All Things to All People | Bridging Political Divides For The Sake of The Gospel

00:00:00

[Music: Count Me In, Crossroads Music ]

00:00:27

- Bienvenidos, me Crossroads familia.

00:00:29

Hey, wherever you're tuning in from,

00:00:30

we are so glad you're here.

00:00:31

- Yeah. Hey. Today we're kicking off a series

00:00:33

about how much God cares about the people in your life,

00:00:36

your family, your friends, your old buddy from college,

00:00:38

classmates, work friends, whoever.

00:00:40

- And how God could use you to be part of their life change.

00:00:44

- Yeah. Hey, we're going to get to that in a minute.

00:00:46

But first, we're actually going to take some time

00:00:48

just to connect with God in the midst of the chaos

00:00:50

or the stress or just the whatever of your normal routine.

00:00:54

But hey, use these songs not as just something to listen to,

00:00:57

but as a soundtrack for a conversation

00:00:59

that you get to have with God.

00:01:01

- Well, hey. Good to see you, everybody.

00:01:03

Hey, if we've never met, my name is Justin.

00:01:05

Welcome to Crossroads.

00:01:06

Hey, I'm going to ask you something right away.

00:01:08

Why don't you stand on your feet together.

00:01:11

We're going to start our time by singing songs

00:01:13

to God and about God.

00:01:14

Like, we actually believe that

00:01:16

we get to have a conversation with Him,

00:01:18

that He's listening, that your voice in this room matters.

00:01:22

And so all these songs flow from a heart of gratitude.

00:01:26

And this first one is, uh, well,

00:01:27

I think it's brand new for most of you,

00:01:30

but I'm going to teach it to you, I got you.

00:01:32

It goes like this, all right?

00:01:50

- Try it again.

00:02:07

- I think you're getting it.

00:02:09

You're getting it all right? - [one cheer]

00:02:11

- Well, come on. Are y'all getting it all right?

00:02:13

- [cheers] - All right.

00:02:14

So if you got something to be thankful for,

00:02:16

we're going to start it again.

00:02:33

- Here's a new part.

00:02:53

- We'll teach it to you ongoing. All right, here we go.

00:03:08

- You clap your hands a little bit.

00:16:08

- Let me pray for us. Woo.

00:16:15

Those are costly words.

00:16:17

Those are not cheap words,

00:16:20

so I don't want to play with them, God, like,

00:16:22

I don't want to throw them around because I'm in church,

00:16:26

because I got a microphone.

00:16:27

I got lights on me, so I should just act like,

00:16:29

"Oh, I'm all in."

00:16:34

No, no, no. When no one else can see me,

00:16:38

I'm still all in.

00:16:41

When no one else and no other stage,

00:16:43

when I'm not on stage, I'm saying I'm all in.

00:16:46

I don't get it perfect. I got a broken I'm all in.

00:16:52

But You are the King and the Savior who takes it.

00:16:55

You're the Savior who redeems broken things just like me.

00:17:01

So I turn my heart to you.

00:17:04

I don't add up all my actions in the week

00:17:06

and say they all equal I'm all in. No.

00:17:09

I look at my heart and say, "That's where I'm aiming."

00:17:14

So take my broken I'm all in.

00:17:19

King Jesus, You can have all of me.

00:17:23

Your kingdom and no other kingdom.

00:17:27

You are my King and no one else.

00:17:31

I praise You and thank You because of who You are. Amen.

00:17:41

Hey! The lights are going to start to come up.

00:17:43

I just want you to look around in this room,

00:17:45

see the people that you're singing with,

00:17:46

know that you're not alone in this place, man.

00:17:49

We get to sing together and be together.

00:17:51

It's pretty sweet.

00:17:52

I want you to turn to one of those people around you,

00:17:54

say, "Hey, glad to be here with you,"

00:17:55

and you can have a seat.

00:18:00

Hey, whether you're driving,

00:18:01

or you can have a seat, you can have a seat right now.

00:18:03

But, hey, I'm glad you're with us.

00:18:05

My name is Justin again.

00:18:06

We're starting a brand new series right now

00:18:09

in about a minute, called Reach Your People.

00:18:12

So thanks for joining us.

00:18:13

Glad you're here with us. All right.

00:18:18

- The world is reaching out to us,

00:18:19

telling us what to buy, how to live, who to be.

00:18:24

What if we flip the script?

00:18:26

What if we go reach the world?

00:18:29

Not just to the ends of the earth,

00:18:31

but also down the street, into our neighborhood,

00:18:35

our office, our gym, our kid's football game.

00:18:39

That's where we live our lives.

00:18:41

That's where we can bring life.

00:18:43

It's time to follow Jesus's lead and go reach our people.

00:18:51

- Well, it's great to be with everybody today.

00:18:54

Hey, let's just talk about the obvious.

00:18:56

You know what I like more than anything?

00:18:58

Maybe you do too. Myself.

00:19:01

I just -- I'm really into myself.

00:19:04

Are you into yourself?

00:19:06

I don't know if you know it or not,

00:19:08

there's a cottage industry that exists

00:19:11

purely for you, purely for me.

00:19:14

It's called self-help, which is all about what?

00:19:16

Myself. Myself. Right.

00:19:18

You can have best selling books on this.

00:19:20

One that's been on the best selling list for 300 weeks

00:19:23

is the subtle art of not giving a something or other.

00:19:28

There's also books on fawning,

00:19:30

which are all about taking care of yourself,

00:19:32

taking care of number one, being about yourself.

00:19:34

And there's certainly a place for this kind of material.

00:19:38

But suddenly what starts to happen for us

00:19:41

is we don't go outside of ourselves,

00:19:44

we don't reach outside of ourselves,

00:19:46

we don't talk to people outside of ourselves.

00:19:47

We don't inconvenience ourselves for other people.

00:19:51

And today, that's what I'm going to talk about.

00:19:53

And that is good news, giving people the Good News.

00:19:57

Today I'm going to step on your toes.

00:19:59

I can just about guarantee you

00:20:01

everybody is going to have your toes stepped on.

00:20:04

It's not because I'm trying to step on your toes.

00:20:07

I'm just going to say some things

00:20:08

that are basic Bible things that for some reason

00:20:11

have been covered up and forgotten.

00:20:13

And I'm really excited about this.

00:20:15

It's going to be good, I think.

00:20:16

So let's pray before we go any further.

00:20:18

God, You are so gracious and so kind and so patient with us.

00:20:25

I ask that You would help me to talk about

00:20:28

Your transcendent truth.

00:20:30

And I'm thankful that You're entrusting this to me.

00:20:33

I really am, God. I don't take that lightly.

00:20:35

And I ask that You would use all this truth

00:20:38

that comes from Your Word to build your church,

00:20:41

to build your people, and to woo people into Your family.

00:20:44

And I pray these things according to

00:20:45

the character and identity of Jesus. Amen. Amen.

00:20:50

We're going to talk today about the gospel.

00:20:52

New series next few weeks talking about the gospel.

00:20:55

What is the gospel and what does it mean

00:20:57

to talk about the gospel?

00:21:00

The gospel means good news and someone who talks about it

00:21:03

is called an evangelist.

00:21:06

Gospel. Good News. This was an ancient word.

00:21:08

This isn't well, it's in the Bible,

00:21:10

but it was preceding the New Testament.

00:21:12

This would be the same word to announce

00:21:15

anything that was joyful.

00:21:16

Like, a new king that was coming in power

00:21:18

who's going to be good for everybody.

00:21:20

This is good news. That was the gospel.

00:21:22

And you'd have a guy go out,

00:21:23

which you've probably seen in some movies.

00:21:25

Guy goes out and someone's got the long, long trumpet

00:21:28

and [mimics horn]. Right?

00:21:30

And he opens up the scroll, "Hear ye, hear ye,

00:21:33

now is the day!" He's announcing good news.

00:21:36

And that person who's doing that was an evangelist.

00:21:41

It was a word, a thing before there ever was a New Testament.

00:21:45

Somebody who announces good news.

00:21:49

I want to be that kind of person.

00:21:51

I hope you want to be that kind of person.

00:21:53

The thing is, we've got to reacquaint ourselves

00:21:56

with what the good news is.

00:21:58

So for some of us, this is going to be review.

00:22:01

For some of us, this is going to be,

00:22:02

"I've never even thought of that.

00:22:04

I've never even heard that."

00:22:06

Yeah, it's possible for you to go to a church for years

00:22:10

and get fuzzy on this and not hear it

00:22:12

the way I want to give it to you right now.

00:22:14

Let's look at this passage.

00:22:16

It comes from the book of 1 Corinthians 15:1-4,

00:22:21

and I'm going to break it down.

00:22:22

Now, I remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you.

00:22:27

There it is right there, the gospel I preach to you,

00:22:31

which you received.

00:22:33

In which you stand, and by which you are being saved.

00:22:38

If you hold fast to the word I preach to you,

00:22:42

unless you believe in vain.

00:22:45

I get asked all the time, or we get

00:22:49

wondered and accused all the time.

00:22:50

"You going to take a stand?

00:22:51

Is Crossroads going to take a stand?"

00:22:53

People always want me to take a stand.

00:22:55

And the truth is, you don't really want me to take a stand.

00:22:58

You want me to take your stand. You know?

00:23:02

You want me to affirm what you believe.

00:23:03

You want me to affirm what you think.

00:23:06

And this passage talks about taking a stand,

00:23:08

but it has nothing to do with the things

00:23:10

that we think we should be taking a stand in.

00:23:12

Let's look at this here.

00:23:13

By which you stand, you stand and you hold fast.

00:23:19

Well, what are you standing on

00:23:21

and what are you holding fast?

00:23:23

The word I preach to you. That's what it is.

00:23:26

You take a stand on the word that's being preached,

00:23:29

and you hold fast. Hold fast to that.

00:23:32

Well, what is that? What is that word that's preached?

00:23:35

Well, it is the gospel.

00:23:37

Let's break it down here. What is it?

00:23:38

For I deliver to you as of first importance.

00:23:41

Again, here I'm talking about, here we go.

00:23:43

Look, these are important things, first importance.

00:23:48

There is not another thing

00:23:50

that's close to being as important as this.

00:23:53

Now, very few of us get fired up about the gospel.

00:23:56

We'll get fired up about all kinds of things

00:23:57

on our social media feeds, all kinds of things in the media.

00:24:00

But this is a first importance, first,

00:24:03

first, top of the list. Not even close.

00:24:06

Someone in the first row is with me.

00:24:08

You know, I gave people the first row

00:24:10

crap a few weeks ago, and for the most part,

00:24:12

you haven't raised your game.

00:24:13

For the most part, most of you still suck. You know?

00:24:17

You're not helping me.

00:24:18

Russell, you're in education.

00:24:20

You've been very good, Russell.

00:24:21

Good job, good job, good job.

00:24:22

Some of you are like, hey,

00:24:23

if you're gonna sit up front here,

00:24:25

you got to give me something. All right?

00:24:26

All right. Where was I? Preaching they said.

00:24:32

First importance. So what is first,

00:24:35

not even a close second, first.

00:24:37

This is the first importance.

00:24:39

This is the thing to take a stand on. Let's read it.

00:24:41

What I also -- that Christ died for our sins.

00:24:46

Christ died for our sins.

00:24:50

You know what that means? It means --

00:24:52

Yeah, someone's excited about that good news.

00:24:54

It means that there is forgiveness.

00:25:00

Forgiveness, that's good news, man.

00:25:02

It doesn't matter what you did last night,

00:25:05

God can forgive you right now. Doesn't matter.

00:25:07

Doesn't matter what's in your past.

00:25:09

Your past is not relevant to Him as far as

00:25:12

His love for you and Him being for you.

00:25:14

It doesn't matter. You are forgiven,

00:25:17

utterly forgiven by what Jesus has done.

00:25:21

Well, what? What has He done?

00:25:22

Let's take a look at what He does, what it say?

00:25:24

He died for our sins in accordance with the Scripture

00:25:27

and He was buried.

00:25:30

He died for our sins and was buried.

00:25:32

It's His work. It's not my work.

00:25:35

I was -- I'm in a restoration project right now.

00:25:39

I'm restoring a 1952 pickup truck.

00:25:43

It's obviously old, in horrible shape

00:25:45

and rusted out and everything.

00:25:46

And so the job was getting the rust

00:25:49

off the outside was pretty big.

00:25:51

So I hired some guy to come in and sandblast the outside.

00:25:54

This guy, the kind of guy who drives an old truck

00:25:57

and drags around a diesel engine

00:26:00

with a pallet of coal slag.

00:26:03

That's not a job most of us would want, right?

00:26:05

He's got him and his friend, his coworker

00:26:08

who just got out of prison. So he's a felon.

00:26:11

And they're salt of the earth dudes,

00:26:13

just no one wants to be a 95 degree heat

00:26:16

with a hood on themselves,

00:26:17

blasting coal slag on something, but they are.

00:26:19

And they find out what I do for a living,

00:26:21

which always makes things very interesting

00:26:23

when someone finds out what I do for a living.

00:26:25

And often times what happens.

00:26:26

They either do or do one of two things.

00:26:28

They rewind their mind all the bad words they've said

00:26:31

and they start feeling bad about that,

00:26:34

or, and what else can happen is they can start

00:26:37

trying to show me that they're spiritual too

00:26:39

and how they are spiritual.

00:26:40

So he starts going on talking about the things he's doing

00:26:42

and how he does this and how he does that.

00:26:44

And I'm listening to that, and I let 'em talk

00:26:46

and all came from a good heart.

00:26:48

And I said, "You know what?

00:26:49

You know what the good news is?

00:26:51

The good news is it's not what you do,

00:26:54

it's what Jesus did. That's the Good News."

00:26:57

It's what He did. And He takes all of our sin,

00:27:04

all of our sin, all of our improprieties,

00:27:07

all of our stuff and puts it on His back.

00:27:09

So when He says on the Cross, "It is finished,"

00:27:11

He means payment for sin is over. It's finished.

00:27:15

No one's working out their sin anymore. No.

00:27:17

No one's trying to impress God with my works anymore.

00:27:19

It's over.

00:27:20

And here's where it gets really weird and great

00:27:23

and into the second idea of what the gospel is.

00:27:25

Jesus simultaneously,

00:27:27

He transfers His righteousness to us.

00:27:30

Do you understand that if you give your life to Christ,

00:27:33

you are known in the Bible as a saint?

00:27:37

You're not elected to be a saint

00:27:38

by some ecclesiastical court.

00:27:40

The Bible says to the saints in Rome,

00:27:44

to the saints in Corinth. It's hagios.

00:27:47

You are a holy one because you have Christ's holiness in you.

00:27:50

And God looks at you, He's forgiven you so much

00:27:52

He doesn't even see your sin

00:27:55

and He sees the presence of His Son.

00:27:57

He sees a Holy one. You get a new identity.

00:28:03

This is the next thing. You get a new identity.

00:28:07

This verse says: I would remind you, brothers,

00:28:10

or sisters, this isn't the way you and I use brother.

00:28:13

Like, "Hey brother, how are you doing? Hey, sister?"

00:28:15

No matter what you believe about spirituality,

00:28:18

this is an identity.

00:28:20

When you give your life to Christ,

00:28:21

the good news is you get a new identity.

00:28:23

You actually get into the family of God.

00:28:26

Not everyone's a child of God.

00:28:29

John 1:12 says, For whoever -- he who received Jesus

00:28:34

receives the Son of God and has become a child of God.

00:28:39

You become a child of God.

00:28:41

God loves all people. God loves all people.

00:28:43

God cares for all people,

00:28:46

but not all people are children of God.

00:28:48

Children of God are people who get an identity of God.

00:28:50

They come into the family.

00:28:51

They get the identity of Jesus,

00:28:53

when you receive Him and you have that as identity.

00:28:56

Dudes, you understand how this is, how amazing this is?

00:28:58

I mean, everyone's trying to identify as something, right?

00:29:01

Everyone's trying to figure out who they are

00:29:03

and prove who they are.

00:29:05

You get an identity.

00:29:07

By the way, all of you parents of little kids,

00:29:09

little, little tip for you in your parenting

00:29:11

and your kid's future success.

00:29:13

Do not wait for your children to find out who they are.

00:29:17

Tell your kids who they are. Tell them who they are.

00:29:21

Tell them who they are.

00:29:24

You might not believe this, but it's true,

00:29:25

you know more than your kid does. You know more.

00:29:30

And you love your kid,

00:29:31

actually more than they even love themselves,

00:29:34

and so you tell them who they are.

00:29:36

This is what God does, He gives us a name.

00:29:38

He gives us a new identity, a treasured child of God.

00:29:41

It's only that, there's other aspects to it.

00:29:43

Like, you could be an apostle, a teacher,

00:29:45

a shepherd, an evangelist, a whatever.

00:29:48

There's all these different things

00:29:50

that God gives you and says who you are.

00:29:52

One of the things He said that I am is I'm a builder.

00:29:54

It's part of my -- I build things.

00:29:55

It's just whatever, restore trucks,

00:29:59

I build ministries, I build churches.

00:30:01

I'm a builder. It's part of my identity.

00:30:03

It's great when God gives you an identity,

00:30:06

it's a cool, cool, beautiful thing.

00:30:08

And here it is: And raised on the third day.

00:30:12

Raised on the third day. This is the resurrection.

00:30:17

The literal, physical

00:30:18

and historical resurrection of Christ.

00:30:21

You know, if Jesus actually came back from the dead

00:30:25

and the Bible is true when it says,

00:30:26

"The same spirit who brought Him from the dead

00:30:29

gives life to your body," that's what it says.

00:30:32

That means that there is a power

00:30:35

that you have as a follower of Christ

00:30:37

that should give you a peace that passes understanding.

00:30:40

That's the other thing I think the gospel gives us is peace.

00:30:45

Peace, like, "Hey, hey, no matter how bad it is,

00:30:48

God has me. He's got it, because He has power.

00:30:51

He's got me. It's gonna be fine.

00:30:52

I've got a peace that passes understanding.

00:30:54

And if it's not fine, and if I die,

00:30:56

I go to heaven and then it's really fine.

00:30:58

It's really fine then."

00:31:00

A peace that passes understanding.

00:31:01

Is it really any surprise that

00:31:04

anxiety is at epic proportions as we've forgotten

00:31:07

or not embraced the gospel?

00:31:09

If there isn't somebody who cares about you

00:31:12

and has power and is for you,

00:31:14

you should be very anxious, very freaked out.

00:31:19

I think about so many things in the Bible

00:31:21

and how it relates to things I've experienced in life.

00:31:23

And I'll tell you a story that

00:31:25

my family and I talk about a lot.

00:31:27

I've never gone public with this one.

00:31:28

It's kind of an interesting one.

00:31:30

One of the most important person who's ever lived

00:31:33

in Cincinnati history is Carl Lindner.

00:31:35

I don't mean the Carl Lindner

00:31:37

that's chairman and alive right now.

00:31:39

I mean, his dad, who had I think he was CEO

00:31:42

of three corporations in Cincinnati,

00:31:45

owned the Cincinnati Reds.

00:31:48

And Carl liked to be involved in the community.

00:31:50

And when somebody was doing something,

00:31:52

he wanted to get to know that person.

00:31:53

So Carl got to know me.

00:31:55

He was a very interesting guy.

00:31:56

And he would just call me at random times

00:31:59

to talk to me about random things.

00:32:01

I'd be at dinner, my kids tell you, phone rings at dinner.

00:32:04

Back in those days, phone rang at dinner,

00:32:06

you know what you have to do?

00:32:07

You have to do you have to get off the seat

00:32:10

and walk, walk to a wall because a phone was on the wall

00:32:15

and you'd pull it off the wall.

00:32:17

And I would hear, "Hello, Mr. Tome, this is so-and-so.

00:32:21

Carl Lindner's assistant.

00:32:22

Mr. Lindner, would like to speak with you. Is that okay?"

00:32:24

Um, yeah. Yeah. I remember the first time,

00:32:26

"Yeah, yeah. That's fine, that's fine."

00:32:29

I wait about a minute and he'd come on and say,

00:32:32

"Hi, Brian. How are you doing?"

00:32:37

"Fine, fine."

00:32:38

"Just calling to see how things are with the church."

00:32:42

And when he would call me and call me,

00:32:45

I always would think, "Is this the day he gives me money?

00:32:52

Or is this the day he gives us money?"

00:32:54

Like, is he calling to say, "Hi, Brian.

00:32:57

Calling to wipe out Crossroads' mortgage."

00:32:59

You know, I was hoping.

00:33:00

Not -- none of -- That never happened.

00:33:03

He never, never gave me, us, any, any resources like that,

00:33:06

but he was very generous in other ways.

00:33:08

He would let me use his house, my family,

00:33:11

the house he had in the keys for extended periods of time.

00:33:15

It was really, really, really thoughtful.

00:33:17

And then cue to the story this all hinges on,

00:33:20

he, when he owned the Redis, he invited us

00:33:23

one time to go sit with him in his seats,

00:33:25

which were right behind the Reds dugout.

00:33:27

He said, "Just go down and I'll be down there when I get there."

00:33:30

Okay, great. Great. Fine.

00:33:31

So we got down, of course, I'm not going to be late

00:33:33

for this, my gosh, first row Reds game.

00:33:35

We're down there. We're hanging out.

00:33:37

My kids, Lena and Jake.

00:33:39

Moriah was being held at that point.

00:33:41

Lena and Jake were, I don't know what they were,

00:33:43

seven and nine, five and seven, something like that.

00:33:46

Yeah. They're standing like at the,

00:33:48

behind the dugout having a great time.

00:33:50

And this usher, this old cranky usher comes down

00:33:55

and says, "Hey, hey, hey, hey.

00:33:56

Those kids, they can't be standing there."

00:33:58

I said, "Really? They're short.

00:34:00

I mean, no one. They're not blocking the view."

00:34:03

"No, they gotta be sitting down."

00:34:04

I said, "Okay, all right." I got them sitting down.

00:34:07

Now you try to get a seven year old to stay seated

00:34:10

in a seat in the front row at a Reds game.

00:34:12

So again, of course, it doesn't take long,

00:34:14

they're up and they're having fun and they're there.

00:34:16

Ad sure enough guy comes up, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

00:34:21

Kids can't be standing." "Sorry, sorry. I'm sorry."

00:34:23

Put them down. It's like this for innings. Right?

00:34:26

Around the fifth inning, Carl shows up

00:34:29

and comes up and we're sitting in the second row.

00:34:31

My kids are in the first row,

00:34:33

and we're sitting there talking,

00:34:34

and I see the usher coming down.

00:34:37

And I know exactly how this is going to play out.

00:34:40

Usher's coming down.

00:34:42

I'm looking at Carl. I'm looking at usher.

00:34:44

Comes right down.

00:34:45

I see the kids are standing up. Kids are standing up.

00:34:47

I see the usher ready to go to his cue.

00:34:49

While he sees the kids standing up

00:34:51

he also sees his owner. The owner is there.

00:34:55

And so as he comes down, he notices this.

00:34:58

And here's what I do, I see him coming down

00:35:00

and I just look and I go.

00:35:04

And I go --

00:35:10

He turned and walked away.

00:35:13

Now that is the gospel.

00:35:19

I was under the identity

00:35:22

of the most powerful entity in the place.

00:35:27

I was under his authority and there was,

00:35:32

in fact, kids -- people are giving my kids,

00:35:34

Reds players are giving my kids baseballs.

00:35:36

I'm going, "Kids, this is not the way a normal Reds game goes"

00:35:39

They don't. They don't know.

00:35:40

I was under the identity of that

00:35:43

and that changed everything. It was good news.

00:35:46

While Carl never wrote us a check,

00:35:48

I always felt like I was covered.

00:35:51

And in fact, I felt like if the fit hit the sham,

00:35:54

he'd be -- he would be there.

00:35:56

He would have been there.

00:35:58

And that's what it's like with God.

00:35:59

You feel like His peace, "I'm covered.

00:36:02

I'm going to be fine here. I have His identity."

00:36:05

This is the gospel, and this is what I take my stand on.

00:36:09

This is what you hold firmly to.

00:36:11

This is the source and everything else,

00:36:14

everything else in the Bible is important, maybe,

00:36:17

but it's not of first importance.

00:36:19

Now people want me to take a stand on,

00:36:22

take a stand on six literal days or God creating the world

00:36:25

and epics and long periods of time.

00:36:27

I have my beliefs on that, convictions,

00:36:29

but it doesn't matter. Not a first importance.

00:36:34

Now you want to talk about,

00:36:36

you want to talk about the resurrection.

00:36:38

I will die on that hill.

00:36:39

Yes, Jesus literally physically historic.

00:36:41

And we can have our convictions and it's important,

00:36:43

but it's not a first importance.

00:36:45

All kind of other things, like,

00:36:46

what do you believe about Noah?

00:36:48

Flood over the entire world or regional flood

00:36:52

that was all of Noah's world that he knew?

00:36:56

I got my opinions on that,

00:36:57

and I'll give those opinions if I'm preaching on that.

00:36:59

But someone has a different opinion of me.

00:37:02

Fine. Okay. Interesting. Interesting.

00:37:05

It's not a first importance. It's not the gospel.

00:37:09

Those things that we use as litmus test questions

00:37:12

are never used as litmus test questions by Jesus

00:37:14

or in the Bible, never are.

00:37:16

This is what it is. This is the gospel.

00:37:19

This is the Good News.

00:37:20

And when somebody adheres this and holds on to it,

00:37:25

it is an unbelievably beautiful thing,

00:37:26

which is why when you understand the Good News,

00:37:29

you want as many people to have the Good News as possible.

00:37:34

And when you see it happen,

00:37:36

it changes your life spiritually.

00:37:37

You change. You change.

00:37:39

When you see God use you to bring somebody

00:37:41

into Good News, that's powerful.

00:37:43

Here's one way that happened in our midst not too long ago.

00:37:51

- I've been in church for a long time.

00:37:53

I was raised in church.

00:37:55

But I had some real difficult times back in 2009.

00:37:58

I went through a divorce, which was really challenging.

00:38:00

I got invited to an Awaited show at Crossroads.

00:38:03

And so I went to Awaited and I was like, "Wow, this is cool."

00:38:05

And then someone told me about the Super Bowl of Preaching.

00:38:08

And so I went to that and I was like,

00:38:10

"This is fun. This is church?"

00:38:12

And I needed healing.

00:38:14

I needed some time to just kind of step bac

00:38:16

k and not be Tony that people could see,

00:38:19

but just to have the Lord deal with my heart

00:38:22

because I was really broken.

00:38:23

It was a great place to go to kind of get healed.

00:38:28

- I joined the military.

00:38:29

Got shipped off to boot camp a month later.

00:38:31

I went to a few church services

00:38:33

while I was in boot camp because

00:38:34

that was like the only relief that we got.

00:38:37

It was towards the end of my tenure, my brother,

00:38:41

he had just joined, was going through boot camp

00:38:43

and all that stuff.

00:38:44

He had a totally different experience than I did,

00:38:47

and that caused him to come back home early

00:38:50

and, um, he commits suicide.

00:38:56

I don't want to speak for everyone

00:38:58

in the Catholic religion, but we're born and raised

00:39:00

to believe that if somebody were to,

00:39:02

you know, were to commit suicide, they go to hell.

00:39:05

We don't -- we don't see them again.

00:39:10

That's where my, uh, my -- my -- my battle

00:39:13

and my struggle with God and religion and faith

00:39:16

and all of that kind of took off.

00:39:21

- Church had this idea about giving away

00:39:25

a six pack of beer with a card

00:39:28

that just kind of invites you to church.

00:39:31

I said, "You know, a lot of my neighbors love beer.

00:39:33

So I said, 'Well, give me six six packs.'"

00:39:36

The next day I put them in a wagon

00:39:38

and I started going to six of my neighbors houses.

00:39:41

When I got to Kyle's house and I handed him the six pack

00:39:44

and I said, "Hey, yeah, man, we're just inviting people,

00:39:47

you know, Crossroads does church differently.

00:39:49

It's just a church for people who really,

00:39:51

you know, they may not like church a lot,

00:39:55

but they still love God

00:39:56

or are interested in knowing who God is."

00:39:58

He took a six pack and said, "Hey, thanks a lot."

00:40:01

- You know. And it wasn't even then,

00:40:03

it wasn't, you know, right then and there

00:40:04

that we were like, "Okay, yeah, finally, let's do it."

00:40:07

My, my wife and I, we were, you know, struggling,

00:40:11

you know, um, my -- my faith journey

00:40:14

wasn't really progressing really at all.

00:40:16

My heart was still guarded.

00:40:18

It was still weary of getting into pursuing God again.

00:40:23

Just something in the back of my mind.

00:40:25

I had one beer left sitting in the fridge

00:40:27

in the garage there, I had one beer left.

00:40:29

I was like, you know what? Let's just --

00:40:31

I'm gonna. I'm gonna suggest this to Kayla.

00:40:34

Let's try this.

00:40:36

We came to the Dayton location there at the mall.

00:40:39

We didn't know anybody from Adam at that point.

00:40:41

Like, we walked in there the first time,

00:40:43

and it didn't feel like that.

00:40:44

It felt like we knew people already.

00:40:46

It just felt like the community that we had been looking for.

00:40:51

It felt like the place that we were searching for

00:40:53

for the longest time.

00:40:54

And just kind of looked at each other and were like,

00:40:56

"Oh my gosh, this is this is awesome."

00:40:59

We got 2 or 3 weeks in and I was like,

00:41:02

"Okay, I kind of want some more."

00:41:04

So I joined two groups.

00:41:06

Walking into those groups,

00:41:07

I didn't know what I was going to find.

00:41:09

I walked into that room.

00:41:11

I'll give you two guesses who walked in that door.

00:41:13

- I show up for group, and he's sitting in there.

00:41:16

And I see him like, and he sees me and he's like,

00:41:20

"Wow, he came to group." I didn't know he was coming.

00:41:22

And I was so excited to see him

00:41:24

and so excited to introduce him to my friends.

00:41:26

And he just went all in.

00:41:31

- Those men in those small groups changed my life,

00:41:35

changed my marriage,

00:41:38

changed, um, the way that I'm raising my kids

00:41:41

just by already being there.

00:41:44

They were already there. They were already meeting.

00:41:46

I just decided to show up.

00:41:48

- God met him there and the story gets even better.

00:41:51

I mean, he and he's all in, and he's receiving

00:41:54

and he's sharing, and then he lets me know

00:41:58

that he's going to get baptized.

00:42:01

- I made the choice to give my life to Jesus.

00:42:06

- To see him and Kayla and their kids there at the pool,

00:42:11

I got to stand there with them and it was awesome.

00:42:16

But when you see someone give their heart to Jesus,

00:42:18

they changed their life, that's forever.

00:42:22

And every time you see them, you're reminded,

00:42:24

"Man, I got to be a part of that, that thing.

00:42:27

And the Lord, He chose me to get to be a part of that."

00:42:32

- I have come to know Tony in such a way

00:42:36

that I would know a brother.

00:42:39

I didn't know Kyle at all, other than

00:42:43

you know how you, hi, neighbor kind of thing.

00:42:47

But what I do know, now he's my brother today.

00:42:50

You know, we make evangelism so hard

00:42:54

or we think we have to have certain skills, but we don't.

00:42:59

We just have to be willing and available to do it.

00:43:02

And it's such an easy invitation,

00:43:04

so I don't have to, like, preach.

00:43:07

I don't have to, like, pull out a Bible.

00:43:09

I don't have to do any of those things,

00:43:11

I just gotta invite them to something

00:43:13

that'll be a lot of fun

00:43:14

and they hear some great teaching.

00:43:17

- It's led us to this new walk with God,

00:43:20

a new walk with my brothers and her sisters in Christ.

00:43:24

And it's been a complete 180 shift.

00:43:33

- Wow. [applause]

00:43:39

When you see God use you in that way

00:43:41

and you step out on that adventure, you know,

00:43:44

it marks you, you get to a new place,

00:43:47

and it's, uh, it's amazing.

00:43:51

That was what the early church lived for.

00:43:54

That's what the writers of the New Testament were about.

00:43:56

That's what they wrote about.

00:43:57

They weren't about theology, unless it was theology

00:44:02

that was about equating to the Good News.

00:44:04

It was about the teachings. It was about the Good News.

00:44:08

They certainly weren't about politics.

00:44:10

They don't address anything, anything

00:44:13

of whatever was happening in that day

00:44:15

when there is a Roman oppressor

00:44:18

who's oppressing the Jews and in their country land.

00:44:22

And yet the New Testament is utterly silent about that.

00:44:25

It's not because they didn't have feelings

00:44:27

or convictions about it.

00:44:28

It's because it wasn't a first importance.

00:44:32

The things they were standing on was the gospel.

00:44:37

Now I'm gonna spend the rest of my time talking about

00:44:39

this peek into the New Testament church

00:44:43

is where it's going to get a little dicey here today.

00:44:46

Okay. Today we don't have the divisions they had back then.

00:44:49

The division that this passage is writing about

00:44:51

was the division of Jew and Gentile.

00:44:56

What are we going to do with these Gentiles

00:44:58

who don't think of us, think about things like us Jews?

00:45:00

What are we going to do with these Gentiles

00:45:02

who come into the church, who received Jesus

00:45:05

as the Messiah, but they don't have our Jewish customs.

00:45:08

They don't haven't been circumcised.

00:45:10

They don't have all the knowledge we have.

00:45:12

They don't have, they don't have.

00:45:13

What do we do about that?

00:45:15

This is a tension that the church had, or some did,

00:45:19

who weren't about what was of first importance.

00:45:22

They didn't take a stand in the gospel.

00:45:23

They were doing these other things

00:45:25

of these battles of their preferences.

00:45:27

So here's what it says:

00:45:28

To those outside the law. That's to say the Gentiles,

00:45:31

as the Apostle Paul speaking,

00:45:33

who's penned more of the New Testament than anybody else

00:45:35

and used more by anybody else to take the Good News

00:45:38

to people all around the world in his day.

00:45:40

To those outside the law I became as one outside the law.

00:45:45

I became Gentile basically, is what he says.

00:45:48

Not being outside the law of God,

00:45:49

but under the law of Christ,

00:45:51

that I might win those outside the law.

00:45:55

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.

00:46:00

I have become all things to all people,

00:46:03

that by all means I might save some.

00:46:07

I do it all for the sake of the gospel,

00:46:10

that I might share with them in its blessings.

00:46:12

What blessings? We just talked about some of them, right?

00:46:15

Let's go through them.

00:46:16

What are some of the blessings of the gospel? What?

00:46:18

Forgiveness, identity, peace.

00:46:21

I want people to share in these blessings.

00:46:25

I'll tell you what, today, if you said

00:46:27

what he just said here,

00:46:28

"I become all things to all people,"

00:46:30

you would be crucified.

00:46:32

You're like, "You are weak. You're -- you're --

00:46:34

You're not. You're too afraid to take a stand.

00:46:38

You're too mamby pamby."

00:46:41

Uh, no. No. Just know where to take a stand.

00:46:44

Take a stand for the gospel.

00:46:46

Today, this verse, this section of the Bible

00:46:50

could be used in our political environment.

00:46:52

Paul would say, "I'm not Republican. I'm not Democrat.

00:46:56

I'm not right. I'm not left.

00:46:58

I'm not woke. I'm not conservative.

00:47:01

I become all things to all people."

00:47:05

What he's saying there

00:47:06

is not that he doesn't have convictions.

00:47:08

What he's saying is

00:47:10

of first importance is sharing the gospel.

00:47:13

Whatever convictions you may have

00:47:15

about any things I'm going to talk about right now,

00:47:17

because I'm going to tell you how this would relate to me,

00:47:20

how I deal with this in my personal evangelism.

00:47:22

I'm not trying to take a stance on things.

00:47:24

I'm just going to give you examples of this, right?

00:47:26

But before you have any conversation

00:47:29

or any debate with anybody on any hot topic issue,

00:47:34

you never do that unless you've had this conversation first,

00:47:38

because this conversation is the of first importance.

00:47:43

And if you do talk to somebody about Jesus,

00:47:45

it sensitizes you about how you'll talk about

00:47:48

the rest of those things.

00:47:50

But I want to be -- I want to be liked and received,

00:47:55

and I want to be, have as potent of a life as possible.

00:47:59

And you can't have that

00:48:01

if your identity is Republican or Democrat.

00:48:05

You can't have that if your identity,

00:48:08

if your identity is right or left.

00:48:10

Those are identities that are foreign to the Bible.

00:48:13

The Bible doesn't know.

00:48:15

Billy Graham said this. He said:

00:48:17

Evangelists cannot be closely identified

00:48:20

with any particular party or person.

00:48:22

We have to stand in the middle

00:48:24

in order to preach to all people, right and left.

00:48:28

I haven't been faithful to my own advice in the past.

00:48:31

I will be in the future.

00:48:34

Billy Graham is talking about with President Nixon,

00:48:38

Richard Nixon, when he supported him through Watergate,

00:48:41

Billy Graham got played.

00:48:43

He was -- he was drawn to the power.

00:48:47

And this is very well documented with various preachers

00:48:49

and stuff who get into the white House

00:48:51

or getting on Air Force One.

00:48:53

It's just -- it's a power elixir that sucks a lot of folks.

00:48:56

It doesn't mean you shouldn't visit the White House

00:48:58

if you get an invitation or something like that.

00:49:00

It's just got to be real careful.

00:49:02

And and Billy Graham got sucked into that

00:49:03

and he became too right, too Republican.

00:49:06

And he said, "This is ridiculous. I'm not doing that.

00:49:08

I want to be -- I want to reach all people, all people."

00:49:10

Which is why every president afterward

00:49:12

thought Billy Graham was their friend.

00:49:13

Republican, Democrat,

00:49:14

they thought Billy Graham was their friend.

00:49:16

And he wanted to have as big of an impact as possible.

00:49:19

I'll tell you what, if you want to cut

00:49:20

your impact in half, just identify as right or left.

00:49:24

Why would you do that, if a primary importance

00:49:27

is the Good News, giving people hope,

00:49:29

why would you want to cut your impact in half?

00:49:32

It doesn't -- It doesn't make a lot of sense

00:49:34

if what's of first importance is the gospel.

00:49:38

So I have my convictions.

00:49:39

I'll give you a number of them, just as examples

00:49:41

of how I apply this verse to interacting with people

00:49:46

who are not receivers of the Good News.

00:49:49

Because I can I can identify, if you will,

00:49:52

or make somebody comfortable who's on the right

00:49:55

or who's on the left, because I have aspects

00:49:57

of my life that's that way, and so did the Paul.

00:49:59

That's the apostle Paul, that's what he's talking about.

00:50:02

So example, if I'm going to hang out

00:50:03

with someone on the right, these are my examples

00:50:06

for me as I talk about it.

00:50:08

You don't agree with them? Fine, fine.

00:50:09

Because they're not of primary importance. Right?

00:50:11

Well somebody on the right.

00:50:14

And we start talking about the unborn

00:50:16

and I identify with you. I'm, "Yeah, I'm adopted.

00:50:19

And I'm so glad that my mother didn't choose an abortion."

00:50:24

And it happened before even the possibility

00:50:26

with Roe v Wade, so I can hang with that.

00:50:28

I can hang with someone on the right on tha.

00:50:30

When I'm with someone on the left

00:50:32

and the objections are stuff like

00:50:34

we have so many unwanted children.

00:50:35

Children are in poverty. "Yeah, I'm with you.

00:50:38

I'm with you, we got to do something

00:50:40

for the kids that we have right now.

00:50:41

We've got to have some safety net

00:50:44

for mothers who can't afford the things

00:50:47

that they need to afford and kids who are hungry. Yes."

00:50:49

That sounds very left, and that's where I am, right?

00:50:52

We have a discussion around immigration

00:50:56

and someone on the right who isn't a believer

00:50:57

and I want to build a bridge.

00:50:59

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we need to lock those borders down.

00:51:01

Yes. We got too many people coming in.

00:51:03

We can't accommodate all of them.

00:51:05

I don't know how that makes the balanced budget.

00:51:08

Yeah, we got to do something about our borders."

00:51:10

And someone on the left, we're like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:51:13

We're doing a horrible disservice to people

00:51:15

who are here outside of our country."

00:51:17

The Bible talks again and again and again

00:51:19

about honoring, honoring the alien in your midst.

00:51:23

Again, it's a regular theme,

00:51:25

and we can't treat these people like dirt.

00:51:27

And not only that, people I know who have businesses

00:51:30

need those people because they're the only ones

00:51:33

who are in America who actually like

00:51:34

to work with their hands anymore. You know?

00:51:36

So I can identify with folks who are over there.

00:51:39

When I'm with people on the right who are on the right

00:51:42

and they like to have guns.

00:51:43

They're all about the First Amendment right.

00:51:45

The First Amendment? The Second, Second.

00:51:47

See, it's not that important.

00:51:49

I'm not even sure which amendment it is.

00:51:52

Now, that being said, I like guns. I have guns.

00:51:57

Might have one on me right now, actually.

00:52:00

So, you know, those of you in the right, you're like,

00:52:03

"I like that guy. I like that guy."

00:52:07

Some of you are like, "Does he? Is that? Is that?"

00:52:10

Like, you're really -- You're not going to hear

00:52:12

anything I say the rest of the time.

00:52:14

So no, I don't have anything right now. All right.

00:52:18

I know you didn't necessarily want to see

00:52:20

my treasure trail,

00:52:21

but I wanted to calm you down for a little bit.

00:52:28

When I'm around people on the left

00:52:31

and who obviously are not into that, I can,

00:52:35

"Yeah, yeah, man, there are too many guns here.

00:52:39

Yes, there are people who have guns

00:52:40

who should not have guns.

00:52:42

Yes, we have a problem with violence with guns.

00:52:45

That doesn't happen in other countries.

00:52:47

We have to have our mind open to different measures

00:52:49

that we wouldn't have done before."

00:52:51

I can have that conversation, and when I do that,

00:52:53

they can sort of be -- they can go, "Okay,

00:52:56

maybe I'll listen to what you have to say."

00:52:58

I just keep going, going down the list.

00:52:59

I can -- somebody on the right, I could say, uh, no --

00:53:07

Well, all right, just one more, just one more, one more.

00:53:11

I could say someone on the left, like,

00:53:14

"Yeah, yeah, I'm white, and I definitely had it easier

00:53:18

growing up being white than being darker skinned."

00:53:22

I am identifying with and, like,

00:53:24

I'm with you on the left. Yeah.

00:53:26

If I'm on the right, I'm with folks there,

00:53:30

I might emphasize, "Yeah, and the police are awesome.

00:53:35

And I am pro-police. We shouldn't defund the police.

00:53:37

We should increase the funding of the police.

00:53:39

We give them all salaries because they have

00:53:42

a difficult, hyper difficult job."

00:53:43

Now, I said all this stuff, let me tell you,

00:53:45

my name is Brian. I'm your friend, okay?

00:53:47

My name is Brian.

00:53:49

You might disagree with me on any of those things.

00:53:51

I'm just saying those are examples of

00:53:53

how I don't fit on one side or the other.

00:53:57

And if I did fit on one side or the other,

00:53:59

I sure as heck wouldn't broadcast it

00:54:02

because the Apostle Paul didn't broadcast it

00:54:04

because of first importance, of first importance,

00:54:07

first importance is being an ambassador

00:54:10

of the Good News of Jesus Christ,

00:54:12

that there is forgiveness for you there.

00:54:15

There's forgiveness for you.

00:54:16

If you disagree with everything I believe

00:54:19

there is forgiveness for you.

00:54:20

There's forgiveness for you,

00:54:21

forgiveness available for you.

00:54:23

There is an identity for you.

00:54:24

I want you to have that identity, and I want you

00:54:26

to have a peace that passes all understanding.

00:54:30

And if all that other stuff gets in the way,

00:54:32

I don't want any of that stuff to get in the way.

00:54:35

Jesus didn't. He didn't.

00:54:38

How is it that He's oppressed by Rome Himself as a Jew?

00:54:43

The Romans are occupying Jerusalem, Israel.

00:54:46

They're an oppressed people. It's occupied territory.

00:54:49

And yet he's got people who come to Him

00:54:51

of the occupying force because they assume

00:54:54

that Jesus is going to be their friend.

00:54:57

Just my quiet time last week, Roman centurion

00:55:01

who oversees a bunch of military guys.

00:55:03

Military guys why in Rome?

00:55:04

To keep them, to squash them

00:55:06

and to keep them from doing what they want to do.

00:55:09

And he feels welcome enough to come to Jesus says,

00:55:12

"Hey, I got this servant really sick.

00:55:14

His important to me. Could you could you come heal him?"

00:55:17

And Jesus goes, "Yeah, I'll come right now.

00:55:19

I'll come right now."

00:55:20

And he goes, "No, no, no need, no need.

00:55:21

Because I'm a man under authority.

00:55:23

I am a man under authority, so I understand that.

00:55:26

So you're, I know if you just say it, it's going to be fine."

00:55:30

Healing happens, and he feels welcome to come to Jesus.

00:55:37

Jesus is around Pilate who sends him to death.

00:55:40

And there's nothing how he carries himself with Pilate

00:55:43

that would make Pilate assume it's us, you.

00:55:47

He's not antagonistic to him.

00:55:48

He challenges him, but Pilate actually tries

00:55:50

to get him off, I think, and that backfires.

00:55:53

That's another sermon for another day.

00:55:54

All I'm saying here is of all the things

00:55:56

Jesus could have talked about politically,

00:55:58

none of it is talked about.

00:56:01

If he ever said anything about today's

00:56:03

political hot issue, Bible doesn't record it at all,

00:56:07

and nowhere of any follower in the New Testament.

00:56:11

And yet, why is it that some of us feel like

00:56:15

we have to be heard on whatever the political thing is?

00:56:19

Maybe you do, but have you first been heard

00:56:21

on whether or not you believe in the Good News?

00:56:24

Let me just tell you, let me just say this.

00:56:30

You as a church have to get a lot better than this.

00:56:35

I mean, it's so weird, man.

00:56:37

Something happens, "What's Crossroads going to say?'

00:56:40

And you think, like, peppering me with emails

00:56:43

and building some consortium

00:56:44

is going to move me off the Bible.

00:56:49

It's really it's heart --

00:56:51

Hey, by the way, my name is Brian. I'm your friend.

00:56:53

Just remind you of that, okay?

00:56:54

My name is Brian. I'm your friend.

00:56:56

"Well, you know, you said this about George Floyd,

00:56:58

and you say it's about Charlie Kirk, and you did this."

00:57:01

And, oh, my gosh, I don't know what we're going to say,

00:57:04

when we say it, if we're going to say anything,

00:57:06

but we're sure as heck when we say something,

00:57:09

not saying something to placate people.

00:57:12

We'll say something if we feel like it's the right thing.

00:57:15

And we've said things that we shouldn't have said

00:57:17

and we're wrong, you know?

00:57:19

In fact, whenever we get into those waters,

00:57:22

we have the opportunity of being wrong.

00:57:24

When I talk about the life, death,

00:57:25

and resurrection of Jesus, I'm never wrong.

00:57:28

When I talk about the Good News,

00:57:31

the Good News of Jesus Christ, it's life giving,

00:57:34

it's mesmerizing.

00:57:38

This is what God doesn't just want from you,

00:57:44

He wants it for you.

00:57:46

He wants you to understand the gospel,

00:57:50

the Good News of the gospel,

00:57:51

and to walk in forgiveness and freedom

00:57:54

and have your identity and have

00:57:57

a peace that passes understanding

00:57:58

because you know you're good.

00:58:00

You're better than if anybody else of power was around you.

00:58:03

You're going to be good and to order

00:58:05

and organize your life accordingly.

00:58:09

That is the gospel.

00:58:11

That is what you should stand on.

00:58:13

That is what we hold firm on.

00:58:15

And that is a first importance.

00:58:17

He is good. I'm telling you.

00:58:19

He is the King and He is good.

00:58:22

God, we want to be more like You.

00:58:26

We want to give our lives as You've given Your life.

00:58:31

And we want to give Your truth,

00:58:33

which is a life giving truth

00:58:34

to a higher and greater degree.

00:58:38

God, we're sorry for getting fuzzy on the plot.

00:58:42

And for others of us in here

00:58:43

we heard the gospel for the first time, like,

00:58:45

"Oh, that's it. You mean it's not this agenda

00:58:48

or that agenda, like that, like that's it?"

00:58:51

Yeah, that's it, that's it.

00:58:53

And maybe someone here you want to receive Christ right now.

00:58:56

You want to not just know about the Good News,

00:58:59

you want to receive the Good News.

00:59:01

You just do this, just mumble in a prayer to God this,

00:59:04

Jesus, I want You in my life.

00:59:07

I ask that You forgive me.

00:59:11

I ask that You give me Your identity,

00:59:13

fill me with Your Spirit and fill me with Your peace

00:59:22

as I seek to follow You the rest of my life. Amen.

00:59:27

Welcome to the family, everybody.

00:59:29

All right. This is a bonus round.

00:59:33

Things are officially over, but we have

00:59:36

someone who just came in the house,

00:59:38

a special person all the way from Nepal.

00:59:41

One of our partners that we're building into

00:59:43

to help girls who brought out the sex slavery industry

00:59:46

and her school.

00:59:48

She's a huge part of our prayers and of our finances.

00:59:52

I was told she's here. Anjali. Where is Anjali?

00:59:54

Get up here. Anjali, where are you?

00:59:56

Where are you? Chop, chop.

01:00:02

Yeah. Come on up. Come on, sweetie. [applause]

01:00:24

- It's on. You're good right there, I think.

01:00:26

Put it up your mouth. Right? You're good?

01:00:29

Can you talk? Well, say something so we know it works.

01:00:32

- Hello.

01:00:33

- Ah, there it is. So how --

01:00:37

Come on up here closer. Come on up here.

01:00:39

There you go. So, how are things going at the school?

01:00:45

- Everything is going so well.

01:00:47

I just want to thank everyone

01:00:51

for always praying and supporting us.

01:00:55

And really, what you have given to God,

01:00:59

God has used it to spread a lot of love

01:01:04

and freedom to many sisters through my life.

01:01:08

And I'm really always grateful to Crossroads.

01:01:11

I just came this time, second time.

01:01:14

But I feel like this is my home

01:01:16

and you're part of my life, and I'm really grateful.

01:01:21

- Yeah. [applause]

01:01:25

Well, you know, it's good news for you

01:01:30

to be a good news bearer, to come from that industry

01:01:32

as a person who was enslaved yourself

01:01:36

to now feeling the Good News

01:01:38

and bring the Good News to those girls.

01:01:40

And for us to partner with you in some way,

01:01:41

it's really, it's really our pleasure. It really is.

01:01:44

Thank you for letting us be with you.

01:01:46

- Thank you for standing behind me.

01:01:48

That really encourages me too.

01:01:51

Sometimes there are struggles that I need to face,

01:01:54

sometimes traffickers I need to face,

01:01:56

sometimes lots of situations.

01:01:58

But when I know, like, so many people

01:02:00

are standing with me,

01:02:02

that really helps me to stand on my feet.

01:02:05

And thank you. Thank you.

01:02:07

- Yeah. Well, hey,

01:02:10

why don't you put your hands out at all of our sites?

01:02:12

Let's just pray for Anjali right now.

01:02:13

Lord, thank You for this woman of grace,

01:02:16

this woman of Anjali, this woman of power,

01:02:19

this woman of resiliency.

01:02:21

We ask You to give her more, more of Your Spirit,

01:02:24

more of Your grace, more of Your resources.

01:02:26

And we thank You, God, for giving her as a model to us,

01:02:30

a model of endurance and a model of love.

01:02:34

Bless her. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

01:02:39

- Good to see you. I'm glad you came.

01:02:42

- Wow. Wow. Andy, you know,

01:02:44

this whole time I'm thinking about the people

01:02:46

that introduced the Anjali to me.

01:02:48

And and I'm thinking, I have an opportunity,

01:02:52

a huge opportunity to tell others in my life

01:02:55

right now about the same Anjali.

01:02:57

- That's right. - Yeah.

01:02:58

- That's right. - And so do all of we.

01:03:00

- Yep. Yeah. I mean, it's convicting, it's challenging,

01:03:02

like, it's encouraging that, well, honestly,

01:03:05

the part that hit me the most is the idea that

01:03:07

we can be so self-focused that we miss out

01:03:10

on the opportunity to meet other people's needs

01:03:11

to introduce them to Jesus.

01:03:13

- I don't know if you missed it.

01:03:14

I want to make sure you didn't.

01:03:15

There's a pastelist, in fact, in the app right now

01:03:18

that you can go.

01:03:19

And if you've never tried it out in person,

01:03:21

in your own mirror, you can actually do it on the app.

01:03:24

There you can put names.

01:03:25

You could be reminded to pray for them.

01:03:27

In fact, there's an invitation for

01:03:29

the whole community on the app to to join you

01:03:32

in praying for those people

01:03:33

that you put the names on that list.

01:03:34

- Yeah. That's right.

01:03:35

And another thing you can do in the app

01:03:37

that makes a huge difference is giving,

01:03:39

fueling moments that actually make space for people

01:03:42

to encounter God, where people's marriages are restored,

01:03:45

where students find hope, where people connect with God

01:03:49

in a new way and just leave completely changed.

01:03:51

- Yeah, and speaking about that life change,

01:03:54

there is something coming up.

01:03:55

We did it last year and we're bringing it back,

01:03:57

Andy, it's Revival. - Revival.

01:03:59

- Revival out at Base Camp is

01:04:01

happening in just a few weeks.

01:04:03

This is where, well, do you want to tell them

01:04:05

a little bit more what that is?

01:04:06

- This is the one time of year where

01:04:08

our entire church comes together to one place.

01:04:11

Last year was over 9000 people.

01:04:13

And when we say Revival, we're talking about

01:04:15

God coming and waking things up,

01:04:18

bringing new life to people that need it,

01:04:20

in places in our lives that need it.

01:04:22

We saw literal miracles. Over 9000 people.

01:04:25

Hundreds of baptisms. And God showed up in a huge way.

01:04:28

So Revival at Base Camp is for you.

01:04:30

It's for your friends, your family,

01:04:31

it's for the whole nation.

01:04:33

You got to come join us.

01:04:34

For our Anywhere community, that's the people

01:04:36

who don't live near one of these physical buildings,

01:04:38

we're actually inviting people

01:04:39

from all over the globe to come join us,

01:04:41

and we have some really special things planned for you.

01:04:43

And we know travel is tough, so we actually

01:04:45

have some ways we can remove some of the barriers

01:04:47

and help with camping gear and so much more.

01:04:49

You can check it all out at crossroads.net/AnywhereWeekend.

01:04:53

- You know, speaking about barriers, Andy,

01:04:55

it reminds me starting next month, October,

01:05:00

at any of our sites, we're going to be

01:05:02

translating our services live.

01:05:05

- That's right.

01:05:06

- And we're gonna have the same translation,

01:05:09

live translation available in Spanish,

01:05:12

en Espanol at Revival. - Love it.

01:05:14

- So speaking about breaking down barriers, man,

01:05:16

we are removing these barriers for you and your loved ones.

01:05:20

- Fantastic. Yeah, Revival is going to be

01:05:22

a powerful weekend of worship, incredible teaching,

01:05:24

and just a chance for us to break out of the ordinary.

01:05:27

- That's right.

01:05:28

- Thank you guys so much for joining us.

01:05:30

But I want to leave you with a glimpse of

01:05:32

what you can expect and experience at Revival.

01:05:37

- The history of Revival is very clear

01:05:39

God goes where he's wanted.

01:05:42

You're where you are right now

01:05:44

because of where you've been.

01:05:46

And so the fact that we opted into Revival

01:05:49

means, like, something is dead,

01:05:51

or we need something refreshed,

01:05:54

and that means something new has to come in

01:05:57

and we've got to open ourselves up.

Recent Series