Where are you being called? | Discover Your True Calling

“What should I do with my life?” We want meaning and direction. But here we are—stuck in a dead-end career, wading through the latest batch of Facebook clickbait in search of something better. Yet God made us for more than this regret treadmill. Join us this week as Brian shows us how to find our real calling in life.

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    There's a reason you aren't satisfied with the ordinary,
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    you were made for adventure.
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    A life with God doesn't have to be boring.
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    It can be a pulse pumping, heart pounding life of purpose
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    and we can guide you there.
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    The adventure awaiting you is bigger
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    and more life giving than you could ever imagine.
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    Join us every weekend for 45 minutes of challenge,
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    hope and encouragement to guide you on your spiritual adventure.
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    - Hey, I'm Hannah and welcome to Crossroads.
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    - And I'm Kyle,
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    your community pastor for Crossroads online church.
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    - And this week we're going to be tackling a question
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    that, man, I've had, maybe you've had.
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    I feel like everyone has this question and that is:
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    what the heck am I supposed to do with my life?
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    - It's a big question. It's an important question.
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    The Bible word for that is calling,
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    is what we're talking about.
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    - Ok, so calling, that's a really good word,
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    but it might be a little bit what we call Churchy.
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    So let's unpack that for people.
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    What is calling?
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    - Calling, the problem with that is that it can be intimidating.
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    Like how in the world do I know what I'm called for?
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    Well, today we're going to tell you how.
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    See, it's the place where your gifts, your talents,
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    and your opportunities intersect.
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    And here's the thing, you can find it.
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    - Hmm.
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    So it sounds like it's a thing that God has designed you for.
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    So, Kyle, what's that for you?
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    - For me, it's this right here.
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    It's helping lead and build Crossroads Church Online,
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    a movement you can fully belong to no matter where you live.
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    I found that place.
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    And here's the thing, you can, too.
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    That's our goal today
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    is to help you find that intersection in your life.
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    - Absolutely. So in just a moment, our senior pastor,
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    Brian Tome is going to share with you
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    how you find that answer for yourself.
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    And we've even got a story about someone
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    who made a huge impact in their city
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    by saying yes to God and going on an incredible journey.
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    - I think it happened right here, where we are, right?
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    - Right here, absolutely.
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    So thanks so much for being here.
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    Let's get into it right now.
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    - I'm Brian, we're here at a nonprofit called Mortar
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    with the person who leads this, my friend Allen Woods,
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    also known as Top Knot.
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    Tell us about Mortar, what's the vision of Mortar?
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    - Absolutely. So we wanted to create an accelerator
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    that made entrepreneurship more accessible,
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    specifically for people of color and women
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    who come through our program to learn
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    how to accelerate their ideas,
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    how to take their business concept to the next level,
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    how to start, how to create a network,
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    how to get funded, and ultimately how to carve out
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    a space where they can assist in growing their communities.
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    - And you went after that sort of segment,
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    people basically who aren't white males like me.
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    - Right.
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    - Because those folks have the hardest time
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    getting something started, is that right?
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    - Absolutely. And when you look at the wealth gap
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    and you look at net worth of the black community
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    versus the white community,
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    there is a huge difference between that.
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    And we're talking over $100,000 difference
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    of the average net worth.
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    And so what we're doing is we're trying to combat that
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    by giving people an opportunity to pursue entrepreneurship
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    as a means of building that legacy for their families,
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    whether that be financial or otherwise.
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    Ultimately, that's what I'm here --
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    That's what my purpose is in life,
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    is to kind of help people get better
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    and become their best selves.
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    So I get to do that with entrepreneurs every day.
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    - Was there ever sort of an external compulsion you had
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    where you heard a voice from heaven saying,
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    "Allen, help people put money on their table
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    and support their family"?
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    Did you ever have any those kind of things?
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    - Early on, there were a ton of different things
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    that God kept lining up.
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    You know, our first office even, you know,
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    we had an article that, you know, appeared in
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    one of the local papers and a guy reached out to us
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    and said, "Hey, you know, in your article you said
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    that you were looking for a place to have classes
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    and to have an office space.
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    And I would love for you to use my office."
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    He was like, "You guys can feel free to use it at no charge."
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    And my business partner, Derrick, was like,
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    "Well, why are you doing this?"
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    And the guy, his name was Scott, he said,
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    "You know, do you guys believe in God?"
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    And I said yes.
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    And he said, "Well, I feel like God is telling me
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    to do this for you."
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    And I say, "Well, I think you should listen to Him." So--
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    - I think you should give it to me.
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    - You should absolutely listen to God.
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    And so we've just had all of these different doors
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    that have opened up for us throughout this time
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    where there's things that we cannot deny that
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    this is the presence of God. This is ordained.
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    These are things that He's carving out for us.
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    There's no way that we started this thing almost 7 years ago
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    thinking it was going to be a program in one neighborhood
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    and then now to be in 6 neighborhoods in Cincinnati
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    and then 6 additional cities,
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    it's just not something that we could have ordained.
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    We didn't even think that that was possible.
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    - There wasn't some parting of the clouds.
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    You just looked at who God had made you be
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    and the things you wanted to do
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    and the opportunities that were before you like that thing.
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    And it sounds to me like you just walked into those things,
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    which was your calling, is that fair?
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    - Yeah, absolutely.
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    And I think that He always will connect us to people.
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    So like, when we talk about having a network, you know,
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    having a network with God, I mean, like how big --
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    how much bigger can your network be?
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    So I think that God intentionally has put people
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    in our pathway who have been designed to help us.
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    Ultimately, when we think about what Mortar is,
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    the whole name is about building something up
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    that's bigger than us and the mortar is the thing
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    that holds everything together.
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    And so we understand that we are a small part of this.
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    But the people that we interact with,
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    the people who go through our program,
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    they are the mortar of their cities.
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    They're the people who hold everything together.
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    So you can have these brilliant ideas,
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    but if you don't have real people
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    who are connected to them,
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    you don't have people who are going to hold it together
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    and make it make sense.
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    - So if someone has a feeling about
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    what they're calling may be,
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    but they don't know how to start or what the first step is,
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    what counsel do you have for them?
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    - Start, start.
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    - Just start, take the step, whatever it is.
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    - Figure out the thing that you feel driven and do every day.
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    Typically, our purpose is also connected to our passions.
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    So if it's something that you feel drawn to do, just start it.
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    You're never going to --
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    if you wait until everything is perfect,
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    you're never going to get started.
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    So start where you are with what you have and do what you can.
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    - The easiest car to steer is one that's moving.
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    - Absolutely.
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    - Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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    I think you've given us a lot to chew on
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    and the idea of the stories that can come out of your story
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    and out of the teach this weekend,
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    I'm really jazzed to see how that can have
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    a ripple effect over our whole culture. So thank you.
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    - Thank you. Thank you for having me.
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    - Some of us go to work, some of us work a calling.
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    It can be the same thing, but we've got to understand this
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    to understand what our life is about.
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    The very beginning of the Bible, back in the Book of Genesis,
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    God creates man and woman and puts them in the garden.
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    Before anything goes wrong, they're actually working.
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    They're taking care of the ground.
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    They're taking care of creation.
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    They're replicating, amazing things are happening.
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    And you have to believe and I have to believe that
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    the work that you're about is important.
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    All work is work that God is a fan of
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    and you have to choose your attitude
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    in the work that you're doing.
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    There's a story told about President JFK who, obviously,
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    cast that amazing vision that he wanted to see under his watch.
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    America sent the first man to the moon.
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    And he toured the NASA facilities one time
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    and he bumped into a janitor who was pushing a broom
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    and he asked them what he was doing.
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    He said, "I'm putting a man on the moon."
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    That's what he said.
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    People who have a negative attitude might have just said,
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    "Well, I'm just -- I'm just sweeping the floor."
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    But this guy said, "No, I understand what I'm doing
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    is putting somebody on to the moon."
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    He saw himself as a calling.
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    He wasn't just going to work, he's had a calling.
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    You may be a physical therapist, that might be your work,
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    or are you called to help people walk again?
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    You may be a waiter or a hostess or a bartender.
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    You might do those things as part of your job,
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    but you might be the person who's giving people
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    a good time when they're out and they need refreshment.
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    I had an old friend who sang cover tunes in bars and
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    he said, "Man, that's just my calling. That's what I do.
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    I go out and I give people a good time to help them
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    unwind from the difficulties of their life
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    and get them re-geared up to do it again."
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    Some of us as a result today, we're going to find
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    it's time to get a new job, a new calling.
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    Others of us are going to find we just need
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    to get a new attitude about the job that we're in right now
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    because it's actually a calling.
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    We're going to look today at the two ways calling operates,
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    either as an external compulsion
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    where God says something to me from outside of me,
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    maybe the clouds are parted or I see something,
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    you know, written in the sand
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    or somebody gives me a prophetic word
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    or I just hear -- whatever it is, external compulsion.
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    And the other thing is an internal conclusion
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    where I just do an internal process
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    and I come to some conclusions.
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    I'm going to help us to see those today.
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    What does it mean to have a call?
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    You know what it basically means?
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    It means to have a vocation.
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    The word for vocation in the Latin is vocari,
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    which is to name or to call something.
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    That's we're talking about.
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    The thing that we're naming and that you're calling
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    that this is what my life is going to be about.
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    If we take a look at the whole Bible where you would think
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    you would see person after person who was called.
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    There was a bunch of people called, but actually
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    of the people of the external compulsion callings, the people
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    like Moses who sees a burning bush and God speaks to him
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    or Noah who God tells about the Great Flood
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    or the Apostle Paul who has his road to Damascus experience
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    who is struck down and falls off his horse and lightning.
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    And he sees and hears Jesus.
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    I mean, these external compulsions,
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    there's about 100 of them in the Bible, 100, that's all.
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    Everybody else has more of an internal conclusion.
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    This is not about saying here's the spiritual people
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    and here's the spiritual people.
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    It's about saying you've just got to figure out
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    and call out and name what it is that you're about.
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    That's what it means to have a calling.
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    Some of the powerful people who have
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    internal conclusions for their calling
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    are people like Nehemiah,
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    who he sees a wall that's down, the wall around Jerusalem.
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    And he has this emotional, cathartic thing of,
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    "Oh, no, this is bad."
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    He's got the gifts and the abilities
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    and the connections to raise money.
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    And he has the opportunities come together.
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    He doesn't hear like the voice of God saying, 'Do this."
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    Or Lydia, who was a huge, huge fundraiser
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    or giver in the early church.
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    Lydia was known as a trader in purple cloth.
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    This would have been like being the owner
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    of a Rolls Royce dealership today.
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    Purple cloth was incredibly extravagant.
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    It didn't have really any purpose other than
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    being really sweet, really beautiful,
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    and only afforded by people who were very, very rich.
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    This is Lydia.
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    She is a main, main giver and she is operating in that
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    and that's her calling.
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    And we don't have any understanding at all
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    that God came to her and said, "Lydia,
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    thou shalt make purple cloth, which will be
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    the uniform for Barney," or something like that.
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    We don't have any example of that at all, but she was called.
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    Book of Galatians 2:8:
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    The Apostle Paul is saying, "I was called to people who --
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    or everybody who isn't a Jew.
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    That is everybody who wasn't circumcised by religious right.
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    Peter, he's called the people who are Jews
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    who've undergone the rite of circumcision.
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    Both of them equally important before God,
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    but both of them are very, very different.
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    In the book of 2 Timothy 4:5 says:
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    So when you're going after your vocation, you're calling
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    four things are going to happen with all of us.
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    One is you're going to be sober-minded.
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    You have to use your mind and think rationally,
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    think practically, think wisely.
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    The second thing is endure suffering.
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    That's right, difficulty.
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    If it's not difficult, it's not a job.
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    If it's not difficult, it's not a calling.
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    Whatever your calling is, you're going to have hard times.
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    And when the hard times come, you don't go,
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    "Oh, no, God must have abandoned me.
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    I'm in the wrong calling. I need to go find something else."
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    No, you endure. You hang in there and you endure.
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    None of the greats in the Bible
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    who had lives that were meaningful
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    jumped out of things when it was difficult.
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    Three: Do the work of an evangelist.
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    Whatever your job is, construction management,
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    teaching, CEO, CFO, whatever, whatever it is,
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    stay at home parent, you have the ability
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    to proclaim the good news where you are,
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    to do the work of an evangelist,
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    to represent God physically and verbally.
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    And then finally, four, all of us fulfill your ministry.
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    Your ministry, the thing God has called you to
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    in the environment where you are.
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    And I want to emphasize your, your ministry,
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    not Brian Tome's ministry, not Billy Graham's ministry,
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    not, you know, Kirk Franklin's ministry.
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    No, your, your ministry. What is it God wants you to do?
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    Fulfill that thing.
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    Stop living somebody else's life, live your life,
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    live the calling that God is giving you.
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    Now, most of us are not going to have
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    some external compulsion, clouds part
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    and we have an unmistakable direction map from God.
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    Most of us are going to have to go through
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    an internal process where we come to a conclusion,
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    internal conclusion.
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    I want to show you something that has been
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    very, very helpful for a lot of folks I've shared it with.
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    There's a couple of things look at. One is this: gifts.
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    What are my gifts?
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    Gifts are the things that you have received
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    that you haven't worked for.
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    Spiritual gifts or a real thing, the gift of leadership,
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    the gift of helps, the gift of prophecy.
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    Those things are all part of gifts,
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    but also the gifts of --
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    the gift of my personality that's come my way,
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    the gift of whatever financial resources I have,
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    the gift of the creativity I have,
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    the gift of my resourcefulness,
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    the gift of whatever country I was born in, the gift of --
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    It's just the things that you haven't worked for,
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    but they are, they've just been bestowed you.
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    What are your gifts?
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    Take notice of those.
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    The second thing is what are your desires?
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    What do you want to do with your life?
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    What are you excited about?
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    What gets your heart pumping?
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    What causes you to daydream and fantasize about something?
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    What are those things?
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    Your desires could be the kind of position you want.
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    Your desires could be what you want
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    your friendship circle to look like,
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    what your family should look like,
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    how you want to be remembered when you die.
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    What are your desires, your hobbies?
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    What is it you just like?
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    The Book of Psalms 37:4 says:
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    So as we get closer to God,
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    the desires start lining up with where God is
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    and those are the things He's really inclined to give us.
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    What are your desires?
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    And then another bucket is opportunities.
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    I'll shorten it there, opportunities.
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    What are the things that are before you that you can do?
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    What are the doors that are open that you can walk through?
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    What are the offers you have on the table?
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    What are the possibilities you could make happen?
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    Those things.
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    What we then do with these, if we take a look,
  • 00:16:55
    here's what all my gifts are, all of them, all my gifts,
  • 00:17:00
    and here's what my desires are, all my desires.
  • 00:17:05
    And here's what my opportunities are.
  • 00:17:09
    Where these things intersect, right here,
  • 00:17:14
    these places, this right here, that is your calling.
  • 00:17:27
    - So going after that intersection for your gifts
  • 00:17:30
    and talents and opportunities
  • 00:17:31
    can be a little bit intimidating.
  • 00:17:33
    God calls us to big and sometimes even scary things,
  • 00:17:36
    and that's in all parts of our lives.
  • 00:17:38
    - That's right, in every place He calls us to trust Him,
  • 00:17:40
    our jobs, our relationships,
  • 00:17:42
    even our finances through this thing that He calls tithing.
  • 00:17:45
    - Okay, so tithing is a big word,
  • 00:17:47
    maybe even a little bit churchy.
  • 00:17:49
    Let's break it down for someone
  • 00:17:50
    who maybe is hearing this for the first time.
  • 00:17:52
    - Okay, it's really simple.
  • 00:17:53
    Tithing is giving 10% of what God gives you,
  • 00:17:56
    what you make, back to Him.
  • 00:17:57
    It comes from the Book of Malachi in the Bible,
  • 00:17:59
    this place where God actually says, "Try this,
  • 00:18:02
    try giving to Me and see if I don't bless your life."
  • 00:18:06
    - Yeah. - It's really simple.
  • 00:18:07
    - Absolutely, so maybe let me call out
  • 00:18:09
    the elephant that might be in the room.
  • 00:18:11
    You know, that sounds a little bit self-serving, Kyle.
  • 00:18:13
    You're saying give to the church. You're the pastor.
  • 00:18:15
    Doesn't that go to you? Let's break that down too.
  • 00:18:18
    - Yeah, look, I get it.
  • 00:18:19
    I've been where you are. It does seem self-serving.
  • 00:18:22
    But I want you to know one thing first upfront.
  • 00:18:24
    Giving is not something that I want from you.
  • 00:18:27
    It's something that I want for you.
  • 00:18:29
    There is a freedom and a blessing
  • 00:18:31
    that comes your life through nothing else.
  • 00:18:33
    Now, when you give I'm not saying, please hear me clearly,
  • 00:18:36
    that it's going to rain money from the sky.
  • 00:18:38
    In my life what I've seen is that sometimes
  • 00:18:41
    the best blessings God's given me
  • 00:18:43
    are things that money can't buy.
  • 00:18:46
    Second, we've made this so you can try it risk free.
  • 00:18:50
    It's something called the 90 Day Tythe Test.
  • 00:18:52
    It works just like this, you try tithing for 90 days
  • 00:18:55
    and if at the end of those 90 days you don't experience
  • 00:18:58
    blessing and freedom in your life, we'll literally
  • 00:19:01
    give you all of your money back, no questions asked.
  • 00:19:03
    It's that simple. - That's right. You know what?
  • 00:19:05
    We've seen thousands of people try The Tithe Test
  • 00:19:08
    and they've experienced incredible life change
  • 00:19:11
    and heart change.
  • 00:19:12
    They've got some good stories, man.
  • 00:19:14
    So to get started or to just learn more about it,
  • 00:19:16
    you can head to Crossroads.net/tithetest.
  • 00:19:19
    - And hey, if you're somebody who is currently
  • 00:19:21
    taking The Tithe Test, one, way to go.
  • 00:19:24
    Two, we are praying with you.
  • 00:19:26
    That thing that you've asked us to pray for in your life,
  • 00:19:29
    we are partnering with you on that, asking for God to show up.
  • 00:19:32
    - And another big thank you to a group
  • 00:19:34
    that we call around here The Blue Team.
  • 00:19:36
    These are folks who are faithfully tithing.
  • 00:19:39
    And let me tell you, we cannot do what we do without you.
  • 00:19:42
    - Amen. Hey, let's get back to Brian.
  • 00:19:46
    - If you can get your life
  • 00:19:48
    to where you're operating right here,
  • 00:19:51
    you are going to have a life that is incredibly impactful
  • 00:19:55
    and incredibly fruitful.
  • 00:19:57
    The problems that most of us have come from
  • 00:20:00
    us being in one or two of these areas and not three.
  • 00:20:06
    Let's have some examples here. Just some examples.
  • 00:20:10
    Someone desires to be a music singer.
  • 00:20:13
    And what do you know? American Idol's coming through town,
  • 00:20:18
    but you don't have any gifts.
  • 00:20:20
    Yeah, we laugh at you and you're immortalized
  • 00:20:22
    on television forever because you got this going,
  • 00:20:26
    but you just -- you don't have this at all.
  • 00:20:30
    I have gone after people before and tried to get them
  • 00:20:34
    hired into a various job at Crossroads.
  • 00:20:36
    They no question have the gifts. No question.
  • 00:20:38
    And I'm giving them an opportunity,
  • 00:20:40
    we're giving them an opportunity,
  • 00:20:41
    but they just don't have any desire
  • 00:20:43
    for student ministry, whatever it is.
  • 00:20:46
    And you just want to argue with them.
  • 00:20:48
    "No, this is great. You should take this."
  • 00:20:49
    But, you know, if they don't have desire, I've just learned,
  • 00:20:52
    if they don't have desire just just back way off.
  • 00:20:54
    Here's another one.
  • 00:20:56
    Let's say you have the gifts, you have a great palate.
  • 00:20:59
    It's a gift giving you, a palate.
  • 00:21:01
    Okay, you can just sense flavors
  • 00:21:03
    and you're really, really good with stuff
  • 00:21:05
    and pairing everything.
  • 00:21:07
    You have desire.
  • 00:21:08
    You have a desire to bring people artisan mayonnaise.
  • 00:21:13
    That's what you want.
  • 00:21:15
    You want to bring people artisan mayonnaise.
  • 00:21:17
    Guess what? There's not enough people
  • 00:21:19
    who want artisan mayonnaise
  • 00:21:20
    to actually put food on your own table.
  • 00:21:22
    So sorry, you can want that all you want,
  • 00:21:24
    but no one cares about artisan mayonnaise. They don't.
  • 00:21:28
    This actually was -- this was me, this up here.
  • 00:21:31
    I had the gifts for doing things that were beyond
  • 00:21:35
    where I was at the previous church that I worked.
  • 00:21:38
    I had desires to be used to a greater degree,
  • 00:21:42
    to be helping people, to be part of a movement.
  • 00:21:46
    And I also had the desire to have my gifts
  • 00:21:48
    of teaching and leadership expanded
  • 00:21:51
    and to be exercising those more.
  • 00:21:52
    But what didn't I have? I didn't have opportunity.
  • 00:21:56
    So what I did is I went and I answered every ad
  • 00:22:01
    for every church job that would have helped me with my gifts.
  • 00:22:07
    And those jobs were things like the senior pastor,
  • 00:22:11
    a teaching pastor, or a church planter.
  • 00:22:13
    I answered all ads in those three categories.
  • 00:22:17
    I sent letters to all the churches I knew of
  • 00:22:20
    that were really, really big and said, "Hey,
  • 00:22:22
    I don't know what you have needs, but I've got these gifts
  • 00:22:25
    and I have desire to work with you.
  • 00:22:26
    Whatever it is, I'll come and do."
  • 00:22:28
    I did all of that and throughout all those things
  • 00:22:31
    just no opportunities ever came.
  • 00:22:35
    I called upon all my own denominational leads,
  • 00:22:37
    no, not a single opportunity came.
  • 00:22:39
    At the end of day, the only opportunity that ever came
  • 00:22:43
    were a group of eleven people to put
  • 00:22:44
    an ad in the back of a magazine that I answered,
  • 00:22:47
    a bunch of 30 year olds and they had $15,000 in the bank
  • 00:22:51
    and there was 11 of them.
  • 00:22:52
    And they said, "We want to reach a church for people
  • 00:22:54
    who have given up on church,
  • 00:22:57
    but haven't necessarily given up on God."
  • 00:22:59
    And they guaranteed my salary, my salary for a year,
  • 00:23:02
    my salary for a year, and, man, we were off the bases.
  • 00:23:06
    Why? Because that was the only opportunity we had.
  • 00:23:10
    "What was it like when God called you to Crossroads?"
  • 00:23:12
    You mean when God gave me the only job possibility I have?
  • 00:23:17
    You mean, you mean, no, I'm sorry.
  • 00:23:18
    I wish I could tell you like
  • 00:23:20
    there was this like parting clouds.
  • 00:23:21
    And I can't tell you that.
  • 00:23:23
    It was the only opportunity I had
  • 00:23:26
    when I had gifts and had desires.
  • 00:23:28
    So much so that I learned these things
  • 00:23:30
    that we've talked about as a euphemisms were actually true.
  • 00:23:33
    Like I got cold feet when the offer came.
  • 00:23:36
    I literally --
  • 00:23:37
    my feet were frozen. They got cold immediately.
  • 00:23:40
    Something happens with the blood system, it shut down.
  • 00:23:42
    I was scared poop-less.
  • 00:23:44
    I will give you the other word, but it is church,
  • 00:23:46
    so I'm trying not to offend any of us.
  • 00:23:49
    I found out, literally, it was like I drank Imodium,
  • 00:23:54
    what is was called Imodium AD?
  • 00:23:56
    I call it Imodium Concrete.
  • 00:23:58
    You take that Imodium Concrete.
  • 00:23:59
    It's like I've just got concrete my bowels.
  • 00:24:02
    I didn't take a dump for days. I was scared poop-less.
  • 00:24:07
    If I had an external compulsion, maybe it would have been easy.
  • 00:24:12
    No, it was hard. It was difficult.
  • 00:24:17
    And that's what made it fulfilling.
  • 00:24:19
    Frederick Buechner says:
  • 00:24:28
    Where is your gladness?
  • 00:24:31
    Where is the hunger?
  • 00:24:33
    When you come together in that area,
  • 00:24:36
    you're going to have a life that has massive, massive impact,
  • 00:24:42
    not just on the world, but on you and everybody around you.
  • 00:24:45
    Now, having said that,
  • 00:24:47
    let me just tell you about being called.
  • 00:24:49
    There's an upside and there's a downside to it.
  • 00:24:53
    The upside of being called is that
  • 00:24:56
    you're going to have a clear purpose for your life.
  • 00:24:58
    You're going to know why you exist.
  • 00:25:01
    I'm here to help people.
  • 00:25:04
    I ran across one person a couple of years ago.
  • 00:25:07
    She cleaned houses for other people and said, "Oh,"
  • 00:25:09
    she said, "I love dirt."
  • 00:25:11
    She said, "Dirt is my life. I love dirt."
  • 00:25:16
    For her really cleaning was a calling
  • 00:25:19
    and she had a purpose, she just enjoys it.
  • 00:25:21
    She saw how it brought clarity in order to things.
  • 00:25:25
    When you have a calling in your life, you'll have clear purpose.
  • 00:25:28
    And the downside of it is you'll have clear pain in your life,
  • 00:25:34
    because the people who don't have callings
  • 00:25:36
    just keep jumping from thing to thing.
  • 00:25:38
    They don't have the same level of pain that you'll have.
  • 00:25:41
    You will have a pain of sticking through things.
  • 00:25:43
    You'll have a pain that comes to you because
  • 00:25:46
    you're going to say no to things that other people do say yes to.
  • 00:25:49
    You're going to have a clarity and a purpose,
  • 00:25:52
    which means there's also going to be a unique difficulty
  • 00:25:55
    that's going to come to your life.
  • 00:25:57
    The upside in having a calling
  • 00:26:00
    is you have clarity and direction.
  • 00:26:02
    I know I'm supposed to go here. I have clarity and direction.
  • 00:26:05
    I know I'm to go to Cincinnati to help start Crossroads.
  • 00:26:09
    Downside is there's a lack of clarity for decisions.
  • 00:26:13
    You would think that if I know that this is my calling,
  • 00:26:17
    then everything is going to be natural from that.
  • 00:26:19
    No, it's not the case.
  • 00:26:21
    I don't have clarity for decisions about --
  • 00:26:24
    I say clarity, God doesn't speak and say
  • 00:26:27
    here's how many staff members you should have.
  • 00:26:29
    God doesn't speak and say here's exactly
  • 00:26:31
    how you should organize your week this week.
  • 00:26:33
    He's never come and spoken, said, "Boom,
  • 00:26:35
    here's exactly the size of mortgage
  • 00:26:37
    Crossroads should have."
  • 00:26:39
    There's just like a lack of clarity.
  • 00:26:41
    I know where I'm going, but it would be really great, God,
  • 00:26:44
    if there was an individual thing You would force me into here
  • 00:26:48
    or make very, very clear.
  • 00:26:49
    Upside of vision,
  • 00:26:50
    upside of calling is that it attracts people.
  • 00:26:54
    You find somebody who knows who they are
  • 00:26:56
    and where they are going and you'll find
  • 00:26:58
    a lot of people want to be around that person
  • 00:27:00
    because people are comforted by clarity
  • 00:27:02
    and vision attracts people.
  • 00:27:05
    The calling you have, it attracts people
  • 00:27:07
    who want to be around your life and at the same time,
  • 00:27:11
    vision disappoints people.
  • 00:27:14
    When God gives you clarity and vision,
  • 00:27:18
    people don't get what they want because you go,
  • 00:27:20
    "No, I'm going this way.
  • 00:27:21
    You want me to go this way and do this, no, it's this way."
  • 00:27:25
    And you disappoint people.
  • 00:27:26
    You can't -- you can't just satisfy everybody's desires.
  • 00:27:30
    No, you don't. That can't happen.
  • 00:27:32
    You have to satisfy the desire of God, the desire of the call,
  • 00:27:37
    and that means people don't like you,
  • 00:27:39
    more so than any other way.
  • 00:27:41
    I can't tell you how many friendships I've lost
  • 00:27:43
    over things or people who badmouth me,
  • 00:27:45
    and I just have to say, "I'm sorry.
  • 00:27:47
    This is a this is a me and God thing.
  • 00:27:49
    It's not a me and you thing.
  • 00:27:50
    I know you don't like it. I know you don't approve of it.
  • 00:27:52
    But you've got to realize
  • 00:27:53
    this is personal with me and with God."
  • 00:27:56
    I lost one of my best friends when I helped start CityLink.
  • 00:28:01
    He didn't like CityLink.
  • 00:28:02
    He thought it was a bad idea for a bunch of reasons.
  • 00:28:04
    And and our friendship basically ended.
  • 00:28:06
    And I had a conversation with him years later.
  • 00:28:08
    I said, "Look, you think that our friendship ended over this.
  • 00:28:12
    It didn't end over that. You think it did.
  • 00:28:15
    It ended because there was a calling on my life
  • 00:28:18
    to invest in the CityLink vision,
  • 00:28:20
    to bring a one stop place where people who are
  • 00:28:23
    in the working poverty class of our culture
  • 00:28:27
    could come to get help.
  • 00:28:28
    And every time you were around you just thought
  • 00:28:30
    it was a bad idea, you didn't like it.
  • 00:28:31
    So I'm going to take the call from God.
  • 00:28:34
    I'm to take that call from God before I take our friendship."
  • 00:28:38
    You have to make difficult decisions like that
  • 00:28:41
    when you're called.
  • 00:28:44
    You've got thething that Gods is pointing you to.
  • 00:28:46
    Colossians 3:23 says whatever you do, whatever you do,
  • 00:28:50
    whatever it is plumber, artist, school teacher,
  • 00:28:53
    stay at home parent, pastor, author:
  • 00:29:02
    Whatever you do, your calling is not my calling
  • 00:29:05
    and your calling isn't less important of my calling either.
  • 00:29:07
    Your calling is just different than my calling.
  • 00:29:09
    It's different than the person beside you,
  • 00:29:11
    it's not more important than the person over here,
  • 00:29:13
    it's just different.
  • 00:29:14
    Whatever it is, whatever it is, work at it,
  • 00:29:18
    push into it, lean into it.
  • 00:29:20
    It's the thing that's going to define your life
  • 00:29:22
    is your calling.
  • 00:29:25
    2 Timothy 1:6, the last verse I'll share with you:
  • 00:29:36
    I've done so many fires in my life.
  • 00:29:38
    And you create that fire, right?
  • 00:29:40
    You put a little ember there, a little fire starter.
  • 00:29:43
    Then what do you do? You go (blowing).
  • 00:29:46
    You take a little piece of cardboard.
  • 00:29:48
    You're trying to take that little ember
  • 00:29:49
    and you're trying to fan it into flame.
  • 00:29:54
    This is what the Apostle Paul is saying to Timothy,
  • 00:29:58
    who he built into.
  • 00:29:59
    He said, "Timothy, I prayed for you.
  • 00:30:02
    I've asked God to fill you.
  • 00:30:04
    I've given you the gift of my life into your life.
  • 00:30:09
    This thing that I've deposited into you,
  • 00:30:11
    or God has deposited into you, nurture that,
  • 00:30:14
    honor that little ember, keep it, fan it into flame.
  • 00:30:19
    God has given you something and job one for you
  • 00:30:23
    in your job of your calling
  • 00:30:25
    is to protect your walk with Christ.
  • 00:30:27
    Protect your walk with God.
  • 00:30:29
    Fan it into flame."
  • 00:30:33
    This is what it is.
  • 00:30:34
    It's not about -- it's not about the call,
  • 00:30:37
    it's about the call to relationship with Jesus.
  • 00:30:40
    That's what the call ultimately is about.
  • 00:30:42
    You've got to recognize,
  • 00:30:43
    God is trying to form you to be more like Jesus.
  • 00:30:47
    He's not about that thing out there getting done,
  • 00:30:49
    your type a self who wants to get that thing done.
  • 00:30:52
    He's about getting done in you first and foremost
  • 00:30:55
    the thing that He's wanted to do was
  • 00:30:56
    to form you into being in the likeness of His Son.
  • 00:31:00
    So protect yourself, take care of your calling,
  • 00:31:04
    educate yourself, give yourself some fun times,
  • 00:31:08
    some ability to recreate, some ability to stretch.
  • 00:31:11
    Fan into flame.
  • 00:31:13
    Job number one is protecting your spiritual vitality.
  • 00:31:16
    Timothy fans his into flame
  • 00:31:19
    and you and I are supposed to fan ours and the flame as well.
  • 00:31:24
    I tell you what, it's pretty powerful to think about
  • 00:31:27
    what would happen if everybody who's with us right now
  • 00:31:29
    actually did this thing, what our culture would look like
  • 00:31:35
    and what our own hearts would look like.
  • 00:31:37
    You do this and you do with all of your heart,
  • 00:31:41
    you fan into flame the gifts that God has given you.
  • 00:31:44
    Get ready for a life that is vibrant and full color.
  • 00:31:47
    Let me pray for you right now.
  • 00:31:48
    Jesus, I pray for Your hand of blessing,
  • 00:31:52
    Your hand of clarity upon all the called ones
  • 00:31:55
    who are with us today.
  • 00:31:59
    We are honored that You would count us as worthy
  • 00:32:02
    to be used and we want to be used.
  • 00:32:05
    We want to be deployed.
  • 00:32:07
    We asked that You, if You want to speak to some of us
  • 00:32:10
    in an external away, God, we want to,
  • 00:32:11
    we want to hear You speak.
  • 00:32:13
    Others of us are going to hear You speaking
  • 00:32:15
    through working the process that I just outlined.
  • 00:32:19
    God, most importantly, we want You.
  • 00:32:20
    We want You and whatever You want to give us,
  • 00:32:24
    because that's what we're about is You.
  • 00:32:25
    I pray these things according to the character
  • 00:32:28
    and identity of Jesus. Amen.
  • 00:32:30
    So to fan into flame the gift that God's given us,
  • 00:32:34
    to protect that job number one of a relationship with God,
  • 00:32:37
    we've got to set our hearts right before God.
  • 00:32:38
    This doesn't just mean I hear things
  • 00:32:42
    that are good that I just gave you.
  • 00:32:43
    It also means that I sing things that are good.
  • 00:32:46
    I oriente my heart towards God.
  • 00:32:48
    I use my mouth and I sing to Him.
  • 00:32:51
    I tell Him what I think.
  • 00:32:53
    Maybe it's a love song.
  • 00:32:55
    Maybe it's a war chant.
  • 00:32:57
    When guys get together on the field of battle
  • 00:32:59
    before they go to war, they sing.
  • 00:33:01
    Whatever it is, there's all kinds of forms that songs take,
  • 00:33:04
    but it's important to incline our heart towards Him,
  • 00:33:06
    so let's do that together right now as a community.
  • 00:37:10
    - Hey, thanks so much for joining us this week.
  • 00:37:12
    If you have questions about your calling
  • 00:37:14
    or you'd like prayer or you just want to talk to someone,
  • 00:37:17
    we are here for you.
  • 00:37:18
    - All you have to do is head to Crossroads.net
  • 00:37:20
    and click the chat icon and talk to somebody right now.
  • 00:37:23
    - That's right, or you can email us
  • 00:37:25
    and I mean Kyle and Hannah us.
  • 00:37:27
    These are real life email addresses right here.
  • 00:37:30
    We're going to do our best to get back to you within 24hours.
  • 00:37:33
    - Now, the episode may be over for today,
  • 00:37:35
    but Crossroads is about so much more than just this video.
  • 00:37:38
    If you want to be in the know
  • 00:37:39
    about what's going on around here,
  • 00:37:41
    all the opportunities that are available to you,
  • 00:37:43
    that we're working hard on all the time,
  • 00:37:45
    you can sign up for a weekly newsletter.
  • 00:37:46
    Head to Crossroads.net/new to sign up.
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    And each week you get a message from me
  • 00:37:52
    and you can read about all the stuff
  • 00:37:53
    that's going on in the community, amazing stuff,
  • 00:37:56
    like that come from all those e-mails you guys send me.
  • 00:37:58
    - Absolutely, and that's where we just
  • 00:38:00
    pray for each other as a community in that space
  • 00:38:02
    and you read about what's happening next at your church.
  • 00:38:05
    - Okay, this time you used a churchy word, pray.
  • 00:38:08
    What does that mean?
  • 00:38:09
    - That's easy, we just talk to God on each other's behalf.
  • 00:38:13
    Each week we share a story of someone who needs our prayers.
  • 00:38:16
    And after you read it, whenever it comes to mind,
  • 00:38:19
    just talk to God about it.
  • 00:38:20
    Just sit down and talk to Him about it.
  • 00:38:22
    It could be in your car. It could be in the shower.
  • 00:38:24
    Or maybe you have time in the morning
  • 00:38:26
    where you talk to God every single day.
  • 00:38:27
    - That's right.
  • 00:38:28
    So get subscribed to the newsletter
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    and be part of the community.
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    We'll see you right back here next week.

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

Welcome to the Weekend Follow-Up. The questions below are for the weekend of March 13 & 14, 2021.

  1. Let’s dream a bit. If you had no barriers (and unlimited resources), what would do with your life? Share why that is your thing.

  2. There are two ways calling operates; 1) External compulsion: where we get direct guidance from an external source; and 2) Internal conclusion: where we internally process and come to a conclusion. Discuss as a group moments where you have experienced one or the other?

  3. Read Romans 12:6-8. Each of us are a unique and vital part of the same team, and discovering where our individual strengths connect with others enables us to operate with clarity in our calling. Take 3 mins and think of your gifts, your desires, and opportunities. Then, share with the group your top 1-3 in each category.

  4. When our gifts, desires, and opportunities intersect we find our calling. Everyone take 3 mins and think about where those intersect for you. Then share with the group one step you will take this week towards your calling. If you feel like you’re there, where might God be asking you to take a step deeper? If you are still discovering your calling what’s one step you can take towards it?

  5. Now let’s close our time together in prayer. When we act in our calling we’ll need these four things; 1) Be sober minded 2) Endure suffering 3) Do the work of an evangelist 4) Fulfill your ministry. Take this time now and go around the room and bless each person specifically in these areas.

More from the Weekend

God says we will see blessings in our life when we trust him with our finances. To get started or learn more about the 90 Day tithe test click here.

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Mar 13, 2021 38 mins 56 sec

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