:45:21
Sometimes you've got to get a
little kick in the ass.
-
00:45:23
You can't -- you cannot
take everything conservative in life.
-
00:45:26
You can't just like I'm going to
creep it, you've got to go.
-
00:45:29
That's it. Brakes,
brakes, good, good.
-
00:45:34
That's a man right there
who just grew his confidence.
-
00:45:37
You grow in your confidence on
this stuff, man, when you're in
-
00:45:39
the real world you've
just got something extra.
-
00:45:41
The guy who's not as good a rider
as you who has more fear than
-
00:45:45
you. And he got over it.
-
00:45:48
>> I'm good.
-
00:45:49
>> Okay?
-
00:46:03
>> I"m pretty certain at the
end they'll be thankful for the
-
00:46:05
push and I want them to
get to a new place.
-
00:46:09
Brakes, brakes. Good,
good, good, good.
-
00:46:11
Very good.
-
00:46:19
Pretty interesting, huh?
-
00:46:21
Well, you can just see from my
face, I have more bags under my
-
00:46:25
eyes than Kroger has
bags at the checkout.
-
00:46:28
I mean, it was --
it was incredibly grueling.
-
00:46:31
It was -- It was the
hardest bike thing I've ever done.
-
00:46:34
But I'm really thankful for how
the folks came to new places,
-
00:46:37
it was really neat.
-
00:46:38
By the way, like I said,
we'll have the full thing being
-
00:46:42
someplace in January.
-
00:46:44
Meanwhile, I have a
thing called briantome.com
-
00:46:46
where I give teachings that don't
make it on stage and article
-
00:46:48
and stuff like that I've got.
-
00:46:50
If you want to subscribe to
that, you can go to briantome.com.
-
00:46:52
I'm going to release another
episode of that on Monday.
-
00:46:56
So if you're interested in that and
want to see that kind of
-
00:46:57
stuff, go ahead and
check that out.
-
00:46:59
But if Ephesians 6:10 says this:
-
00:47:07
Be strong.
-
00:47:09
Why? Why would you have to be
strong unless things are going to
-
00:47:13
be hard?
-
00:47:15
No one has to
be strong bingeing Netflix.
-
00:47:19
You have to be strong because
there is a narrow path that's
-
00:47:23
going to elevation, which is where
Jesus is, and it's going to
-
00:47:28
be difficult.
-
00:47:30
And we're surprised when
things are different.
-
00:47:32
I'm surprised that
we're surprised.
-
00:47:34
It's called spiritual growth.
-
00:47:37
That's why we're to be strong.
-
00:47:42
I've been doing less motorcycling
recently, and one of my
-
00:47:44
elements of play has been
camping with my wife.
-
00:47:47
We've been doing a little
what's called over landing, which
-
00:47:50
basically means you put a tent
up on top of your truck.
-
00:47:53
And so we went out to Colorado
last week with some friends of
-
00:47:56
ours, did a
little couples thing.
-
00:47:58
And it was great.
-
00:48:00
It was just great
being with them.
-
00:48:01
Beautiful scenes,
beautiful stuff.
-
00:48:04
And, you know what
we keep talking about?
-
00:48:06
We keep talking about this
thing called Imogene Pass.
-
00:48:09
It's the hardest pass that I've
ever been on, whether on a
-
00:48:11
motorcycle or on a vehicle.
-
00:48:14
I did not get good
intel on this at all.
-
00:48:16
It was terrifying.
-
00:48:18
Terrifying and death defying.
-
00:48:20
Pictures can't even show it.
-
00:48:23
We were -- we were shocked
that we got through the thing.
-
00:48:25
We got through the thing and we
were -- two things were said.
-
00:48:29
One is, "I'll never
do that again.
-
00:48:31
That was really stupid.
-
00:48:32
I'll never do that again.".
-
00:48:34
And the second thing is that's
all we talked about since.
-
00:48:37
People say, "Hey, how was your
trip out Colorado with couples?"
-
00:48:40
"We did Imogene Pass.
-
00:48:41
OH, it was awful.
-
00:48:42
OH, it was awesome.".
-
00:48:44
All we talk about
was the difficulty.
-
00:48:46
All we talk about
was the challenge.
-
00:48:49
We never sit around, we never
say, "Hey, remember that one day
-
00:48:52
we just sat around the
pool and hung out?
-
00:48:54
You remember that?".
-
00:48:55
No, no, no.
-
00:48:56
We don't remember those days.
-
00:48:58
"Hey, do you remember that
time when everything went according
-
00:49:00
to plan? You remember that?".
-
00:49:02
No, we don't remember that.
-
00:49:04
There's nothing memorable.
-
00:49:05
It's the difficult things
that we remember.
-
00:49:10
We came back from that trip
and I'm in the airport getting
-
00:49:14
ready to come back and I flew
a buddy out that was going to
-
00:49:17
drive my truck back so I could
do some other stuff back with my
-
00:49:19
normal work life.
-
00:49:20
And I get in the airport, I'm
looking at my -- look at my
-
00:49:23
phone, my email.
-
00:49:24
I'm like, "Oh my gosh, that family
is in deep, deep doo doo."
-
00:49:29
And the email that I'm on says,
"Hey, we're going to fast and
-
00:49:33
pray for this family.
-
00:49:35
We're going to not have food
all day and whenever we're going
-
00:49:38
to pray and not have food to
tell God that we're serious about
-
00:49:41
this."
-
00:49:42
Whenever I get like a challenge
like that, I'm never like,
-
00:49:45
"Great, I love to fast.
-
00:49:48
I love not having
food and praying instead.
-
00:49:50
I love -- "
-
00:49:51
I never, never,
never, never, ever.
-
00:49:53
I never am excited
about that ever.
-
00:49:55
I'm never excited when I get
a check like, "Great, the first
-
00:49:59
10% goes to my local church,
goes to God because that's
-
00:50:02
tithing. Woo! I love it.".
-
00:50:04
I never, I never feel that way.
-
00:50:06
I never do.
-
00:50:07
In fact, anything that grows me
on the front end I'm never
-
00:50:10
excited about it.
-
00:50:12
And this was like,
"Oh, my gosh, really?
-
00:50:14
Like, Oh, I love
this family too much.
-
00:50:17
I'm in. I'm in."
-
00:50:18
And what do you know?
-
00:50:20
I fast the next day and felt
closer to God than I would have
-
00:50:24
had I done normal
eating as normal.
-
00:50:27
It's always the way
it is, friends.
-
00:50:29
The narrow path, that's steep, it's
rocky is where Jesus is.
-
00:50:34
And why we think that we
can have comfortable lives avoiding
-
00:50:38
any difficulty and have
Jesus blows my mind.
-
00:50:41
Because nowhere is that said in
the Bible and nowhere is that
-
00:50:44
modeled anywhere in
anybody's life.
-
00:50:47
What I want to be like the
people who inspire us are the people
-
00:50:51
who are inspiring because of
what they pressed through, what
-
00:50:54
they climbed, what
they overcame.
-
00:50:56
This is how
spiritual growth works.
-
00:50:58
Third thing is
velocity, velocity.
-
00:51:01
Once we have a vision of where we
want to go and we summon the
-
00:51:07
vigor to fight through it, we've
got to get some speed.
-
00:51:12
If you notice from that clip,
folks were having a hard time
-
00:51:17
because the dynamics of riding a
motorcycle on dirt and stone
-
00:51:21
is really different than the dynamics
of riding it on pavement.
-
00:51:24
Same with a car.
-
00:51:26
You know, you're on pavement,
everything is just planted.
-
00:51:29
If it swerves at all, you're
freaked out because it's very,
-
00:51:32
very rare.
-
00:51:33
Well, when you're on dirt or
when you're on rock, things are
-
00:51:35
bouncing around and you're swerving,
you're feeling immobile or
-
00:51:40
whatever the right word is all
the time going back and forth.
-
00:51:43
And the temptation is
to just slow down.
-
00:51:45
Let's just slow down and put my
tiptoes out and just like creep
-
00:51:50
down this mountain.
-
00:51:51
And when that happens, you never
win because the rocks are in
-
00:51:54
control and you can't get over
the rocks and rocks will force
-
00:51:57
you to go some
way you can't recover.
-
00:51:59
You have to get speed to plow
through the rocks or even maybe
-
00:52:03
be riding on top of the rocks.
-
00:52:05
That's a physical metaphor for the
way that the spiritual life
-
00:52:08
We can't just sit
around and philosophize.
-
00:52:11
We can't sit around and
just hone our beliefs.
-
00:52:15
We can't sit around
and have planning sessions.
-
00:52:18
We can't sit around and
just have endless discussions over
-
00:52:22
whatever theology you might
have or not have.
-
00:52:26
There's a place for theology
and sitting around for sure.
-
00:52:29
But you have to get velocity.
-
00:52:32
You have to get moving.
-
00:52:34
You can't just sit and
think and ponder and listen.
-
00:52:37
If the highlight of your week
spiritually is sitting on your
-
00:52:41
rear end and listening to me, you
have a crappy week ahead of
-
00:52:44
you.
-
00:52:45
Not just because I might have
given you a crappy week, but
-
00:52:47
because this isn't spiritual
growth right here.
-
00:52:50
This is -- this is getting
stuff that might get you moving.
-
00:52:54
Until you get moving and changing
things in life, getting some
-
00:52:57
speed with things that you don't want
to do or you think that
-
00:53:00
are weird.
-
00:53:01
Until that happens, you're not on
the narrow path where Jesus
-
00:53:06
is.
-
00:53:07
You're with the masses that are
addicted to comfort, that are
-
00:53:11
addicted to predictability.
-
00:53:14
James 1:2 says:.
-
00:53:37
Doing, we get ahead by doing,
not by hearing, not by thinking
-
00:53:42
and not by listening, by doing.
-
00:53:46
And what we want, what all of us
want, at least what I want is
-
00:53:49
victory.
-
00:53:50
You want to get to
that place where you've conquered.
-
00:53:53
You get to that place where
you've gone to the next level.
-
00:53:55
Get to that place where you understand
God more deeply and in a
-
00:54:00
much more fulfilling way.
-
00:54:01
You get to that place where
you know that you've progressed,
-
00:54:04
where you're more like Him, where
you're closer to Him, where
-
00:54:07
the thing that was
the real adventure:
-
00:54:13
the divorce, the addiction, the
weight loss, the GED, the
-
00:54:18
whatever,
-
00:54:19
then that thing, when you run
over that with some vigor and
-
00:54:24
with some velocity, you get going
to a new place because you
-
00:54:27
know God brought you there and
you experienced it with Him.
-
00:54:30
In the book of 1
Corinthians 15, it says:.
-
00:54:38
So it's Him who's on the path
with us, who's drawing us there.
-
00:54:43
That's where the victory is.
-
00:54:48
Always give yourself fully to
the thoughts of the Lord.
-
00:54:52
Oh, no, don't say that.
-
00:54:54
Always give yourself fully to the
values of the -- it doesn't
-
00:54:57
Always give yourselves fully to
the philosophy of the church.
-
00:55:01
Always give yourself fully to the
beliefs you learn in Sunday
-
00:55:04
School -- no, it
doesn't say that.
-
00:55:05
Always give yourself fully to
the work, the vigorous work
-
00:55:18
When you get on a path with a
vision that God has given you, it
-
00:55:23
never ends in vain, at
least ultimately never does.
-
00:55:28
Now, I've gone up a lot of
stony paths and I've gotten the top
-
00:55:34
and it hasn't been worth it.
-
00:55:37
Because sometimes you get the top
of a mountain and the clouds
-
00:55:39
are so thick you can't see.
-
00:55:41
Sometimes you get up there and
there's bugs all over the place.
-
00:55:43
Sometimes you get up there, you're
just so tired, you gotta get
-
00:55:45
Mountaintop experience, sometimes you get
up there, you realize
-
00:55:49
it's a false summit.
-
00:55:50
It's blocking the next
one that's up there.
-
00:55:53
And there's a lot of things that
we will do where God is that
-
00:55:58
when you're done with it, it
won't be fulfilling in that
-
00:56:01
moment.
-
00:56:02
But ultimately, I believe, He's using
it to build awareness, to
-
00:56:07
build spiritual muscle, to build our
reps to get to the next
-
00:56:11
place.
-
00:56:12
Ultimately we learn to
lean into Jesus more.
-
00:56:16
Ultimately we got on the path
that all the greats in history
-
00:56:23
have been on.
-
00:56:24
This is victory.
-
00:56:26
This is victory.
-
00:56:28
Now, the application I want you to
do coming out of here today
-
00:56:32
is next week one of the greatest
things you could ever be a
-
00:56:34
part of, and I mean that
seriously, is this Play & Purpose
-
00:56:38
Journey.
-
00:56:39
It's going to be great.
-
00:56:40
It's going to I mean --
I mean -- I mean great.
-
00:56:42
Three things you might want
to think about doing.
-
00:56:45
One, asking a friend.
-
00:56:47
That is a difficult thing, putting
your faith out there and
-
00:56:50
saying --
-
00:56:51
I'm telling you you can trust us
on this, it's going to be
-
00:56:54
Even play, many of us, we
need to be challenged because you're
-
00:56:57
not playing.
-
00:56:59
And that will be a
huge, huge challenge for you.
-
00:57:01
But it's play.
-
00:57:02
There's going to be
some really playful things.
-
00:57:03
It's going to be
really, really good.
-
00:57:04
Some of us purpose is our thing.
-
00:57:06
We're going to help
you in that area.
-
00:57:07
It's these things need to come
together and we're going to help
-
00:57:08
you come together
in this Journey.
-
00:57:11
Join a group, get ready
to join a group.
-
00:57:12
We need to be around other people
doing the Journey or lead a
-
00:57:15
group.
-
00:57:16
You can go to Crossroads.net
-
00:57:17
slash whatever it is, it's
on the lower third.
-
00:57:19
It's going to be really
big and really important.
-
00:57:21
You're going to -- you're
gonna be thankful for it.
-
00:57:23
Let me pray for you right now.
-
00:57:24
God, I thank You for this truth
You've given us and I thank You
-
00:57:27
for the message You have given
us and for the things You're
-
00:57:32
going to do in our church and
everybody else's life who is a
-
00:57:35
part of the Play
& Purpose Journey.
-
00:57:37
Help us to embrace it,
to embrace adventure, to embrace
-
00:57:41
difficulty and to embrace You and to
feel You in the midst of
-
00:57:46
I pray these things according
to the name of Jesus.
-
00:57:50
Amen.
-
00:57:51
All right. Have a great week.
-
00:57:52
We'll see you next weekend.
-
00:57:55
>> Thanks so much for
joining us this week.
-
00:57:57
Next week starts the
Play & Purpose Journey.
-
00:58:00
If you're not already in a
group, head to the Crossroads
-
00:58:02
website and sign up for
a group right now.
-
00:58:05
And if you live in the
greater Louisville, Kentucky area, we
-
00:58:08
have a special thing happening to
kick off the Play & Purpose
-
00:58:11
Journey.
-
00:58:12
On Sunday, September 15th, this coming
Sunday at 5:30 PM, we'll
-
00:58:17
be with you live with live
music and a full service at
-
00:58:21
Headliners.
-
00:58:22
So tell your friends and your
family that live in Louisville,
-
00:58:24
come see us there.
-
00:58:26
You can head to the website on
the screen or chat with us to
-
00:58:29
get more information.
-
00:58:30
And we'll see you next week
for the Play & Purpose Journey.