How to Hear God | Week 4: Obedience

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Well, welcome to church.

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My name's Lena Schuller and I'm the Crossroads Anywhere

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Community Pastor.

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And I'm here with my good friend Vicki.

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>> Hello, everyone.

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I'm the Community Pastor for Crossroads Columbus.

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And our family moved up there about a month ago and we are

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loving making Columbus home.

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And we're really excited about where Crossroads Columbus is

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headed.

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God is doing some really sweet things in Columbus.

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So if you're in the Columbus area, be sure to pay attention a

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little bit later when we talk more about that, but in the

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meantime, we're going to spend some time worshipping together.

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>> Yeah. And for me, worship is a really good opportunity for me

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to sing my way into the truths of the songs.

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And I feel like the louder I sing, the better I engage in

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worship, the farther my heart and my head move in that

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And so I just invite you guys to do that right now, to sing

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really loud and see where your voice takes your mind and your

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heart.

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>> You know, we're in a series right now called How to Hear God,

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and we're going to explore that a little bit more in a few

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But first, I'm here with my friend Vicki.

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Vicki, what do you do?

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>> I am the Columbus Community Pastor.

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>> That's right.

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So tell us a little bit about what's happening in Columbus.

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>> Yeah. There's a group of people who have been meeting

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regularly in Columbus for quite some time now.

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And we've had a chance to gather together as a community for

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worship and to explore where Columbus has come from and what

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direction we're headed in.

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It's been really sweet to get to know the community there and

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just experience the way it's been growing.

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And you just took on this role and you're doing a great job --

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>> -- leading from the start here in Columbus.

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And I'm excited to see what God does next in that city under

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your leadership and with the amazing community that you have up

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It's really good.

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So we actually have lots of communities that are meeting around

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the country.

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Columbus is one of them.

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And there are more.

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And, you know, the best way for you to get plugged into

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community, whether there's people who are meeting in a home

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together or in a theater like in Columbus,

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Is if you head to Crossroads.net

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and click on Get Connected, you can see different opportunities

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for you to get plugged in.

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And the best opportunity for you is coming this fall and it's

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called the Play and Purpose Journey.

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Vicki, what's a Journey?

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>> A Journey is a chance for the whole church to get together

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around one topic and we explore it over weekend teachings.

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We get together in groups and we have some personal work that we

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work through ourselves, all related to the same topic.

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And this year it is Play and Purpose.

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And I could not be more excited for what that will mean for my

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family and for our community.

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And if you want to head to crossroad.net/journey,

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you can sign up there to be a Journey host and start to build

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relationships with people around you in your city.

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And we all need a little bit more play and a little bit more

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It's what makes our life worth it.

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It's what makes our life godly.

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And it puts us in a place where we're actually thriving.

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And so I want that for me and I want that for you.

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And I want that for the people who are in your city, whether

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you're in Columbus or you're in Batesville, Indiana, or you're

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in Topeka, Kansas, or Cape Coral, Florida.

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I want you to get to do the Journey with other people.

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And so all you need is a friend to do this with.

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So head to the Journey Web site to learn more and to sign up to

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be a leader.

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>> Yeah. And if you're in Columbus and you're not sure yet if

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you want to lead a Journey group or how engaging in the Journey

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might look like for you, I would love to meet with you and get

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to know you.

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So you can go ahead and email me directly at

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columbus@crossroads.net.

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And I'll take you out for coffee.

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And we can share stories and just see what the next step for you

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might be.

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>> That's awesome.

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Well, if you want to be part of the Crossroads team and you want

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to fuel the work that God's doing in Columbus or in your very

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own city, you can head to crossroads.net/give

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and become a giver.

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One of the amazing communities that I've had the opportunity to

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get to know and spend some time with over the last year or so

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is the people who are meeting in Batesville, Indiana.

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That's right.

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Batesville, Indiana.

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Vicki and I laugh because who's ever heard of Batesville?

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>> Yeah, it's quite a small town.

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>> It's quite small town, and yet there are amazing things

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happening there.

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And I love, love, love their leaders.

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One of their leaders is Scott Henderson.

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And I got together with him actually in December to hear what

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it's looked like for him to actually start a group in his home

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that has actually turned into a full-blown Crossroads Community

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that gets together every week to watch services.

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We call that a watch party.

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They have a party and they watch Crossroads together.

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And so I want you to meet Scott and hear a little bit about what

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it's looked like for him to lead in his home, because I think

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it's something that you can do from wherever you are right now.

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>> Hello, Crossroads Anywhere.

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I am here with my friend Scott Henderson, who I've known for a

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couple of years now.

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We are in his home in Batesville, Indiana.

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Scott, you hosted Crossroads Anywhere in your house.

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So this started -- It started about two and a half, three years

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ago.

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My wife actually became sick and had cancer.

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And so she couldn't physically get to the Crossroads location

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anymore.

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And so when Crossroads came out with Crossroads Anywhere

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livestream, we just started to stream it at the house and

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people started to come.

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>> So how have you invited people to do this with you?

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Like what are -- What's the line you've used to get people to

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come experience church in your living room?

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>> So the first thing I do is I don't say church.

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>> Okay. Great, what do you got?

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>> I actually just say, "Hey, we're having Crossroads at the

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house this weekend.

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If you don't go to anything on Sunday or you don't go to church

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on Sunday, you are absolutely invited no matter what you

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believe, no matter where you're at.

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We would love to have you here.

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There's coffee.

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There's sometimes doughnuts that people bring.

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So it just -- we try to create a space where people that

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wouldn't walk into a church building feel welcome here at home.

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I would not be able to do this by myself, there's absolutely no

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I mean, there's just not possible.

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I can't invite everybody.

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I can't brew all the coffee.

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I can't -- I can't clean the house by myself all the time.

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So it's a community of people that come together to make this

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>> Yes, it's pretty sweet.

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What has been the best part about doing it?

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>> One, I think just living life together.

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The second thing that's been incredible is seeing growth out of

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these people.

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One of the -- one of the most interesting weekends we had was a

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was a service.

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Afterwards, I have a hot tub and we had, I don't know, it's like

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four or five or six people actually said, "I want to be

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And we thought, "Well, where where can we do it?"

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And we've got a hot tub, so let's do it -- Let's just do it

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there.

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So we we had baptisms after Crossroads service.

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If I can start a church or Scott can start a church, I think you

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can start a church.

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Like whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever resources you

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have, the friends that you have.

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If God has given you any kind of desire just for your friends to

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know Jesus, try some of these things.

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Gather a group of friends together and host some people in your

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home and see what God does.

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>> Yeah, if you brew coffee they'll show up.

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>> Right?

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>> In 2015, God called our community to be a part of his plan to

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expand the Kingdom of God into our neighborhoods, our city, our

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country, and the world.

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Our response to this God-sized mission was to say, "I'm In" and

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we committed to radical generosity, giving $100 million towards

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that goal over the course of three years.

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Halfway through that journey as we grew, God gave us new team

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members that wanted in on what God was doing too.

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Those who joined during the Obsessed Journey expanded our

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resources and reach even farther.

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In the first three years of the I'm In Campaign, we accomplished

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our original audacious goals by opening 10 new physical sites,.

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Impacting the world through our reach out ministries in our

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cities and internationally,

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buying property for our camps ministry,

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Upgrading our existing sites for greater capacity,

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and expanding the reach of the gospel globally through streaming

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Crossroads Anywhere.

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And as if that wasn't enough to celebrate, we follow a God who's

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vision for the restoration of his people is never ending.

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He continues to open new doors and show us new ways to connect

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our friends and family who are far from God and are not

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interested in engaging business as usual church.

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The financial commitments of those who joined the campaign

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during the Obsessed Journey have allowed us to create new

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content shared on new platforms.

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We are now reaching 5 million people per month on social media

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platforms.

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There have been 4.4

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million views of video content.

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2.2 million minutes of Crossroads music have been consumed on

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multiple platforms.

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1.2 million total listens of podcasts and 340,000 page views of

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published articles.

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God's plan for what He wants for us and what He is going to do

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through us is never done.

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While many of us have completed our three-year commitments and

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celebrated the good fruit of our investment in the Kingdom, our

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teammates that joined during Obsessed are still running hard

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towards the finish line of December 2019.

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The seeds are planted and the fruit is so very good.

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We cannot wait to celebrate the harvest with those who will

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never have to wonder if their lives mattered.

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[applause]

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>> Man, that is a lot of amazing activity and a lot of people

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who are better off because our church, because you are part of

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this church.

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So, so, so, so good.

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It actually makes my brain swim to think about all the things

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that've happened around here the last several years.

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It is crazy.

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And as Crossroads has gotten larger and larger and larger, it's

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gotten harder and more and more, more difficult for me to lead,

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actually, because the largest something gets in our culture,

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the more paranoid people get about it.

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The larger something gets, the more people assume something

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weird must be happening right there.

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The larger something gets, the more people say, "Well, they must

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have some kind of hyper gagillionaire that helps write checks

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or something like that."

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And the truth is, none of that's true here in our church, this

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thing called Crossroads.

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We have been able to do what we've done because normal, average,

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everyday people like you and I have been faithful, incredibly

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faithful.

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We had an amazing party a number of months ago for people who

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made campaign commitments.

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We're not in the campaign necessarily right now, but made

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campaign commitments and finished.

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It was an amazing party.

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And we're not going to have another party that's gonna be

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amazing as well in January for people who've finished on the

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Obsessed Journey.

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You made an Obsessed commitment, which was people coming in and

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on the journey that we were on for the campaign.

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And we're trying to pick up different pieces and try to make

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different things happen.

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And many, many people made commitments and I just want to

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encourage you, remind you, please fulfill those, please.

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Well, not just because we exist because of normal people giving

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one hundred dollars, given a thousand dollars, but because it's

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an important thing for your spiritual formation to finish what

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you said.

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And we love to party around here.

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And so we're going to have a great one for those of us who have

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completed the obsessed journey in January.

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Now, one of the things that's fun for me is to work real hard

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and play real hard.

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Or another way to it is to have high purpose and have high play.

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We're going to be doing a journey which is clearly not a

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financial campaign that's our next series.

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It is not, it is not. i

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is not.

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It is simply a Journey to build into you and I and help us in

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And it's called the Play and Purpose Journey.

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And most of us have an outage in one of these two things:

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we're not sure what our purpose is in life

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or we're not sure how to play in life.

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I'm going to mentioned this in a moment when I get back up to

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talk in a few minutes.

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But Play and Purpose is a critical thing.

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And we celebrate when we complete something because we've

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completed the purpose.

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We're gonna do that in January.

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And I want us to all get ready for what I think might be maybe

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the most significant six weeks, five weeks of your life.

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It's called the Play and Purpose Journey.

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And here's a snippet of what it's going to look like.

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>> We're going to build a trampoline for the Steinway family.

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These are some awesome folks that serve us each week.

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They serve students and they serve kids.

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They have nine of their own kid and they still do that.

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Trampolines are all about clay.

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I'm jumping on a trampoline.

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This family is about to walk through this door.

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They have no idea that we build a trampoline full of balloons.

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>> And your life was meant to have restful play and meaningful

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purpose.

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Don't miss the Play and Purpose Journey starting September 14th

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and 15th.

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>> Well, we have up here an interesting thing that we did on

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Saturday morning.

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We had 1500 of our leaders from all of our different sites in

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different places coming into Cincinnati for a leadership

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morning, to learn about leadership, to be encouraged, to

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And just it was really, really, really a powerful four-hour

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block or something like that.

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And at the end of that time, everyone had these flags and we

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were able to write on there things that we thought that God was

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saying to us.

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And we were able to drive our flag into the hill and say, "God,

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this is what I think you want me to do and I am going to go

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through it.".

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All these signs represent 1500 people who felt like God was

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nudging them, God was working on something inside of them.

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And let's just be honest right now.

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I've never heard an audible word from God.

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In fact, as I've heard all the people who was speaking this

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series, I haven't heard anybody yet: Ali, Chuck, Kyle, who said

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they've heard an audible thing of God.

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There are people who've said they have heard actually a sound

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wave from God.

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I've not heard that.

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I hope to hear that someday.

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That would be great.

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But I want to demystify hearing from God a little bit.

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And I also want to in some ways mystify it.

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It's a crazy, amazing thing.

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Why is it that more of us don't hear from God?

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Maybe we've never heard from God or least we can't remember the

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last time that we did hear from God.

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I want us to consider that the reason -- part of the reason

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might be the way that we live our life.

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Part of the reason might be the speed at which we live.

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God speaks to me not through an audible sound wave.

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God speaks to me the way he's probably going to speak most

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frequently to you, through the person of the Holy Spirit.

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God exists in three people, three persons -- by the

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way, we're going to go in the deep end today.

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Are you OKoy with this?

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I don't care if you are or not.

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We're going there right now.

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So God exists in three persons: God the Father, Got the son.

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God, the Holy Spirit.

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All one, all in harmony.

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Jesus proceeded from the Father.

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He's the son of God.

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He's died for us.

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When you receive Jesus in your life, when you

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commit you life to Christ, the Holy Spirit, the third

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person of the Trinity, actually inhabits your body.

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And so when God speaks to you, it's from a prompting, a

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nudge, an unawareness, something that comes inside of you.

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Not inside of your humanness, but the divine actually being

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inside of you.

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The Holy Spirit actually comes inside of you.

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Now the Holy Spirit is likened to something in the Bible.

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Jesus, why has the Holy Spirit descend upon Him, descends upon

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Him and says like a dove.

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I think it's interesting like a dove, not like a crow; like a

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dove.

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How many of us have ever heard a crow?

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[sound effect: Ga! Ga!].

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Right, we've all heard crows.

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The Holy Spirit comes on Jesus, not as this loud bird that's

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never [sound effect: Ga! Ga!]

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No, not as -- not as this bird that is loud and just swoops in

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and is okay with all kinds of noise and chatter, but he comes

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how many of us have ever heard a crow, by the way, who's ever

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heard a crow?

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Who doesn't have any eardrums?

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Ma'am, you've never heard a crow.

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I'm looking at you.

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You've never -- raise your hand.

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This is group participation time.

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There you go.

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Good. Wonderful.

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How many of us now have ever heard a dove?

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Okay, a few of us.

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Dove. [sound effect]

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A dove descends on -- the Holy Spirit is likened to a dove.

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What this means is the Holy Spirit really enjoys calm.

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He enjoys serenity

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He enjoys when there's peace.

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The reason we don't hear doves very often is because when

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there's loud noises and a lot of -- doves, they just -- they

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go, they leave.

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Not a crow [sound effect: Ga! Ga1].

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No, but a dove does.

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See, most of us have crow like lives and not dove lives.

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We live in the most stressed out, over taxed, overstimulated,

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over to do listed generation in the history of the world, bar

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none.

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In The New York Post they put it this way:

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Friends, we are the fastest paced culture in the history of the

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world.

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It's not just because of our time period, but when people come

00:28:43

from other countries either to immigrate here or to vacation

00:28:47

here, I hear from it over and over and over again, they all

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tell me, "My gosh, there's just like an energy here.

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There's a -- there's a pace of life," which is partially what

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drives us economically and why we're such an economic engine.

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It's also partially what drives us to have as many mental

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disorders as we have, as much stress as we have, as much

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paranoia, as much breakdowns as we have as much all sinners as

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we have.

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There has never been a faster paced culture in the history of

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the world than America right here, right now.

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When is the last time you didn't have a to do list?

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When's the last time you didn't have a goal you were working

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towards, any goal?

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When's the last time you sat and didn't have Spotify playing?

00:29:35

When's the last time you sat on your couch and didn't watch

00:29:38

When's the last time you drove the speed limit, for one, and you

00:29:44

didn't listen to a podcast?

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When's the last time you drove in silence?

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When was the last time you just went inside of your house or

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when you went out in the woods and just did this?

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You just sat.

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Shoot, if someone saw you just sitting and doing nothing

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today, they'd think you ought to be committed to an asylum or

00:30:03

something like that.

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What are you doing, man?

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Chop, chop, chop.

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In the midst of all of this cacophony, we expect the dove to

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break through?

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Now, to be clear, God can speak to you and I any way He

00:30:17

wants, anytime he wants.

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And He can break through.

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Absolutely he can.

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I was telling you, unless we slow down, we're not going to hear

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from God because the dove flees, the dove [sound effect].

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He's not going to be able to get over the cacophony of what's

00:30:33

going on in our lives and in our hearts.

00:30:35

We need to slow down.

00:30:38

We need to have times where we slow... down.

00:30:45

We need to [simulates slow motion] slow... down...

00:30:54

Slow down.

00:30:58

Book of Psalms, God says:.

00:31:06

Be still.

00:31:07

Not be on task.

00:31:09

Be still.

00:31:12

Not be strategic.

00:31:13

Be still.

00:31:16

Not be multitasking.

00:31:17

Be still.

00:31:20

When we are still we up the likelihood that we might hear the

00:31:25

prompting of God, that we might [dove sound effect].

00:31:28

We might feel a nudge, the very voice of God that's coming from

00:31:35

inside of us and it's coming from God himself.

00:31:40

You know, I have -- I want to hear from God whatever it is and

00:31:47

And you probably do too.

00:31:49

And so we'll do all kinds of things to hear from God.

00:31:51

Like I will try a different church.

00:31:53

Will We'll go to a conference some place.

00:31:55

We'll. We'll read the latest cool book.

00:31:58

We'll, well, well, we'll just do a thing to try to try to heal

00:32:01

from him.

00:32:02

I've done some crazy things to try to hear from God.

00:32:04

Like I learned when I was younger that this book is the word of

00:32:09

To hear from God, you just the word of God in here.

00:32:13

So I would instead of adjusting my life to slow down and learn

00:32:17

to understand his cadence to me,

00:32:19

I would do things like I've gotta do something.

00:32:21

I'll do Bible roulette.

00:32:22

I'll do Bible roulette.

00:32:23

I'll say, "God, what do you want me to do with my life?"

00:32:26

00:32:29

"And then he hung himself."

00:32:31

Oh, no.

00:32:32

You don't -- you don't want me to do that do you?

00:32:34

I got try something else.

00:32:37

Go and do likewise.

00:32:38

What? Go and do likewise?

00:32:41

I would do these things, just trying to short circuit my own

00:32:46

spiritual growth and trying to understand how to get something

00:32:50

from God.

00:32:51

I believe all of us have something to get from God and I believe

00:32:56

we can learn it from a story

00:32:58

It comes the book of 1 Samuel.

00:33:02

I'm. I'm carrying this book right now because part of what I

00:33:07

want to do, I've learned is sometimes I just have to change

00:33:09

things up.

00:33:10

I need to be fresh.

00:33:11

So I'm using more these days an actual fuddy-duddy paper Bible.

00:33:17

I know like, yeah,.

00:33:19

I'm actually reading a paper Bible these days.

00:33:22

For the last several years I've been all digital.

00:33:24

I do a part of my time with God still on the Crossroads app.

00:33:28

It's amazing, you should do that.

00:33:30

But I've also had my normal Bible reading on an app or on a

00:33:34

Bible in software on here.

00:33:37

I've done my journaling on here.

00:33:38

There's good reasons for it because I can search it, I can

00:33:41

access it any time.

00:33:43

All my stuff is in one place, all that stuff.

00:33:44

But recent I've said, you know what, I should do a change up and

00:33:48

I should go back and I should like use old paper Bible for

00:33:52

So, I've been doing that and it's been -- it's been good.

00:33:56

It's also been wild that I moved in and a lot of my Bibles

00:33:59

I used to have more Bibles in my house than you probably have

00:34:02

Kleenex in your house.

00:34:03

There was all over the place.

00:34:04

I was like, man, do I have any of these left around?

00:34:06

And I found this one.

00:34:07

I got this one here.

00:34:08

And I'm going to read for you this story that ties into how

00:34:13

somebody hears from God.

00:34:15

It's a story about a prophet by the name of Samuel and actually

00:34:20

a priest by the name of Eli.

00:34:24

In this time in the Bible there was a gap between God and

00:34:28

people.

00:34:29

And the priest stood between people and God communicating to God

00:34:35

on behalf of the people.

00:34:36

So the priest would make sacrifices and some such

00:34:38

thing, communicating a message to God.

00:34:42

And God would send His message to His people through a prophet.

00:34:46

So the prophet would send God's word to the people.

00:34:49

The priest would send the people's word to God.

00:34:53

And here we have Eli, who is a priest and a little boy who is

00:34:57

going to be one of the greatest prophets the world would ever

00:35:01

His mom, I don't know his mom's name, but her son is named

00:35:07

And she dropped Samuel off at the temple one day with Eli and

00:35:12

says, "I think God's doing something special in this kid.

00:35:16

I need someone to raise his game.

00:35:18

I want him to be under your wing.

00:35:20

Would you basically mentor him?".

00:35:22

And that's what Eli does.

00:35:24

And so hear what happens in 1 Samuel 3:2, here's what says:.

00:35:40

This is encouraging to me and it should be encouraging to you.

00:35:42

I mean, if you're sitting here right now and you're going, "I'm

00:35:44

hearing all these people hearing from God, but I'm not hearing

00:35:47

anything. What's wrong with me?".

00:35:49

There are times where the word of God is just rare.

00:35:54

There are times where you could be living a well-paced life,

00:35:59

doing the right things, and you could go long periods, years

00:36:05

without feeling the touch of God in your life.

00:36:08

This was one of those times where for whatever reason, God

00:36:12

wasn't speaking.

00:36:14

Just because you're not hearing from God, don't automatically

00:36:18

conclude that therefore there isn't any God or God's not happy

00:36:22

Sometimes friends, it just happens.

00:36:25

Sometimes we just go through dry periods where we don't hear or

00:36:29

And this is what's happening in Israel's history right here

00:36:33

and then.

00:36:36

So here's what it says in verse 4.

00:36:39

Samuel is now in the temple as a little boy.

00:36:42

He's sleeping in the temple.

00:36:44

And here's what happens.

00:37:18

Eli's not a parent here to Samuel, but this is what happens when

00:37:22

you tuck your kids in a bed, right?

00:37:24

Like they won't go to sleep.

00:37:25

I don't know why it is when kids get tucked in, every kid

00:37:28

becomes a dehydrated philosopher who needs a hug.

00:37:31

I don't understand.

00:37:33

I understand that.

00:37:34

But Samuel looks like this.

00:37:35

Eli says, "No, Go.

00:37:39

Go back to bed.

00:37:40

Go back to bed."

00:37:41

The story continues.

00:37:51

So Samuel was hearing from God, even though he doesn't have a

00:37:55

relationship with God yet, because God can speak to anybody at

00:38:00

anytime for any reason.

00:38:30

So Eli realizes this is not a kid who's a dehydrated philosopher

00:38:35

in need of a hug.

00:38:37

He realizes, oh, no, this is one of those moments.

00:38:41

I think the high holy one is talking to you.

00:38:44

Here's the way it works, Samuel.

00:38:45

Go back.

00:38:46

Lie down.

00:38:47

If you hear it again. just

00:38:49

send him a message that says you're up for it.

00:38:51

Just say speak, your servant hears. Speak,

00:38:55

your servant listens, and this is what Samuel does.

00:38:59

I think it's interesting that Samuel gets communicated to during

00:39:06

the time of his day where he is the most slowed down.

00:39:12

It's when he's on his bed.

00:39:15

It's when he doesn't have the things on his to do list.

00:39:18

It's when he -- I don't know that a little kid would ever be

00:39:20

stressed, but whatever a little kid's got to do, this part of

00:39:23

the day is when he would be the most slowed down.

00:39:25

Maybe. Maybe.

00:39:27

Just maybe, this is really encouraging.

00:39:29

Maybe the simplest thing you and I can do to hear from God is to

00:39:35

do nothing some day, is to take a break some day.

00:39:40

Samuel slows down.

00:39:44

In the midst of the slowing down, he hears from God, but he also

00:39:49

has to tell God, "I'm listening.

00:39:54

I'm hearing you.".

00:39:58

Now, Samuel gets a message that is not the first message that

00:40:02

you would want to get.

00:40:04

He gets the message that relates to Eli.

00:40:06

Eli has been a leader in Israel and he's been a leader that's

00:40:12

been lazy.

00:40:13

There has been some dereliction of duty with him.

00:40:16

He's got some sons that are out of control and bringing

00:40:18

spiritual harm to people.

00:40:20

And he's just -- he's in cruise control.

00:40:23

He's coasting.

00:40:25

And Samuel has a message for him that he doesn't want to give.

00:40:30

He doesn't want to tell Eli exactly what God told Samuel.

00:40:36

And yet this is what happens.

00:40:39

God, says, Samuel, I declare to him that I'm about to punish his

00:40:43

house forever for the iniquity that he knew because his sons

00:40:47

were blaspheming God and he did not restrain them.

00:40:51

So tell him pain is coming his way.

00:40:55

This is really unusual.

00:40:57

This is real unusual.

00:40:58

Today when someone gets a word from the Lord, a prophecy, the

00:41:01

New Testament is really clear that the predominant way that

00:41:05

works is encouraging, is encouraging.

00:41:08

God brings us an encouraging word.

00:41:10

I don't know why it is we in our sick, twisted ways, we think

00:41:13

that if God was to talk to us, he'd give us a smack down.

00:41:17

No, we think that because we live such hectic and frenetic

00:41:20

lives, we're losing touch of the true value and character of

00:41:25

God,

00:41:26

That we assume that if He were say something to me, He would say

00:41:29

something that is not in line with who He is or His very

00:41:32

nature.

00:41:34

And because we're losing the ability to understand the God who

00:41:37

is, I'm just hearing more and more people who are renouncing

00:41:41

their faith, who are just saying "I'm no longer a Christian."

00:41:44

I've heard pastors and all kinds of folks over the last few

00:41:47

months, maybe just my social media feeds, that are just filling

00:41:50

up with people who are renouncing their faith.

00:41:54

When people renounce their faith, at least the ones I see

00:41:55

renouncing their faith, it's because of one of three reasons.

00:41:59

One, the person has a life that's not working.

00:42:04

Their life isn't working and they feel it's God's fault that

00:42:07

their life isn't working, that they're stressed out or that

00:42:10

this hasn't happening for them.

00:42:11

And so they're frustrated because really, really, it's about

00:42:15

their frustration with life, not God.

00:42:17

And they maybe haven't managed their life well, but they

00:42:19

can't -- They're not honest enough and bold enough to say that

00:42:22

to themselves and others.

00:42:23

"Hey, I've mismanaged my life.

00:42:25

I haven't done the right things.".

00:42:26

It's much easier to say, "Oh, there's no God. Look at

00:42:28

So, one possible reason.

00:42:30

Another possible reason, many people have not had a personal

00:42:33

relationship with God, they've had a philosophical

00:42:36

understanding of God.

00:42:38

Now, I remember when I gave my life to God, it was real, it was

00:42:41

-- it got personal.

00:42:44

It was no longer about theoretical principles, it was personal.

00:42:50

And when there is difficulty in your life and all you have is a

00:42:55

philosophy, and to be very, very clear, there are pastors who

00:43:00

are pastors because they like the philosophy of Christendom,

00:43:03

they like the philosophy of the Bible.

00:43:05

That is not the same as having a personal relationship with the

00:43:10

God who is inside of the Bible and outside of the Bible.

00:43:14

And when we don't have a personal connection, when there's

00:43:17

difficulty or when there's doubts, we're going to change

00:43:20

philosophy.

00:43:21

Or the third reason, the third reason we renounce our

00:43:25

faith, it's not because NASA just came back and there's new

00:43:29

images of the cosmos.

00:43:30

I've never heard of anybody renouncing their faith because NASA

00:43:32

came back with new images from the Hubble Space Scope.

00:43:34

And we go, "Oh, my gosh.

00:43:36

Whoo, well, that changes everything.

00:43:37

Oh, science has this new discovery?

00:43:39

I can't believe in God.".

00:43:40

I don't know anybody who renounced their faith because of what

00:43:42

science has said.

00:43:44

I like science.

00:43:45

Like it a lot.

00:43:46

I like it a lot.

00:43:47

There's never -- name that movie.

00:43:50

Dumb and Dumber.

00:43:51

You people are getting too young, Dumb and Dumber.

00:43:53

That's right.

00:43:54

You ever see Dumb and Dumber?

00:43:55

Yeah. It's good movie.

00:43:57

It is. Pretty

00:43:58

bird.

00:43:59

Where was I?

00:44:01

Never because of science or never because someone knocked on

00:44:05

their door with a new religion, they decide to embrace it.

00:44:09

It's because of these things.

00:44:12

And number three, because we're not up for God being God.

00:44:16

We struggle with having faith because God does whatever God

00:44:22

wants to do and He doesn't have to consult us.

00:44:27

He doesn't have to consult because he's God,.

00:44:29

He's the God of all that is.

00:44:32

Now that Samuel hears from God, he goes to Eli and he hems and

00:44:38

haws.

00:44:39

And Eli say, "Hey, man, hey man, don't -- don't short circuit

00:44:43

me. Tell me what he said.

00:44:46

I want to hear."

00:44:48

And Samuel tells him, your run's done.

00:44:51

Your run's done.".

00:44:53

And here is Eli's response, 1 Samuel 3:18:

00:45:03

He's the Lord.

00:45:04

He does as he pleases.

00:45:06

Eli doesn't like this.

00:45:09

Eli is not comforted by this message.

00:45:11

This doesn't mean that Eli's future is gonna be great.

00:45:15

But Eli doesn't lose his faith over this at all.

00:45:18

He recognizes that He is God and He will do what He will do what

00:45:23

He pleases.

00:45:24

And here's the key thing.

00:45:26

Here's the next level.

00:45:27

Once we slow down, once we slow down and we hear like a

00:45:33

[dove sound effect], we hear a sense.

00:45:34

We feel a prompting.

00:45:36

We have a nudging on something.

00:45:38

When we have that, the critical thing then is to do what we were

00:45:46

Samuel says, "Speak Lord, your servant hears.".

00:45:52

When God spoke to him this message, had Samuel not done what God

00:46:00

wanted him to do and he not said what God wanted him to say,

00:46:05

I'm pretty confident the messages from God would've stopped

00:46:08

coming.

00:46:09

Because God speaks to people who will listen.

00:46:13

When we say your servant listens, we've gotta listen.

00:46:18

These are -- This is very inspiring for me.

00:46:21

I mean all of these little little ones, like people just writing

00:46:24

stuff down like I'm resolved to not lust after Chuck Mingo.

00:46:29

Oh, gosh, I don't know why they said that.

00:46:31

Geeze, what's wrong with these people?

00:46:33

Well, whatever these things are, whatever is on here, the

00:46:36

inspiring thing isn't that people walked up and said, "I sense

00:46:40

God wants me to do this."

00:46:42

The inspiring thing is when these things get done.

00:46:48

The inspiring thing was Samuel speaking to Eli and Eli going, "I

00:46:52

got it.

00:46:53

He'll do what He pleases.

00:46:55

I got it."

00:46:56

The inspiring thing is when God put something on our heart and

00:47:01

we actually follow through and we do it.

00:47:05

Over the summer I try to slow down,

00:47:07

[slow motion effect] slow down.

00:47:10

I try to get into a different rhythm.

00:47:13

I try to take on less responsibility.

00:47:16

I try to get to different places that operate at different

00:47:20

paces, like a lake in Tennessee that a friend of mine lets me

00:47:24

use his house that's on it.

00:47:26

And I just go down and in slowing down I hear things that I

00:47:31

wouldn't hear in my normal -- my normal pace of life.

00:47:35

We invite -- Lib and I invite a bunch of people

00:47:36

down at different times come down.

00:47:38

Some of those were staff folks and they come down and I would

00:47:42

hear things that had they said the same thing and I was around

00:47:47

a conference table, I don't know that I would have heard it

00:47:50

because I would have still been stressed out about everything

00:47:52

else that was on my day.

00:47:53

But in a lower key environment when I heard things, like my

00:47:57

head would go like, "What? What? We're

00:47:59

doing that? Gee."I

00:48:04

got some clarity on things, I felt like I was nudging me.

00:48:08

I would think about people for random reasons that I would never

00:48:12

think about people.

00:48:13

And I would do prayer texts, pull out my phone and just say,

00:48:17

"Hey, you're on my mind right now.".

00:48:20

And I would just type out a prayer to God that that person could

00:48:23

see.

00:48:25

"Lord, help Ann, da-da-da, Amen"

00:48:27

And as this would happen, it happened more because I was slowed

00:48:32

People were like, "Oh my gosh, that was a perfect prayer for

00:48:34

me or that was the right time to connect me."

00:48:36

It happens because I was slowing down.

00:48:40

And also when I was slowing down, I would still do things that

00:48:43

weren't the good things to do.

00:48:44

But because I was slowing down, I was more introspective.

00:48:47

Like, why am I doing that?

00:48:49

Like, I Facebook creeped on more people than I ever have in my

00:48:52

life.

00:48:53

I have more downtime like I wonder what that person is up to and

00:48:56

go on there.

00:48:58

Ah, I knew it.

00:48:59

I knew they were weird.

00:49:01

And then as I would do this, God would nudge me and go

00:49:04

like, "Brian. What's up with all the joy of judging people via

00:49:09

What's all -- what's this sick fetish you have of just trying to

00:49:12

find out something that somebody isn't doing right?"

00:49:15

"Yeah, you're right.

00:49:16

God, sorry, sorry, sorry.

00:49:18

I won't do anymore.".

00:49:21

Had I Facebook creeped back in my normal mode, I probably

00:49:27

wouldn't have been introspective on it at all.

00:49:30

But when we slow down and then when we do what God

00:49:36

is prodding us with God goes, "Ho, ho, there is a child,

00:49:41

there's a woman, there's a man that I'm going to take special

00:49:44

interest in."

00:49:46

Did you hear about this child that went to Smoky Mountain

00:49:49

National Park and they saw this little heart shaped rock.

00:49:53

They thought it was awesome.

00:49:54

They took it home.

00:49:55

And then they realized they took it home they were stealing

00:49:57

federal property.

00:49:58

That's what everything is in a national park.

00:50:00

I don't know this little child realized it or their parent told

00:50:03

them, but this this this little girl sent the rock back with an

00:50:07

apology letter to the Park Service.

00:50:10

And the Park Service said, "Yeah, if everyone who -- if all the

00:50:13

millions of people who visit our parks, if everyone takes

00:50:15

a momento, our parks are going to be decimated."

00:50:19

It's impressive is this girl, this little girl had a sense of

00:50:23

what was right and just sent it back and was just a beautiful,

00:50:26

wonderful.

00:50:27

Maybe it was God that spoke to her?

00:50:29

I don't know.

00:50:30

But I know this, all of us know this.

00:50:33

The people you want to speak to are the people who listen to

00:50:35

you, right?

00:50:37

Friends who don't listen what you say, you just don't talk to

00:50:39

them.

00:50:40

People who you manage at your workplace, if they don't follow

00:50:43

through on your feedback, you just stop managing them.

00:50:46

And then you wait for them to not perform and they get fired.

00:50:50

I wonder if God isn't too unlike this.

00:50:52

I wonder if God is encouraged to speak with some people more

00:50:57

often because some people are more often willing to just do

00:51:01

what God says, to actually follow through with what God says.

00:51:05

Later on in Samuel's life, after this story, after he has

00:51:08

learned this lesson of slowing down and then doing -- doing

00:51:15

what God says, he says this:.

00:51:27

Does the Lord more up for religiosity than he is for actually

00:51:31

doing what he says?

00:51:39

He's saying to do what God says is better than going to church

00:51:43

for yet another service.

00:51:45

That is the most important thing.

00:51:49

It's a sacred trust when God put something on our heart, when

00:51:54

the dove [dove sound effect].

00:51:57

It's a sacred thing when you get a thought that you realize

00:52:01

that's probably Jesus, when you get an impression, when you get

00:52:07

a word that wasn't generated initially by you.

00:52:12

It's a sacred trust that's put into you.

00:52:14

And when you have that, however seemingly insignificant might

00:52:18

be, you've got -- you gots to move.

00:52:21

You've gotta move.

00:52:22

Now, last week, Kyle told a story that was pretty impactful.

00:52:27

Didn't Kyle do a great job last week.

00:52:28

He did.

00:52:29

Someone just told me that he's wearing the same exact shoes that

00:52:32

I have.

00:52:33

Yes, he was.

00:52:35

That's -- let's remind ourselves that someone at Adidas gave me

00:52:38

these.

00:52:39

I don't know how much we're paying Kyle from him to own shoes

00:52:41

like this, but nonetheless, he did an amazing, amazing job

00:52:45

talking about a very tender moment when he had left staff.

00:52:49

And then I basically had him do the opposite.

00:52:53

Story as it went, he came and told me, as he said, I was very

00:52:57

gracious that he was leaving staff.

00:52:58

I'm about people going forward with whatever God wants him to

00:53:01

do, whether it's here or wherever it is.

00:53:03

So I as like, yes.

00:53:04

Great can I support you that's good? Great.

00:53:07

He then told you that I was in workout clothes when I came back

00:53:11

to talk to him.

00:53:12

Here's why.

00:53:13

Here's the story behind the story.

00:53:15

When I get up in the morning, I hear some of you, you go running

00:53:17

in the morning, you workout in the morning.

00:53:19

That's wonderful.

00:53:20

Good for you and good for you. [laughter]

00:53:23

I don't do that.

00:53:24

If I -- if I get up and I start working out in the morning, like

00:53:28

my metabolism kicks in and I'm like, chop, chop, let's go.

00:53:32

I'm going to be like, I'm going to be on it.

00:53:34

Right?

00:53:35

I'm not going to slow down for the rest of the day.

00:53:37

So this is me for me.

00:53:39

So when I wake up, the first thing I do is I sit with God.

00:53:43

I want to try to hear from God.

00:53:45

I want to read the Bible.

00:53:46

I want to -- I want to sip some decaf coffee.

00:53:49

I want to encounter in still way.

00:53:53

Now, later on in the day, and I never know when it is, I get

00:53:56

-- I'm a member of the gym that's the closest thing to the

00:53:59

office.

00:54:00

And so when I've got like an hour, boom, I get out.

00:54:03

So my hour that day was one after Kyle had talked to me.

00:54:08

So boom, I got out.

00:54:09

.

00:54:10

I get on the elliptical and I'm on the elliptical doing my deal.

00:54:13

And I'm just, "Kyle..."

00:54:16

And as I'm doing this thing and thinking about it and

00:54:18

going on the elliptical, I get this prompting: "Tell Kyle I

00:54:23

don't want him to leave staff."

00:54:29

That sounds kind of precocious of me, but it persisted, it

00:54:33

And I thought, "Umm..."

00:54:37

And then as I was wrestling with it, I didn't want to do it.

00:54:39

I don't.

00:54:40

I thought and I was like, I got more convinced.

00:54:43

No, this is this thing that Jesus wants.

00:54:45

So then I've got a timing issue.

00:54:48

I think he's given two weeks, so I can do it sometime in the

00:54:51

next two weeks.

00:54:52

Well, maybe.

00:54:53

Maybe. Maybe I'll get done with this workout and then I'll go

00:54:56

But I know how these things work, once you sense that God's

00:54:59

saying something, the longer I wait, the more likely I won't do

00:55:03

So as I'm on that thing, I'm like, "Okay, God done."

00:55:07

I leave immediately.

00:55:08

I'm sweaty.

00:55:09

I'm not going -- I'm going.

00:55:11

So that's why I walked in, I said, "Hey, Kyle."

00:55:13

And that's when I said to him what he told you that I said last

00:55:16

Had I waited, I don't know what would have happened.

00:55:21

I know for many of you, you think that, you know, Kyle just gave

00:55:25

a good message last week and that's kind of cool.

00:55:27

Kyle was impacted.

00:55:28

If you've gotten anything from Crossroads over the last ten

00:55:32

years, there's things his fingerprints are on that you have no

00:55:35

idea about, that you would not have been blessed were he not

00:55:39

And that could be said about a lot of different staff members, a

00:55:42

lot.

00:55:45

Had I waited, I don't know if he goes home and he feels

00:55:48

like, "Okay, good. I got that off my chest.

00:55:50

I'm definitely gone now.".

00:55:51

Maybe he doesn't have an open heart to reconsider.

00:55:55

I don't know.

00:55:56

Here's what I know, though.

00:55:57

When God puts something in your heart, dude, you need to freakin

00:56:00

do it.

00:56:01

You just need to do it.

00:56:02

Stop dicking around and just go, this is personal.

00:56:07

It's personal, what God is doing to me right now, it gets

00:56:09

personal.

00:56:10

It's personal with me and Him.

00:56:13

You are His child.

00:56:15

He wants to speak to you and He wants you to say, "Speak, Lord,

00:56:23

your servant listens.".

00:56:26

Your servant, your servant.

00:56:29

What happens if all of this and all of this gets done?

00:56:34

Oh, my gosh.

00:56:35

The world literally changes.

00:56:39

Jesus says, "You are my friend if you obey me.".

00:56:46

Jesus says, "I want to spend

00:56:48

time with you." That's what a friend is. "I want to spend time

00:56:50

with you, if you will obey me.

00:56:52

If you will do the things that I'm saying.".

00:56:57

I'm going to spend the last seconds of this series and today

00:57:05

enabling you to hear from God right now.

00:57:09

Why don't we pray and I'm going to give you some silent space to

00:57:13

slow down and maybe God's going to speak to you right now.

00:57:17

So here we go, let's just bow our heads.

00:57:18

Let's bow our heads and actually let's take our hands, put your

00:57:23

hands up in an upward -- put them on your lap just palms up.

00:57:28

Palms up on your lap.

00:57:29

It's the universal sign for receiving.

00:57:32

Receiving.

00:57:34

God, I ask you speak to everyone right now.

00:57:41

And what I encourage you to do as you listen to this, just say,

00:57:43

to mutter to Him under your breath, just say Him silently,

00:57:47

"Speak, Lord, your servant listens."

00:57:49

Let me hear that.

00:58:16

Amen.

00:58:19

If there was a thought that was running through your mind and

00:58:21

wouldn't let go of and you think that that's the kind of

00:58:25

thought that Jesus would approve of, if there was something

00:58:27

came out of nowhere and just stuck in you.

00:58:30

I encourage you, run that by one person who you're confident

00:58:36

walks with God, run it by them.

00:58:39

And then do it.

00:58:41

And watch your life change.

00:58:42

Watch your relationship with God go to a whole different

00:58:46

stratosphere.

00:58:48

He wants to know who is a servant and who listens.

00:58:51

All right.

00:58:52

Have a great week.

00:58:53

We'll see you next week.

00:58:54

It's been a great series.

00:58:55

Thanks for coming.

00:58:56

Have a great week.

00:58:58

>> Hey, thanks so much for joining us for this week of How to

00:59:00

Hear God.

00:59:01

I hope that this week you're walking into the next week with a

00:59:05

ear a little bit more tuned to what God has to say to you.

00:59:10

Next week we have a special week because all of our community

00:59:14

pastors are gonna be speaking live in the midst of their

00:59:16

communities.

00:59:17

And so if you live near a Crossroads location, you want to get

00:59:20

to that building next week to hear from your community pastor.

00:59:24

It's gonna be a great one.

00:59:25

We'll see you next week and we hope you have a great week.

	Worship	0:54
	Community Life	10:20
	Message	23:29

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