We Laugh

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- We are Crossroads.

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A group of Jesus lovers

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who are more interested in being real

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than looking good.

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We believe the church is called to love God

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and our neighbors.

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No memberships or secret handshakes required.

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We strive to do what we see Jesus do.

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We run to the lost, the hurting, the hungry,

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to those who are asking questions and seeking truth.

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We will do anything short of sin

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to reach our friends and neighbors.

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We believe that everyone has a seat at God's table.

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We go outside our walls

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to serve the forgotten and marginalized.

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We believe we are called to be

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the hands and feet of Jesus on earth.

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We laugh as often as possible.

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The world wants to beat us down and leave us helpless.

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Laughter is our way of saying no to despair and yes to joy.

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We don't take ourselves too seriously.

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We believe God has a sense of humor

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and that farts are funny.

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We challenge ourselves and each other

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to get out of our comfort zone and do hard things.

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We believe that God uses any struggle

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and adversity we face to sharpen us,

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grow us, make us stronger,

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and take us to new places we can't get to from our couches.

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We sacrifice everything for the cause

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to go the way of Jesus.

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We believe everything we have is from God and for God.

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So we give our time, talents and money.

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We choose to die empty.

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We endure through any struggle we face.

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Jesus overcame the world,

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so when things get hard, we push through.

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When we get knocked down, we get back up again.

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Yesterday, today, tomorrow we will follow wherever God leads.

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We are Crossroads. This is us.

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- Hey, what's going on? I'm Andy and welcome to Crossroads.

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We believe that you are made for a life of adventure with God

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and we want to help you get there.

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Today and this month we're exploring

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who God has made us to be as a church,

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that we run, that we go.

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And this week we're talking specifically about how we laugh.

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One of my first times at Crossroads was

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this thing called the Super Bowl of Preaching.

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Now, I did not know you could have this much fun at church.

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I literally laughed and cried in the same hour.

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And around here we believe that God wants us

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to be challenged, yes, and have fun.

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And that's what Chuck is going to talk about today.

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And maybe, just maybe, he'll even do

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a little bit of stand up comedy for us.

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But before we get there,

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we're going to spend some time singing.

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And these songs are meant to be a conversation with God

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for us to tell Him who He is and even for us

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to hear from Him about who He says we are as His children.

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So put in your AirPods, turn up your TV and sing along.

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- Do this, put your hands together.

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I'll put my little hands together.

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Come on, everybody. Here we go.

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No matter what you feel like in this place,

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I can bet I feel weirder. Let's sing together.

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-All right, now I got to get out of this thing.

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Y'all, y'all, y'all just chill for a moment.

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You can clap your hands like this for a moment. Yep.

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- They need to make that tear away.

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Hey, if you just walked in in the middle of that,

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man, I'm sorry.

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My name is Justin if we've never met.

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And here's the deal.

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Somebody texted me on Thursday and said, "I bet you won't."

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Don't text me, "I bet you won't," because I bet I will.

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And I said, "You don't think I will?"

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I said, "As long as I get that costume

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to take home to my family and make my kids laugh,

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then I'm all in." Did y'all laugh a little bit?

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Well, here's the thing, I've done this for 25 years.

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I've never been on stage in a dino costume

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singing The Joy of the Lord.

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I take what we do very seriously.

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I love Jesus deeply.

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I take singing to Him and about Him so serious.

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And I think sometimes He looks down and says,

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"Would you just laugh a little bit?

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Would you just be ridiculous a little bit?

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Because that's My heart."

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So maybe walking in here felt ridiculous to you.

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Great. You're in the right place.

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Maybe singing right now feels ridiculous.

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Great. Follow my lead. Be ridiculous.

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Maybe lifting your hands up in this place feels ridiculous.

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Great. Let's go.

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We're going for ridiculous for the joy of the Lord today.

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Y'all ready?

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He's the source of our joy and what He's done.

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- Y'all got some beautiful smiles out there.

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You know, John 15,

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Jesus is with His closest friends and His followers.

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And if you've been in church for some time,

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maybe you've heard the word abide.

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It's where Jesus says abide in Me, like remain in Me.

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And He's saying follow all these things I've taught you.

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And then he says this line:

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Jesus wants your joy to be full,

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like the whole spectrum of it, to be complete.

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He doesn't want your religion.

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He doesn't want your task and checking off the box.

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No, He wants His joy to be in you.

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So sometimes in singing we say,

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Hey, we're going to lift our hands in this moment

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or maybe put our hands out like this.

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Here's what I want to do together.

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Can you all just smile, like,

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all the way up at the top of the balcony?

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Can you just smile?

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Yeah. Not like this smile.

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Right? Nobody needs that smile. Right?

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But if you're searching for a smile

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or you're struggling to find a smile this morning,

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can I help you? See this.

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Come on. That's my six year old son, Weston.

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After a long day at work on Tuesday,

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I pull in the driveway,

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and that's the joy I see right there.

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Right? And he's doing this.

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He's like, "Dad, I'm so fast. So fast." Right?

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Jesus wants your joy.

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This next song we're going to sing is the Lord's Prayer.

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It's literally just His words.

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And I can tell you, this is a prayer of sacrifice,

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but on the other side of sacrifice is your deepest joy.

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So everybody just relax, smile this morning while we sing this.

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Just the words of Jesus.

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Father, let your kingdom.

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Father, I got the joy, joy, joy down in my heart.

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Where? Down in my heart, because You placed it there,

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because You're the life giver,

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because You're living water,

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because You're sunshine in the morning,

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because You're wind in the fall that cuts through things.

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You hold joy for us and You want to give it away to us.

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Thank you, God. I praise you this morning in a dino suit,

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but with a full heart because you're so good and so generous.

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We pray all this because of you, Jesus. Amen. Amen.

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- So whether you live near one of our physical locations

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or are a part of our Anywhere community all over the world,

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there are tons of great opportunities to get involved.

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And the best way to stay in the know about all of them

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is just to download the Crossroads Anywhere app,

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enter your location and click on happenings.

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You'll see specific ways for you to engage

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and get connected with other people

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and even use your gifts, talents and abilities to make an impact.

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And in the app you can watch the weekend,

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read the Bible together,

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and journal alongside other people

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like Brian or Kyle or Alli or even myself.

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It's probably one of the only apps on your phone

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that's going to bring you closer to God.

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So download it and get started today.

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Now the app, the weekend service,

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the stuff we do locally and globally

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all over to change lives and make an impact,

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it all happens because of generous people like you and me.

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So, learn more about why we give,

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about where the money goes, and about

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how you can join the team at Crossroads.net/give.

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And today, as I said, we're talking about

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how we as a church laugh.

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It's who we are. It's part of our DNA.

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We're all about having fun.

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And I want you to hear some of those stories right now.

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- Chuck, do you remember?

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I remember being a young, I don't know, I was a kid.

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- You were a kid? - I was a kid.

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- Yes. - It was when you were deciding

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whether or not to come on staff at Crossroads

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and you were being interviewed

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and kind of like wined and dined.

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- Yep, and the final thing was you come to Brian's house.

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For -- we had Sunday lunch after church.

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- That's right. That's right.

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- You came over and I remember--

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- Maria had never met your parents, had never met Brian.

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This is her first time meeting Brian.

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- And he was like, "We got to see if Maria can hang."

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And so he had Jake put a fart machine, my brother,

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under Maria's chair at lunch.

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- Yes, the first time. - During Chuck's interview.

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- That's so Brian. - Yes. - That's incredible.

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- I totally remember that. And what I remember most is

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I remember you and Jake's faces laughing as it unfolded.

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- We were like 10 and 12, like, "I can't believe this."

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- And you're thinking, "Oh,

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this is how you professionally interview people."

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Yeah! - Right, exactly.

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I'm going to write this down.

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[indiscernible]

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- It's a spiritual discernment right here at its finest.

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- This is what we do. This is what we do.

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- Oh, I totally remember that.

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- Chuck and Maria both laughed and they could hang,

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and look 20 years later here we are.

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- You should talk about this more, though,

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because this idea of like having fun and laughing,

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I think it's pretty unique to Crossroads

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and how serious we take it and how much we embrace it.

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And I think it starts -- - We're serious about laughing.

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We are serious about not being serious seriously.

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But it starts with your family and it starts with,

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I feel like this idea of fun that exists,

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has existed for a long time in the Tome household.

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- One of my joys of being here

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is getting to laugh at Brian's expense,

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which we occasionally get to do.

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So, we went to -- you might -- we've done --

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Well, we've done a bunch of the filming series in Israel.

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And so the second year that we did that,

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I don't know if you recall this, Kyle, but we,

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you know, we had him filming at

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this ancient Roman, like, chariot ring.

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He was all talking about -- Is this the shorts?

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- Yeah, he was all about, like, preparing for the race.

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We're like, you know, we should do,

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we should dress him up in one of those, like,

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70s La Fontaine kind of like tight, short kind of things.

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And we should make him run funny.

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And so -- - [indiscernible]

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- Yeah, it was, no, it was good.

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So, basically we set up this outfit

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that was like an American flag,

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kind of like tight little onesie

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and these shorter shorts you could possibly think.

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We didn't tell him about it. - We worked hard on it too.

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I remember going back and forth, like, "I don't know,

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what do you think about this one?"

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"I don't know. Not short enough."

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"Yeah, not short enough, shorter shorts."

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"What about an American flag though?"

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And so, and then we got it all set

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and we didn't tell him about it until it was time for that shot.

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And we're like, "Okay, Brian,

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we're going to need you to change.

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We need you change because we're going to have

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you run in this next thing. Go put these on."

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And you can see in the whole thing he's like,

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"Oh, this is not cool, this is not cool, this is not cool."

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And but then he did, and then he had to walk up

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in that ridiculous thing. - To random people.

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- Yeah. I mean, pretty basically, like,

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almost an illegal outfit, like, you know,

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like, indecent exposure and had to walk up to two tourists

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and get them to race him. Yeah.

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And like so some like German, some German girl

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and some Swedish dude, like, ended up racing him

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and he's in that outfit and it was hilarious.

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But, I mean, that does say something about him

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that he's willing to be laughed at as well as --

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I mean he does his share of laughing at us.

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- We look for intentional places

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to just let people laugh and have relief.

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And I remember there was a friend I had

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who was a club promoter in Cincinnati.

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So put whatever stereotype you want on top of him about that.

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And he came to Crossroads for the very first time

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and he's getting coffee and the first thing out of the gate

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in the service was that What Does The Fox say video

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that was like, What Does The Fox Say?

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Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.

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And he's like, "What?"

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And it was the first time he had ever seen that video

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because it went viral like 24 hours later.

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And we went, 'We got space

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and let's put that thing and everyone's laughing about."

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And it totally disarmed him

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and he came to know Jesus here after that because

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it started in a place of him laughing because

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we don't take ourselves seriously.

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It's just a disarming thing.

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- I just think that shows that faith

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is meant to be every single emotion.

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It's not just like the piety and the down on this,

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but it's like it's the joy and it's the laughter

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and it's all those things, and so that's where we try.

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You know, a lot of times people are wrestling

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with something pretty heavy in a service

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and we want to break the tension and be like,

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"No, we're all real people here."

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You know, I think that goes hand in hand

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with the vulnerability and all the other stuff.

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- Life's hard, I mean, even outside of the church,

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life's just hard.

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So if we can be a place where people come in

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and they actually get to go, like,

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"I walked out of here laughing more in church

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than I did at work or that I did in my car."

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That's a win because I feel like we really believe

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and we put into practice we want to be

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like fresh water for people the way that Jesus tells us to.

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And one of the best ways for us to do that culturally

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is just to get people to laugh

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because it's healing and it's helpful.

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And you walk out going like, "I needed that,"

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and it's just who we are.

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BT always kind of says, like, You know what dad

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doesn't want to see his kids laugh," right?

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And so we just get to be conduits to that, so we laugh.

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- Yes, we laugh. We laugh.

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I've been laughing with this community

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for almost 22 years now,

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and you are some of the funniest

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and fun loving people I have ever been around.

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I love that this is a distinctive,

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a part of who we are.

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If we haven't met, I'm Chuck.

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I'm one of the teaching pastors around Crossroads.

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And you find us in this teaching that we're doing,

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this kind of series of teachings called This Is Us,

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where we're just recognizing that, you know,

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God is bringing new people into our community,

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which is amazing that people are meeting Jesus here

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and we're celebrating that.

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And we're also recognizing, man, we don't want you

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to have to wait to know who we are as a community.

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So, it's always good if you're new

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to kind of know what a place is about.

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And that's what this series is.

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But am I the only old fogy around here that's like

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it's good to be reminded of what we're about.

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It's good to be reminded of the distinctives

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that have been part of Crossroads

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for years and years and years.

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So the first week Brian talked about this idea that we run,

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we run after people who are far from God.

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And last week Kyle talked about the fact that we go.

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We go places where people need

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to see and experience the good news.

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And a lot of what we do in our reach out is connected to that.

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And today we're going to talk about a community who laughs

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because we laugh around here,

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but we're going to pray before we go any further.

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Let's do that now. God, I thank You

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for the gift of laughter and joy.

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I thank You for the ways that I have seen that.

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Bless me from being a part of this church.

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I can think of weekends where I came in

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and was surprised or delighted by something,

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and it just reminded me that You are a loving God

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and You are a God of joy.

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And so maybe someone's coming in today

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and they really need that message.

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I pray that they would hear it loud and clear,

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that their spirit would lift from maybe where they came in

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or where they tuned in to where You want to lead them today.

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And I ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

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We laugh around here because we think

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this is what God's people should be like.

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Big idea today is this: Laughter and joy

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should be the calling card of a Jesus following community.

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Like wherever you see people who follow Jesus,

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who say their lives have been changed by Jesus,

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there are some things that should be a part of them.

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And yes, absolutely, love is one of those things

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and faith is one of those things.

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But I believe laughter and joy should also be among that list.

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You know, Jesus was funny. He was funny.

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And sometimes we don't read it

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and catch it in the words of the Bible,

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because some of the puns and wordplay he was using

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made sense in the original language,

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but it didn't translate to English.

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But Jesus was funny, and I tell you this,

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He had to be fun to be around because I don't think

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you can draw the kind of crowds that Jesus drew

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if you weren't fun to be around.

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I remember seeing this billboard years ago

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and it just simply said, God is in a good mood.

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Think about that, like, what comes to mind

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when you think about God's mood?

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Do you think of God as dour and sour and judgmental?

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No. God is in a good mood

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and there's a joy that emanates from Him.

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And that joy should also emanate from people who follow Him.

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And at Crossroads, we've just said

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we want to be a place where this is true.

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It's why we do crazy things like the Super Bowl of Preaching.

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Anybody ever been here for one of those things, right?

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Super Bowl of Preaching where we totally make

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a mockery of ourselves as communicators

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and act like we're football players and stars and all this.

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It's really fun.

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And man, some of those commercials

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are the funniest commercials you will see

00:29:29

on Super Bowl Sunday, am I right?

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And so that's just a part of our community.

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We laugh around here and we love that

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because we don't take ourselves too seriously. We don't.

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And actually, there's a spiritual principle behind this.

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We've all heard the adage

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laughter is the best medicine, right?

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We've all heard that.

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Do you know that actually comes from the Bible?

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It comes from the Bible. Let me read it to you.

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Proverbs 17:22 says:

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A joyful heart actually is life giving.

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And in fact, we now know this isn't just an adage,

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this isn't just a wise old proverb,

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medical science has proven this to be true.

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There's an article from the Mayo Clinic

00:30:09

entitled Stress Relief from Laughter: It's no joke.

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It came out in 2021.

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And here's among the things they say are benefits of laughter.

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First, they talk about short term benefits.

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They say a good laugh has great short term effects.

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When you start to laugh,

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it doesn't just lighten your load mentally,

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it actually induces physical changes in your body.

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Laughter can stimulate many of your organs.

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You can actually add oxygen to your lungs and things like that.

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It can also activate and relieve your stress response.

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So if you're having a stress response,

00:30:36

laughter has a way of relieving that.

00:30:38

It can literally soothe tension.

00:30:40

It can have muscular benefits to you from laughing.

00:30:43

But it's not just short term effects.

00:30:45

Laughter also has long term effects like

00:30:48

improving your immune system.

00:30:50

You literally can laugh your way to better health.

00:30:52

It actually can improve and reduce pain.

00:30:55

It releases some of the same things that your body releases

00:30:58

when it's trying to address pain are released when you laugh.

00:31:01

It can increase your personal satisfaction.

00:31:03

It can improve your mood.

00:31:04

And relate it to laughter is this idea of play.

00:31:07

And we think that play

00:31:09

is something that we need only as kids,

00:31:10

but we actually need to play as adults.

00:31:13

It is healthy to play.

00:31:14

In fact, a friend of mine just this week sent me an article.

00:31:17

He's right there. Thank you, Russ, for sending

00:31:19

this article to me from The Washington Post.

00:31:20

And it talks about play.

00:31:22

This is some of what it said. It said:

00:31:37

Listen to this.

00:31:49

And so in preparation for this week

00:31:51

I wanted to go to school on laughter,

00:31:55

I wanted to go to school on joy.

00:31:57

And I decided to spend time with some experts at it,

00:32:00

stand up comedians. I love stand up comedy.

00:32:03

Let me ask you a question, do you remember

00:32:05

the first stand up routine you ever saw?

00:32:08

I don't know what it was for you.

00:32:10

I might be dating myself a little bit, but for me,

00:32:12

it was Eddie Murphy, Delirious. That was the one for me.

00:32:15

That was the one for me.

00:32:17

And no, I was not supposed to be watching it.

00:32:19

Of course not.

00:32:20

In fact, I asked that these last two minutes

00:32:22

be struck from the record because my mom might see this

00:32:24

and no, of course, Mom, I didn't watch Delirious

00:32:26

when you told me not to. No, I did not at all.

00:32:28

But I remember experiencing that.

00:32:30

And just remember like, man, what is going on here?

00:32:32

How am I laughing so hard?

00:32:33

There's something special about stand up comedians

00:32:36

and what they've learned about laughter.

00:32:38

So I said, You know what?

00:32:39

If I'm really going to go to school on this, I should try it.

00:32:44

And so I signed up for open mic night

00:32:47

at Go Bananas Comedy Club in Cincinnati.

00:32:50

And a couple of Wednesdays ago

00:32:52

I did my first open mic night of standup.

00:32:55

You guys want to see it? [cheers & appause]

00:32:57

All right. Let's watch this together.

00:33:00

- Okay, so this next dude is doing stand up

00:33:02

for the first time ever, so it's really hard

00:33:05

and he is a great dude.

00:33:07

So give your love and give your attention

00:33:09

to Chuck Mingo, everybody. [cheers]

00:33:17

- Well, as Blake said, this is.

00:33:18

This is my first time ever doing stand up.

00:33:21

So thank you for bearing with me on that.

00:33:23

But I feel pretty hopeful this is going to work because,

00:33:26

well, I read this book and the book said

00:33:28

there is a foolproof one question funny test.

00:33:31

And the question is, are you Jewish, Italian or black?

00:33:36

So, I figured game on. I mean, I got that one covered.

00:33:38

So, yeah, that didn't work too well, but it's all good.

00:33:41

And so I'm good.

00:33:43

The challenge, really, as a pastor is not getting on stage.

00:33:47

The challenge is going to be getting me off the stage.

00:33:50

You know what I mean?

00:33:51

Especially because I know you guys can't tell this

00:33:54

with all the lights, but because I'm a black pastor, that's --

00:33:58

Can we be personal tonight? Can we be personal?

00:34:00

- Long winded. - I've been black all my life.

00:34:03

I really have. I was raised by black people,

00:34:06

and as somebody just said, long winded.

00:34:08

I grew up in the black church. I grew up in the black church.

00:34:11

It's amazing there's air conditioning in here tonight.

00:34:13

I'm not used to that from a church experience.

00:34:16

I had three hour services when I went to church.

00:34:20

I was 23 years old before I actually watched

00:34:22

an NFL football game live on television because

00:34:25

I was in church while that was happening.

00:34:26

So I'm going to give you a little warning,

00:34:28

you might find yourself in a black church,

00:34:30

this might be helpful.

00:34:31

The pastor at some point is going to say,

00:34:33

"And I'm closing with this," don't believe it.

00:34:37

Don't believe it, they might not even be

00:34:39

at the halfway point of their message yet.

00:34:41

I just want you to know that.

00:34:42

So they told me I have five minutes tonight

00:34:44

and don't believe it, I'm going for a tight 45 minute set here.

00:34:47

So, I'm also a husband and a dad and I really love that.

00:34:54

So I want to give a shout out to my wife

00:34:56

who decided not to be here tonight. She's not here.

00:35:01

I also want to give a shout out to my kids,

00:35:04

who also aren't here tonight.

00:35:07

My kids said, "Dad, it's a school night."

00:35:10

What kid uses that as an excuse? I was pretty upset.

00:35:14

So I said to my kids, "WTF?

00:35:16

Where's the faith, kids? Where's the faith?"

00:35:20

[laughter & applause]

00:35:24

That worked. That was a dad joke.

00:35:25

That one worked, all right.

00:35:28

But I can't blame my kids, though, for feeling embarrassed

00:35:31

because something happens to all dads.

00:35:33

All dads take the trail from cool to corny.

00:35:37

I used to be cool. I had fly gear growing up in the '90s.

00:35:41

I had fly gear. You know, I had the dope fade.

00:35:44

I had an arrow that was carved into my head

00:35:47

that pointed down my back.

00:35:48

I don't know what it was pointing people to,

00:35:50

but I certainly wasn't pointing them to Jesus,

00:35:52

y'all, I'm just sayin.

00:35:54

And now when I ask my kids, "Hey, what's my style?"

00:35:57

They say, "Dad, you're NPC."

00:36:02

I don't know what that means, but I'm thinking

00:36:03

it's just like, Nah, pretty cool.

00:36:05

That's probably what they're saying to me. I don't know.

00:36:08

The other day my son said to me, "Yo, dad, that's Gucci."

00:36:10

I said, "No, I'm pretty sure I bought this at Target."

00:36:13

I'm pretty sure it wasn't Gucci.

00:36:15

And I'm gonna close with this.

00:36:17

I'm going to close with this.

00:36:23

Wait for it, right? No, my kids and my wife,

00:36:25

I love them because

00:36:26

they help me not to take myself too seriously.

00:36:28

And let me tell you, life is better

00:36:30

when you don't take yourself too seriously.

00:36:31

Because sometimes when you do, you think

00:36:33

you're going to end up in the NBA and you wind up

00:36:36

ending up in the emergency room after all.

00:36:39

All right. That's all I've got.

00:36:40

So let's close our eyes and we'll pray.

00:36:42

We're going to pray.

00:36:43

I'm just kidding. We're not going to pray.

00:36:45

You guys have been great. Thank you so much.

00:36:57

- Oh, you guys are too kind. You're too kind. You too kind.

00:37:00

You kind of like that, though, so I guess this is

00:37:02

a great time to announce

00:37:03

that I actually am going on tour.

00:37:05

We're calling it Sacrilegious. It's going to be --

00:37:10

Coming soon to a city near, no.

00:37:14

So after that experience, I was texting with Brian

00:37:17

and he was like, "So how was it?"

00:37:18

And it was it was a bunch of things.

00:37:20

First, I have to tell you, I had a lot of fun.

00:37:22

I had a lot of fun.

00:37:23

I enjoyed the whole process, like preparation.

00:37:25

I was working with a comedian

00:37:27

who was helping me kind of refine.

00:37:28

That was fun. It was fun to be there.

00:37:30

It was fun to be on stage.

00:37:31

The other thing, though,

00:37:32

is it was surprisingly freeing because at some point,

00:37:35

as I said yes to this new thing, I realized

00:37:38

this is my first time. I don't have to be good at this.

00:37:41

And it was really freeing just to say like,

00:37:43

okay, I'm just going to do this thing

00:37:44

and have this experience.

00:37:46

It was also incredibly healing and I'm going to

00:37:48

talk about that a little bit later.

00:37:50

But the thing that also I saw was I saw in that comedy club

00:37:55

a microcosm of what I believe God's vision is for His church.

00:37:59

And let me explain it to you.

00:38:00

So when you're doing open mic, you get invited

00:38:04

to be a part of this comics meeting,

00:38:06

which happens like right before you go on stage.

00:38:08

And you know, all the comics went outside and circled up

00:38:11

and they said, "Hey, is this anybody's first time?"

00:38:13

So it was me and another person's first time

00:38:14

and they're just really encouraging,

00:38:16

"Hey, glad you're here.

00:38:17

Like, awesome. Way to go".

00:38:18

And then you kind of learn the logistics, right?

00:38:20

So, you know, hey, you got five minutes.

00:38:22

There's going to be a light in the back that blinks at four.

00:38:24

We will cut your mic off five, you know all that stuff.

00:38:26

Then also they're telling you,

00:38:28

hey, you got to introduce the next person.

00:38:29

So this is who's going to introduce whom.

00:38:31

All of this is happening.

00:38:32

And I'm just in this circle and I'm like, Man,

00:38:34

this is a really interesting group of people.

00:38:37

Can I just tell you, I think my comedy routine

00:38:40

would be rated G, maybe PG, that was a rarity that night.

00:38:45

I'll just put it that way

00:38:46

for those of you who've been in a comedy club.

00:38:48

So I'm in this group of people and, like,

00:38:50

there's unique people in that circle.

00:38:52

There was one woman who literally had on this blazer,

00:38:55

and when she gets up on stage, she opens up the blazer

00:38:57

and there's a bearded lizard just hanging out

00:38:59

that's a part of her comedy routine.

00:39:01

So it was interesting.

00:39:02

And so I'm in this circle and I had this thought.

00:39:05

I said, you know what?

00:39:06

These comedians are a group of ragtag people

00:39:09

who have a common mission and have learned to laugh

00:39:12

through the ups and downs of life.

00:39:15

And that's exactly God's vision for us as His people.

00:39:18

That if you go into a church, what you should find

00:39:21

is a group of ragtag people who have a common mission,

00:39:24

who have learned to laugh at the ups and downs of life.

00:39:28

There's something to this for all of us.

00:39:30

And so as we think about this idea that we laugh,

00:39:33

I want us to know this is, I believe,

00:39:35

God's vision for you as an individual

00:39:37

and for us as a church.

00:39:38

And so there's a scripture that I want

00:39:40

to kind of raise up today that to me kind of reinforces

00:39:44

this idea around laughter and joy.

00:39:46

It's Philippians and it's actually a short letter,

00:39:48

Paul wrote it to a group of followers of Jesus

00:39:50

in a city called Philippi in the Roman Empire.

00:39:52

Philippians 4:4 he says this:

00:39:58

So, Paul is saying, "Hey, this is important.

00:40:00

I'm repeating it."

00:40:01

This idea of rejoicing always in the Lord is so important.

00:40:06

He goes on to say:

00:40:20

And here's the result of doing that.

00:40:30

And so I want to use these words just to reflect

00:40:32

on three reasons why we laugh.

00:40:34

And the first reason is we laugh because it connects us.

00:40:38

Laughter is a universal language that every human speaks.

00:40:43

Have you ever been in an environment, I have,

00:40:45

where I don't share the language with the people I'm talking to?

00:40:48

I'm barely good at speaking English, right?

00:40:51

The language I grew up learning.

00:40:53

But like, I know some Spanish, but like,

00:40:55

you put me in a room with Russian, Chinese, Hindi.

00:40:57

I've been with all kinds of people from different cultures.

00:41:00

I don't share the language and so there's a barrier there.

00:41:03

But something funny happens and all of a sudden

00:41:05

we are speaking the same universal language.

00:41:08

No matter where you are, people speak the language of laughter.

00:41:11

I was thinking about this

00:41:12

in terms of the family I grew up in.

00:41:13

I grew up around a bunch of funny people, I really did

00:41:16

My family is crazy, seriously.

00:41:19

Like they rolled up in here, you would know

00:41:22

that it was my family because you would hear laughter

00:41:24

so loud it would fill this whole room.

00:41:26

I mean, just that's how I grew up.

00:41:27

And it's so funny because all of these gatherings

00:41:30

that we would have, whether it was a holiday,

00:41:32

we all went to the same church.

00:41:33

All of this, they're just filled with

00:41:34

all these moments of laughter.

00:41:36

And it's funny, like, I can go back to Philadelphia

00:41:38

as I did recently, and I can be with my cousins now.

00:41:41

We're in our 40s and 50s and beyond,

00:41:43

but we can remember these funny moments that happened

00:41:45

when we were like nine and ten years old.

00:41:48

There's just something about a family that I think

00:41:51

is marked if it's healthy by laughter.

00:41:54

And so Paul is writing to the church at Philippi

00:41:57

because they are a spiritual family,

00:41:59

just like we at Crossroads are a spiritual family.

00:42:01

And Paul is saying to them, and it's interesting,

00:42:03

of all the things he could focus on, he could have said,

00:42:05

"Hey, I want to remind you about

00:42:07

the need to live faithfully.

00:42:09

I want to remind you about the need to love well.

00:42:12

I want to remind you about

00:42:13

the need to stay rooted in the truth."

00:42:15

all important things, but of all the things

00:42:18

Paul wants to remind this family of believers of

00:42:20

who are living as religious minorities,

00:42:22

persecuted minority, he says, "I want to remind you

00:42:26

to rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice."

00:42:31

Joy is a common language that Paul wanted the church to speak.

00:42:36

And I think that's true for us.

00:42:37

He wants us to know that part of the way

00:42:40

that we connect to each other comes through laughter

00:42:43

and it comes through joy.

00:42:44

And I want to say this I know that for some of you,

00:42:47

you walked into this room or you logged on,

00:42:50

and joy is not the defining emotion

00:42:52

you're feeling right now.

00:42:54

There's heaviness in our lives.

00:42:56

And I know there's people in here who literally

00:42:58

may have been crying in the parking lot,

00:43:00

and it took everything in you to kind of

00:43:02

collect yourself enough to come here.

00:43:04

And you came because you're hoping that

00:43:05

there's something here that can lift your spirits.

00:43:07

But you didn't walk in here with joy.

00:43:10

And yet I want you to know that you being here

00:43:12

in the presence of other people who are laughing

00:43:15

is part of the power of being in a community like this.

00:43:19

Paul uses the word joy in Philippians 16 times,

00:43:22

way more frequently than any other book its length

00:43:25

in the Bible because rejoicing is a communal project.

00:43:29

There are some days I got to borrow your joy

00:43:31

because I don't have it, and there are other days

00:43:34

I hope you can borrow my joy.

00:43:35

This is what it means.

00:43:36

And so we laugh because it connects us.

00:43:38

But we also laugh because it keeps us humble.

00:43:42

Paul says this, he says,

00:43:43

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

00:43:47

Another word for that is

00:43:49

let your gentleness be known to everyone.

00:43:51

Let your kindness be known to everyone.

00:43:54

So I just want you to take a moment

00:43:55

and think about someone you enjoy being around.

00:43:59

Like, if you knew you were grabbing lunch with them

00:44:01

after service today, after you log off,

00:44:03

you would be looking forward to it.

00:44:05

You wouldn't be dreading it. You'd be looking forward to it.

00:44:07

Think about that person.

00:44:09

I may not know that person, but I know

00:44:11

two things are true about them.

00:44:12

Number one, they're reasonable. They're reasonable.

00:44:15

That doesn't mean they don't have passion,

00:44:17

doesn't mean they don't have perspectives

00:44:19

and points of view on things.

00:44:20

But there's a part of you that's like,

00:44:21

"I can be around you because you're a reasonable person."

00:44:25

And the second thing is, I bet you they're humble.

00:44:28

I bet you you like spending time with them because

00:44:31

you know the whole lunch isn't going to be focused on them.

00:44:34

They're not going to make it all about them.

00:44:37

There's a reasonableness that they have,

00:44:39

and that's what humility can do.

00:44:41

And I think part of that is humor.

00:44:43

So let me be very clear.

00:44:44

I'm not saying today that if you're a follower of Jesus

00:44:47

you need to be able to tell a good joke.

00:44:50

But I do believe this, if you're a follower of Jesus,

00:44:52

you need to be able to take a good joke.

00:44:55

That you don't take yourself so seriously

00:44:57

that you can't laugh, that you can't be a person

00:45:00

who is humble enough to take a good joke.

00:45:03

And let me be very clear, if you want influence,

00:45:05

and God wants you to have influence,

00:45:07

if you want influence, you can't take yourself too seriously.

00:45:10

There's actually research that shows that

00:45:12

managers who have a sense of humor, again,

00:45:13

not that they can tell a joke, but they can take a joke,

00:45:16

are 33% more trusted by those who follow them.

00:45:19

And so I just want you to know

00:45:21

this is a part of how we have influence.

00:45:22

And let me be very clear, God wants you to have influence.

00:45:28

God wants Crossroads to have massive influence.

00:45:31

Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 5. He says:

00:45:44

And this is what Jesus says to us:

00:45:55

Look, you don't have to look far and wide

00:45:58

to see the darkness in our world,

00:46:00

yo see that there's brokenness, division, there's pain,

00:46:02

there are people hurting in our world.

00:46:04

And yet what Jesus says to you and I is

00:46:07

we are to be people who shine in that darkness.

00:46:11

Tim Keller is a pastor that I respect. He put it this way.

00:46:13

He pastored in Manhattan for many years, and he said:

00:46:18

And I've heard Brian say similarly.

00:46:26

Isn't that powerful? And I believe that's God's call.

00:46:29

And it's our desire that in Cincinnati

00:46:31

there would be people who would say,

00:46:32

"I don't go to Crossroads.

00:46:34

I don't believe what Crossroads believes,

00:46:36

but I would hate to see what our city

00:46:38

would look like without Crossroads.

00:46:39

I would hate to see what Columbus

00:46:41

would look like without Crossroads.

00:46:43

I would hate to see what Dayton

00:46:44

looks like without Crossroads.

00:46:45

I'd hate to see what Lexington

00:46:47

and areas in Kentucky looked like without Crossroads.

00:46:49

For those who are joining Anywhere, wherever you are,

00:46:51

people in your neighborhood should say,

00:46:53

I would hate to see what our neighborhood

00:46:55

doesn't look like without them.

00:46:56

Not only because we're faithful people,

00:46:58

not only because we're people of the truth,

00:47:00

but because we laugh,

00:47:01

because there's a sense in which we shine.

00:47:04

You know, some of the things that

00:47:05

we need to do to shine are just smile.

00:47:08

You shine when you smile,

00:47:09

you shine when you're hopeful in this world.

00:47:12

I got to see this up close and personal

00:47:14

with my friend Zach Wycuff.

00:47:16

So Zach Wycuff is a professional comedian.

00:47:18

He's really good.

00:47:20

In fact, he was at Go Bananas last night

00:47:22

and some people saw him perform.

00:47:23

And so Zach was the person I went to

00:47:25

when I realized I was going to do this whole open mic thing.

00:47:27

And I was like, "Hey, I need you to make me funny, Zach."

00:47:30

That's really what I told him.

00:47:31

Like, you got to make me funny.

00:47:33

So it was great working with him.

00:47:35

But then we got to Go Bananas

00:47:36

and I got to see Zach in a different light.

00:47:38

You know, Zach is on staff at Crossroads.

00:47:40

I see him in this light,

00:47:41

but I got to see him in the comedy club.

00:47:43

I'm just going to tell you,

00:47:45

there were people in that club that were hurting.

00:47:47

There were comedians that got up that night that were hurting.

00:47:50

And Zach was just a friend to them.

00:47:53

I saw how he encouraged them.

00:47:55

I saw how he was present for them.

00:47:56

And I saw how as a comedian, he just shows people,

00:48:00

look, I love Jesus and I'm a normal dude, too.

00:48:04

And it was really powerful.

00:48:05

So afterwards I got a chance to just send Zach this text.

00:48:08

I said, "Zach, thank you so much for shepherding me through this.

00:48:11

I saw a side of you last night at that comedy club.

00:48:14

I saw how you are shepherding

00:48:16

those other comedian friends as a good shepherd."

00:48:18

Jesus said He's a good shepherd

00:48:19

that lays down his life for his sheep.

00:48:21

And I saw Zach doing that.

00:48:23

I said, "You are called to make people laugh

00:48:26

and also to help people heal.

00:48:28

You represent a picture of Jesus they desperately need to see.

00:48:31

So yes, I agree. Laughter is holy and you are called to it."

00:48:36

And Zack, of course, in comedian fashion responded this way.

00:48:38

He says, "So kind of you to say, brother, thank you.

00:48:40

I do love comedians,

00:48:42

they're such weirdos and I love them so much."

00:48:44

So there you go.

00:48:46

But Zach is salt and light in a place that needs it.

00:48:49

And I think it's an honest question to ask as we talk

00:48:51

about a community that laughs, being people who laugh,

00:48:54

how can we laugh in the dark world that we live in?

00:48:59

How can we laugh when there is real pain,

00:49:02

real loss, real suffering?

00:49:04

When there are people literally dying,

00:49:06

when there's all kinds of things happening in the world,

00:49:08

how can we be people who laugh?

00:49:11

It's a fair question.

00:49:12

And what I love about God, what I love about Jesus,

00:49:15

what I love about the Bible is

00:49:16

the Bible doesn't skirt that question.

00:49:18

The Bible doesn't hide from that question.

00:49:20

And what the Bible says is the reason you and I can laugh,

00:49:23

even in the challenges we face in this world,

00:49:26

is because we have genuine hope in Jesus Christ.

00:49:30

We laugh because we have genuine hope.

00:49:33

See, I don't want you to hear today that

00:49:36

what the world needs are happy clappy Christians.

00:49:40

Because in fact, what the world needs way less of

00:49:43

is happy clappy Christians, so don't hear that.

00:49:46

But let me tell you this, but the world needs

00:49:49

way more hopeful Christians.

00:49:51

The world needs people who, despite the darkness,

00:49:55

see a brightness on the horizon

00:49:57

and they can invite others into the journey to get there.

00:50:00

That's what the world needs more of.

00:50:02

I told you that the experience of being there

00:50:07

at Go bananas was healing for me.

00:50:08

Let me say a little bit more about that.

00:50:11

That week was one of the hardest weeks

00:50:14

I had experienced this year.

00:50:16

And so I was not in a good place going into that Wednesday night.

00:50:22

In fact, I felt like

00:50:23

I was living two realities at the same time.

00:50:25

The one reality, I struggle with anxiety, the one reality

00:50:28

I was literally losing sleep.

00:50:30

I was only sleeping 4 to 5 hours a night that week

00:50:32

because I was so anxious about a lot of the things

00:50:34

that were going on in my life.

00:50:36

That was one life that I was living,

00:50:37

while at the same time I'm over here

00:50:39

trying to write jokes on a napkin for a standup routine.

00:50:43

And it just felt so disorienting to me.

00:50:45

And in fact, I really was almost there.

00:50:47

I was like, "I'm gonna pull the plug on this.

00:50:49

I'm gonna pull the plug on this comedian thing,

00:50:51

because not only do I not feel funny, I don't feel happy.

00:50:54

And I don't know that I can do this."

00:50:57

But can I just tell you, I'm so glad that I followed through.

00:51:00

And here's why I'm glad.

00:51:01

Because something about that process

00:51:03

and something about even standing up there that night

00:51:06

was me saying to the darkness,

00:51:08

"The darkness will not define my whole experience."

00:51:13

It will not define -- Oh, it's real.

00:51:15

I can't ignore that I didn't sleep well that night.

00:51:18

I can't ignore that I'm dealing with anxiety.

00:51:20

But by the same token, that lack of sleep

00:51:23

and that anxiety isn't the only thing defining my life.

00:51:27

And it was so healing,

00:51:29

doing that was literally healing for my soul.

00:51:32

And it reminded me like that's what biblical hope is.

00:51:35

So when I use this word hope, I want to define it for you.

00:51:37

I define biblical hope this way:

00:51:39

it is a confident expectation and desire

00:51:42

for something good in the future

00:51:44

based on the promises God makes to us in Scripture.

00:51:48

It's not based on circumstances, because

00:51:50

our circumstances aren't always going to bring hope.

00:51:53

It's not even based on the struggles that we face,

00:51:56

because I know and this is an old song

00:51:58

that says trouble don't last always.

00:51:59

I'm so glad trouble don't last always.

00:52:01

So I don't even want to have it based on that.

00:52:03

So where can we find this kind of hope?

00:52:06

We find it in the promises of a God who is

00:52:08

always in a good mood because He is always in control.

00:52:12

I know that sounds trite, but it is also true.

00:52:15

We can have genuine hope because God is in control,

00:52:19

even in the crazy world we live in,

00:52:21

even in the thing you're dealing with right now,

00:52:23

God has not lost control. He is in control.

00:52:26

And you can rest on His promises,

00:52:28

even when your circumstances don't look like it.

00:52:31

And I just want to encourage you around this today.

00:52:34

Can I encourage you for a bit?

00:52:35

I just want to encourage you from the Word of God

00:52:37

for a few minutes through some things that Jesus says

00:52:40

and what the Bible says.

00:52:41

Look at what Jesus says in Luke 6:21.

00:52:43

These are some of the promises we have in Him. He says:

00:52:49

See, the Bible doesn't ignore that weeping is going to come.

00:52:53

There's a verse that says sorrow will last for a night,

00:52:55

but joy comes in the morning.

00:52:57

It doesn't mean that sorrow is not real.

00:52:59

But I want you to know what Jesus says is

00:53:01

your sorrow won't get the last word.

00:53:04

Those weeping tears, He catches them in a bottle

00:53:07

and it won't be that He ignores those tears,

00:53:10

but He will redeem the situation causing those tears.

00:53:13

And I want to say this, I'm not talking about,

00:53:14

Yeah, it's all going to be good in heaven.

00:53:16

Yes, it will be really good in heaven.

00:53:18

We will laugh our butts off in heaven for sure.

00:53:20

But even in this world He's working,

00:53:24

He's redeeming, He's healing.

00:53:26

Why would Jesus say it in the present tense?

00:53:28

Blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh.

00:53:32

You shall laugh.

00:53:33

How about this one? Isaiah 54:17 says:

00:53:39

I know some of us feel like someone's taking aim at you.

00:53:43

And I want you to know that that person

00:53:45

is an entity called Satan.

00:53:47

We have a real spiritual enemy.

00:53:48

And some of us, he's taking aim through accusation.

00:53:51

Some of us he's taking aim through false things

00:53:53

and lies that are being told about you.

00:53:55

But I love this verse that says, you know what?

00:53:57

Even in the midst of that, you can laugh and have joy because

00:53:59

no weapon fashioned against a child of God will succeed.

00:54:03

So you can have confidence and trust that in that battle

00:54:06

God is fighting for you.

00:54:09

How about this one? Philippians 1:6 says:

00:54:16

When you came into relationship with Jesus,

00:54:18

He began a good work in you, He planted good seed in you,

00:54:23

He planted things that will bear fruit in your life.

00:54:26

And I know you might not feel like that right now.

00:54:28

And that's why I want you to rest on the hope of this verse

00:54:30

and this promise

00:54:31

that He who began that good work will complete it.

00:54:34

Let me talk to parents in here who feel like

00:54:36

your child is in a place where they're wandering

00:54:39

and you don't know what the future holds for your child.

00:54:41

You want some things for your child

00:54:43

that you're not experiencing right now.

00:54:45

I want you to know the same God who gifted you

00:54:47

to carry that child to term

00:54:49

is the same child who has a plan for that --

00:54:51

Same God, who has a plan for that child's life.

00:54:53

And what He begins, He will complete.

00:54:55

You can trust that. You can have hope.

00:54:58

Even in the midst of the evidence not showing that,

00:55:00

you can have hope in that God.

00:55:01

Some of us walked in here today alone because

00:55:04

we are in a marriage that seems like it's dead on arrival

00:55:08

and we don't know how things can change.

00:55:10

And yet there's a God who promises that

00:55:12

what He starts, He completes.

00:55:14

And I want you to have that kind of hope.

00:55:17

That's why I love what it says in James 1:2.

00:55:19

Here's another promise. He says:

00:55:27

And I love this:

00:55:35

And here's the promise that really covers all the promises.

00:55:38

2 Corinthians 1:20 says:

00:55:43

Every promise of God finds its yes in Jesus Christ,

00:55:47

finds its yes in the fact that Jesus came

00:55:49

and lived the perfect life we couldn't live,

00:55:51

that He died the death that we deserved,

00:55:53

that He didn't stay dead, but three days later

00:55:55

He rose from the grave and now offers us life

00:55:58

and a redeemed relationship with God.

00:56:00

Every promise of God finds its yes in that.

00:56:04

Every promise of God finds its yes in that.

00:56:06

So this is what I would say to you,

00:56:07

if you can find the body of Jesus, stop laughing.

00:56:12

If you can find the body of Jesus, I'll stop laughing.

00:56:15

If you can find the body of Jesus, I won't have hope.

00:56:18

If you can find the body of Jesus,

00:56:20

I don't have any source of joy.

00:56:22

But for 2000 years since He died and rose,

00:56:25

no one has produced a body.

00:56:27

And so what I'm telling you is He's not dead; He's alive.

00:56:30

So every promise of God has already found its yes in Jesus.

00:56:34

And even if right now you don't see that in your life,

00:56:36

it's coming, friend, it's coming, so you can have hope.

00:56:39

It's coming, friend. It's coming.

00:56:41

So you can laugh at the days to come.

00:56:42

It's coming, friend. It's coming.

00:56:44

This darkness of the present moment

00:56:46

will not define your future.

00:56:49

Every promise of God finds its yes in Jesus.

00:56:53

See the source of our joy, the source of our laughter

00:56:56

is a person, His name is Jesus.

00:56:59

And in Him we have redemption.

00:57:03

In Him we have forgiveness of sins, everything that

00:57:05

we've ever done that goes against God is forgiven.

00:57:10

When we trust Him, in Him we have salvation.

00:57:14

Not only did Jesus save you, He is saving you

00:57:18

and will save you.

00:57:20

He's in the process of doing that right now.

00:57:22

In Him we have healing, deep emotional healing,

00:57:25

heart healing, physical healing can be a part of that.

00:57:28

In Him we have freedom. We're no longer slaves.

00:57:31

We're no longer bound.

00:57:32

And in him we have a redeemed and unbreakable relationship

00:57:36

with our loving God who is always in a good mood

00:57:39

through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

00:57:41

Look at what Paul says in Philippians 4:7,

00:57:43

based on all of these promises, he says:

00:57:51

Biblical hope empowers us to both be rooted

00:57:54

in reality and laugh. We can do both.

00:57:59

And I just want to pause and ask the question

00:58:01

of you in this room and people watching right now:

00:58:03

Are you in Christ?

00:58:06

Because everything that I'm talking about

00:58:08

are not general promises; they're promises

00:58:12

to those who have trusted in Jesus.

00:58:15

And so I just want to know, are you in Christ?

00:58:17

Have you surrendered your life to Christ?

00:58:19

Have you trusted Him for your life?

00:58:21

Have you said to Him, "Jesus, I need the forgiveness

00:58:23

that you provided through your death on the cross.

00:58:25

Please forgive me.

00:58:27

Jesus. I want to trust You and follow You.

00:58:29

I want to turn and walk a different direction.

00:58:31

Jesus. I want the life that You offer to people who follow you.

00:58:35

I want to have this joy."

00:58:36

Are you in Christ?

00:58:38

I still got a couple of things to say,

00:58:40

but I want to just stop right here

00:58:41

and invite you to receive life in Christ.

00:58:45

So I would ask, everybody,

00:58:47

just close your eyes if you would do that.

00:58:49

And if what I'm saying resonates with you

00:58:51

and you would say, "I did not leave,

00:58:53

I didn't come here today

00:58:55

in Christ as you're defining it, Chuck.

00:58:56

But I want to leave in Christ."

00:58:59

Then I would invite you to just pray these words after me.

00:59:01

You can just simply say, Jesus, I want to live in You.

00:59:07

Please forgive me for all of my sins.

00:59:12

And would You cleanse me and help me live a new life in You.

00:59:19

I will trust You

00:59:20

and for the rest of my life I will follow You.

00:59:26

I surrender today. Please give me Your life.

00:59:30

Please give me Your Spirit.

00:59:32

And please give me Your joy and Your peace. Amen.

00:59:38

I want to encourage you, if you prayed that prayer,

00:59:41

I want to invite you to not leave online

00:59:43

without connecting with someone through the chat

00:59:46

who would love to just help you take next steps

00:59:48

based on the choice and the prayer that you just made.

00:59:50

If you're in the room, our prayer team at all of our sites

00:59:53

just would encourage you to not leave without that.

00:59:57

See, this idea of we laugh is really the idea

01:00:00

that we can live freely and lightly.

01:00:03

That that's possible for us.

01:00:04

I'm going to go to Matthew 11:28,

01:00:07

this will be the last verse that I read for you today.

01:00:09

This is Jesus's invitation.

01:00:11

Jesus wants to help you live this way.

01:00:12

He wants to help you live a life of laughter and joy.

01:00:15

And so He says:

01:00:37

How can we be a community who laughs?

01:00:39

We learn to live freely and lightly together.

01:00:42


01:00:44

We learn to have joy based in genuine hope.

01:00:48


01:00:50

We don't take ourselves too seriously

01:00:52

and we can trust even in the challenges

01:00:54

that our God is in control.

01:00:58

So we're going to have an opportunity

01:01:00

to put this into practice.

01:01:01

I'm going to invite everyone everywhere to stand.

01:01:03

We don't do this often, but we decided today

01:01:06

that we want to sing this final song as one church.

01:01:09

So all of us at all of our sites are going to do this together.

01:01:12

We sung this song a little bit earlier

01:01:15

and the song is about praising God, it's about rejoicing.

01:01:18

And so we're going to have an opportunity to rejoice,

01:01:20

to say to God again, Hey, here's the posture we will have

01:01:24

as a community who laughs at the days to come because

01:01:27

we trust You and our hope is rooted in You.

01:01:30

And so this might be challenging for some of you,

01:01:32

but I want to invite you to sing these words.

01:01:34

And we decided to strip down the band

01:01:36

and just have Justin lead us

01:01:37

so that we can hear each other's voices.

01:01:39

Because like I said earlier, we need to lean on each other

01:01:41

to have this kind of hope.

01:01:43

We need to lean on each other to have this kind of joy.

01:01:45

And so we're going to do that together as we sing.

01:01:47

So, God, I pray that in this moment

01:01:49

we would connect with You and with each other

01:01:52

for the sake of joy. Amen.

01:03:53

Yes. [cheers & applause]

01:03:56

- So, God, we pray that You would make us

01:03:58

a people who rejoice, that we would literally

01:04:01

laugh our way out of here because You're alive

01:04:06

and all that we talk about,

01:04:07

all that we just sung about is true.

01:04:10

I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

01:04:16

- Hey, we love to have fun around here.

01:04:19

And actually, I remember how crazy it was for me

01:04:21

when I first started coming around Crossroads

01:04:23

that a church would have fun,

01:04:25

that we didn't just have to check the boxes,

01:04:27

that we didn't have to be serious all the time.

01:04:29

It was absolutely radical for me and,

01:04:32

man, if you maybe resonate with that,

01:04:34

if you might have some of the same misconceptions that I had,

01:04:36

there's an article I would love for you to check out.

01:04:39

It's called Anything Short of Sin.

01:04:40

It's actually written by my wife, but I promise

01:04:42

that's not the only reason that I love it.

01:04:45

You should check it out at crossroads.net/articles.

01:04:48

Now, Crossroads is more than

01:04:50

just a video on a screen once a week.

01:04:52

It's also a community that you can belong to

01:04:54

no matter where you live.

01:04:56

To learn more about how to get started,

01:04:58

just head to Crossroads.net/anywhere.

01:05:00

You can even chat with us, ask us anything.

01:05:03

We'd love to pray for you and we'd love to hear from you.

01:05:06

We'll see you next week

01:05:07

when Brian talks about how we challenge.

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