Where are you being called? | Discover Your True Calling

00:00:02

There's a reason you aren't satisfied with the ordinary,

00:00:05

you were made for adventure.

00:00:08

A life with God doesn't have to be boring.

00:00:11

It can be a pulse pumping, heart pounding life of purpose

00:00:14

and we can guide you there.

00:00:16

The adventure awaiting you is bigger

00:00:18

and more life giving than you could ever imagine.

00:00:22

Join us every weekend for 45 minutes of challenge,

00:00:25

hope and encouragement to guide you on your spiritual adventure.

00:00:34

- Hey, I'm Hannah and welcome to Crossroads.

00:00:36

- And I'm Kyle,

00:00:38

your community pastor for Crossroads online church.

00:00:40

- And this week we're going to be tackling a question

00:00:42

that, man, I've had, maybe you've had.

00:00:44

I feel like everyone has this question and that is:

00:00:46

what the heck am I supposed to do with my life?

00:00:49

- It's a big question. It's an important question.

00:00:51

The Bible word for that is calling,

00:00:52

is what we're talking about.

00:00:53

- Ok, so calling, that's a really good word,

00:00:55

but it might be a little bit what we call Churchy.

00:00:57

So let's unpack that for people.

00:00:59

What is calling?

00:01:00

- Calling, the problem with that is that it can be intimidating.

00:01:03

Like how in the world do I know what I'm called for?

00:01:05

Well, today we're going to tell you how.

00:01:06

See, it's the place where your gifts, your talents,

00:01:09

and your opportunities intersect.

00:01:10

And here's the thing, you can find it.

00:01:12

- Hmm.

00:01:13

So it sounds like it's a thing that God has designed you for.

00:01:16

So, Kyle, what's that for you?

00:01:18

- For me, it's this right here.

00:01:20

It's helping lead and build Crossroads Church Online,

00:01:23

a movement you can fully belong to no matter where you live.

00:01:26

I found that place.

00:01:27

And here's the thing, you can, too.

00:01:29

That's our goal today

00:01:30

is to help you find that intersection in your life.

00:01:32

- Absolutely. So in just a moment, our senior pastor,

00:01:34

Brian Tome is going to share with you

00:01:36

how you find that answer for yourself.

00:01:39

And we've even got a story about someone

00:01:40

who made a huge impact in their city

00:01:42

by saying yes to God and going on an incredible journey.

00:01:46

- I think it happened right here, where we are, right?

00:01:48

- Right here, absolutely.

00:01:49

So thanks so much for being here.

00:01:50

Let's get into it right now.

00:02:09

- I'm Brian, we're here at a nonprofit called Mortar

00:02:12

with the person who leads this, my friend Allen Woods,

00:02:16

also known as Top Knot.

00:02:20

Tell us about Mortar, what's the vision of Mortar?

00:02:22

- Absolutely. So we wanted to create an accelerator

00:02:25

that made entrepreneurship more accessible,

00:02:29

specifically for people of color and women

00:02:31

who come through our program to learn

00:02:32

how to accelerate their ideas,

00:02:34

how to take their business concept to the next level,

00:02:37

how to start, how to create a network,

00:02:39

how to get funded, and ultimately how to carve out

00:02:42

a space where they can assist in growing their communities.

00:02:45

- And you went after that sort of segment,

00:02:47

people basically who aren't white males like me.

00:02:49

- Right.

00:02:50

- Because those folks have the hardest time

00:02:52

getting something started, is that right?

00:02:54

- Absolutely. And when you look at the wealth gap

00:02:56

and you look at net worth of the black community

00:02:59

versus the white community,

00:03:00

there is a huge difference between that.

00:03:03

And we're talking over $100,000 difference

00:03:05

of the average net worth.

00:03:07

And so what we're doing is we're trying to combat that

00:03:10

by giving people an opportunity to pursue entrepreneurship

00:03:13

as a means of building that legacy for their families,

00:03:16

whether that be financial or otherwise.

00:03:18

Ultimately, that's what I'm here --

00:03:20

That's what my purpose is in life,

00:03:21

is to kind of help people get better

00:03:23

and become their best selves.

00:03:25

So I get to do that with entrepreneurs every day.

00:03:27

- Was there ever sort of an external compulsion you had

00:03:30

where you heard a voice from heaven saying,

00:03:33

"Allen, help people put money on their table

00:03:34

and support their family"?

00:03:35

Did you ever have any those kind of things?

00:03:38

- Early on, there were a ton of different things

00:03:40

that God kept lining up.

00:03:41

You know, our first office even, you know,

00:03:44

we had an article that, you know, appeared in

00:03:46

one of the local papers and a guy reached out to us

00:03:49

and said, "Hey, you know, in your article you said

00:03:52

that you were looking for a place to have classes

00:03:54

and to have an office space.

00:03:55

And I would love for you to use my office."

00:03:57

He was like, "You guys can feel free to use it at no charge."

00:04:00

And my business partner, Derrick, was like,

00:04:02

"Well, why are you doing this?"

00:04:04

And the guy, his name was Scott, he said,

00:04:06

"You know, do you guys believe in God?"

00:04:09

And I said yes.

00:04:10

And he said, "Well, I feel like God is telling me

00:04:12

to do this for you."

00:04:14

And I say, "Well, I think you should listen to Him." So--

00:04:17

- I think you should give it to me.

00:04:18

- You should absolutely listen to God.

00:04:20

And so we've just had all of these different doors

00:04:23

that have opened up for us throughout this time

00:04:26

where there's things that we cannot deny that

00:04:28

this is the presence of God. This is ordained.

00:04:30

These are things that He's carving out for us.

00:04:33

There's no way that we started this thing almost 7 years ago

00:04:37

thinking it was going to be a program in one neighborhood

00:04:40

and then now to be in 6 neighborhoods in Cincinnati

00:04:42

and then 6 additional cities,

00:04:44

it's just not something that we could have ordained.

00:04:47

We didn't even think that that was possible.

00:04:49

- There wasn't some parting of the clouds.

00:04:51

You just looked at who God had made you be

00:04:54

and the things you wanted to do

00:04:56

and the opportunities that were before you like that thing.

00:04:58

And it sounds to me like you just walked into those things,

00:05:01

which was your calling, is that fair?

00:05:02

- Yeah, absolutely.

00:05:04

And I think that He always will connect us to people.

00:05:08

So like, when we talk about having a network, you know,

00:05:10

having a network with God, I mean, like how big --

00:05:13

how much bigger can your network be?

00:05:15

So I think that God intentionally has put people

00:05:17

in our pathway who have been designed to help us.

00:05:20

Ultimately, when we think about what Mortar is,

00:05:22

the whole name is about building something up

00:05:25

that's bigger than us and the mortar is the thing

00:05:27

that holds everything together.

00:05:29

And so we understand that we are a small part of this.

00:05:33

But the people that we interact with,

00:05:35

the people who go through our program,

00:05:37

they are the mortar of their cities.

00:05:38

They're the people who hold everything together.

00:05:41

So you can have these brilliant ideas,

00:05:43

but if you don't have real people

00:05:44

who are connected to them,

00:05:45

you don't have people who are going to hold it together

00:05:48

and make it make sense.

00:05:49

- So if someone has a feeling about

00:05:51

what they're calling may be,

00:05:52

but they don't know how to start or what the first step is,

00:05:55

what counsel do you have for them?

00:05:57

- Start, start.

00:05:58

- Just start, take the step, whatever it is.

00:06:00

- Figure out the thing that you feel driven and do every day.

00:06:04

Typically, our purpose is also connected to our passions.

00:06:07

So if it's something that you feel drawn to do, just start it.

00:06:10

You're never going to --

00:06:12

if you wait until everything is perfect,

00:06:13

you're never going to get started.

00:06:15

So start where you are with what you have and do what you can.

00:06:19

- The easiest car to steer is one that's moving.

00:06:21

- Absolutely.

00:06:22

- Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

00:06:25

I think you've given us a lot to chew on

00:06:27

and the idea of the stories that can come out of your story

00:06:31

and out of the teach this weekend,

00:06:33

I'm really jazzed to see how that can have

00:06:35

a ripple effect over our whole culture. So thank you.

00:06:37

- Thank you. Thank you for having me.

00:06:47

- Some of us go to work, some of us work a calling.

00:06:51

It can be the same thing, but we've got to understand this

00:06:54

to understand what our life is about.

00:06:56

The very beginning of the Bible, back in the Book of Genesis,

00:06:58

God creates man and woman and puts them in the garden.

00:07:02

Before anything goes wrong, they're actually working.

00:07:05

They're taking care of the ground.

00:07:06

They're taking care of creation.

00:07:08

They're replicating, amazing things are happening.

00:07:12

And you have to believe and I have to believe that

00:07:14

the work that you're about is important.

00:07:17

All work is work that God is a fan of

00:07:21

and you have to choose your attitude

00:07:23

in the work that you're doing.

00:07:25

There's a story told about President JFK who, obviously,

00:07:29

cast that amazing vision that he wanted to see under his watch.

00:07:34

America sent the first man to the moon.

00:07:36

And he toured the NASA facilities one time

00:07:38

and he bumped into a janitor who was pushing a broom

00:07:42

and he asked them what he was doing.

00:07:43

He said, "I'm putting a man on the moon."

00:07:46

That's what he said.

00:07:48

People who have a negative attitude might have just said,

00:07:50

"Well, I'm just -- I'm just sweeping the floor."

00:07:52

But this guy said, "No, I understand what I'm doing

00:07:55

is putting somebody on to the moon."

00:07:58

He saw himself as a calling.

00:07:59

He wasn't just going to work, he's had a calling.

00:08:02

You may be a physical therapist, that might be your work,

00:08:05

or are you called to help people walk again?

00:08:09

You may be a waiter or a hostess or a bartender.

00:08:12

You might do those things as part of your job,

00:08:15

but you might be the person who's giving people

00:08:18

a good time when they're out and they need refreshment.

00:08:21

I had an old friend who sang cover tunes in bars and

00:08:26

he said, "Man, that's just my calling. That's what I do.

00:08:29

I go out and I give people a good time to help them

00:08:32

unwind from the difficulties of their life

00:08:34

and get them re-geared up to do it again."

00:08:36

Some of us as a result today, we're going to find

00:08:40

it's time to get a new job, a new calling.

00:08:43

Others of us are going to find we just need

00:08:45

to get a new attitude about the job that we're in right now

00:08:48

because it's actually a calling.

00:08:58

We're going to look today at the two ways calling operates,

00:09:01

either as an external compulsion

00:09:04

where God says something to me from outside of me,

00:09:08

maybe the clouds are parted or I see something,

00:09:11

you know, written in the sand

00:09:13

or somebody gives me a prophetic word

00:09:15

or I just hear -- whatever it is, external compulsion.

00:09:17

And the other thing is an internal conclusion

00:09:20

where I just do an internal process

00:09:22

and I come to some conclusions.

00:09:23

I'm going to help us to see those today.

00:09:26

What does it mean to have a call?

00:09:28

You know what it basically means?

00:09:30

It means to have a vocation.

00:09:33

The word for vocation in the Latin is vocari,

00:09:38

which is to name or to call something.

00:09:42

That's we're talking about.

00:09:44

The thing that we're naming and that you're calling

00:09:46

that this is what my life is going to be about.

00:09:48

If we take a look at the whole Bible where you would think

00:09:51

you would see person after person who was called.

00:09:53

There was a bunch of people called, but actually

00:09:55

of the people of the external compulsion callings, the people

00:10:00

like Moses who sees a burning bush and God speaks to him

00:10:03

or Noah who God tells about the Great Flood

00:10:06

or the Apostle Paul who has his road to Damascus experience

00:10:11

who is struck down and falls off his horse and lightning.

00:10:15

And he sees and hears Jesus.

00:10:17

I mean, these external compulsions,

00:10:20

there's about 100 of them in the Bible, 100, that's all.

00:10:25

Everybody else has more of an internal conclusion.

00:10:29

This is not about saying here's the spiritual people

00:10:31

and here's the spiritual people.

00:10:33

It's about saying you've just got to figure out

00:10:37

and call out and name what it is that you're about.

00:10:41

That's what it means to have a calling.

00:10:44

Some of the powerful people who have

00:10:46

internal conclusions for their calling

00:10:48

are people like Nehemiah,

00:10:50

who he sees a wall that's down, the wall around Jerusalem.

00:10:55

And he has this emotional, cathartic thing of,

00:10:59

"Oh, no, this is bad."

00:11:00

He's got the gifts and the abilities

00:11:03

and the connections to raise money.

00:11:05

And he has the opportunities come together.

00:11:07

He doesn't hear like the voice of God saying, 'Do this."

00:11:10

Or Lydia, who was a huge, huge fundraiser

00:11:14

or giver in the early church.

00:11:16

Lydia was known as a trader in purple cloth.

00:11:20

This would have been like being the owner

00:11:24

of a Rolls Royce dealership today.

00:11:26

Purple cloth was incredibly extravagant.

00:11:29

It didn't have really any purpose other than

00:11:32

being really sweet, really beautiful,

00:11:35

and only afforded by people who were very, very rich.

00:11:38

This is Lydia.

00:11:41

She is a main, main giver and she is operating in that

00:11:45

and that's her calling.

00:11:46

And we don't have any understanding at all

00:11:49

that God came to her and said, "Lydia,

00:11:51

thou shalt make purple cloth, which will be

00:11:55

the uniform for Barney," or something like that.

00:11:59

We don't have any example of that at all, but she was called.

00:12:04

Book of Galatians 2:8:

00:12:16

The Apostle Paul is saying, "I was called to people who --

00:12:21

or everybody who isn't a Jew.

00:12:22

That is everybody who wasn't circumcised by religious right.

00:12:25

Peter, he's called the people who are Jews

00:12:28

who've undergone the rite of circumcision.

00:12:31

Both of them equally important before God,

00:12:34

but both of them are very, very different.

00:12:38

In the book of 2 Timothy 4:5 says:

00:12:48

So when you're going after your vocation, you're calling

00:12:52

four things are going to happen with all of us.

00:12:54

One is you're going to be sober-minded.

00:12:56

You have to use your mind and think rationally,

00:13:00

think practically, think wisely.

00:13:03

The second thing is endure suffering.

00:13:07

That's right, difficulty.

00:13:09

If it's not difficult, it's not a job.

00:13:13

If it's not difficult, it's not a calling.

00:13:17

Whatever your calling is, you're going to have hard times.

00:13:20

And when the hard times come, you don't go,

00:13:23

"Oh, no, God must have abandoned me.

00:13:25

I'm in the wrong calling. I need to go find something else."

00:13:27

No, you endure. You hang in there and you endure.

00:13:32

None of the greats in the Bible

00:13:33

who had lives that were meaningful

00:13:35

jumped out of things when it was difficult.

00:13:38

Three: Do the work of an evangelist.

00:13:41

Whatever your job is, construction management,

00:13:44

teaching, CEO, CFO, whatever, whatever it is,

00:13:47

stay at home parent, you have the ability

00:13:50

to proclaim the good news where you are,

00:13:51

to do the work of an evangelist,

00:13:53

to represent God physically and verbally.

00:13:57

And then finally, four, all of us fulfill your ministry.

00:14:01

Your ministry, the thing God has called you to

00:14:04

in the environment where you are.

00:14:06

And I want to emphasize your, your ministry,

00:14:11

not Brian Tome's ministry, not Billy Graham's ministry,

00:14:17

not, you know, Kirk Franklin's ministry.

00:14:20

No, your, your ministry. What is it God wants you to do?

00:14:25

Fulfill that thing.

00:14:27

Stop living somebody else's life, live your life,

00:14:29

live the calling that God is giving you.

00:14:31

Now, most of us are not going to have

00:14:34

some external compulsion, clouds part

00:14:37

and we have an unmistakable direction map from God.

00:14:41

Most of us are going to have to go through

00:14:44

an internal process where we come to a conclusion,

00:14:46

internal conclusion.

00:14:47

I want to show you something that has been

00:14:49

very, very helpful for a lot of folks I've shared it with.

00:14:51

There's a couple of things look at. One is this: gifts.

00:14:59

What are my gifts?

00:15:01

Gifts are the things that you have received

00:15:04

that you haven't worked for.

00:15:06

Spiritual gifts or a real thing, the gift of leadership,

00:15:09

the gift of helps, the gift of prophecy.

00:15:12

Those things are all part of gifts,

00:15:13

but also the gifts of --

00:15:15

the gift of my personality that's come my way,

00:15:18

the gift of whatever financial resources I have,

00:15:22

the gift of the creativity I have,

00:15:24

the gift of my resourcefulness,

00:15:25

the gift of whatever country I was born in, the gift of --

00:15:28

It's just the things that you haven't worked for,

00:15:31

but they are, they've just been bestowed you.

00:15:33

What are your gifts?

00:15:34

Take notice of those.

00:15:36

The second thing is what are your desires?

00:15:44

What do you want to do with your life?

00:15:46

What are you excited about?

00:15:48

What gets your heart pumping?

00:15:50

What causes you to daydream and fantasize about something?

00:15:53

What are those things?

00:15:55

Your desires could be the kind of position you want.

00:15:59

Your desires could be what you want

00:16:00

your friendship circle to look like,

00:16:02

what your family should look like,

00:16:05

how you want to be remembered when you die.

00:16:06

What are your desires, your hobbies?

00:16:09

What is it you just like?

00:16:10

The Book of Psalms 37:4 says:

00:16:19

So as we get closer to God,

00:16:22

the desires start lining up with where God is

00:16:25

and those are the things He's really inclined to give us.

00:16:28

What are your desires?

00:16:30

And then another bucket is opportunities.

00:16:34

I'll shorten it there, opportunities.

00:16:38

What are the things that are before you that you can do?

00:16:43

What are the doors that are open that you can walk through?

00:16:46

What are the offers you have on the table?

00:16:49

What are the possibilities you could make happen?

00:16:51

Those things.

00:16:53

What we then do with these, if we take a look,

00:16:55

here's what all my gifts are, all of them, all my gifts,

00:17:00

and here's what my desires are, all my desires.

00:17:05

And here's what my opportunities are.

00:17:09

Where these things intersect, right here,

00:17:14

these places, this right here, that is your calling.

00:17:27

- So going after that intersection for your gifts

00:17:30

and talents and opportunities

00:17:31

can be a little bit intimidating.

00:17:33

God calls us to big and sometimes even scary things,

00:17:36

and that's in all parts of our lives.

00:17:38

- That's right, in every place He calls us to trust Him,

00:17:40

our jobs, our relationships,

00:17:42

even our finances through this thing that He calls tithing.

00:17:45

- Okay, so tithing is a big word,

00:17:47

maybe even a little bit churchy.

00:17:49

Let's break it down for someone

00:17:50

who maybe is hearing this for the first time.

00:17:52

- Okay, it's really simple.

00:17:53

Tithing is giving 10% of what God gives you,

00:17:56

what you make, back to Him.

00:17:57

It comes from the Book of Malachi in the Bible,

00:17:59

this place where God actually says, "Try this,

00:18:02

try giving to Me and see if I don't bless your life."

00:18:06

- Yeah. - It's really simple.

00:18:07

- Absolutely, so maybe let me call out

00:18:09

the elephant that might be in the room.

00:18:11

You know, that sounds a little bit self-serving, Kyle.

00:18:13

You're saying give to the church. You're the pastor.

00:18:15

Doesn't that go to you? Let's break that down too.

00:18:18

- Yeah, look, I get it.

00:18:19

I've been where you are. It does seem self-serving.

00:18:22

But I want you to know one thing first upfront.

00:18:24

Giving is not something that I want from you.

00:18:27

It's something that I want for you.

00:18:29

There is a freedom and a blessing

00:18:31

that comes your life through nothing else.

00:18:33

Now, when you give I'm not saying, please hear me clearly,

00:18:36

that it's going to rain money from the sky.

00:18:38

In my life what I've seen is that sometimes

00:18:41

the best blessings God's given me

00:18:43

are things that money can't buy.

00:18:46

Second, we've made this so you can try it risk free.

00:18:50

It's something called the 90 Day Tythe Test.

00:18:52

It works just like this, you try tithing for 90 days

00:18:55

and if at the end of those 90 days you don't experience

00:18:58

blessing and freedom in your life, we'll literally

00:19:01

give you all of your money back, no questions asked.

00:19:03

It's that simple. - That's right. You know what?

00:19:05

We've seen thousands of people try The Tithe Test

00:19:08

and they've experienced incredible life change

00:19:11

and heart change.

00:19:12

They've got some good stories, man.

00:19:14

So to get started or to just learn more about it,

00:19:16

you can head to Crossroads.net/tithetest.

00:19:19

- And hey, if you're somebody who is currently

00:19:21

taking The Tithe Test, one, way to go.

00:19:24

Two, we are praying with you.

00:19:26

That thing that you've asked us to pray for in your life,

00:19:29

we are partnering with you on that, asking for God to show up.

00:19:32

- And another big thank you to a group

00:19:34

that we call around here The Blue Team.

00:19:36

These are folks who are faithfully tithing.

00:19:39

And let me tell you, we cannot do what we do without you.

00:19:42

- Amen. Hey, let's get back to Brian.

00:19:46

- If you can get your life

00:19:48

to where you're operating right here,

00:19:51

you are going to have a life that is incredibly impactful

00:19:55

and incredibly fruitful.

00:19:57

The problems that most of us have come from

00:20:00

us being in one or two of these areas and not three.

00:20:06

Let's have some examples here. Just some examples.

00:20:10

Someone desires to be a music singer.

00:20:13

And what do you know? American Idol's coming through town,

00:20:18

but you don't have any gifts.

00:20:20

Yeah, we laugh at you and you're immortalized

00:20:22

on television forever because you got this going,

00:20:26

but you just -- you don't have this at all.

00:20:30

I have gone after people before and tried to get them

00:20:34

hired into a various job at Crossroads.

00:20:36

They no question have the gifts. No question.

00:20:38

And I'm giving them an opportunity,

00:20:40

we're giving them an opportunity,

00:20:41

but they just don't have any desire

00:20:43

for student ministry, whatever it is.

00:20:46

And you just want to argue with them.

00:20:48

"No, this is great. You should take this."

00:20:49

But, you know, if they don't have desire, I've just learned,

00:20:52

if they don't have desire just just back way off.

00:20:54

Here's another one.

00:20:56

Let's say you have the gifts, you have a great palate.

00:20:59

It's a gift giving you, a palate.

00:21:01

Okay, you can just sense flavors

00:21:03

and you're really, really good with stuff

00:21:05

and pairing everything.

00:21:07

You have desire.

00:21:08

You have a desire to bring people artisan mayonnaise.

00:21:13

That's what you want.

00:21:15

You want to bring people artisan mayonnaise.

00:21:17

Guess what? There's not enough people

00:21:19

who want artisan mayonnaise

00:21:20

to actually put food on your own table.

00:21:22

So sorry, you can want that all you want,

00:21:24

but no one cares about artisan mayonnaise. They don't.

00:21:28

This actually was -- this was me, this up here.

00:21:31

I had the gifts for doing things that were beyond

00:21:35

where I was at the previous church that I worked.

00:21:38

I had desires to be used to a greater degree,

00:21:42

to be helping people, to be part of a movement.

00:21:46

And I also had the desire to have my gifts

00:21:48

of teaching and leadership expanded

00:21:51

and to be exercising those more.

00:21:52

But what didn't I have? I didn't have opportunity.

00:21:56

So what I did is I went and I answered every ad

00:22:01

for every church job that would have helped me with my gifts.

00:22:07

And those jobs were things like the senior pastor,

00:22:11

a teaching pastor, or a church planter.

00:22:13

I answered all ads in those three categories.

00:22:17

I sent letters to all the churches I knew of

00:22:20

that were really, really big and said, "Hey,

00:22:22

I don't know what you have needs, but I've got these gifts

00:22:25

and I have desire to work with you.

00:22:26

Whatever it is, I'll come and do."

00:22:28

I did all of that and throughout all those things

00:22:31

just no opportunities ever came.

00:22:35

I called upon all my own denominational leads,

00:22:37

no, not a single opportunity came.

00:22:39

At the end of day, the only opportunity that ever came

00:22:43

were a group of eleven people to put

00:22:44

an ad in the back of a magazine that I answered,

00:22:47

a bunch of 30 year olds and they had $15,000 in the bank

00:22:51

and there was 11 of them.

00:22:52

And they said, "We want to reach a church for people

00:22:54

who have given up on church,

00:22:57

but haven't necessarily given up on God."

00:22:59

And they guaranteed my salary, my salary for a year,

00:23:02

my salary for a year, and, man, we were off the bases.

00:23:06

Why? Because that was the only opportunity we had.

00:23:10

"What was it like when God called you to Crossroads?"

00:23:12

You mean when God gave me the only job possibility I have?

00:23:17

You mean, you mean, no, I'm sorry.

00:23:18

I wish I could tell you like

00:23:20

there was this like parting clouds.

00:23:21

And I can't tell you that.

00:23:23

It was the only opportunity I had

00:23:26

when I had gifts and had desires.

00:23:28

So much so that I learned these things

00:23:30

that we've talked about as a euphemisms were actually true.

00:23:33

Like I got cold feet when the offer came.

00:23:36

I literally --

00:23:37

my feet were frozen. They got cold immediately.

00:23:40

Something happens with the blood system, it shut down.

00:23:42

I was scared poop-less.

00:23:44

I will give you the other word, but it is church,

00:23:46

so I'm trying not to offend any of us.

00:23:49

I found out, literally, it was like I drank Imodium,

00:23:54

what is was called Imodium AD?

00:23:56

I call it Imodium Concrete.

00:23:58

You take that Imodium Concrete.

00:23:59

It's like I've just got concrete my bowels.

00:24:02

I didn't take a dump for days. I was scared poop-less.

00:24:07

If I had an external compulsion, maybe it would have been easy.

00:24:12

No, it was hard. It was difficult.

00:24:17

And that's what made it fulfilling.

00:24:19

Frederick Buechner says:

00:24:28

Where is your gladness?

00:24:31

Where is the hunger?

00:24:33

When you come together in that area,

00:24:36

you're going to have a life that has massive, massive impact,

00:24:42

not just on the world, but on you and everybody around you.

00:24:45

Now, having said that,

00:24:47

let me just tell you about being called.

00:24:49

There's an upside and there's a downside to it.

00:24:53

The upside of being called is that

00:24:56

you're going to have a clear purpose for your life.

00:24:58

You're going to know why you exist.

00:25:01

I'm here to help people.

00:25:04

I ran across one person a couple of years ago.

00:25:07

She cleaned houses for other people and said, "Oh,"

00:25:09

she said, "I love dirt."

00:25:11

She said, "Dirt is my life. I love dirt."

00:25:16

For her really cleaning was a calling

00:25:19

and she had a purpose, she just enjoys it.

00:25:21

She saw how it brought clarity in order to things.

00:25:25

When you have a calling in your life, you'll have clear purpose.

00:25:28

And the downside of it is you'll have clear pain in your life,

00:25:34

because the people who don't have callings

00:25:36

just keep jumping from thing to thing.

00:25:38

They don't have the same level of pain that you'll have.

00:25:41

You will have a pain of sticking through things.

00:25:43

You'll have a pain that comes to you because

00:25:46

you're going to say no to things that other people do say yes to.

00:25:49

You're going to have a clarity and a purpose,

00:25:52

which means there's also going to be a unique difficulty

00:25:55

that's going to come to your life.

00:25:57

The upside in having a calling

00:26:00

is you have clarity and direction.

00:26:02

I know I'm supposed to go here. I have clarity and direction.

00:26:05

I know I'm to go to Cincinnati to help start Crossroads.

00:26:09

Downside is there's a lack of clarity for decisions.

00:26:13

You would think that if I know that this is my calling,

00:26:17

then everything is going to be natural from that.

00:26:19

No, it's not the case.

00:26:21

I don't have clarity for decisions about --

00:26:24

I say clarity, God doesn't speak and say

00:26:27

here's how many staff members you should have.

00:26:29

God doesn't speak and say here's exactly

00:26:31

how you should organize your week this week.

00:26:33

He's never come and spoken, said, "Boom,

00:26:35

here's exactly the size of mortgage

00:26:37

Crossroads should have."

00:26:39

There's just like a lack of clarity.

00:26:41

I know where I'm going, but it would be really great, God,

00:26:44

if there was an individual thing You would force me into here

00:26:48

or make very, very clear.

00:26:49

Upside of vision,

00:26:50

upside of calling is that it attracts people.

00:26:54

You find somebody who knows who they are

00:26:56

and where they are going and you'll find

00:26:58

a lot of people want to be around that person

00:27:00

because people are comforted by clarity

00:27:02

and vision attracts people.

00:27:05

The calling you have, it attracts people

00:27:07

who want to be around your life and at the same time,

00:27:11

vision disappoints people.

00:27:14

When God gives you clarity and vision,

00:27:18

people don't get what they want because you go,

00:27:20

"No, I'm going this way.

00:27:21

You want me to go this way and do this, no, it's this way."

00:27:25

And you disappoint people.

00:27:26

You can't -- you can't just satisfy everybody's desires.

00:27:30

No, you don't. That can't happen.

00:27:32

You have to satisfy the desire of God, the desire of the call,

00:27:37

and that means people don't like you,

00:27:39

more so than any other way.

00:27:41

I can't tell you how many friendships I've lost

00:27:43

over things or people who badmouth me,

00:27:45

and I just have to say, "I'm sorry.

00:27:47

This is a this is a me and God thing.

00:27:49

It's not a me and you thing.

00:27:50

I know you don't like it. I know you don't approve of it.

00:27:52

But you've got to realize

00:27:53

this is personal with me and with God."

00:27:56

I lost one of my best friends when I helped start CityLink.

00:28:01

He didn't like CityLink.

00:28:02

He thought it was a bad idea for a bunch of reasons.

00:28:04

And and our friendship basically ended.

00:28:06

And I had a conversation with him years later.

00:28:08

I said, "Look, you think that our friendship ended over this.

00:28:12

It didn't end over that. You think it did.

00:28:15

It ended because there was a calling on my life

00:28:18

to invest in the CityLink vision,

00:28:20

to bring a one stop place where people who are

00:28:23

in the working poverty class of our culture

00:28:27

could come to get help.

00:28:28

And every time you were around you just thought

00:28:30

it was a bad idea, you didn't like it.

00:28:31

So I'm going to take the call from God.

00:28:34

I'm to take that call from God before I take our friendship."

00:28:38

You have to make difficult decisions like that

00:28:41

when you're called.

00:28:44

You've got thething that Gods is pointing you to.

00:28:46

Colossians 3:23 says whatever you do, whatever you do,

00:28:50

whatever it is plumber, artist, school teacher,

00:28:53

stay at home parent, pastor, author:

00:29:02

Whatever you do, your calling is not my calling

00:29:05

and your calling isn't less important of my calling either.

00:29:07

Your calling is just different than my calling.

00:29:09

It's different than the person beside you,

00:29:11

it's not more important than the person over here,

00:29:13

it's just different.

00:29:14

Whatever it is, whatever it is, work at it,

00:29:18

push into it, lean into it.

00:29:20

It's the thing that's going to define your life

00:29:22

is your calling.

00:29:25

2 Timothy 1:6, the last verse I'll share with you:

00:29:36

I've done so many fires in my life.

00:29:38

And you create that fire, right?

00:29:40

You put a little ember there, a little fire starter.

00:29:43

Then what do you do? You go (blowing).

00:29:46

You take a little piece of cardboard.

00:29:48

You're trying to take that little ember

00:29:49

and you're trying to fan it into flame.

00:29:54

This is what the Apostle Paul is saying to Timothy,

00:29:58

who he built into.

00:29:59

He said, "Timothy, I prayed for you.

00:30:02

I've asked God to fill you.

00:30:04

I've given you the gift of my life into your life.

00:30:09

This thing that I've deposited into you,

00:30:11

or God has deposited into you, nurture that,

00:30:14

honor that little ember, keep it, fan it into flame.

00:30:19

God has given you something and job one for you

00:30:23

in your job of your calling

00:30:25

is to protect your walk with Christ.

00:30:27

Protect your walk with God.

00:30:29

Fan it into flame."

00:30:33

This is what it is.

00:30:34

It's not about -- it's not about the call,

00:30:37

it's about the call to relationship with Jesus.

00:30:40

That's what the call ultimately is about.

00:30:42

You've got to recognize,

00:30:43

God is trying to form you to be more like Jesus.

00:30:47

He's not about that thing out there getting done,

00:30:49

your type a self who wants to get that thing done.

00:30:52

He's about getting done in you first and foremost

00:30:55

the thing that He's wanted to do was

00:30:56

to form you into being in the likeness of His Son.

00:31:00

So protect yourself, take care of your calling,

00:31:04

educate yourself, give yourself some fun times,

00:31:08

some ability to recreate, some ability to stretch.

00:31:11

Fan into flame.

00:31:13

Job number one is protecting your spiritual vitality.

00:31:16

Timothy fans his into flame

00:31:19

and you and I are supposed to fan ours and the flame as well.

00:31:24

I tell you what, it's pretty powerful to think about

00:31:27

what would happen if everybody who's with us right now

00:31:29

actually did this thing, what our culture would look like

00:31:35

and what our own hearts would look like.

00:31:37

You do this and you do with all of your heart,

00:31:41

you fan into flame the gifts that God has given you.

00:31:44

Get ready for a life that is vibrant and full color.

00:31:47

Let me pray for you right now.

00:31:48

Jesus, I pray for Your hand of blessing,

00:31:52

Your hand of clarity upon all the called ones

00:31:55

who are with us today.

00:31:59

We are honored that You would count us as worthy

00:32:02

to be used and we want to be used.

00:32:05

We want to be deployed.

00:32:07

We asked that You, if You want to speak to some of us

00:32:10

in an external away, God, we want to,

00:32:11

we want to hear You speak.

00:32:13

Others of us are going to hear You speaking

00:32:15

through working the process that I just outlined.

00:32:19

God, most importantly, we want You.

00:32:20

We want You and whatever You want to give us,

00:32:24

because that's what we're about is You.

00:32:25

I pray these things according to the character

00:32:28

and identity of Jesus. Amen.

00:32:30

So to fan into flame the gift that God's given us,

00:32:34

to protect that job number one of a relationship with God,

00:32:37

we've got to set our hearts right before God.

00:32:38

This doesn't just mean I hear things

00:32:42

that are good that I just gave you.

00:32:43

It also means that I sing things that are good.

00:32:46

I oriente my heart towards God.

00:32:48

I use my mouth and I sing to Him.

00:32:51

I tell Him what I think.

00:32:53

Maybe it's a love song.

00:32:55

Maybe it's a war chant.

00:32:57

When guys get together on the field of battle

00:32:59

before they go to war, they sing.

00:33:01

Whatever it is, there's all kinds of forms that songs take,

00:33:04

but it's important to incline our heart towards Him,

00:33:06

so let's do that together right now as a community.

00:37:10

- Hey, thanks so much for joining us this week.

00:37:12

If you have questions about your calling

00:37:14

or you'd like prayer or you just want to talk to someone,

00:37:17

we are here for you.

00:37:18

- All you have to do is head to Crossroads.net

00:37:20

and click the chat icon and talk to somebody right now.

00:37:23

- That's right, or you can email us

00:37:25

and I mean Kyle and Hannah us.

00:37:27

These are real life email addresses right here.

00:37:30

We're going to do our best to get back to you within 24hours.

00:37:33

- Now, the episode may be over for today,

00:37:35

but Crossroads is about so much more than just this video.

00:37:38

If you want to be in the know

00:37:39

about what's going on around here,

00:37:41

all the opportunities that are available to you,

00:37:43

that we're working hard on all the time,

00:37:45

you can sign up for a weekly newsletter.

00:37:46

Head to Crossroads.net/new to sign up.

00:37:50

And each week you get a message from me

00:37:52

and you can read about all the stuff

00:37:53

that's going on in the community, amazing stuff,

00:37:56

like that come from all those e-mails you guys send me.

00:37:58

- Absolutely, and that's where we just

00:38:00

pray for each other as a community in that space

00:38:02

and you read about what's happening next at your church.

00:38:05

- Okay, this time you used a churchy word, pray.

00:38:08

What does that mean?

00:38:09

- That's easy, we just talk to God on each other's behalf.

00:38:13

Each week we share a story of someone who needs our prayers.

00:38:16

And after you read it, whenever it comes to mind,

00:38:19

just talk to God about it.

00:38:20

Just sit down and talk to Him about it.

00:38:22

It could be in your car. It could be in the shower.

00:38:24

Or maybe you have time in the morning

00:38:26

where you talk to God every single day.

00:38:27

- That's right.

00:38:28

So get subscribed to the newsletter

00:38:30

and be part of the community.

00:38:32

We'll see you right back here next week.

	What Should I Do With My Life?	2:09
	What's A Calling?	6:43
	Where Are You Being Called?	8:58
	The Four Things You Need To Do!	12:50
	How To Discover Your True Calling?	14:50
	Do You Want A Impactful Life?	19:46
	Will This Be Easy?	24:08
	What Do I Need To Do?	30:20
	We Trust In God	33:08

Recent Series