Explaining the Gospel in Ten Words (Or Less)

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[music: Count Me In, Crossroads Music]

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- Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads.

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We're so glad that you're here and tuned in with us.

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My name is Andy Reider.

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I'm the director of our Crossroads Anywhere Community.

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I want to introduce you to a friend of mine.

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- Hi, I'm Dani, I'm part of the campus team

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and it would be a miss, a total miss on my part

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if I didn't mention that right now,

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over 3700 guys are out at Base Camp,

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which is some land that we own, at Man Camp.

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What a weekend. I'm telling you. - It's going to be incredible.

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The biggest camp we've ever done.

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But would you just say a quick prayer for those guys?

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- I would love to. God, thank you so much.

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Thank you for the men that have stepped into adventure

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to meet You on this land.

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And God, we know that You showed up in big ways

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in their hearts and in their minds.

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And as they wake up this morning

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and they're trying to decide

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what their next steps are going to be, God,

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we just ask that You meet them there.

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And as they come home that they are just, um,

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it creates a ripple effect into their families

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and into their their community. In Jesus's Name, Amen.

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- Amen. Now, one of the things that those 3700 men

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experienced and were transformed by

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was connecting with God through worship.

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And that's actually what we're going to do right now

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as we continue our series called Go Reach Your People.

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So wherever you are, we'd love to stand

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and sing with us right now.

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- Come on, put your hands together like this.

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Come on. These lyrics are words that we can hold on to,

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truths that we can sing.

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- So we sing these words to Him

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because this is what it's true about who He is.

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- Sing it one more time.

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- Come on, sing these words.

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- God, I'm so thankful for simple lyrics of a song

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that just remind us of the best posture that we can be in,

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this posture of surrender.

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That's saying, God, I give you everything.

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I abandon my everything.

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Lord, this is the posture.

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We are like this, God, You give us all that we need.

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We feel fully fulfilled, God, in who You are

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when we surrender our lives to You, God.

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I thank You, Lord.

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We praise you for who you are.

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We give praise to the one and only God.

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Your name, Jesus. Amen. Amen.

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Thank you guys so much for worshiping with us.

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Thank you for being in the room.

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Thanks for everyone who's tuning in online.

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Go ahead and just turn to somebody next to you

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and say hello before you take a seat.

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- The history of revival is very clear,

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God goes where He's wanted.

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You're where you are right now because of where you've been.

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And so the fact that we opted into revival

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means, like, something is dead

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or we need something refreshed,

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and that means something new has to come in

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and we've got to open ourselves up.

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- I'm Greg, I help lead all of our sites and online,

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and I'm here with Dani Watkins,

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who leads all things camps, including Revival.

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You know, the one thing I did not see in that promo,

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were all the snakes were going to have people handle,

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the Kool-Aid they're drinking.

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- Listen, there could be snakes,

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we are going to be outside.

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But if anybody ever offers you Kool-Aid,

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I don't care where you are, don't take it.

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- We tell you that because

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there's not going to be anything crazy here.

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In fact, there's going to be awesome stuff.

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And we want you to know everything about Revival,

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so not just you come, but everyone you love,

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your friends, your neighbors,

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however you're engaging in Revival,

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we want you to ask them to engage as well.

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So we put together a list of FAQs,

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and we're going to answer all your Revival questions,

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starting with when do we get there?

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- That's a great question.

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So I would say Revival starts technically on Friday evening.

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So if you want to come out Friday evening

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and camp with us, you totally can do that.

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Otherwise, the actual programing starts

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on Saturday morning.

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The first main tent session starts at 10 a.m.

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Gates are opening at 6 a.m. because we want

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to give folks plenty of time to get in and arrive.

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And it's really like a choose your own adventure,

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so you can come and go as you please.

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You can come in, stay a couple hours,

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if you need to leave, take off.

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- Perfect. So we want to get a head start, come Friday night.

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If you want to be there when it starts, come at 10 a.m.

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And if you can't make it, then come whenever you can.

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- Whenever you want.

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- All right. What about those of us

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who are going on the adventurous side, we want to camp.

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What do we need to know about camping?

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- Awesome. Yes. So if you're coming out to camp,

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we do have camping opportunities.

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If you're coming to camp, you're actually

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going to be entering in off of a different entrance.

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We actually have two entrances this go round,

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so if you're camping, you're going to be arriving in

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on our Burns Road entrance.

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Also, if you're just coming in and out for the day

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and it's just one of -- you're a day hanging out with us,

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then you're going to come in the Neville-Penn entrance.

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- So if I'm looking at Google Maps,

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I've been to Base Camp before, Neville-Penn's off 52.

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It's a south entrance. Burns is a new one from the north.

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- Yes. Yes. - All right. Perfect.

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- Your map apps will get you there. Don't worry.

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- I love it. All right.

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I got there, but now I'm starving.

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Are you gonna feed all of us at Revival?

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- No, we're not gonna feed you. Sorry.

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But we do have water, so you definitely --

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We've got water monsters, so bring your water vessels.

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Maybe bring a little bit of water with you as well.

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But pack some snacks.

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You want to bring things that you don't have to refrigerate.

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So like peanut butter, apples,

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maybe some granola bars, things like that.

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But things that'll keep, and bring a little bit extra

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because sharing food with friends is always a fun thing.

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- All right. What if I ate too much or drank too much,

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you got any bathrooms out there?

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- Well, you know, we want freedom.

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We want freedom for folks at Revival.

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And the best way to get freedom is peeing in the woods.

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- Come on. - Okay, I'm just kidding.

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We also have porta potties.

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So, yeah, we've got restrooms out there,

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porta potties, and it's good to go.

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- All right, well, you know how to get there.

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You know how to sleep if you're going to camp.

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And I think a question a lot of people are asking is,

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okay, what are we actually going to do out there at Revival?

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- Such a great question.

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It is going to be a great weekend.

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Think like festival. It feels like a festival.

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And so you're going to want to wear some gym shoes

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because you're going to be walking around.

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There's 800 acres out there, hiking trails.

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There's solitude in the woods.

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It is going to be a really cool experience.

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We also have a whole family area with family activities.

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Think like bounce houses and fun things for the kids to do.

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It's just pretty much fun for everyone.

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- That is fun for everyone.

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I'll tell you, nothing that we do, for me,

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compares to thousands of people worshiping

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under a white tent the size of a football field.

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- Amazing. - I cannot wait for that.

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By the way, I'm going to be standing a lot,

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but make sure you bring a chair.

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Whatever you sit in on the soccer sideline

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or in your driveway, bring a comfy camping chair

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because we're not going to have chairs out there for people.

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- That's right, that's right.

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Bring a chair or bring a picnic blanket.

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You can also just throw it on the ground and sit outside.

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- Love it. Dani, you're a pro.

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That's a lot of stuff, so hopefully you kept up.

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If you didn't, good news,

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all of this is at Crossroads.net/Revival.

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- And we can't wait to see you out there.

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- The world is reaching out to us,

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

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What if we flip the script?

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What if we go reach the world,

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not just to the ends of the earth,

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but also down the street, into our neighborhood,

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our office, our gym, our kids football game?

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That's where we live our lives.

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That's where we can bring life.

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It's time to follow Jesus's lead and Go Reach Your People.

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- Well, hey everybody, my name is Alli Patterson.

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It's great to be with you here tonight at Crossroads.

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I don't know about you, but I've really

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been enjoying the last couple of weeks

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when we've been talking about the mission

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that Jesus left His followers to go reach people.

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Whether that's neighbors next door

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or strangers around the world,

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that's the literal mission that He gave us.

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And we're going to talk about today and next week,

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once you reach them, what do you actually say?

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We asked you guys what was in the way

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of sharing your faith, and you told us

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that you're not sure what to say.

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You feel not knowledgeable,

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maybe a little bit underqualified to talk about

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whatever it is you're supposed to be talking about,

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and maybe a little afraid to be seen as pushy or preachy,

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or lose a friend over saying the wrong thing.

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I've been there. I feel that way too.

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So we decided to double down on two things

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that really go into sharing your faith

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and reaching your people.

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So this week we're going to be talking about

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how to share the gospel.

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And next week Chuck is going to talk about

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how to share your story.

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These are the two components that really go into

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whatever it means to share your faith with your people.

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And we're doing this because we want to be equipped

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as a community for the mission that Jesus has us on.

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So let me pray as we start.

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Lord, I just ask that you would be here

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and that you would stir something in us

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about the message of Your gospel.

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Help us to understand what is that

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and how do we share it in a way

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that sounds like good news.

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It's in Your Son's name that we pray. Amen.

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Well, I don't know about you, but I have noticed

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that my first experience with something

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tends to make me define it in a certain way,

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however I first encounter something.

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I thought about this last week when I was

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on Instagram scrolling reels like we all tend to do.

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And I found one that said how to dance like a 45 year old.

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I'm not gonna lie, I felt low key

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a little targeted by this.

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Not sure why the algorithm gave it to me,

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but suddenly I realized, "Oh, this business,

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all this, this is hardcore Gen X vibes."

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If you do these, if you're doing this in your kitchen,

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you probably started dancing around 1993, 1992.

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I'm just saying, you know, this is --

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I didn't realize, 30s before I saw this reel

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I would have just called this dancing.

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Just would have called it dancing.

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Now, listen, if you -- if this happens to be

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anywhere in your era, I'm just saying

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the one thing they left off the list

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was clearly the Running Man, right?

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Obviously. I mean, seriously,

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if you did any dancing in the 90s, you know, the Running Man.

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But if you're 20, by the way,

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and you're laughing at me right now,

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all I'm going to say is twerking doesn't age well.

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We'll see how your video looks in 20 years.

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But the first experience that you have with something

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does tend to to make you define it.

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You know, as I was looking at that, I'm like,

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"Oh, that's not just dancing,

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that's dancing the way I learned it,

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the way I experienced it, the way I think about it."

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The same is true for the gospel, and I think

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this is why we sometimes have a hard time with it,

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because we encountered someone sharing the gospel with us

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in a way that maybe we didn't like very much.

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You know, somebody rang your doorbell at a time

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you didn't want to answer the door and talk to that guy,

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or somebody was yelling at you through a megaphone

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when you're just trying to go to a Reds game.

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You know, and here's somebody sharing the gospel with you.

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And so we take on however we first encounter the gospel.

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And a lot of us, you know, take on the sort

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of awkwardness or the judgment we felt

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or the weirdness of that situation.

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And I get it.

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I just want you to consider today,

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there might be a way to do it

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that's actually warm and real and kind and good.

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And I just -- my gut tells me, just based on

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the people in my own life, that that's not

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how a lot of us first encountered

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someone sharing the gospel with us.

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But I hope that we will change that today.

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When I first started thinking about the fact

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that Jesus asks us to to go and share this.

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He doesn't ask just professional Christians.

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He sends all of His followers out

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and tells us to go and make disciples,

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to actually go share the message of His Kingdom.

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And that's for every single person

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that wants to follow Jesus.

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And when I realized like, "Oh, that's me,

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you know, that implicates me.

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I got to figure out how to do this

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or how I feel about it."

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And it was, you know, years back and I thought,

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"I'm in the right ballpark.

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Like, I know I have the right, you know,

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Jesus ideas in there.

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It's the Cross and Jesus

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and the Kingdom of God and forgiveness."

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And, you know, I had like this ballpark

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of correct Jesus ideas, but I it really bothered me

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that if somebody asked me to just succinctly

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tell them what is the message of the gospel?

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I wasn't totally sure I could do it.

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So I sent myself on a little search.

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It just kind of lodged itself in my brain,

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and I thought, "I'm going to see if I only had ten words,

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ten words or less to tell somebody

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what's the heart of the gospel message?

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I wonder if I could do it in ten words or less."

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And so I went searching, like, where are

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the clearest places in Scripture that articulate the gospel?

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And I landed on 1 Corinthians 15

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after a little bit of digging.

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And this is not only the clearest articulation

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of the heart of the gospel message,

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it is also the oldest.

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Paul wrote these words probably 20 years,

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in the neighborhood of 20 years,

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maybe even a little less than that

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after Jesus died on the Cross.

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And these words were written down.

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So if you want to know what the gospel is,

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this is not only the oldest, but the clearest.

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This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15.

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Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you

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of the gospel I preached to you, which you received

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and on which you have taken your stand.

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By this gospel you are saved,

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if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.

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Otherwise you have believed in vain.

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For what I received, I passed on to you

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as of first importance.

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Now here we go.

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That Christ died for our sins

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according to the scriptures, that He was buried,

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that He was raised on the third day

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according to the scriptures.

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There it is. Heart of the gospel message,

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that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,

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that he was buried and raised according to the scriptures.

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Now he goes on, if you were to go on,

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you would read him talk about the people

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that witnessed this.

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He's recalling the witnesses to this account.

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And he says that the first important thing

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is that Christ died for our sins, was put in a grave,

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and actually came back to life.

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So here's my ten words.

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You ready for, these are the ten words,

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took them straight from this, straight from what

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Paul says is the matter of first importance at hand.

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And I decided for me, if I only had ten words I would use:

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Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead.

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The gospel in ten words:

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Jesus died for our sins and He rose from the dead.

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Now Paul says that's the matter of first importance.

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And that's really critical, because Paul himself

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actually goes on to write deep theological,

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practical, personal, all kinds of things

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that connect to that gospel

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that you might wonder about or want to know

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by what power? Why did he have to die?

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By what power was He raised?

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You know, all of the things that we --

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How should then we live as a result of this truth?

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All of that stuff Paul wrote a ton about.

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But the matter of first importance

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that the early church taught as the core

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of the gospel message is that Christ died for our sins,

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was buried, and was raised on the third day,

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all according to the scriptures.

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Now, there's kind of four essential components

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if we're going to share that message

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with the people in our life.

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I think we have hesitancy sometimes,

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like, these things that make us go, "Uhh,

00:31:27

can I talk to people about that?"

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And it's maybe you're like me

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and you just have to kind of put it in your head

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and go, "Okay, that is the gospel."

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But I think it's a little more than that.

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I think our hesitation is also based on

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what is that story actually about?

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We kind of react to it without putting it into words.

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So I think there's four things buried in here.

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And I want you to simultaneously feel me

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on two fronts here as we talk about these four things.

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I want you to feel my compassion that

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these these can be difficult sort of concepts

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for us and for other people.

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And I also want you to feel my challenge,

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like, there's part of me that goes, like,

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"Womp, womp. That's the message."

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You know, there's like both of those things going on.

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It's hard.

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Also, if you're going to share the gospel with someone,

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we have to embrace the fact that first,

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this is a story about Jesus.

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This is not a story about us.

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I think sometimes we default to telling our own story,

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even good ones, about how God has impacted our life,

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which is amazing and critical

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when we're trying to relate to other people.

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But your story is not the gospel.

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The gospel is the gospel, and it's a story about Jesus.

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Paul said that Christ died, that Christ was buried,

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that Christ was raised. It's a story about Jesus.

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And the name of Jesus tends to make people react.

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You know your name and my name, you know,

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they don't do that. You know?

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It's easier to say this is my story.

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But when you tell His story,

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it causes a reaction in other people.

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The second thing it's about is sin.

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He died for something.

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In order to tell His story, we have to tell what it's about.

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And he died, according to Paul, for our sins,

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That can be tough, right?

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You know, how do you get into that conversation with somebody?

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That's the guy in the megaphone yelling, "You're a sinner!"

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You know? That's how a lot of people have done it.

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I want to propose to you in a minute

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there might be a better way into that conversation,

00:33:31

but it's still about sin.

00:33:34

The third thing it's about is resurrection.

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This is kind of where the rubber meets the road.

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Like, we love to talk about other theological concepts

00:33:42

and what God is like.

00:33:44

And we want to, you know, talk around the issue.

00:33:46

But at the end of the day, the gospel message

00:33:49

is about a guy, a real human life that was killed

00:33:55

and put in a grave,

00:33:56

and then stood up out of that grave three days later

00:33:58

and walked out of it.

00:34:01

At some point, we have to get to that part of the story,

00:34:05

that the heart of the gospel message is about

00:34:07

a literal, historical, physical resurrection

00:34:11

and what that means for our life.

00:34:13

It's about resurrection.

00:34:14

And the last thing it's about sounds a little friendlier.

00:34:18

It's about grace. Grace.

00:34:21

Now, that word did not appear in the passage,

00:34:24

but I want to suggest to you that this funny repetition,

00:34:28

according to the scriptures,

00:34:31

is really a message of grace.

00:34:33

Because according to the scriptures was repeated twice,

00:34:36

that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,

00:34:39

and He was buried and then he was raised on the third day

00:34:41


00:34:43

Now why do I say that according to the scriptures

00:34:45

is really about grace?

00:34:47

It's because it indicates, as Paul said

00:34:49

in his little preamble to the gospel message,

00:34:52

that God had a plan to save you.

00:34:56

He said, "It's by this message that you're saved.

00:34:58

It's by this gospel that you're saved."

00:35:00

So if God had a plan that He put into place,

00:35:03

and then He told people about it

00:35:05

and wrote it down in the scriptures,

00:35:07

and it happened hundreds of years

00:35:08

prior to the plan actually happening

00:35:11


00:35:12

Then you and I get to rest in the understanding

00:35:16

that God was coming to save us from the very beginning.

00:35:20

That this is a message of grace.

00:35:22

That God had a plan to save you,

00:35:24

and that that is His grace to you,

00:35:27

but also to tell people about that.

00:35:29

That sounds really good,

00:35:30

but also then you have to say, "You need saved."

00:35:35

Like that's the awkward part, you know?

00:35:37

And oh, by the way, this is the way,

00:35:39

the way that God has set forth in His plan

00:35:42

for that to be accomplished.

00:35:44

So I just want to acknowledge, like, the tension,

00:35:47

you know, that we feel because we kind of get

00:35:49

what's underneath this message,

00:35:51

even though the message itself comes down

00:35:53

to ten simple words that Jesus died for our sins

00:35:57

and rose from the dead.

00:35:59

That in and of itself is not a complicated message,

00:36:02

but we get the implications underneath it.

00:36:04

You know what I mean?

00:36:05

The gospel is not like any other message that you could give.

00:36:09

The gospel bears power.

00:36:11

I think you can feel that even in the room

00:36:13

when we start talking about the gospel,

00:36:15

you feel the power of that message

00:36:18

and you feel the idea that you have to respond

00:36:21

in some way to that message.

00:36:23

You either accept it or you reject it,

00:36:24

and guess what is underneath every revival

00:36:28

that has ever happened on the face of the Earth.

00:36:31

It's that message.

00:36:32

If you were at the Billy Graham Crusade

00:36:35

with me in the Columbus Clippers stadium in 1993,

00:36:39

I was like, "What is this thing?

00:36:41

I think I'm going to go check it out."

00:36:43

You know, I just got my driver's license

00:36:45

and I was like, "I think I'm going to go see this thing.

00:36:47

What is this spectacle?"

00:36:49

And guess what message I heard there?

00:36:50

That Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead.

00:36:53

Guess what you're going to hear at Base Camp

00:36:55

when you come out on November 1-2,

00:36:57

you're going to hear that Jesus died for our sins

00:36:59

and He rose from the dead.

00:37:01

There's a massive event called Unite

00:37:04

that's been saving thousands of college students

00:37:06

all over the country.

00:37:07

It's coming to Cincinnati, by the way, November 5th.

00:37:10

And guess what those college students are being saved by,

00:37:13

the name of Jesus who died for their sins

00:37:16


00:37:17

It's the same message over and over

00:37:20

and over again in history.

00:37:22

Every geography, every generation, this is the message.

00:37:27

And it's the same message that you and I are called

00:37:29

to actually go out and somehow figure out

00:37:33

how to share from our life, from our mouth,

00:37:36

from our point of view.

00:37:37

You know, where I first heard this message myself

00:37:39

was actually in someone's living room, not at a big event.

00:37:43

I was actually on the living room floor

00:37:45

of a couple called Pat and Jody.

00:37:47

Now, Pat and Jody were associated with

00:37:49

kind of a new church in the area I grew up in.

00:37:51

Some of my friends were involved,

00:37:53

so I would go with them sometimes

00:37:54

to some of their youth events.

00:37:57

It was a pretty small group of kids.

00:37:58

We would gather at Pat and Jody's house.

00:38:00

And I remember sitting on the hardwood floor.

00:38:02

I actually remember, it's funny what sticks in your mind

00:38:05

in important moments in your life,

00:38:07

but I remember sitting on the hardwood floor

00:38:09

in their living room, kind of feeling a little uncomfortable.

00:38:12

And there were kids everywhere.

00:38:14

And I heard Pat and Jody, who I knew cared about us.

00:38:17

I didn't know why they cared about me,

00:38:19

but I knew they cared about me.

00:38:20

And all of a sudden they're standing in front of us

00:38:23

explaining that Jesus died for our sins

00:38:26


00:38:27

And that night, on their living room floor,

00:38:31

I actually believed that for myself.

00:38:34

That was the night that I actually began to believe.

00:38:37

And I experienced something

00:38:38

I didn't have words for at the time,

00:38:39

but now I know, Galatians 2:20 talks about it.

00:38:42

It says that when you come to believe that,

00:38:45

it is no longer you who lives,

00:38:48

but Christ who lives in you.

00:38:50

And I could feel that that night.

00:38:51

I could feel that.

00:38:53

And I didn't fully understand it.

00:38:54

I didn't have the right words for it.

00:38:56

But guess what had to happen for me to be saved,

00:39:00

for my life to be saved, somebody had

00:39:02

to stand in front of me and actually say,

00:39:04

"Jesus died for your sins and He rose from the dead.

00:39:07

Do you believe that?"

00:39:08

You know, somebody at some point

00:39:10

has to actually deliver that message.

00:39:13

And for me, it was Pat and Jody on their living room floor.

00:39:16

And that's why we want to share it,

00:39:18

because we want our people to live, right?

00:39:21

More than we want to spare ourselves the awkwardness,

00:39:23

we want our friends and our family to live,

00:39:25

not just today, but we want all of the people we love

00:39:29

to have an abundant life,

00:39:31

and not just an abundant life now,

00:39:32

but one for all of eternity.

00:39:34

So there's no plan B here, folks.

00:39:36

We got to figure out how do we get

00:39:38

this message out of our own mouth.

00:39:39

And that's what I want to spend

00:39:41

the rest of our time talking about.

00:39:42

I think there's three ways that

00:39:45

are very relational, normal, everyday things

00:39:48

that I've encountered, and I thought,

00:39:50

"What if I shared these with you

00:39:51

with the quotes that go with them?"

00:39:53

Because I promise you, someone called me

00:39:56

on the phone this week and said

00:39:58

one of these three things to me.

00:39:59

I'll bet you've heard somebody say one of

00:40:01

these three things to you maybe in the last few days.

00:40:04

If not, then definitely in the last few weeks.

00:40:07

And as you talk to the people in your life

00:40:10

that God has put in your life,

00:40:12

I want you to consider listening for these entry points

00:40:16

for the gospel that are not weird or preachy,

00:40:22

but actually sound like the good news that they are.

00:40:25

Because your friends and your family

00:40:27

and the people that God might walk you into

00:40:29

or have you, you know, discuss something with

00:40:31

or have an encounter with at work or in a store

00:40:34

or at school or wherever.

00:40:36

What if you listened because they're actually

00:40:39

telling you something about the good news they need to hear.

00:40:44

The first thing that over and over and over again

00:40:48

people have said to me, I know they've said this to you,

00:40:51

that's an entry point for the gospel,

00:40:53

is, "I feel so bad about that.

00:40:57

I feel so bad about that."

00:41:00

Some of us would say, I feel so bad about that

00:41:04

from something that happened 30 years ago,

00:41:07

and we've been dragging it along with us all this time.

00:41:11

And other times it's like something you just said

00:41:13

to your kid and you're like, "Ugh,

00:41:16

I feel the weight of that. I feel so bad about that."

00:41:19

Now, some of us, this is going to ring really true for,

00:41:22

we tend to carry these things with us,

00:41:23

tend to hold them really heavy.

00:41:25

Others of us, maybe not so much.

00:41:28

I walked into my son's room and I'm, like,

00:41:30

"Maybe he's on the other end of the spectrum."

00:41:32

My boys, when they were younger, let's call it

00:41:35

like 8 and 10, 9 and 11, something in that neighborhood.

00:41:38

They shared a big room.

00:41:40

And I walked in with a load of laundry

00:41:42

and I found one of my boys, like,

00:41:46

rolling kind of wildly sort of log roll style

00:41:49

around on one of the beds in the room, naked.

00:41:54

What's going on here?

00:41:56

I walk in with the laundry and I'm like,

00:41:59

"Explain yourself. What are you doing?"

00:42:02

And he looks at me and he goes, "Oh, hey, mom."

00:42:05

So I walk in further to discover he's sopping wet,

00:42:10

like, totally sopping wet, rolling around on the bed.

00:42:14

And I was like, "But what is happening right now?"

00:42:19

And he goes, "Oh, oh yeah, I just got out of the shower.

00:42:21

I didn't have a towel." "Are you serious right now?"

00:42:26

All of you people that are either were a ten year old boy

00:42:30

or have had a ten year old boy are like,

00:42:32

"Yeah, that feels about right. That checks out."

00:42:34

So he's log rolling naked to dry himself off

00:42:37

because he didn't have a towel in the shower.

00:42:39

And then I was like, "That's not your bed."

00:42:46

And he goes, "I'm not going to get my own bed wet."

00:42:53

All I'm saying is, some of us, some of us

00:42:55

carry the weight of our sin a little heavier than others.

00:42:58

I'm thinking he's on one end of the spectrum,

00:43:00

but some of us are on the other,

00:43:02

and we really need somebody in our life

00:43:06

to tell us that Jesus died for our sin.

00:43:12

1 Corinthians 15, that's what we just said,

00:43:14

that there was one central issue to the gospel,

00:43:17

and it was our sin.

00:43:19

And the good news that friend, that family member

00:43:22

needs to hear is that you can be set free

00:43:25

from the weight you've been dragging around.

00:43:28

Romans 3 talks about the gospel from this angle.

00:43:31

Here's what it says.

00:43:33

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God

00:43:36

has been made known, to which the law

00:43:38

and the prophets testify.

00:43:39

This righteousness is given

00:43:41

through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

00:43:45

There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,

00:43:47

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

00:43:51

and all are justified freely by His grace.

00:43:56

Wow. That is a righteousness apart from the law.

00:43:59

That should feel like really good news,

00:44:01

because there's a way to deal with that weight of sin,

00:44:04

the one that we tend to drag around with us

00:44:06

that has nothing to do with you actually rewinding

00:44:09

your life and not doing that thing.

00:44:11

Because you're done. It's over.

00:44:14

You're dragging that around.

00:44:15

And I would say you're dragging around the legal sentence,

00:44:19

like, to feel that weight is actually appropriate.

00:44:21

The word that is used here is justification.

00:44:24

That's a legal term because you are under a sentence,

00:44:30

and Jesus has taken that sentence on for you.

00:44:34

That means that you can be set free from that.

00:44:36

You don't have to be the one that drags it around anymore.

00:44:38

The place I shared the gospel where I got this message,

00:44:42

like, deeply, deeply in my bones,

00:44:44

I understood it in a new way or with a new depth

00:44:47

is when I shared the gospel inside of a prison.

00:44:51

About an hour from where my feet are is

00:44:53

a women's prison in the state of Ohio.

00:44:55

And I've been up there many times to do various things.

00:44:58

And one time I was both sharing my story

00:45:00

and sharing the gospel in a session that we had

00:45:03

with the women one night.

00:45:04

And I realized as I was meeting these women

00:45:07

who are moms like me and wives like me

00:45:10

and sisters and friends and daughters like me,

00:45:12

and they have their own stories and their own families.

00:45:14

And they would give absolutely anything

00:45:17

for someone to walk in the door and say, "You know what?

00:45:21

I'm going to serve out your sentence.

00:45:23

You go on home. You go on home."

00:45:27

Not one of them would have said no.

00:45:29

Not one of them wouldn't have fallen on their face

00:45:31

in gratitude for whoever okayed this little plan.

00:45:35

And I walked out that night thinking, "Oh,

00:45:37

I understand the gospel a little bit differently.

00:45:41

I understand what it means for Him to justify me,

00:45:43

to take that sentence off of me

00:45:45

so that I get to walk free."

00:45:47

He became the criminal on the cross, serving the sentence,

00:45:50

and you get to take His place

00:45:53

as the favored son at the family table. What?

00:45:57

Oh my gosh is that good news, especially if

00:46:00

you're the one dragging around the weight of your sin.

00:46:04

Okay, are you ready for number two?

00:46:06

Second thing, this is the second thing

00:46:08

I hear people say over and over.

00:46:10

At some point in your life, we all hit the wall

00:46:12

and we say, "Nothing is ever going to change here.

00:46:16

Nothing is ever going to change here."

00:46:18

I've hit this place, almost everybody I know

00:46:20

that's more than 15 years old has hit the wall

00:46:22

where what you can do and your efforts

00:46:25

to change something are not going to work.

00:46:27

Do you ever have those power of positive thinking

00:46:29

people in your life?

00:46:30

And I'm like, "You know what, just save your breath.

00:46:33

You know? Like that is just not going to do it.

00:46:37

Something else is wrong with me.

00:46:38

Like, I have hit a wall and I am, I'm done.

00:46:41

I have no power left. Nothing is going to change."

00:46:45

That's such a helpless place to be

00:46:46

and such a normal place to get.

00:46:48

I was thinking about this recently

00:46:50

because one of my daughters is a runner.

00:46:53

She runs high school cross country.

00:46:55

She had a fantastic freshman season,

00:46:57

came back as a sophomore this year.

00:47:00

And her times kept getting worse and worse and worse.

00:47:04

Like, weirdly, noticeably worse, to the point

00:47:07

where she was like, "What in the world is going on?

00:47:11

Like, I'm training and I'm actually getting worse.

00:47:14

How does that work?"

00:47:16

And one of her coaches actually suggested

00:47:18

that it was all in her head.

00:47:21

Have you ever had someone do that to you?

00:47:23

Whatever's wrong, this helplessness you're feeling,

00:47:26

it's all in your head.

00:47:29

And she, on the other hand, was just saying,

00:47:30

"Maybe I'm just -- Maybe I'm just not good.

00:47:33

Maybe I thought I was good.

00:47:34

Maybe I thought I could do this and I just can't.

00:47:37

Like, maybe I just don't have the capacity in me.

00:47:40

I'm -- It's over. I'm just I'm not a runner.

00:47:43

I thought I was, and I'm not."

00:47:45

And instead, what we found out through a couple of tests

00:47:48

is that deep, deep, deep inside, in her very cells,

00:47:54

she had frighteningly low iron

00:47:56

to the point where almost no oxygen

00:47:59

was being transferred into her muscles

00:48:01

so she couldn't sustain her race.

00:48:04

Friends, that is exactly what happens to us

00:48:08

when we hit that wall.

00:48:10

When we hit a wall, there's some --

00:48:11

It's not in your mind.

00:48:13

It's not that you couldn't do it.

00:48:15

It's something deep within you doesn't have the power.

00:48:21

And the good news you need in that space

00:48:22

is that the gospel is a story about resurrection.

00:48:27

That's what 1 Corinthians 15 told us, that Jesus,

00:48:31

that Christ was buried in a grave

00:48:33

and then He got up three days later

00:48:35

and he walked out of that grave

00:48:37

by some power of resurrection.

00:48:40

If you're in the place where you feel like

00:48:42

nothing's ever going to change, you're hopeless,

00:48:44

helpless, powerless, done.

00:48:46

You need the gospel, the good news told to you

00:48:50

through the angle of resurrection.

00:48:52

I want you to hear that when people

00:48:54

say this to you in your life,

00:48:55

and I want you to think Romans 6, listen to this.

00:48:59

Just as Christ was raised from the dead

00:49:01

through the glory of the Father,

00:49:02

we too may live a new life.

00:49:05

For if we've been united with Him in a death like his,

00:49:08

we will certainly also be united with Him

00:49:11

in a resurrection like His.

00:49:13

And what was His resurrection?

00:49:14

It was by the power of God.

00:49:16

Not by the power in Him,

00:49:18

not by the power of His humanity,

00:49:19

but by the divine power of the Spirit of God.

00:49:22

And Paul writes later that that same Spirit

00:49:25

lives in everyone who has received Christ by faith.

00:49:28

That is the story of the gospel that your friends

00:49:31

who say, "I'm helpless, I'm powerless. It can't change."

00:49:35

And you could say, "I actually know a way that it might.

00:49:39

I know somebody who has the power deep within them

00:49:42

that you don't have within you."

00:49:45

That is the message of the gospel.

00:49:48

Okay. Last one, third one.

00:49:50

This is the one that somebody in my own life

00:49:52

who I love very, very much, one of my closest people

00:49:55

called me this week and said, "I am totally in the dark.

00:50:03

I have no idea where to go."

00:50:06

As a matter of fact, he made it really specific.

00:50:08

He said, "I feel like I've lost the plot of my own life.

00:50:13

I am so in the dark."

00:50:17

Has someone ever said that to you, implied that to you?

00:50:19

Maybe that's been you at some point.

00:50:21

You're just lost. You have no idea where to go.

00:50:24

I interacted with a woman in my hair salon one day.

00:50:30

And I got to share the gospel with her.

00:50:32

That's right. These -- the sun did not do these highlights.

00:50:36

Occasionally I have to sit in the salon with foils in my hair.

00:50:40

And you ladies who feel me know that

00:50:42

you just sit there while you process.

00:50:46

So I was processing and there was a woman next to me

00:50:50

doing the same, and I noticed she didn't look very well.

00:50:53

And she had kind of teary, teary eyes.

00:50:56

And one thing led to another and we started talking.

00:50:59

And she had just experienced someone

00:51:02

extremely close to her who was young,

00:51:04

and had died suddenly, untimely, tragically.

00:51:08

And she said some version of these words to me,

00:51:11

"I am so lost in the dark.

00:51:15

I have no idea where to go, what to do,

00:51:18

what I'm supposed to do now."

00:51:22

And the good news in that space,

00:51:25

in that lost dark space is that

00:51:29

God had a plan to save you.

00:51:32

That grace comes to find you in the dark.

00:51:35

That's what the 1 Corinthians 15 message says.

00:51:37

When it says that Christ died according to the scriptures,

00:51:42

and that He was raised on the third day

00:51:43


00:51:44

What that should tell you in your mind

00:51:46

is that God had a plan from the very beginning.

00:51:49

He knew you were going to end up in the dark,

00:51:51

and He made a plan by grace to come and save you.

00:51:54

Grace comes to find you in the dark.

00:51:56

He already knew you were going to end up there.

00:51:59

So as I was talking to her, I got to

00:52:01

kind of gently share with her I have too

00:52:04

felt like I was lost in the dark.

00:52:05

I too have felt like that.

00:52:07

And that's where your story comes in.

00:52:09

That's what we're going to talk about next week.

00:52:11

And guess what? There was somebody named Jesus

00:52:13

that I called out to,

00:52:14

and He came and He found me in the dark.

00:52:16

I didn't have to think my way out.

00:52:18

I didn't have to work my way out.

00:52:19

I didn't have to strategize the next step.

00:52:22

He literally came and got me in the dark

00:52:24

and took me somewhere else.

00:52:26

That's what Colossians 1, that's how

00:52:29

the Colossians 1 articulation of the gospel reads.

00:52:33

For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness

00:52:38

and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves,

00:52:42

in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

00:52:45

He has rescued you out of the dark.

00:52:48

There's a kingdom you were born into,

00:52:51

and it has a claim on your life,

00:52:52

and you will end up in the darkness.

00:52:54

But guess what? According to the scriptures,

00:52:57

God made a plan, according to His grace

00:52:59

He executed that plan because HE knew

00:53:01

He was going to have to come find you in the dark.

00:53:04

It used the word redemption.

00:53:06

This is another Bible-y sounding word.

00:53:07

When you redeem something, you buy it back at a price.

00:53:11

Guess what you get to do

00:53:12

with anything you buy back at a price.

00:53:14

You get to take it wherever you want.

00:53:15

You walk in a store today and you buy the price on the item,

00:53:19

you get to take that item

00:53:20

and just do whatever you want with it. It's yours.

00:53:22

And guess what He wants to do?

00:53:24

He wants to take you out of the kingdom of darkness

00:53:26

and put you into the kingdom of the Son that He loves.

00:53:29

That's what He did with the price that He paid for you.

00:53:32

And this kingdom of light

00:53:34

that you're walking into with Him

00:53:36

when He makes this transfer, when you come to believe

00:53:39

and He makes this transfer,

00:53:41

here's what the Bible says about this kingdom.

00:53:43

That God Himself will be your light,

00:53:45

that His Word is a lamp for your feet

00:53:47

and a light to your path,

00:53:48

where you are called a child of light,

00:53:50

and where if you're not in the light today,

00:53:52

He will walk you to it.

00:53:53

And it says the path of the righteous

00:53:55

is like the morning sun shining ever brighter

00:53:58

until the full light of day.

00:53:59

He won't walk away from you

00:54:01

until you can see ahead with Him again.

00:54:04

This is the message of the gospel.

00:54:05

This is the good news.

00:54:07

When your friend says, "I am so lost.

00:54:11

I am so in the dark here."

00:54:15

They don't need your advice.

00:54:16

They need told someone can come get you

00:54:19

and His name is Jesus.

00:54:22

And so these are just three ways,

00:54:24

these are three ways that the gospel is presented

00:54:26

in the scriptures that we can have in our minds

00:54:30

as we interact in our real relationships.

00:54:32

Because somebody is going to say to you,

00:54:34

"I feel so bad about that."

00:54:36

And somebody else is going to tell you

00:54:38

they're lost in the dark.

00:54:39

Somebody else is going to tell you

00:54:40

their life can never change.

00:54:42

They've hit the wall again.

00:54:43

It's the same thing over and over.

00:54:45

They're done for.

00:54:47

And you're the one that God sent

00:54:49

to make the life altering, history changing

00:54:52

announcement of the gospel,

00:54:53

that Jesus died for our sins and He rose from the dead.

00:54:56

That's the message of the Kingdom of God.

00:54:59

And we are plan A. We are plan A

00:55:04

to spread that message as far and as wide as we can.

00:55:07

That by faith in that gospel,

00:55:10

and that we overcomplicate this all the time,

00:55:12

by faith in that gospel, that Christ was buried

00:55:15

and raised on the third day,

00:55:16

dying for our sins according to the scriptures

00:55:19

by that gospel and nothing else

00:55:22

we are saved and we get to live a new life.

00:55:25

Wow. Oh, my gosh.

00:55:27

I want to return to a song that we sang earlier,

00:55:30

just one quick verse as we finish up,

00:55:32

because it is yet another articulation of the gospel.

00:55:36

It says this wild exchange you offer us.

00:55:41

I gave my worst. You gave your blood.

00:55:44

Seems hard to believe.

00:55:45

You're telling me You chose the Cross.

00:55:48

You're telling me I'm worth that much.

00:55:50

That's exactly what God is telling you,

00:55:53

that you are worth that much.

00:55:54

That He already paid the price,

00:55:56

that He already got you out of the dark.

00:55:58

And the question on the table before your friends

00:56:01

and before you today is, have you actually said,

00:56:04

"Yes, that's for me. I believe that"?

00:56:06

Maybe you're like I was on the living room floor

00:56:09

of Pat and Jody where I was like,

00:56:12

"How have I sat in church and no --

00:56:15

Has no one ever said this, or was I just not listening?"

00:56:18

You know? It's like one of those moments where you go,

00:56:21

"I don't know why I didn't hear it before, I just didn't."

00:56:24

Maybe that's you today.

00:56:26

Maybe you've never fully wrestled

00:56:27

with what the gospel is.

00:56:29

And you're like, "Actually, I believe."

00:56:31

Great. Let's sing these words together

00:56:34

and let these words be your yes to Jesus

00:56:38

and His good news, maybe for the very first time.

00:58:20

- If this really is the first day

00:58:21

that you have ever received the gospel

00:58:24

as the truth for your life

00:58:25

and completely surrendered your life to Jesus,

00:58:28

we have a prayer team who would absolutely love

00:58:31

to pray for you personally and individually right now.

00:58:34

But let me pray for all of us

00:58:36

and then we will see you next week

00:58:39

where Chuck's going to double down on how to share your story.

00:58:42

Lord, thank You for Your gospel.

00:58:45

Thank You for Your Son. Thank You for Your grace.

00:58:48

Help us to be people of conviction and courage

00:58:52

who share the one saving message that

00:58:56

Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead.

00:58:59

Lord, help us to sell out completely for that.

00:59:05

It's in His Name that we pray. Amen. Amen.

00:59:09

Okay, see you next week.

00:59:14

- Man, you know what? I sometimes struggle

00:59:16

knowing when is the right time to share the gospel

00:59:19

and Ali's message today, man, it is just like

00:59:23

I love the practicality of it

00:59:25

and how easy and simple she made it to be.

00:59:28

- That's right. - It's good.

00:59:32

If you heard something, maybe the gospel

00:59:34

that just resonated with you for the first time

00:59:37

or in a fresh way, just want you to know

00:59:39

that's the whole reason any of this exists,

00:59:42

to help you experience the God who loves you,

00:59:45

not for you to have more information

00:59:46

or have more stuff to watch, but for you

00:59:48

to have an encounter with the God of the universe.

00:59:50

If there's anything we can do to help towards that end,

00:59:52

that's what we're here for.

00:59:54

And specifically, we'd love to pray for you.

00:59:55

You can hit the chat button on the website

00:59:57

or just email us at anywhere@crossroads.net.

00:59:59

Myself or somebody from my team would love to talk with you.

01:00:02

And if you want to keep up to speed

01:00:04

with some of the things that are going on,

01:00:05

help turn this from content to a community

01:00:08

that you're a part of, a really, really simple,

01:00:10

easy way to do that is just by texting Anywhere to 301301.

01:00:14

And we'll skip your inbox and send you a text

01:00:16

with some of the great things that are going on

01:00:18

as a part of this church.

01:00:19

- Yeah, I think about like community around here.

01:00:21

We've been around here for a minute.

01:00:23

- A minute.

01:00:24

- And the impact that it's had on my life,

01:00:25

and I'm sure on yours too.

01:00:27

And that's all because of the generosity

01:00:29

of this community, that people that were behind us,

01:00:32

that were fueling things that really made a difference

01:00:34

in our growth and spiritual development.

01:00:37

- That's right.

01:00:38

- And so being around here and being in,

01:00:41

I like to feel that now because I think about

01:00:42

the folks that are in front of me or that are coming in,

01:00:45

that are getting to experience

01:00:47

some of the similar things that I got to experience.

01:00:49

And so if you're interested in being generous

01:00:51

and you're part of this community,

01:00:52

we would love you to join us in that.

01:00:54

And you can go to crossroads.net/give.

01:00:56

And if you're just watching

01:00:57

and kind of checking this place out, that's cool.

01:00:59

We're glad you're here. - That's right.

01:01:01

Hey, thank you guys so much for hanging out with us.

01:01:04

We'll be back here next time on Crossroads.net.

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