Uncover Your Super Powers | Heroes Week 5

When do we go from average to hero? Is it when we get bit by a radioactive fruit fly, mutated in a lab experiment, or just have a lot of money to buy cool toys? What if becoming the hero only took using the gifts we already have? Join us today as Brian teaches us how to unearth the gifts we’ve been given.

  • 00:00:03
    - Hey, this is Crossroads, and I'm Kyle.
  • 00:00:05
    We believe that you were born for adventure
  • 00:00:07
    and we exist to guide you and equip you
  • 00:00:09
    for that adventurous life.
  • 00:00:11
    Now I've heard this a lot, if you have too,
  • 00:00:13
    let me confirm a couple of things.
  • 00:00:15
    I'm not like Tom Cruise.
  • 00:00:17
    For one, I'm way taller.
  • 00:00:18
    I'm 5 foot 6 and 6/17 of an inch.
  • 00:00:20
    He's only 5 foot 5 and 7/12 inch.
  • 00:00:23
    And I get it, you might confuse us,
  • 00:00:24
    because like him, I broke my foot.
  • 00:00:27
    He was jumping off a building in a movie.
  • 00:00:28
    I was very similarly jumping into my pool.
  • 00:00:31
    Regardless, whether it's Mission Impossible
  • 00:00:33
    or The Journey, we have a mission for you,
  • 00:00:36
    a challenge that we want you to lean into.
  • 00:00:39
    Our senior pastor, one of my mentors, Brian,
  • 00:00:42
    is going to give us that challenge right now.
  • 00:00:46
    - You can have little or you can have much.
  • 00:00:49
    The decisions you make with the things
  • 00:00:52
    God's given you will determine that.
  • 00:00:55
    Hey, my name's Brian, Senior Pastor at Crossroads.
  • 00:00:57
    Treat to be with you today.
  • 00:00:58
    Last week, Kyle did a great job saying
  • 00:01:00
    there's no civilians in the Kingdom of God.
  • 00:01:02
    All of us need to be in the fight.
  • 00:01:04
    All of us need to be soldiers.
  • 00:01:06
    Today is going to be a big day for you.
  • 00:01:08
    It can be a big day
  • 00:01:09
    or just be another day where
  • 00:01:11
    you stream some churchy stuff on your screen.
  • 00:01:14
    But you're going to leave here today making a choice.
  • 00:01:18
    I'm going to do a deep dive
  • 00:01:21
    in something that Jesus talked about,
  • 00:01:22
    which is critical for anybody who is to be heroic,
  • 00:01:26
    anybody who is to be great.
  • 00:01:28
    It comes the Book of Matthew 25,
  • 00:01:31
    and I don't know if you see this or not,
  • 00:01:32
    but it's all red letters.
  • 00:01:34
    So red letters means Jesus,
  • 00:01:38
    it means it's important.
  • 00:01:39
    Let's just go ahead and read this,
  • 00:01:41
    and then I'll talk about it. Here's what says:
  • 00:02:14
    Now it says money, but I got to be clear,
  • 00:02:16
    we're not talking about money today.
  • 00:02:18
    This is not a money thing.
  • 00:02:20
    There's no money ask here at all.
  • 00:02:22
    There is financial principles in this passage
  • 00:02:24
    that can be applied,
  • 00:02:25
    but we're not looking at those today.
  • 00:02:27
    We're talking about our talents.
  • 00:02:30
    There are three things that God blesses
  • 00:02:33
    you and I with, three things,
  • 00:02:35
    and you decide how you're going to use them.
  • 00:02:37
    And how you use them will determine
  • 00:02:39
    whether or not you have little or much.
  • 00:02:41
    Your time, your talents, your treasure.
  • 00:02:45
    Now we're not talking about treasure at all today.
  • 00:02:47
    We're talking about our time and talent.
  • 00:02:49
    Now interestingly enough in this passage,
  • 00:02:51
    it talks about talents,
  • 00:02:53
    but this is actually a unit of financial currency.
  • 00:02:58
    A talent was equal to about 6,000 denari,
  • 00:03:03
    and they used to have a phrase back then
  • 00:03:05
    or saying: another day, another denari.
  • 00:03:07
    So a talent is worth 6,000 days' labor,
  • 00:03:12
    which is about 16.5 years' labor.
  • 00:03:16
    What's the big point there?
  • 00:03:17
    No matter what God's given you,
  • 00:03:19
    you've got stuff to put into the field of play.
  • 00:03:23
    The goal isn't to just be well known.
  • 00:03:28
    The goal is to use what God's given you.
  • 00:03:31
    Billionaire Jay-Z says this, he says:
  • 00:03:46
    The person who goes away that Jesus
  • 00:03:47
    is talking about, this landowner,
  • 00:03:49
    he represents God
  • 00:03:51
    and God disperses to three different people,
  • 00:03:53
    three different talents, three amounts;
  • 00:03:56
    five, two, and one to all of us.
  • 00:03:59
    All of us do not have the same
  • 00:04:01
    as the person next to us,
  • 00:04:02
    but we all have been given something
  • 00:04:04
    or some things that are incredibly valuable.
  • 00:04:09
    And you finding and unearthing
  • 00:04:13
    what those things are
  • 00:04:14
    and putting them into play will determine
  • 00:04:16
    whether or not you have little
  • 00:04:18
    or whether or not you have much.
  • 00:04:20
    Here we have these guys.
  • 00:04:22
    The guy who has five, he invests it.
  • 00:04:26
    He makes it work for him.
  • 00:04:27
    The guy who has two, he invest it
  • 00:04:29
    and makes it work for him.
  • 00:04:30
    Here's what it says, God comes
  • 00:04:31
    to those people at five and two, he says:
  • 00:04:43
    So they had little.
  • 00:04:45
    Actually, five talents is actually more than two,
  • 00:04:48
    and two talents is more than one,
  • 00:04:50
    but they had little relevant to what they could have,
  • 00:04:53
    relative to what they could have.
  • 00:04:55
    So you and I decide, will we have little
  • 00:04:57
    or we have much?
  • 00:04:59
    And the determining factor is what we do
  • 00:05:02
    with the abilities and capacities that we have.
  • 00:05:06
    All of us have different things.
  • 00:05:08
    One guy decides to take what God has given him
  • 00:05:12
    and bury it.
  • 00:05:14
    When you bury what God's given you,
  • 00:05:18
    other people can't get blessed
  • 00:05:19
    and you're not being heroic,
  • 00:05:21
    you're being a weenie boy and a weenie girl.
  • 00:05:23
    You're being lazy. You're being conservative.
  • 00:05:28
    God has given us things to bless people,
  • 00:05:31
    put them into play.
  • 00:05:32
    Let me tell you some things that
  • 00:05:33
    I've been tempted to bury.
  • 00:05:38
    Oh, what do I -- oh, here.
  • 00:05:41
    Oh, I got something here.
  • 00:05:42
    Tempted to bury. What do I have?
  • 00:05:44
    Oh man, I haven't seen this for a while.
  • 00:05:48
    You know what?
  • 00:05:49
    This is my birth certificate.
  • 00:05:53
    I was born at a very early age.
  • 00:06:00
    - What did he say?
  • 00:06:03
    - Born at a very early age and then I was adopted.
  • 00:06:08
    And this is my birth certificate,
  • 00:06:10
    which has my birth parents,
  • 00:06:11
    who are my parents on it.
  • 00:06:13
    Richard Earl Tome and Eileen C. Costello.
  • 00:06:17
    I'll tell you what's significant about this.
  • 00:06:19
    It isn't just that God gave me a gift
  • 00:06:21
    of birthing me when some people are
  • 00:06:25
    from conception don't have the opportunity to be born.
  • 00:06:28
    It wasn't just that that was a gift.
  • 00:06:30
    What was a gift is recognizing that
  • 00:06:33
    this was a spiritual reality.
  • 00:06:37
    God was pulling me into his family through adoption,
  • 00:06:41
    and this is the way it happens in the Bible.
  • 00:06:43
    We're not born into the family of God.
  • 00:06:45
    We're adopted in the family of God.
  • 00:06:47
    And this is something that I've had to unearth
  • 00:06:50
    because it's why I want people to be part Crossroads.
  • 00:06:52
    It's why I want you to come to know God in a deeper way.
  • 00:06:54
    It's why I want to interact with somebody
  • 00:06:56
    who's waiting on a table where I am or wherever it is.
  • 00:06:59
    I'm always going, "What's your spiritual story?
  • 00:07:01
    Who are you?"
  • 00:07:02
    I want to have some sort of spiritual conversation,
  • 00:07:05
    that's critical.
  • 00:07:08
    What else might we have?
  • 00:07:09
    I want to unearth that.
  • 00:07:10
    I want to put my birth story out there.
  • 00:07:13
    Oh, geez, oh, here we go.
  • 00:07:15
    Huh? What we got here?
  • 00:07:18
    We got a Crossroads mug. That's what we got here.
  • 00:07:21
    Now Crossroads, I didn't create Crossroads.
  • 00:07:24
    God created Crossroads,
  • 00:07:26
    but I had something to do with it.
  • 00:07:28
    And what I had to do with it was
  • 00:07:30
    using the gifts that God has given me.
  • 00:07:32
    And Crossroads, it's a thing that as a leader,
  • 00:07:37
    as a leader, I can make decisions
  • 00:07:40
    to put Crossroads into play
  • 00:07:41
    or make decisions to bury Crossroads
  • 00:07:43
    and keep it very, very safe.
  • 00:07:46
    When we do compassion international days
  • 00:07:48
    where we try to get people to adopt kids financially,
  • 00:07:52
    adopt kids through Compassion International
  • 00:07:53
    and feed them and educate them, for their entire childhood,
  • 00:07:56
    for like $38 a month.
  • 00:07:58
    We do that at great risk
  • 00:07:59
    of Crossroads' financial future
  • 00:08:01
    for people cannibalizing their giving
  • 00:08:05
    because we don't want to bury the power
  • 00:08:08
    and force that Crossroads can be.
  • 00:08:10
    We want to unearth it and and bless people.
  • 00:08:13
    That's what we have to do.
  • 00:08:16
    Oh, what else we got here?
  • 00:08:17
    We've got -- Oh, oh, oh, this is nice.
  • 00:08:24
    Oh, we've got a microphone here.
  • 00:08:28
    Hello. I have the microphone.
  • 00:08:34
    You do not have the microphone
  • 00:08:37
    and you will sit here and you like it.
  • 00:08:41
    Yes, a microphone.
  • 00:08:44
    Don't you wish you had a bullhorn?
  • 00:08:48
    Do you have your earplugs in your ears, Mr. Cameraman?
  • 00:08:54
    Okay.
  • 00:08:55
    - All right. Loser. Loser, you're a loser (screaming)
  • 00:09:06
    - There actually is a story behind this from my past.
  • 00:09:12
    When I was in high school, my high school
  • 00:09:15
    had a very clear pecking order of who is at the top,
  • 00:09:18
    who are the cool kids, who are the popular kids,
  • 00:09:20
    and then who was at the bottom.
  • 00:09:23
    I was in probably the top 25%.
  • 00:09:25
    To do that you had to be an athlete
  • 00:09:26
    or a cheerleader or something like that
  • 00:09:28
    in my high school at that time.
  • 00:09:30
    But I wasn't in the top, top, top, top.
  • 00:09:32
    So come time for homecoming,
  • 00:09:37
    all the school would be gather together
  • 00:09:38
    for a mandated assembly at the end of the day.
  • 00:09:43
    And they needed like six senior football players
  • 00:09:46
    to go up and and give it a little speech.
  • 00:09:48
    And first five are very obvious
  • 00:09:50
    who people wanted to hear from,
  • 00:09:51
    who was popular, all that kind of stuff.
  • 00:09:53
    They were obvious and they only needed six.
  • 00:09:55
    And they went, "Six. So well, let's get Brian.
  • 00:09:59
    Let's get Brian Tome. He'll be fine."
  • 00:10:01
    And so they line me up last just because
  • 00:10:03
    I was picked last because I was at least worthy.
  • 00:10:05
    I spoke last.
  • 00:10:07
    And I sat there in that assembly
  • 00:10:09
    looking at the students bored out of their gourd
  • 00:10:12
    and very cynical.
  • 00:10:14
    We had a losing team year after year
  • 00:10:15
    after year after year, so people
  • 00:10:17
    just didn't have any expectations.
  • 00:10:18
    And I felt this and I was starting to get angry.
  • 00:10:20
    So when I went up and I took the podium,
  • 00:10:24
    I said, "Look, here's what we need.
  • 00:10:26
    We don't need you being down on us
  • 00:10:28
    and being negative.
  • 00:10:29
    We need you supporting us. We represent you.
  • 00:10:31
    We need you to get to a new place."
  • 00:10:33
    I don't know exactly my words, but that's basically I did.
  • 00:10:35
    I called the student body out, and everyone like listened.
  • 00:10:38
    Wow.
  • 00:10:40
    That night we had a tradition to take
  • 00:10:44
    a dummy of the opposing team
  • 00:10:48
    and you take a man sized thing
  • 00:10:50
    and you stuff them and you have the colors
  • 00:10:52
    of Plum Borough High School,
  • 00:10:53
    which was what it was, and a helmet.
  • 00:10:55
    You could never get away with doing this today,
  • 00:10:57
    but this was the '80s. It was awesome.
  • 00:10:59
    You could do virtually anything you wanted.
  • 00:11:02
    And we would have this guy
  • 00:11:03
    who looked like a Plum Borough guy
  • 00:11:05
    and then somebody would throw it into the fire
  • 00:11:08
    and give a rah-rah speech of how
  • 00:11:10
    we're going to win the next day's homecoming game.
  • 00:11:12
    And they came to me and the cheerleaders said,
  • 00:11:14
    "Hey, would you do that?" I was like, "Me? Yeah, OK."
  • 00:11:18
    And I got to be the guy who threw the dummy in the fire
  • 00:11:20
    and I had a bullhorn and I motivated people
  • 00:11:24
    to do the best they possibly could the next day.
  • 00:11:27
    That was when I realized that God
  • 00:11:30
    had given me something that had on Earth.
  • 00:11:32
    I never took a public speaking lesson.
  • 00:11:34
    I never watched somebody who was a mobilizer motivator.
  • 00:11:37
    I didn't.
  • 00:11:38
    I never read books on being that.
  • 00:11:41
    It was something that God gave me.
  • 00:11:44
    And now I make the decision,
  • 00:11:46
    how will I use that gift
  • 00:11:48
    to be about God's purposes?
  • 00:11:50
    I can have little less, if I keep it buried,
  • 00:11:53
    it's a little less.
  • 00:11:55
    If I use it, I could have much.
  • 00:11:57
    And by much I don't mean
  • 00:11:58
    I in my financial standing can have much.
  • 00:12:01
    I mean much in terms of opportunities
  • 00:12:03
    to use my voice, much in terms of joy,
  • 00:12:07
    joy over seeing and feeling myself
  • 00:12:10
    used by God with other people.
  • 00:12:13
    Really, really good stuff.
  • 00:12:16
    - We'll get back to Brian in just a second,
  • 00:12:18
    but first I want to say thank you
  • 00:12:20
    to all of the givers.
  • 00:12:22
    You make videos like this
  • 00:12:23
    and all the ministry at Crossroads possible
  • 00:12:25
    and you're literally impacting thousands
  • 00:12:27
    and thousands of lives.
  • 00:12:29
    And if you want to join that community
  • 00:12:30
    of generosity, it's super easy.
  • 00:12:32
    You just go to crossroads.net/give.
  • 00:12:34
    We even made a way to take some of
  • 00:12:36
    the stress out of it for you
  • 00:12:38
    called the 90 Day Tithe Test.
  • 00:12:39
    You sign up, you try tithing for 90 days.
  • 00:12:41
    And if at the end of those 90 days,
  • 00:12:42
    you don't feel more of God in your life.
  • 00:12:44
    We'll give you all of your money back.
  • 00:12:46
    Again, just go to Crossroads.net/give.
  • 00:12:50
    - I'm Lindsey.
  • 00:12:52
    - And I'm Eric, and we go to Crossroads.
  • 00:12:54
    - Our story starts with we
  • 00:12:56
    went to Christian High School,
  • 00:12:57
    we met in Christian college
  • 00:12:59
    and got married right after school
  • 00:13:01
    and just kind of lived our lives,
  • 00:13:02
    but didn't really understand what it meant
  • 00:13:04
    to have a real relationship with God.
  • 00:13:06
    - We were about a year removed from my affair.
  • 00:13:10
    I had left Lindsey, moved out of my own
  • 00:13:12
    is when we stepped foot into Crossroads Oakley.
  • 00:13:14
    We were visiting some family out here
  • 00:13:17
    in the Cincy area from Philadelphia.
  • 00:13:19
    Chuck was preaching on stage
  • 00:13:20
    and I had heard God say,
  • 00:13:23
    "This is where I want you and your family to worship."
  • 00:13:26
    And I was like, "How are we going to do that
  • 00:13:28
    if we live in Philadelphia
  • 00:13:30
    and Crossroads is out here in Cincinnati?"
  • 00:13:33
    - They had just started to launch Crossroads Anywhere.
  • 00:13:35
    We started watching off and on,
  • 00:13:37
    but it wasn't until The Brave Journey
  • 00:13:38
    that happened that following year that we decided,
  • 00:13:41
    "Okay, let's really lean into this."
  • 00:13:45
    I reached out to Crossroads to see if
  • 00:13:46
    there was a small group we could join
  • 00:13:48
    and there wasn't one currently,
  • 00:13:49
    but they asked me if I'd be willing to lead,
  • 00:13:51
    and I decided, Sure, why not?
  • 00:13:52
    We did it via video chat and we met every week
  • 00:13:55
    just like the small groups did that were in person.
  • 00:13:58
    We got to meet these people
  • 00:13:59
    who lived all over the U.S. via video chat,
  • 00:14:02
    and we probably got to know those people
  • 00:14:03
    better than we knew some of our friends
  • 00:14:05
    who we had had for many years.
  • 00:14:07
    - It was during that Brave Journey that
  • 00:14:10
    I had really felt God saying, "Hey,
  • 00:14:12
    I want you to step up and be the man
  • 00:14:14
    that I have called you to be
  • 00:14:16
    and be that spiritual leader in your house."
  • 00:14:18
    And so I started leading our small group.
  • 00:14:21
    I led a few Man Camps. We co-led couples camp.
  • 00:14:27
    We flew out to Oakley to be baptized
  • 00:14:29
    and really took that role in our family,
  • 00:14:31
    which was awesome.
  • 00:14:33
    - Meanwhile, all of our friends
  • 00:14:34
    who weren't really involved in Crossroads
  • 00:14:36
    kind of saw this major change in Eric.
  • 00:14:39
    They wanted to understand what was the difference.
  • 00:14:41
    So one couple in particular we invited
  • 00:14:44
    to start watching church with us every Sunday,
  • 00:14:46
    and that was kind of where Crossroads Philly was born.
  • 00:14:50
    So we just want to say thank you.
  • 00:14:51
    Thank you for giving.
  • 00:14:52
    It has made a huge difference in our lives.
  • 00:14:55
    - Thank you for your generosity.
  • 00:14:56
    Through that generosity Crossroads is able
  • 00:14:59
    to stream live each week
  • 00:15:02
    and develop those Anywhere communities.
  • 00:15:03
    And without that Anywhere community,
  • 00:15:05
    we don't know where we would be today.
  • 00:15:07
    You've changed our life.
  • 00:15:08
    You've changed our marriage.
  • 00:15:10
    You've changed the trajectory of our kids' lives
  • 00:15:12
    and you're changing generations.
  • 00:15:14
    And that's good stuff, so thank you.
  • 00:15:21
    - Well, what else do we have here?
  • 00:15:22
    We also have, oh, family here, yeah.
  • 00:15:28
    Oh, family, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
  • 00:15:31
    I did something to make my family here,
  • 00:15:33
    at least three of them, I did something to it.
  • 00:15:35
    I won't -- You can figure out what I did,
  • 00:15:37
    but I did something.
  • 00:15:38
    But you know, these folks, they're not mine,
  • 00:15:41
    they're they're God's.
  • 00:15:44
    And how I act as a dad or a dad-in-law,
  • 00:15:49
    father-in-law will determine whether or not
  • 00:15:51
    I'll get much or little.
  • 00:15:53
    If I just look at these as six relationships
  • 00:15:56
    that don't matter one way or another,
  • 00:15:59
    I'm not going to have more joy.
  • 00:16:01
    I'm not going to have more descendants.
  • 00:16:02
    I'm not going to have more.
  • 00:16:03
    Let me tell you something, I've been around long enough,
  • 00:16:06
    every other relationship in my life
  • 00:16:07
    will come and go, every single one.
  • 00:16:09
    These folks and this one are
  • 00:16:11
    the most important relationships in my life by far,
  • 00:16:17
    and I can have a little joy or much joy.
  • 00:16:21
    And it depends on how I treat them
  • 00:16:23
    and how I organize vacations,
  • 00:16:25
    how I build into them as a father.
  • 00:16:29
    I can't bury that.
  • 00:16:31
    Oh, yeah, oh, here we go, we go.
  • 00:16:36
    This is a jet boil.
  • 00:16:42
    This is a thing where you take
  • 00:16:44
    and you put it together
  • 00:16:46
    and you boil water really quickly.
  • 00:16:48
    So this is my coffee every morning
  • 00:16:50
    whenever I'm camping
  • 00:16:51
    or it's how I do dehydrated food, boiling water.
  • 00:16:55
    I use this when I do a backpack hunt,
  • 00:16:57
    which I'll be doing in a couple of weeks
  • 00:16:58
    in Colorado going after elk
  • 00:17:00
    or I use it if I'm camping with people
  • 00:17:03
    or overlanding with people or motorcycle trips.
  • 00:17:05
    It's a big deal.
  • 00:17:06
    And here's the thing, the reason I have this,
  • 00:17:08
    what I find very interesting about this.
  • 00:17:10
    Camping has become a big thing for me.
  • 00:17:15
    It's something God has given me the ability to do.
  • 00:17:18
    And one time I was sitting around a campfire
  • 00:17:22
    with eight -- seven other guys
  • 00:17:25
    and we were having a deep conversation
  • 00:17:27
    talking about what's going on in life.
  • 00:17:30
    We realized there's a lot of guys who need this,
  • 00:17:32
    but we got here on motorcycles.
  • 00:17:34
    A lot of guys don't like motorcycles
  • 00:17:36
    or people don't like motorcycles.
  • 00:17:37
    What can we do to have a camping environment
  • 00:17:39
    where people are pushed and stretched
  • 00:17:41
    and they're built into?
  • 00:17:43
    And out of that came Man Camp, Woman Camp,
  • 00:17:47
    Couple's Camp, and the rest.
  • 00:17:49
    Thousands and thousands and thousands of people
  • 00:17:52
    have been built into spiritually because
  • 00:17:54
    I said, "Hey, God's given me something
  • 00:17:56
    with the camping thing. I've got to use that.
  • 00:17:58
    How can I put that into play?
  • 00:18:01
    When I put that into play, maybe God can use it."
  • 00:18:03
    And that's exactly what He did.
  • 00:18:04
    32 different guys --
  • 00:18:07
    or 32 states represented at last week's Man Camp
  • 00:18:10
    because I and others made a decision
  • 00:18:13
    to not bury the things that we liked,
  • 00:18:15
    but to actually use them.
  • 00:18:17
    Now let's keep going on
  • 00:18:19
    And this is this is you. I'm talking to you.
  • 00:18:21
    There's things God's given you that
  • 00:18:23
    you can choose to keep it buried
  • 00:18:25
    or you can unburied and put in the field of play.
  • 00:18:28
    That is critical to you.
  • 00:18:30
    I am who I am right now because of the people
  • 00:18:33
    who unburied their gifts and built into me.
  • 00:18:36
    Right now in your neighborhood,
  • 00:18:37
    in Crossroads are people
  • 00:18:38
    who could be different people.
  • 00:18:39
    There's a person that could be different
  • 00:18:41
    if you unbury your talents and gifts
  • 00:18:45
    and you use your time to be heroic.
  • 00:18:47
    Let me tell some of the people did it for me.
  • 00:18:50
    Mrs. Geiger. She was my Sunday school teacher.
  • 00:18:53
    She, which is kind of weird, you know,
  • 00:18:56
    Sunday school teachers, you think, ehh.
  • 00:18:58
    If you want kids to come to Sunday school,
  • 00:19:00
    don't have it on Sunday and don't call it school.
  • 00:19:03
    That's the key.
  • 00:19:04
    But I was forced to go, so I went
  • 00:19:05
    and Mrs. Geiger, she built into me
  • 00:19:07
    and gave me the basic understanding
  • 00:19:09
    of basic teachings in the Bible.
  • 00:19:11
    When I open up the Bible and I have
  • 00:19:12
    an understanding of the different structures
  • 00:19:14
    and systems, it's because Mrs. Geiger,
  • 00:19:17
    I had her in grade school in Sunday school.
  • 00:19:20
    You have no idea if you serve in Kids' Club
  • 00:19:22
    whose life or how many people you're affecting
  • 00:19:26
    a generation later.
  • 00:19:28
    Denny Patton unburied his personality,
  • 00:19:31
    unburied his faithfulness,
  • 00:19:33
    and he built into a teenager
  • 00:19:35
    that has become your pastor.
  • 00:19:37
    And Denny right now is on his deathbed.
  • 00:19:40
    He's got not very long to live,
  • 00:19:43
    and he will be one of the very few people
  • 00:19:45
    I've known who has been faithful to God
  • 00:19:46
    since he gave his life to Christ till when he died.
  • 00:19:50
    He unburied his life, and I'm on his down line
  • 00:19:54
    because he put it into play.
  • 00:19:56
    Joan Driscoll, Sharon Hinzman.
  • 00:19:58
    These are women who in college, and then shortly after college,
  • 00:20:00
    they fulfilled a mother role for me.
  • 00:20:02
    They mothered me, they fed me.
  • 00:20:04
    They gave me wisdom.
  • 00:20:05
    They gave me nurturing. It was huge.
  • 00:20:09
    Cathy and Pete Beechem, long time Crossroads.
  • 00:20:11
    Pete's been dead several years.
  • 00:20:14
    Kathy dead for about three years or so.
  • 00:20:16
    But man, they are servants who left a legacy
  • 00:20:18
    because of the things they would say to me,
  • 00:20:20
    the way they would serve me,
  • 00:20:22
    the way they were huge blessings.
  • 00:20:24
    And they had much as a result of it.
  • 00:20:26
    You want little, you want little?
  • 00:20:27
    Then keep it all buried.
  • 00:20:29
    You want much? Then put it into play.
  • 00:20:32
    If these people had buried their gifts
  • 00:20:35
    I shudder to think where I would be right now
  • 00:20:37
    and where many people on my down line would be.
  • 00:20:41
    This is what God says to those who bury their gifts,
  • 00:20:43
    he says, this one guy says:
  • 00:20:50
    Buried it. Didn't overcome it. Buried it.
  • 00:20:54
    And God says:
  • 00:21:06
    He calls them wicked, lazy servant.
  • 00:21:11
    There are some people who look very nice
  • 00:21:14
    and have high morals and don't do pornography
  • 00:21:18
    and pay their taxes and are acceptable to the masses,
  • 00:21:24
    who to God are wicked and lazy because
  • 00:21:29
    the unique ability is God's given you,
  • 00:21:32
    you buried them.
  • 00:21:33
    You haven't put them in the field of play.
  • 00:21:35
    You have no chance of getting much.
  • 00:21:37
    You have no chance of being great.
  • 00:21:39
    You have no chance of being heroic.
  • 00:21:41
    That's what God wants to do.
  • 00:21:42
    That's what Jesus wants us to do,
  • 00:21:43
    that's why He tells this story.
  • 00:21:45
    He makes this story up,
  • 00:21:47
    but it's absolutely true to spiritual principles.
  • 00:21:49
    It ends this way, Jesus says this:
  • 00:21:54
    Whoever has little,
  • 00:21:55
    they'll have much when they bury it.
  • 00:22:14
    People who gave me their time and their talent
  • 00:22:19
    changed my future, changed my family's future,
  • 00:22:22
    changed a lot of people's future.
  • 00:22:25
    That's what happens when you take
  • 00:22:27
    the little that God has given you
  • 00:22:30
    and you put it on the field of play,
  • 00:22:32
    you have the possibility of it becoming much.
  • 00:22:36
    So your choice: little and buried,
  • 00:22:41
    or much and put into the field of play.
  • 00:22:44
    1 Peter 4:10 says each of us has received a gift,
  • 00:22:48
    use it to serve one another.
  • 00:22:50
    As good stewards of God's very grace,
  • 00:22:52
    whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God,
  • 00:22:55
    whoever serves as one who serves
  • 00:22:57
    by the strength of God supplies,
  • 00:22:59
    nor that in everything God may be glorified
  • 00:23:03
    through Jesus Christ.
  • 00:23:08
    Little or much?
  • 00:23:12
    You playing it safe or God getting glory?
  • 00:23:15
    You get to make that choice right now.
  • 00:23:21
    - They want you to behave, to settle in,
  • 00:23:23
    and settle down into your God, not make any waves.
  • 00:23:27
    They want you to be average
  • 00:23:28
    and build a nice, sensible house on Normal Street.
  • 00:24:20
    - This entire journey has been building to this moment.
  • 00:24:24
    See, you really were made for greatness,
  • 00:24:26
    you were made to be your hero.
  • 00:24:27
    But it's a choice that you have
  • 00:24:29
    to choose to step forward into.
  • 00:24:31
    And we're here to help with that.
  • 00:24:32
    This is a group of my friends who I actually work alongside of
  • 00:24:35
    as part of the online church team.
  • 00:24:37
    And they have an amazing, amazing amount
  • 00:24:41
    of volunteer opportunities for you to step into.
  • 00:24:43
    And we'd love to tell you just a bit about them.
  • 00:24:45
    I'm going to start over here
  • 00:24:47
    with my friends, Rachel and Animaesh.
  • 00:24:49
    These folks help lead everything that we do
  • 00:24:53
    when it comes to community and care and connection,
  • 00:24:55
    which is maybe extra critical in our world right now.
  • 00:25:00
    - Yeah, I know that when I first became
  • 00:25:02
    a volunteer at Crossroads,
  • 00:25:03
    the thing that was motivating to me
  • 00:25:05
    was getting to know other people.
  • 00:25:06
    And a lot of people don't realize
  • 00:25:08
    you can do that online.
  • 00:25:09
    This is not just a thing that you watch.
  • 00:25:11
    This is a thing that you can be a part of
  • 00:25:13
    and that you can know people and you can be known.
  • 00:25:15
    And we have so many roles that we need
  • 00:25:17
    to be able to connect people all over
  • 00:25:19
    the country to what we're doing,
  • 00:25:21
    to God and to one another.
  • 00:25:22
    So whether that's responding to chats
  • 00:25:24
    and texts and emails from your house,
  • 00:25:26
    whether that is joining the prayer team,
  • 00:25:27
    whether that's being a leader for your area.
  • 00:25:30
    There are so many different ways to get involved.
  • 00:25:33
    And with the way the world is hurting
  • 00:25:36
    and lonely right now, we need people to help us,
  • 00:25:38
    not just be a thing that you watch,
  • 00:25:40
    but a thing that you're actually a part of.
  • 00:25:42
    - Yeah, in line with what Rachel said,
  • 00:25:44
    we live in a big world and it's full of people
  • 00:25:46
    who are hurting and need care,
  • 00:25:48
    and you just might be that person
  • 00:25:49
    who can care for them.
  • 00:25:50
    And so a large need that we have is also group leaders.
  • 00:25:53
    And for Crossroads online, that looks like camp leaders.
  • 00:25:55
    It looks like coaches and it looks like guides.
  • 00:25:58
    All these roles are centered around the very reason
  • 00:26:00
    that I started volunteering myself,
  • 00:26:02
    which is caring for other people.
  • 00:26:04
    - What I know, I'm sure you guys experience this as well.
  • 00:26:06
    I get emails every week from people who are hurting,
  • 00:26:08
    more than I could ever possibly respond to,
  • 00:26:10
    get messages through social media,
  • 00:26:12
    all sorts of places.
  • 00:26:13
    And the thing here that I want you to see
  • 00:26:15
    and what you heard in Brian's message is
  • 00:26:16
    that the church isn't us, the church is us
  • 00:26:20
    and God's designed you to help.
  • 00:26:21
    If you're somebody who has a gift of compassion,
  • 00:26:24
    the gift of listening.
  • 00:26:25
    If you're somebody who just has the ability
  • 00:26:27
    to pray for people, have patience with them,
  • 00:26:30
    we need you. The world needs you right now.
  • 00:26:33
    And if that's not you, don't worry, there's more spots.
  • 00:26:36
    God gave you a gift, and our job is
  • 00:26:38
    to help put that into action
  • 00:26:40
    no matter who you are, what God's made you to be.
  • 00:26:43
    Maybe for you, the place to serve is
  • 00:26:45
    more along the lines of our production team.
  • 00:26:47
    Good news, this is my friend Jamie,
  • 00:26:49
    who can tell us more about it.
  • 00:26:50
    - Yeah, if you would like to have an impact
  • 00:26:53
    on the very thing that people are experiencing
  • 00:26:54
    like this or other content and things that we create,
  • 00:26:57
    there's a place for you.
  • 00:26:58
    Our production team has plenty of roles
  • 00:27:00
    that are not only doable, but can have
  • 00:27:02
    a direct impact on what people experience
  • 00:27:05
    when they come across Crossroads online.
  • 00:27:07
    Whether you're a video editor
  • 00:27:08
    or you have audio experience,
  • 00:27:10
    maybe you have a background in graphic design,
  • 00:27:12
    no matter what, we have a role for you.
  • 00:27:14
    And maybe that seems a little too sophisticated
  • 00:27:16
    and that's not your bag,
  • 00:27:17
    and that's not what you're familiar with.
  • 00:27:19
    We also have simple ways for you to engage with us,
  • 00:27:22
    like commenting on our social media
  • 00:27:24
    or engaging with our social care coordinator.
  • 00:27:26
    - There's so many opportunities to jump in
  • 00:27:28
    and serve again the point is, God made you.
  • 00:27:31
    He gave you a gift.
  • 00:27:32
    We just want to help you put that into action.
  • 00:27:34
    And maybe you're somebody like me.
  • 00:27:35
    When I first came around Crossroads,
  • 00:27:37
    I was blown away that this message,
  • 00:27:40
    this idea that God made me to change the world
  • 00:27:43
    and Crossroads was letting me just go do it.
  • 00:27:45
    If you're somebody who has that same sort of like,
  • 00:27:47
    "Oh my gosh, I think this is what I feel called to,"
  • 00:27:50
    you need to meet my friend Victor
  • 00:27:52
    because Victor leads everything we do
  • 00:27:53
    with online church in terms of changing the world.
  • 00:27:56
    - Yes, so like Kyle said,
  • 00:27:58
    we're all about changing the world,
  • 00:28:00
    and that means that you and I and us,
  • 00:28:02
    we get to be a part of that world change.
  • 00:28:05
    And maybe that could be a role like
  • 00:28:07
    supporting folks that are wanting to serve
  • 00:28:09
    their local community or maybe people that
  • 00:28:11
    are looking to how can I have even
  • 00:28:12
    a bigger impact in the entire nation
  • 00:28:14
    or in the entire world?
  • 00:28:15
    So that could be an opportunity for you
  • 00:28:17
    to engage in and coach other folks.
  • 00:28:20
    It could also be that after the disaster,
  • 00:28:22
    we actually can go and help folks
  • 00:28:23
    that have been impacted, either folks
  • 00:28:25
    from our community or folks for just
  • 00:28:27
    the communities out there that have been impacted
  • 00:28:29
    by an earthquake or hurricane,
  • 00:28:31
    and so many other things.
  • 00:28:33
    And it world change seems intimidating,
  • 00:28:35
    but maybe communicating about world change
  • 00:28:37
    is something that you're interested in,
  • 00:28:39
    then maybe you can enroll with us
  • 00:28:41
    in brand and relationship marketing,
  • 00:28:42
    just even writing and editing articles.
  • 00:28:45
    - So many different ways to serve.
  • 00:28:46
    What you've heard is just a very like small taste of it.
  • 00:28:50
    We have over 400 different volunteer roles.
  • 00:28:53
    And I just have this belief about you
  • 00:28:55
    that this is a church that God's called you
  • 00:28:58
    to be a part of, that God's wired you to plug in
  • 00:29:02
    and to help and to serve.
  • 00:29:03
    You don't have to serve as part of Crossroads.
  • 00:29:05
    You can serve in so many different ways.
  • 00:29:07
    But here's the thing, Jesus is the head of the church,
  • 00:29:11
    and our job is to exist to help you plug in and serve.
  • 00:29:15
    These are the roles that we have.
  • 00:29:16
    We would love to help you find your spot.
  • 00:29:18
    You can go to online.Crossroads.net
  • 00:29:21
    and you can browse all 400 different roles there.
  • 00:29:25
    400 different roles, it's amazing to me.
  • 00:29:27
    We'd love to help you get plugged in.
  • 00:29:29
    We'd love to engage with you.
  • 00:29:30
    We're looking forward to emails, text,
  • 00:29:31
    phone calls with you, zooms,
  • 00:29:33
    whatever it takes to help you find your place.
  • 00:29:36
    Again, Online.Crossroads.net,
  • 00:29:39
    check out all of the roles.
  • 00:29:42
    We'll see you next week on Crossroads.
  • 00:29:45
    - Life is unpredictable.
  • 00:29:48
    So when the world is anything
  • 00:29:49
    but secure, stable and sure, we can be rock solid.
  • 00:29:55
    Come to Crossroads and find out
  • 00:29:58
    to have a life built to last.
  • 00:30:00
    - Hey, don't forget, make sure you subscribe
  • 00:30:03
    to not miss any of our upcoming videos,
  • 00:30:05
    or if you want to keep watching right now,
  • 00:30:07
    we made a play list just for you.

Oct 22, 2021 30 mins 4 sec

Recent Series