Guts, Grit, & Gods Glory

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This is $2.5 million,

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and we're going to give all of it away.

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I'm Kyle. I'm the online pastor for Crossroads Church.

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Now, why are we giving away that money?

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Who is it going to?

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I'll explain it in just a little bit,

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but you have to understand, we're giving it away

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because our 25 anniversary happens to be this year.

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So $2.5 million for 25 years. See what we did there?

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Now the money is going to go to organizations

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that are changing the world.

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People like Restavek Freedom,

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who are trying to end child slavery in Haiti.

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More on them in just a little bit.

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But to understand why we're giving it away,

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you have to understand that this is the kind of stuff

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God has been doing for 25 years that Crossroads.

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We believe he need us to be a community

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where people like you and like me

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can actually change the world.

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How are we going to give the money away?

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Where is it going?

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I'll explain, but I have to start at the beginning.

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In 1996 in the suburbs of Cincinnati,

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a handful of regular people who followed Jesus

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had a crazy idea to start a new church

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to reach their friends who had given up on churches.

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They knew it, but were still seeking God.

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– We were so tired of church being a place

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where everybody that was really good at faking it

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got together to compare notes, you know?

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And just the idea of being a real place that

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that was through everything.

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We're not getting together to fake this.

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We're not going to pretend that we have it all together.

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That, for me, was a huge breath of fresh air.

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– For 25 years, God has used a scrappy group of people

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willing to say yes to whatever He asked,

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no matter how bold the vision,

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no matter how impossible.

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He took our yes and exploded it

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way beyond our expectations every single time.

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Today we celebrate more stories than we can possibly tell.

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This isn't us. This is God.

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– Hey, this is Brian, great to have you with us today.

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Today we're going to talk about

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this thing called Crossroads has been around for 25 years.

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You are already going, "25 years, you're kidding --

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But what the heck is in your hand?"

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I have a 12 pound sledge, that's what I have.

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You go, "What would you do with such a thing?'

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Well, you might just find out later on.

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This day is about celebrating the things

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that God has done over the last 25 years

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in this thing called Crossroads.

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We've been meaning for 25 years.

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We're celebrating that today: 25 x 52 weekends.

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I don't know how many thousands of messages I've given,

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but it's pretty, pretty crazy.

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And I want to admit right now that there's a show

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that I like and I hope I don't have to turn in

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my man card to admit this publicly.

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Any fans for This Is Us out there? This Is Us?

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I know it pulls every heartstrings it possibly can

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and puts every emotional tear twister

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you could possibly get in there.

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But I'm telling you, every single time

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I'm on the corner of my couch watching it,

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I look at my wife with wetness in my eyes,

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going, [sobbing]

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This is not actually about us today.

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This is not about us. This is God.

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That's what today's entitled, This Is God.

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We'll talk about the things that have happened

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inside of our community, what God is doing

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through our community.

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But get real serious, this is God.

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It's His story.

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There are way too many stories to recount today.

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And I want to highlight three things that

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we've been saying for 25 years.

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We've been praying about these things.

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We've been doing about these things.

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We've been sweating about these things.

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We've been bleeding over these things.

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And these are the things,

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these three phrases I want to highlight today,

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I think are the reasons maybe why God

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has chosen to bless us and why we've learned so much

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about God and His story.

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One of them is this: We will do anything short of sin

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to reach our friends for Christ.

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We do not like that there's people in our country

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that don't understand the life saving impact

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of a personal relationship with Jesus.

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And we will do anything, anything short of sin.

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Whatever is, if it's not sinful, we'll do it.

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And that's we're looking at right now

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– From the beginning, God put a bold call on our hearts

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to do anything short of sin to share

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the Good News of Jesus.

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And He's used every step of obedience to show us

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an even greater step beyond it.

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Here are some of the crazy things God

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has called us to these past 25 years.

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God is a creator and if we're truly made in His image,

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we're made to imitate Him.

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We took that seriously and invested lavishly

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on making the best creative moments possible

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to introduce people to their Creator.

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We drank some beers on stage.

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– People always leave the church over it,

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but I do it because it communicates a point.

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– This got religious folks really upset,

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but we believe you should be the same person in church

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that you are on your back deck.

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We felt God calling us to make an aggressive move,

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to make space to invite our friends

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who live in the north suburbs,

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expanding our reach even before our first building was full.

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Beyond the weekend at Crossroads sites,

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Kids' Club videos have been seen online

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more than 22 million times, in multiple languages,

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and in every single country, bringing God's story

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in a language they can understand

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to kids and families all over the world.

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– God used David, who was just an average kid,

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to rescue His people.

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And that's the story of David and Goliath.

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– God gave us an idea to turn

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the lowest attended Sunday of the year into a big party.

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– Gross.

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– Doing epic Super Bowl services with tailgating,

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a halftime show, commercials, and a message about Jesus

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in a language anyone could understand.

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– Jesus knows your name.

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– God use that silliness to reach folks

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that otherwise might not have ever heard about God.

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– At first, there was a, "No, I'm not going to church.

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I hate that guy and I want nothing to do with Him."

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But then finally, I decided we're going to go to church.

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So we went. That day I cried.

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That day I laughed that day.

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I felt like blood was pumping through my veins again.

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– And God kept showing us bigger creative visions.

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What started as a blessing to our people at Christmas

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blew up into a citywide tradition

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with nearly a million people hearing the story

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of Jesus's birth to the Awaited Christmas show.

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Meeting up in our atrium for free Wi-Fi and coffee,

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God brought together a handful of entrepreneurs

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to share their faith and then gave them a vision

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to encourage other entrepreneurs.

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That became a group called Unpolished,

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which became a conference, which grew to become Ocean,

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one of the most sought after

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accelerator programs in the country.

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God kept planting new ideas in front of us,

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which led to more ways to reach people.

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Anything short of sin, we heard.

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And that took us across the world

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to film God's story in Israel, in Rome,

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to the Rockies to make an Amazon Prime show.

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God's vision has always been bigger

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than we could ever imagine.

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God nudged some of us to start camping.

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What started as a cheap vacation option

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turned into spiritual growth and became a vision

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for reaching people outside the walls of a building.

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The first Man Camp happened with 500 guys

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on a freezing snowy weekend in February.

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Hundreds of kegs later, guys exploded it

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into a spiritual off the grid experience

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for over 20,000 people.

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Woman Camp, Couples Camp, camps for veterans

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and fathers and sons, and students,

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and college kids and families.

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Even our own land to steward it on.

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God's vision is in– credible.

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– I don't necessarily have a relationship with God.

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You know, I knew I would be surrounded by

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a lot of women who do believe in God.

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And so I was kind of intimidated.

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Last year was crazy for me.

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I thought I'd moved on from that, but I haven't.

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– God called us to go where people are

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and people are on their phone,

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so we double down on our digital infrastructure,

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like a custom app where people all across the world

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can read the Bible, journal, and pray for each other.

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Over 4.2 million prayers have been prayed in the app.

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Last year when we couldn't meet indoors,

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we went where people could go,

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outside for Worship at the Cove

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and Worship at the Bluegrass.

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God planted a seed in our hearts

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for racial reconciliation.

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The Undivided program grew from a pilot group

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with a few hundred people to a national organization

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set to make our communities look more like the Kingdom of God.

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Anything short of sin.

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God has blown our minds with His creativity,

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faithfulness, and dreams that were way bigger than ours.

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– Love all that we see there.

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Anything short of sin to reach our friends

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to understand who Jesus is.

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This is the story of God.

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This is what He said all through the Bible.

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God keeps calling people to do aggressive, unusual things

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that haven't been done before.

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Like Noah building an ark,

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a prophet being on his side for long periods of time,

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people stepping on water and walking over water,

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just thing after thing that there was no precedent for,

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but God was pushing them to do it.

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This is the way the people of God are still to be.

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This idea of being aggressive didn't start with me.

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Actually, it's all the people who actually invited me

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to be the founding and senior pastor of Crossroads.

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I don't know if you know that or not.

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There was eleven 30 year olds who had a vision

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to help people who had given up on church,

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but hadn't necessarily given up on God.

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And these 30 year olds, they placed an ad

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in the back of a magazine that

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I and some other people around the country answered.

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That is crazy.

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I was 30 years old, but Lib and I had been married

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longer than anybody in the group

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and had more kids than anybody in the group.

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It wasn't some like some well-heeled foundation

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or some well-heeled denomination that thought this,

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because this was way too aggressive

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for anybody who had had brains.

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These 30 year olds, they did things

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like guaranteed my salary for a year.

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Let me ask you this. Let me ask this.

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If you think about what God has done through Crossroads

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over the last 25 years,

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it started with those eleven 30 year olds.

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Today how many 30 year olds do you know

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who want to start a church?

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For those of you who are 30, would you place an ad

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in the back of the newspaper or do something audacious?

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Would you say to a pastor, "Move to another city

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and we'll take care of you and your entire family,

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we'll actually give you medical insurance,

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we'll give you a retirement plan."

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You haven't started the whole thing yet.

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Would you do that?

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How many 30 year olds would do that?

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How many 30 year olds would say,

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"We're going to guarantee your salary for a year

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and if it doesn't work we're going to tap into

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our home equity credit lines

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and make sure you're whole after a year"?

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That is aggressive. It's amazing.

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The more of that spirit, that spirit of God

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that we have going through us today,

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the stronger our future is going to be.

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And it wasn't just looking at what happened in Cincinnati

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way back in '95. It's also in Lexington.

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It's very aggressive to come together

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and bring churches together.

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Crossroads of Lexington, Kentucky.

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Crossroads of Cincinnati, Ohio.

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Glen Snyder's recently retired.

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Man, it was an incredible thing to celebrate him

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as a man who's been godly and aggressive

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for his entire career, started off incredibly aggressive,

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a phone call campaign to start the church.

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That is aggression.

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That is doing anything short of sin.

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I'm in this building right now,

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the original Oakley building.

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There's actually -- this is the wall right here

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that goes between the original former lumber warehouse,

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and then the new part that was over here.

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It was interesting, right when we blew out,

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blew out this new part and we were rebuilding

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or expanding to 3500 seats auditorium

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because we had doubled in three months,

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tripled in six months inside the original thing,

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we had to build on.

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I went down to see my former pastor

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and my friend Dan Lazich,

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who had started a church in Orlando.

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And he took me to this this bar, this hick Everglades bar.

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And inside that bar there was an aquarium

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with a alligator in it.

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And I picked up that aquarium and I was looking at it.

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And I said to the bar owner,

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"What kind of alligator is this, this small?"

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He said, "Oh, just an alligator."

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I said, "Really? Well, how old is this one?"

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He said, "It's an adult."

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"Wait a minute, it's an adult regular alligator,

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but it's only this big. Why is that?'

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He said, "Well, we put it at birth inside this aquarium,

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and the aquarium will dictate how big the alligator gets."

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[FX explosion] Mind blowing.

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Without knowing that guy just given me

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a scriptural principle: the longer we stay

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inside of our aquarium, inside of our box,

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the less big we can be of people of faith.

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And I was thinking we would just build this 3500 seats,

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it's a huge building

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that's going to last for a long, long time.

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God said to me at that moment and all of us was,

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"We've got to get outside the aquarium, man.

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We can't be in love with our aquarium, whatever,

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wherever they are in Lexington and Cincinnati,

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someday in Dayton and Columbus,

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we can't be in love with our aquarium.

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We got to get outside, outside the aquarium."

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That's when we started different sites, like in Mason.

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We started a multisite with Mason

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when we didn't even have this building

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anywhere near complete, anywhere near full.

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We started camps, Man Camp, Woman Camp, Couples Camp,

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Student Camp, Vet Camp, chiwawa camp, Family Camp.

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All different kinds of camps.

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We're getting outside of the aquarium.

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If you're right now part of our church

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and you've never been to a physical building

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in Kentucky and Ohio, you're an equal part of our church.

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And it's because we got out of the aquarium a long time ago.

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You don't have to be in a building

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to be part of Crossroads.

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We've also gotten out of our religious aquariums.

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The constructive ideas that religion has for us

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that the Bible doesn't have for us, like having fun.

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Twice in Crossroads' 25 year history

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I've cracked open a beer on stage,

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two times, two different weekends.

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And when I do that, the last time I did it,

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we had I think it was --

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yeah, we three Sunday morning services.

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I cracked open that beer that morning.

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I said, "Woo, when's the last time

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you had 3 beers by 11:00, 11:30 in the morning?

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That's a good Sunday."

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I did that to explain that if you do do alcohol,

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which, by the way, is a very first miracle of Jesus,

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if you do do alcohol, it's not a good idea for a lot of us.

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Some of us should not have alcohol at all

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for family history and all that kind of stuff.

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But if you do, we shouldn't be having separate rules

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for when we're outside the church

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than when we're inside the church.

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That was an aggressive move.

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We've given away assets to other churches.

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That's an aggressive move.

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We reach out to help people who are in poverty.

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That's an aggressive move.

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Do anything short of sin.

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One of the things that is sad, but also interesting

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is Compassion International, which we sponsor

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thousands and thousands of kids who are fed

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and educated all the way up to their 18th birthday.

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During the year of COVID, every church in the country

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canceled their Compassion plans to enlist new folks.

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We were the only church tat actually had to done

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a full on push during COVID to get kids sponsored.

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I believe that's why time after time God shows up.

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I believe that's why He smiles.

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I believe we're doing that because

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this is the story of God.

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Romans 10:14, it says:

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I believe God thinks our feet are beautiful

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because we are aggressively doing anything short of sin

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to tell people who He is

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and second thing, to be a blessing,

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– I cannot selectively look at the parts of the Bible

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that talk about God's love and then see

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what's happening to my brothers and sisters

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around the world and not somehow

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try to be part of the solution.

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So I'm going to stand before God someday,

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not from a guilt standpoint, but from a

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what have I done to radically share His love?

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I'm going to stand before Him and I want to say

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I showed up when I knew

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these things were going on in the world.

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– Immediately after launching Crossroads in 1996,

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we felt God calling us

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to be a blessing to our community.

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This started with a monthly financial commitment

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to City Gospel Mission who empowers

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homeless people to break the cycle of poverty.

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We moved in faith

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and God has been faithful every step of the way.

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Most large churches in the '90s

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would charge people to purchase their message series.

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We reproduced ours on cassette tapes and CDs

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and said, "Give this to as many people as you can."

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In 1996, a couple of volunteers chimed in

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and said, "I think God might be calling us

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to provide Thanksgiving meals

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to people who can't afford them."

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Yes, let's do that.

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We provided nearly a million meals since.

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In 2006. God said, "I think this community can do more."

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Go Cincinnati, later Go Local was born.

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A one day serving blitz,

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making God's goodness tangible in our neighborhoods.

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Over 5,500 service projects completed.

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When Brian met a South African pastor

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at a conference, he heard God say,

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"Crossroads can be a blessing

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to more than just Cincinnati."

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Go South Africa was born.

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In 2004 we partnered to build

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the largest privately funded AIDS hospice

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in the history of that country.

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Go trips were born.

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A group of crazy people following a God

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who says, "Go, change the world."

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Since 2006, thousands and thousands of people

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have sacrificed money and vacation time

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to show the world that God is

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in the business of restoration.

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We built homes in New Orleans after Katrina,

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distributed food in Puerto Rico after Maria.

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We even built schools

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on the side of mountains in Nepal

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and dug wells in Nicaragua and Bolivia.

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We believe God called us to be

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a blessing in our city too.

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He planted the idea of CityLink,

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a single place to help people

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overcome generational poverty.

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Through five years of zoning battles,

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court cases and bad press, God stayed faithful.

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CityLink opened in 2012

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and has served 4200 clients so far.

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There are more stories than we can possibly tell.

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Stories about Whiz Kids, which partnered

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again with City Gospel Mission to tutor

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hundreds of kids in our city and across the world.

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Stories of the time God called us

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to eat beans and rice for a week,

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then give away the money we saved on food,

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which kept local city pools open

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and funded the fight against heroin,

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or how we've come together to put

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100,000 gifts under trees for kids at Christmas

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or given over a thousand cars away

00:19:49

through the Wheels program.

00:19:50

Stories like individual people

00:19:52

in our community banding together

00:19:53

to pay off $46 million of medical debt

00:19:56

for 45,000 families in the Midwest,

00:19:59

reminding people that God loves them

00:20:01

and hasn't forgotten about them.

00:20:03

Stories like sewing 45,000

00:20:05

for health care workers when

00:20:07

a global pandemic came to our front door.

00:20:15

But maybe the most daunting story

00:20:17

where God has invited us to be a blessing is an India.

00:20:21

We partner with an organization called Jevin Adha.

00:20:24

To date, we've helped create six aftercare homes

00:20:28

where hundreds of girls are healing

00:20:30

from the trauma of the rape for profit industry.

00:20:34

– The Central Bureau of Investigation,

00:20:35

which is India's premier law enforcement body,

00:20:38

about four years ago, said they estimated

00:20:40

about 1.3, 1.4 million children in forced prostitution.

00:20:45

– Since opening 5.5 years ago,

00:20:47

we started with 15 girls, and today

00:20:50

we have had over 150 who've come through the Mahima Home.

00:21:14

– One of the main reasons of having

00:21:16

the Mahima in Calcutta 5.5 years ago

00:21:18

was not only just to provide better care,

00:21:21

professional care to them, but also

00:21:23

to be able to be a place where

00:21:25

they could come to know the love of God.

00:22:13

– We get to be in a front row seat

00:22:14

to watch God work, to see a broken

00:22:17

and upside down world turned right side up,

00:22:19

to see young girls have a new life.

00:22:23

That's what we get to do.

00:22:31

– So why are we giving away all of this money?

00:22:33

It's because we're a church

00:22:35

and this is what the church does see.

00:22:38

See, our world is broken,

00:22:39

but we have the power to make a difference.

00:22:41

Isaiah 1:17 says:

00:22:51

It's amazing to see how God can use each of us

00:22:55

who are part of Crossroads for something so much bigger.

00:22:57

I mean, most of us could never

00:22:59

give away $2.5 million on our own.

00:23:01

But when we give, we get to do

00:23:03

just that together as a church.

00:23:06

See, the thing is, this isn't our money,

00:23:07

it's God's money.

00:23:09

And it comes from a faithful

00:23:10

and joyful response to Him.

00:23:13

That's what's fueled us for 25 years

00:23:15

and will continue to fuel us far into the future.

00:23:17

If you want to be part of that together with us,

00:23:21

you can do that by giving.

00:23:23

Now all the money you give actually

00:23:25

goes to being the church.

00:23:27

Not being held in some bank vault like this.

00:23:29

We are actively using it, spending it,

00:23:32

investing it as wisely as we can to change the world.

00:23:35

I'm telling you, when you give,

00:23:37

God will show up in your life

00:23:38

and you'll sense Him in a new and powerful ways.

00:23:40

Now, you don't have to take my word for that.

00:23:42

You can try it on your own.

00:23:44

We have something called the 90 Day Tithe Test.

00:23:46

It works like this: You try giving for 90 days.

00:23:49

If at the end of 90 days you haven't sensed God

00:23:52

in a more powerful way in your life

00:23:54

and you want your money back,

00:23:55

we'll give it all back. No questions asked.

00:23:58

Now let's catch back up with Brian.

00:24:02

– Man, that is so good.

00:24:05

Hey, let me just give a shout out

00:24:06

to the thousands and thousands of people

00:24:08

that have done a Go Trip, a Reach Out Initiative.

00:24:11

Way to go. You have been a blessing.

00:24:13

We've been blessing because Crossroads

00:24:15

has been under the story of God doing that.

00:24:17

I want to be a blessing to you right now.

00:24:19

I've been carrying this thing around.

00:24:21

I've got to do something with this.

00:24:22

Like, I just bless you and you can see

00:24:26

what a 12 pound sledgehammer

00:24:28

does to something like this. Let's see.

00:24:31

Oh, man,

00:24:33

that's a heavy sledgehammer. Let me tell you.

00:24:36

I'm actually in front of one of the stations

00:24:40

where we've wanted to be a blessing for 25 years.

00:24:43

Inside of Crossroads facilities,

00:24:45

we've always given away coffee for free.

00:24:47

We started doing this in 1996.

00:24:49

We didn't know any other churches

00:24:50

that we're doing it at that time.

00:24:51

Our thought was, we bring our friends in here,

00:24:54

we want to bless them with something free,

00:24:56

a cup of coffee.

00:24:57

And people kept saying, "Well,

00:24:59

you're never going to afford it as the church grows."

00:25:01

Oh, we keep affording, we keep paying for it

00:25:03

and it's because we want to bless people as they come in.

00:25:07

That's a core DNA to us because it's of God's DNA.

00:25:11

In Genesis 12:2, God says to Abraham,

00:25:14

who started the nation of Israel:

00:25:24

As God blesses us, He wants us to bless others.

00:25:29

At the beginning, when we started Crossroads in '96,

00:25:33

we didn't have a giving strategy.

00:25:35

We were just trying to get the church going and survive.

00:25:38

And what do you know, after a few weeks,

00:25:40

realized, "Oh wow, I think

00:25:43

we're going to last for a little bit of time."

00:25:44

We hadn't really thought at all

00:25:46

about how to give us a church.

00:25:48

So we had a board meeting

00:25:50

in Jim Becktold's living room and we said,

00:25:51

"What are we going to do?"

00:25:53

Well, there's this local organization in Cincinnati

00:25:55

that works with the homeless and the poor.

00:25:57

And we said, "Let's just by faith,

00:25:59

make a monthly commitment to them of $1000 a month,"

00:26:03

which was a big sum for us at that point.

00:26:06

And we did, we did that.

00:26:08

We learned that that gift made us

00:26:12

the largest contributor,

00:26:14

monthly contributor to that organization.

00:26:17

And we were church that was only a few weeks old.

00:26:20

Crazy thing is, when we made that decision

00:26:22

to do that, that week,

00:26:24

we got an anonymous gift for $100,000.

00:26:29

This caused Brian Wells,

00:26:30

who's part of the original eleven,

00:26:31

still on the board, to give all of us

00:26:34

one hundred thousand dollar bars to remember that.

00:26:36

He's wanting to be a blessing

00:26:38

because God has directed His people to be blessings

00:26:40

and we want to be a blessing.

00:26:42

We started getting engaged in South Africa,

00:26:44

the AIDS hospice was -- AIDS epidemic was rampant,

00:26:48

and especially in South Africa

00:26:50

where the government wasn't taking

00:26:51

any responsibility for it at all.

00:26:53

Here in America, in the mid '90s and early 2000,

00:26:57

there were some people who still believed

00:27:00

that the AIDS epidemic was God's judgment

00:27:02

on people who were gay.

00:27:04

There's people who weren't gay who had AIDS as well.

00:27:07

I had a close friend of mine

00:27:09

when I lived in Pittsburgh,

00:27:10

he died because he got a blood transfusion.

00:27:12

And he was told, the former church he was a part of

00:27:14

that God's judgment was on him as well.

00:27:17

Weird, just -- just weird.

00:27:19

But we said we need to engage in this.

00:27:22

So we built the largest privately funded

00:27:24

hospice for AIDS victims inside of South Africa,

00:27:29

and then we carried the operating costs of it.

00:27:31

And then it failed.

00:27:33

And failed because we had the wrong partner

00:27:35

and also failed because the government

00:27:36

kind of took away the market share, if you will,

00:27:39

because they started getting engaged in the fight,

00:27:41

the South African government.

00:27:43

But we're happy that we said, "Look,

00:27:44

we'll be used, we'll be aggressive,

00:27:46

and we want to bless as we've been blessed."

00:27:49

We want to bless some people this weekend

00:27:51

we will announce it.

00:27:53

Normally when you have a birthday celebration,

00:27:55

you get gifts.

00:27:57

We want to give gifts.

00:27:58

That's what we want to give for our 25th birthday

00:28:02

we're going to give away $2.5 million.

00:28:07

25th birthday, $2.5 million, we want to bless people.

00:28:11

We don't want just fatten ourselves up.

00:28:12

We want to bless other people

00:28:13

cause it's not about us.

00:28:15

It's about God and God's been faithful

00:28:18

and He is the hero of the story.

00:28:20

So here's what we're going to do with this money.

00:28:22

We're going to give it out over the next 25 weeks.

00:28:26

This week, we're going to give out $300,000.

00:28:28

Our partners are not expecting this,

00:28:30

so they're learning about it right now.

00:28:32

First, we're giving $100,000 to City Gospel Mission,

00:28:35

which is our very first partner.

00:28:38

We're going to give you an additional $100,000

00:28:40

above and beyond what we give you right now.

00:28:42

Jeevan Aadhar, which is our organization

00:28:44

we work with to help girls who've come out

00:28:46

of the rape for profit industry.

00:28:47

It's not the sex slavery industry.

00:28:49

It's best understood as the rape for profit industry.

00:28:52

We're going to put an additional

00:28:53

$100,000 check to you this week.

00:28:55

We're also starting something new

00:28:57

with the Restavek Freedom Foundation

00:28:59

that's about ending child slavery in Haiti.

00:29:02

This was a couple that wanted to be a blessing

00:29:05

and came out of Crossroads and started that a decade ago.

00:29:09

And we're going to pour $100,000 check

00:29:11

into that ministry today.

00:29:14

We want to see child slavery in Haiti

00:29:17

end in our lifetime.

00:29:19

And soon you'll have a chance to go there

00:29:22

and get your hands dirty.

00:29:23

Here's more of that story.

00:29:37

– 838 miles off the coast of the U.S.

00:29:40

is the beautiful and broken country of Haiti.

00:29:44

Haiti is the poorest country in our hemisphere

00:29:47

and it's home to a culturally accepted

00:29:49

child slavery practice called restavec.

00:29:53

Restavec is when a poorer family

00:29:56

sends their child to live with another family

00:29:58

in promise of caring, clothing, feeding

00:30:01

and educating the child.

00:30:03

Heartbreaking, this is not the reality.

00:30:06

These children become household servants,

00:30:09

denied basic care and education and affection.

00:30:13

They live a life of forced labor

00:30:15

and frequent beatings.

00:30:19

– Restavec is a form of human trafficking.

00:30:22

They believe that their child is going to go to school.

00:30:24

They believe their child is going to be fed

00:30:26

and taken care of.

00:30:27

But typically, the child ends up being a household slave.

00:30:31

These children get up

00:30:32

before anybody else in the morning

00:30:34

and they start the coffee

00:30:36

or they build the fire

00:30:37

or they go get the firewood

00:30:39

or whatever they need to build the fire.

00:30:41

They wash the dishes.

00:30:43

They might get the kids up for school.

00:30:45

They could carry the kids to school.

00:30:47

They come home, they make the beds,

00:30:48

they clean the house, they sweep the floor,

00:30:50

they sweep the yard, they do the laundry.

00:30:54

And that's what they use is the child

00:30:56

to go and get the water every day.

00:31:02

– I sometimes go to bed like 11 or 10,

00:31:08

and then I have to wake up at 4

00:31:11

because I have to clean the house

00:31:13

before I go to school.

00:31:15

Because I remember my happy place

00:31:17

was only when I was at school.

00:31:19

But when I got home, it was like I'm exist,

00:31:24

but I'm not living.

00:31:26

Yeah, I want them to understand that people,

00:31:29

the kids was in the restave,

00:31:31

they feel like they exist,

00:31:33

but they are not leaving because that's not life.

00:31:36

– We've been going to Crossroads

00:31:37

since Crossroads was in Clark Montessori.

00:31:40

So Crossroads, it's our family, it's our community.

00:31:44

– The reality is that we're a reflection

00:31:48

of what Crossroads teaches.

00:31:50

Crossroads is about doing things.

00:31:53

It's about reflecting what you're learning

00:31:57

about a relationship with God

00:31:59

and learning how to put that action in the world.

00:32:03

So when I see the confidence

00:32:05

that these children begin to have,

00:32:07

just because someone loves them,

00:32:08

someone cares for them, it changes them.

00:32:11

And seeing these women in the literacy programs,

00:32:13

once they learn to read and write,

00:32:15

it gives them dignity.

00:32:17

– For us to think we do not have

00:32:19

a role to play in helping Haiti

00:32:23

improve itself and do– better is just a mistake.

00:32:27

The foundation, they are doing like a great job

00:32:30

because those kids, they don't really, like,

00:32:32

have somebody to listen to them.

00:32:34

– And that's what we're hoping to change,

00:32:37

is that people begin thinking

00:32:38

of these children as human,

00:32:40

that they begin to see them as human.

00:32:43

– Coming here, I have people that tell me

00:32:49

I'm beautiful, I'm smart, I'm powerful,

00:32:52

like I can be everything.

00:32:56

– Restavec Freedom is infusing change

00:32:58

and hope in the lives of these children

00:33:00

and in the communities of Haiti.

00:33:02

Together, we can end child slavery

00:33:05

in Haiti in our lifetime.

00:33:12

– That stuff is great, that stuff is of God.

00:33:15

This is not our story, it's His story.

00:33:19

It's a story of God.

00:33:20

And God directs His followers

00:33:24

not to just hang out and help people

00:33:27

who are in difficult medical and poverty situations,

00:33:31

but He directs us to do the one thing

00:33:33

that we have to do that has eternal ramifications.

00:33:36

All of this stuff is futile

00:33:38

if we don't run after our friends and neighbors.

00:33:40

That's what we do here at Crossroads. We run.

00:33:45

– My life is totally different now,

00:33:47

and I see that change in a lot of different ways.

00:33:52

– It changes the way I treat my children.

00:33:53

It changes the way I interact with my husband.

00:33:56

– It touches your heart and it touches your mind

00:33:58

and gets you to think, you know,

00:34:00

beyond the somewhat superficial things

00:34:03

that you go through during the week.

00:34:04

– I'm like, "God, this has got to be You.

00:34:07

I'll do it. I'll do it." You know?

00:34:10

– God has run after us and brought us

00:34:12

lives full of purpose, joy, freedom and connection.

00:34:15

We want that for our friends and neighbors,

00:34:18

so we run.

00:34:20

If you're here,

00:34:22

it's because somebody made room for you,

00:34:25

space for your story and thousands more like it.

00:34:29

– You can have my life.

00:34:31

You can have my world.

00:34:32

You can have my family.

00:34:33

You can have my kids.

00:34:34

You can have my job.

00:34:35

You can have my ministry.

00:34:37

You can have everything

00:34:38

because you're such a good King.

00:34:40

– I saw a grown man fall to his knees

00:34:45

and tell an entire community that

00:34:47

Jesus can have everything in his life.

00:34:50

Experiencing that was really the start

00:34:53

of me wanting to understand

00:34:56

who this Jesus person was.

00:34:58

– But the relief and the peace that I felt

00:35:01

it was like a peace, an inner peace myself.

00:35:03

I can't describe it like, "I trusted You, God.

00:35:06

And I know this is what You want."

00:35:07

And I just felt better for trusting Him for it.

00:35:10

– I just felt at peace and happiness

00:35:13

and all the weight lifted off my shoulders.

00:35:15

– My last couple of years of high school

00:35:16

I was actually a pretty outspoken atheist.

00:35:18

I think it's really welcomed God

00:35:20

into my life as a father,

00:35:21

instead of some huge dynamic being

00:35:23

that I won't ever be able to understand.

00:35:25

– My first time I didn't know how to worship.

00:35:27

I came here. I instantly learned how to worship.

00:35:30

First time I ever raise my hands was here.

00:35:33

First time I ever surrendered to God was here.

00:35:35

– There are people out there who still love us.

00:35:38

There are people out there just praying for us.

00:35:41

– He has taught me that it's OK to be vulnerable.

00:35:44

He has taught me and encouraged me

00:35:46

to open up more and to be able to share

00:35:49

as I'm doing now.

00:35:50

– I think that leaving your son when he's,

00:35:52

you know, just born and quitting on everything

00:35:56

and everybody, I was like, there's no way

00:35:59

that God can forgive me.

00:36:01

There's no way that God has a place for me.

00:36:08

And he let me know that I'm His son

00:36:13

and forgave me for everything.

00:36:16

So that Jesus was the best thing in the world.

00:36:20

– I believe that I have a purpose

00:36:23

and I believe that God loves me

00:36:25

and I'm learning to love myself.

00:36:28

– We just quit going to church,

00:36:30

and I really hadn't been since I was 12.

00:36:33

Growing up, we always would go camping.

00:36:36

We always went camping around train tracks.

00:36:38

So the first night at man camp, you know,

00:36:41

it's kind of surprising how emotional

00:36:43

and deep some of the conversations really got.

00:36:46

And so after everybody shared

00:36:50

their deepest, darkest secrets,

00:36:52

I went back to the tent to go to sleep.

00:36:54

And I actually-- actually prayed

00:36:56

for the first time for other people

00:36:58

since I was 12 years old.

00:37:00

And as soon as I said, "In Jesus name, I pray, Amen,"

00:37:03

a train whistle goes off in the background.

00:37:05

And it gave me chills. It really did.

00:37:09

Because, like, it hit home,

00:37:10

it kind of made me think, you know,

00:37:12

"All right, this Jesus guy, He really is here.

00:37:15

He's here with us, and not only that,

00:37:17

He really knows who I am and what I'm all about."

00:37:20

And that that was pretty amazing.

00:37:22

– I just wanted to run up to every single one of them

00:37:24

and hug them and wipe their tears

00:37:27

and tell them, "You're forgiven.

00:37:30

God's already forgiven you and you're so loved."

00:37:34

– God proved that He was going to take care of me.

00:37:36

And I think that I believe

00:37:38

in His faithfulness even more now.

00:37:40

– And I trust Him to

00:37:42

and to know what's best for me always,

00:37:45

and that He's not going to let me astray

00:37:48

and that He's not going to leave me alone

00:37:50

even in my darkest days, God's there.

00:37:53

– I feel the closeness and the comfort of God

00:37:57

within the center of me.

00:38:00

– In the midst of venting out my anger at God,

00:38:02

He was healing situations like right then and there.

00:38:06

– And I just started feeling the weight come off me.

00:38:12

And then I felt so light and surrounded by love.

00:38:18

– I felt like this has to be coming from God,

00:38:20

He has to be saying, "Hey, Manny, wake up

00:38:23

and I want to take you in."

00:38:26

– And that's when I realized

00:38:29

I did have someone fighting for me.

00:38:33

– This is mind blowing.

00:38:35

I'm finally in a place where I can, you know,

00:38:39

just love my children unconditionally.

00:38:42

– I feel like I actually have

00:38:43

a real relationship with God.

00:38:45

I feel like I have a purpose for my life.

00:38:48

– Knowing that God's in control

00:38:49

and it's Him that I'm serving has been able

00:38:52

to give me a little bit more peace

00:38:53

and comfort through the entire process.

00:38:55

– But it utterly depends upon God's grace,

00:38:58

His mercy, His strengthening me.

00:39:00

– I sat in the chemo suite

00:39:01

with so many other people who had it way worse than me.

00:39:03

That was God's way of saying to me,

00:39:05

"Yes, look, you can do this.

00:39:07

You can do this every day as hard as it is,

00:39:09

even though your kids are scared.

00:39:10

Put your eyes on me and I will lead you through.

00:39:12

I will get you through this storm."

00:39:15

– You know, I often wonder, you know,

00:39:19

I often wonder how I survived, honestly.

00:39:21

– Each day I feel like I'm getting even closer

00:39:24

to Him by listening to Him and by following

00:39:27

what He wants me to do and not doing,

00:39:29

you know, what I want to do.

00:39:31

– I actually felt like I heard God

00:39:33

as clear as day saying, "I am proud of you.

00:39:38

I am here for you.

00:39:39

I am going to always be there for you."

00:39:42

I am God's daughter.

00:39:43

I am not this thing or that thing

00:39:45

that someone tries to label me as.

00:39:47

I am not damaged. I know that I am beautiful.

00:39:51

I know that God has created me in His image

00:39:55

and God doesn't create bad and ugly things.

00:40:00

God is an amazing father and I am brave.

00:40:15

– Normal people coming into

00:40:17

a life changing relationship with God

00:40:19

through Jesus Christ has always been

00:40:22

the main thing, always.

00:40:25

We do anything short of sin to bring

00:40:26

normal people into relationship with God.

00:40:29

We want to bless people because God loves people

00:40:33

and we want to run after normal people,

00:40:35

no matter what it takes.

00:40:36

We were in a rented facility for five years

00:40:39

and we end up moving and buying

00:40:41

into this old lumber warehouse.

00:40:45

And we had a service where we just prayed for

00:40:47

all the people and dreamt about people,

00:40:50

some of whom, by the way,

00:40:52

were in the video we just saw,

00:40:54

prayed for folks that God would use our church

00:40:57

and maybe a service, a weekend service

00:41:00

to help bring that person to Christ.

00:41:01

And so at the prayer service we'd go around

00:41:03

and all these old green posts,

00:41:06

people would take markers and sharpies

00:41:09

and just write names down, write prayers down.

00:41:13

It's right here.

00:41:15

I haven't seen this like for a long, long time.

00:41:18

Behind this wall are names of guys

00:41:22

who weren't part of Crossroads

00:41:26

who came to our church and got baptized.

00:41:29

Right here is the name of my wife's best friend

00:41:33

who came to came to know Christ here, powerful.

00:41:36

That's just one.

00:41:37

I haven't seen it for a long, long time.

00:41:39

We're going to see it today.

00:41:54

Hello.

00:41:56

Oh, I see, I can see it.

00:42:01

Oh, gosh, that must be stud.

00:42:04

This is a heavy sledge, let me tell you.

00:42:13

I'm going to get little phone out here.

00:42:15

I haven't seen this for, like, ever.

00:42:19

I will make myself known to you

00:42:22

through others in this place.

00:42:25

Another one thanking God for awesome gifts.

00:42:27

The stories that these things could tell,

00:42:31

who would know?

00:42:33

Here's the deal, these are stories on one green post.

00:42:38

They're not stories written on buildings

00:42:40

all over the place

00:42:41

or stories on hearts all over the country.

00:42:46

And we're not done, we just -- literally we just started.

00:42:51

I think about the lives that have been changed

00:42:53

through how the story of God has impacted us

00:42:55

and I think about what can happen in the future.

00:42:57

It's like really, we just started taking

00:42:59

our first baby steps because we will always

00:43:01

run after our friends and neighbors who need Jesus.

00:43:04

Always. That's what we do.

00:43:07

In Ephesians 3:20, it says:

00:43:26

People ask me sometimes, like,

00:43:28

"Did you ever expect Crossroads to be what it is today?

00:43:30

Did you ever see it way back when?"

00:43:31

No, they can't even finish the question.

00:43:33

No, no, no, no, no, never.

00:43:37

If I had planted some brainstorming strategy

00:43:42

and wrote down what the dream scenario would be

00:43:44

for how God would use Crossroads

00:43:46

that would have been passed up

00:43:47

on like year four, year five.

00:43:49

That verse there says He's able to,

00:43:51

not meet expectations, but exceed more,

00:43:57

abundantly exceed more than you ever thought

00:44:00

or ever prayed about.

00:44:02

That is what God has done in our church,

00:44:06

blowing us away because we're understanding who God is.

00:44:09

What are the dreams for the next 25 years?

00:44:12

We're just getting started.

00:44:13

I feel like I just got started right now.

00:44:15

I hope I'm still around in 25 years from now.

00:44:19

What could God do for our church in 25 years

00:44:23

if we commit to being a part of His story

00:44:27

and lay it down at His feet?

00:44:30

Right now we're going to sing a song that we wrote.

00:44:33

It's kind of a fight song for us,

00:44:35

it's an anthem that's called Laying It All Down.

00:44:38

It says: We follow you, Jesus, wherever you lead us.

00:44:41

We want to lay it down.

00:44:43

This is our anthem of worship.

00:44:46

And I want to pray for us.

00:44:47

I want to cement this right now for us

00:44:49

to have our spiritual wits about us

00:44:51

thanking God for the last 25 years

00:44:53

and getting ready for the next 25 year run.

00:44:56

Let me pray for you right now.

00:44:57

God, I am -- I am so humbled

00:45:04

that You would count us as worthy of being used.

00:45:07

I'm so stunned by what You've done,

00:45:13

what You're doing and who You would include,

00:45:16

normal people, poor people, rich people,

00:45:19

addicted people, beautiful people,

00:45:22

not beautiful people, white, black,

00:45:26

different cultures, different backgrounds,

00:45:30

different even second Your ideas

00:45:31

on certain Bible passages.

00:45:33

You've pulled us together to be a team

00:45:36

because we're all one before You

00:45:37

once we've received You

00:45:39

we want more people in our family.

00:45:41

So I pray for the blessing,

00:45:43

the blessing of a building, the ability to run,

00:45:45

the ability to make strong, aggressive moves

00:45:49

and to bless people for another 25 years.

00:45:52

Thank for doing this and we celebrate You today, God,

00:45:55

and we lay it all down. Amen.

00:49:51

– I can't tell you how amazing it is

00:49:54

to be part of this, something bigger than myself.

00:49:56

And here's the thing, no matter who you are,

00:49:58

no matter where you come from, you can be part of it too.

00:50:02

See, I believe that God has designed you

00:50:04

for a specific purpose,

00:50:06

an adventure that He's made you for.

00:50:09

And we would love to help you start that adventure

00:50:11

and go further on it.

00:50:13

If you want you can sign up for Crossroads,

00:50:15

get unlimited access to teaching, content,

00:50:18

experiences, opportunities to change the world.

00:50:20

You in person.

00:50:22

Over the next 25 weeks we'll invest

00:50:24

close to a $100,000 in projects

00:50:27

led by our online community. That's you.

00:50:30

Tune in over the next few weeks to learn more

00:50:32

about how to be a part of

00:50:33

this world changing movement called Crossroads.

00:50:38

– The color of our skin has been weaponized

00:50:40

to tear people apart and keep us at odds.

00:50:44

But it doesn't have to stay this way.

00:50:46

We can reckon with our past

00:50:48

and reconcile to a better future.

00:50:50

We can celebrate diversity and unity as gifts from God.

00:50:55

We can live full of mercy, justice, and hope

00:50:58

for all of God's children,

00:51:00

regardless of their skin color.

00:51:02

Join us for What Color is God?

00:51:09

– Hey, I'm Brian. – And I'm Chuck

00:51:10

– I'm white. – And I'm black.

00:51:12

And that matters because we're starting

00:51:13

a new series called What Color is God?

00:51:15

We're going to be talking about race.

00:51:17

– Trigger warning, trigger warning.

00:51:19

I don't care if you're on the right,

00:51:20

I don't care if you're on the left,

00:51:22

you're going to be challenged.

00:51:24

We're going to look at what the Bible,

00:51:26

what we think we see in the Bible

00:51:28

as it relates to race in our country, in our lives.

00:51:30

– That's right.

00:51:31

If you're in the woke choir, you're going to be challenged.

00:51:33

If you're anti woke, you're going to be challenged.

00:51:35

So here's the thing, as we're talking

00:51:37

about this from the biblical perspective,

00:51:38

there's hope, there's a third way.

00:51:40

And that's what we want to lean into in the series.

00:51:42

– This can be a great time for you,

00:51:44

for all of us to put on your big boy pants,

00:51:45

put on your big girl pants.

00:51:47

Let's see what God has for us,

00:51:49

and we'll see you soon.

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