The Good Beyond Your Comfort Zone

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Well, welcome to Crossroads.

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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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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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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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>> 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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>> 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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>> Journey groups are just fun.

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>> 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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>> 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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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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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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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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looking forward.

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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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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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God, thank you for this time right now.

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We could be other places doing other things, but we're here

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right now.

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I think everyone is here and listening because we want more of

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We want to feel more life.

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And we're wondering what that means for You to be more in our

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life.

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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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And I pray these things, according to the character and

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identity of Jesus.

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Amen.

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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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Anybody? Anybody?

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Yes. Okay.

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Today, I want to get you to a new place in your spiritual

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growth.

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And we have to wonder -- notice that all of us have two

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competing desires.

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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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And this is the way we are.

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We just kind of want to sit around.

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And oftentimes spiritual growth gets pawned off as something

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where you sit and you meditate and you reflect and you think.

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And I'm all for sitting, reflecting, meditating and thinking.

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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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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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I've got four points. They all start with the same letter.

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Yeah. The letter V.

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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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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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Soldier, athlete, farmer, these are very rigorous, engaged

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metaphors.

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It's not poet, philosopher, thinker.

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While I love poets, philosophers and thinkers, there's a place

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But the dominant metaphor for getting ahead spiritually in a

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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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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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or why my faith has challenges

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or why I feel stagnant is we're too hippopotamus like.

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We're too thinking like.

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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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means that you will have to go through excruciating difficulty.

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It means that you will have to sweat.

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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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A key moment my life where this came to fruition for me was in

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2013.

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I shared this story way back when.

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Many of us haven't heard or we've forgotten.

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I'll give you a little briefer synopsis of it.

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I was on a bike trip with some friends of mine.

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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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And we made better time than we thought we would.

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We get to the very end of Colorado we realized, "My gosh, we've

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still got another day left.

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Let's just keep going, let's go up into Wyoming.".

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So we head up into Wyoming.

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We get on this this dirt path in this national forest.

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And we look at this at the map, we see a little little blue dot

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that means there's a body of water there, which is a great

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place to camp wherever there's water.

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And we said, "Let's go there.".

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Well, we didn't know was from where we were to where that was,

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even though it was just like this much space on a map and was

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only a few miles, I think six miles or something like that.

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It was the most difficult riding that we had done that entire

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trip.

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In fact, this would be the most difficult riding I would have

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done in my entire life up to that point.

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Now everyone has a different opinion and interpretation and

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memory of what happened next.

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But I have the microphone, so I"m going to give you my opinion

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and my memory.

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As we went to Phantom Lake, the very end of it was a very, very

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steep, rocky incline.

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I found this all the time.

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The best views always come after the roughest inclines.

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The best most fulfilling campsites oftentimes come when you ask

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them, "What in the heck are we doing here?

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We can't be doing this here."

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And we got in this last stretch, it was very steep, it was very

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rocky.

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These loose rocks and I'm bouncing around me and I'm trying to

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I get up there and and I turn around.

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There's virtually no one there.

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And we basically chose to stay down at the bottom of this pass

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and we camped there.

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And it was a very tumultuous, very, very tense time.

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My memory of it, my memory and my application of it as I was

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coming down that pass, I thought, "You know, this is really

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symbolic for my life right now.

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There's some things that I want to do that are new.

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There's some things that I feel, God, that You're asking me to

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do.

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And many people who I'm doing life with right now don't want to

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do the climb.

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Many people I'm doing it with would rather be hippopotamuses"

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I didn't think this because I didn't that quote until I was

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preparing for this message --

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would rather be hippopotamus is than eagles.

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And I sensed God promised me saying, "Hey, man, if you want to

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climb you just need to tell people who you're with you need

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--you're going to climb whether they're with you or not."

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All right, I'll do that.

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So I came back and I started having a conversation with people

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and casting a vision.

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There was a lot of people who just like, "Yeah, I'm not -- I'm

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not interested in that.".

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And really, really good people, love God, and just really good.

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And I still have a relation with many of them.

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But I just like, hey, we're going to go on a push here, because

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up to that point, like 2011, 2012, 2013, Crossroads really

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hadn't grown at all.

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We had some good stuff going on, but we were stagnant.

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We were like on a plane for multiple years, which means no new

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people were experiencing God, which means we were having a lot

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of discussion about how to just keep things sane, how to keep

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things okay and how to have staff be happy and all these kind

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This is not why we started doing what we're doing here.

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So I just kind of came back and like said, "Hey, I'm going to

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Phantom Lake, whether you're coming or not, I'm going."

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And what do you know, my goodness.

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What I looked at things in the last several years, what's

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happened from 2013 when we as a church were stagnant for three

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years, what happened from there to here?

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I had to write them down.

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I'll just read some to you really quickly.

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Crossroads West Side has opened since then.

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Mason moved into a new building.

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Crossroads Uptown happened.

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Crossroads Central Kentucky, our merger acquisition -- our

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merger adoption rather happened, took place.

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Crossroads Oxford took place.

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Crossroads East Side opened.

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We had a Compassion International weekend and took 6000 kids.

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Every kid that Compassion International had in Nicaragua, not

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just our central of Kentucky churches and Bolivia, but every

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kid in Nicaragua that was available, we scooped them all up in

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one weekend.

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And we're still feeding and educating those kids, just that --

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You can clap and be happy at any one of these things, if you

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want, by the way.

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[applause]

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600,000 meals shipped to South Africa.

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We had a 600,000 meals shipped to South Africa.

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We had a campaign called I'm In, 83 percent fulfilled.

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Good job.

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We had others, folks who are still engaging in the and

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fulfilling your Obsessed Journey at 23% still pushing.

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Crazy stuff that's happened there.

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We took Awaited, a church show, a nice show and leaders in the

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arts in Cincinnati said, "Hey, we'd like to play that in the

00:27:07

Aronoff. Would you use that at the Aronoff?"

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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,

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because we --

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that is amazing. Amazing.

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That is new rocky territory.

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We've had probably about, as best I can estimate, 5000 people

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baptized since 2013.

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We're bought 435 acres of camps.

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We had 15,000 people go through Man Camp, 10,000 do Women Camp.

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We have Couples Camp, College Camp, Veterans Camp, Father/Son

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Camp,

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disabled dog camp. I mean just all of them.

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[laughter]

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I'm kidding there. No, we don't have a -- "Disabled dog camp?

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No, we don't.

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Not that one. We don't have that one.

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By the way, camps for this fall, registration closes soon.

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So if you want to get in on Couples Camp, College Camp, Man

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Camp registration shuts down in a week or so.

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So get on it now.

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That's just -- that's just some of it.

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All that represents great stuff, mountaintops.

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I tell you what, grueling, backbreaking work.

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Utterly grueling, backbreaking.

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And that's just for me on my professional side.

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That's not my personal side.

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My goodness, the things God has done in the last few years on

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my personal side is nuts-o.

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We've had 32 years of marriage.

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And this last year, it was the hardest year of marriage we've

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ever had.

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First year marriage was awful.

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Seventh year of marriage, there is a seven year itch.

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It was difficult.

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Those things pale in comparison to how tough our 32 year was.

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I can't go into all of it, I'm just telling you, man, it has

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been a steep, rocky climb and we are greater now, Lib and I,

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than we have ever been.

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The view is fantastic, but it's only because we said, "Oh my

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gosh, marriage is supposed to be hard, isn't it?

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Oh, my gosh. Maybe God is using marriage to spiritually form us

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more than He is wanting to give us a beautiful hallmark card.

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Maybe the difficulty God wants you to go after is purely

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because He's going to grow you in the midst of that difficulty.

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We've had in the last few years we had two kids married off,

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two amazing spouses come into our life, new in law, son in law,

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daughter in law thing.

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Amazing. Amazing.

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I've become a grandparent.

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I'm not even taking Metamucil yet, but I'm a grandparent.

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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.

	Worship	3:20
	Community Life	12:38
	Message	17:55

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