How to Share the Good News | Why You Can't Do It Alone

Ok, we know we’re supposed to share the Good News of Jesus. But, uh…how? The even better news is that you don’t have to do it alone. There’s a Helper.

This week, Brian Tome breaks down why the Holy Spirit’s job isn’t just to give you a nice spiritual experience, but to empower you to share the story of Jesus with your friends and neighbors.

Recorded live at Crossroads Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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    [music: Crossroads Music, Count Me In]
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    - Well hey, everybody, welcome to Crossroads Anywhere.
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    My name is Andy. I'm so glad that you're here with us.
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    Now, I don't know what kind of week you've had.
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    Maybe it's been great, maybe you're crushing it,
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    or maybe you're here holding on by a thread,
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    and that thread is caffeine now.
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    Either way, well done. You made it.
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    You showed up, and that matters.
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    Now this right here is a place for you
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    to take a breath and to remember, be reminded
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    that God's got something special for you today.
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    Now we're continuing a series called Go Reach Your People,
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    looking at how there are people in your in my life
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    that God wants us to impact.
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    But first we're actually going to spend some time
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    connecting with God through music, using these songs
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    not just as something to listen to,
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    but to be reminded of who God is and who He says we are.
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    So we'd love it if you'd stand and sing with us.
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    - Let's get those hands together. Come on.
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    Hey, you believe this? We say:
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    - We are a church that no matter who you are,
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    no matter where you're from, you're welcome here
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    and ready to seek and explore at your own pace,
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    in your own place.
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    So when we sing songs,
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    anybody's welcome to sing, all of us.
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    And for those of us who've been around a while
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    and we call ourselves followers of Christ,
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    when we sing a song like this,
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    I hope you're doing
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    some self-examination at the same time.
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    It's one thing to sing the song.
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    It's another thing to say I am completely abandoned.
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    It's another thing to say I am completely surrendered.
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    So as we sing this, we should simultaneously be saying,
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    "Am I? Am I abandoned,
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    or am I still thinking what other people think about me?
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    Am I, am I abandoned,
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    or am I still trying to play it safe?
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    Am I surrendered,
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    or have I still not repented of that specific sin?
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    And it's just my little pet little troll I'm petting.
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    Am I? Am I submitted, or is there parts of my walk
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    that I'm like, 'God, no, You're not there.'
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    And I've got my reasons for why that's not right."
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    Hey hey hey, let's let's sing this song
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    and simultaneously spiritually examine ourselves.
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    And maybe we'll do some time with God
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    to where we get to say with a fresh heart,
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    "I'm getting this right, God.
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    I am completely abandoned to You.
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    I'm different. I'm going to be different.
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    And I want my life to match the words of this song
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    that I sing to You."
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    - God, would You see everyone gathered online,
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    everyone standing in this room,
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    at rooms across all of our sites as us saying,
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    "At least count us in for the next, the next chunk of time
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    because we're looking for an encounter, God.
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    I think we're all done with content.
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    We're all done with programs.
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    What we want is an encounter with the living God
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    that changes us from the inside out.
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    Would You meet us here now?"
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    That's that's my expectation for what's going to happen.
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    It's in Jesus's name we pray. Amen.
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    Come on, y'all. It's so good.
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    So good to get to worship with you.
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    Why don't you turn to somebody and just say hey
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    and then grab a quick seat, all right.
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    - In November 2024, God called Crossroads to a moonshot.
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    He asked us to grow the four territories 10x in 10 years.
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    Our community pushed themselves,
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    faithfully committing $210 million
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    above and beyond our regular giving.
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    As soon as money comes in, we release it
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    to resource the territories God has called us to expand.
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    Over the last ten months, we have taken ground
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    to expand all four territories as we pursue revival
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    for our friends and neighbors who don't know Jesus
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    and an awakening in our land.
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    And we are just getting started.
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    In the last few years, our student ministry
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    has experienced amazing growth.
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    In particular, Mason is bursting at the seams
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    with no space to invite more students
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    into the life purpose God has for them.
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    Because many have begun
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    fulfilling their push commitments.,
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    we have been able to follow through on our promise
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    to make space for all of our students
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    to learn about Jesus in a language they can understand.
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    - Hey, I'm Joel, Director of Next Gen.
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    And right now, as I look around at culture,
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    they are investing in spaces for the next gen.
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    We as a church, we want to take action
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    and do the same thing.
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    If we see students in malls and movie theaters
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    and bougie restaurants, we want to see them
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    filling our churches.
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    To win with the next generation,
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    we have to invest in the next generation.
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    In fact, that's what we're doing.
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    Right now I am standing in what will be
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    the brand new Mason Student Section.
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    The old one was at capacity
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    because it was an old meeting room.
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    It was the afterthought.
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    Yet 503 students recently attended
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    our back to school event at Mason. 503!
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    Even in an old converted meeting room,
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    we are seeing a desire,
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    I'd call it a hunger with the next generation,
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    and we're seeing this across sites.
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    We are in the process of renovating
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    the old Mason chapel into the new student section.
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    This new space is way bigger, as you can tell,
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    and it's going to be designed to be attractive,
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    exciting, really student focused that gives them
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    more space to run after their friends.
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    Our students are passionate about many things,
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    but we're also seeing kind of this music
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    and worship awakening.
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    And so we want to specifically invest in that,
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    video equipment, audio equipment, lighting.
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    We want this to be our best expression of worship.
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    And we want to see students fill this place.
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    We lead the way in immersive experiences as a church,
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    but not yet in students.
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    And I say not yet, because that changes now with this space.
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    And it's just the beginning.
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    In fact, it's the beginning of us looking at all of our spaces,
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    both kids and students across sites,
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    to maximize their ability to reach students
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    and prepare them to lead the church
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    into a future awakening.
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    And if you're a part of the 10X Push,
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    you are making this happen,
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    and you will never know the impact
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    that this is going to have on students
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    and families for generations to come.
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    - Man, how awesome was that? Come on.
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    I love seeing what God is doing
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    in the lives of our students right now.
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    Hey, I'm actually in our video control room
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    because I wanted to bring you behind the scenes
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    so you could just a small sense of how much work
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    and effort goes into the thing that enables
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    you and I to experience God in church every week.
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    But it's a reminder that all the stuff,
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    as we talk about 10X growth and impact
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    across our sites and online, and it's not just about
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    more technology or bigger buildings or cooler lights.
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    No, it's about reimagining the experiences
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    that we have, that our students have,
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    that the next generation has to encounter God
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    in a way to change their lives.
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    Now I've got three kids, the oldest of which
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    is going to be in middle school next year.
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    And I'm so thankful, so thankful that right now
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    is the strongest our student ministry has ever been,
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    and that my kids and countless more
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    can fall in love with Jesus
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    through the experiences that this place creates,
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    online, in sites and in homes.
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    And all this stuff happens because you,
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    and people like you keep showing up, serving,
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    giving, praying and inviting.
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    You see God move in incredible ways.
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    Man, and I'm so thankful for the people
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    who are on the team and call this place home.
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    If that's you, I just want to say thank you.
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    And if you want to follow the example
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    of faithful people like that,
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    you can go to crossroads.net/give.
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    Now, we've got a saying around here that
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    every number has a name and every name has a story.
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    I want you to hear the story of a man named Kelvin.
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    - My dad was in the Air Force, so we moved around quite a bit.
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    We didn't have a lot of community.
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    When I left the home after I graduated high school,
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    I went to the Naval Academy.
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    So we would do deployments and go out to sea
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    for six, seven months at a time.
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    I'd done that 2 or 3 times before I got asked
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    to deploy to Afghanistan.
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    Obviously, there's no water in Afghanistan.
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    You're getting plucked off the ship
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    and asked to go support the folks
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    that are on the ground fighting a war.
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    That brought a real reality check, like what's going on?
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    Got a little nervous about that.
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    It didn't help a couple of months
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    before I was was scheduled to deploy
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    one of my good friends was shot and killed in Afghanistan.
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    And so I was scared.
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    Walking through that, it even heightened the level of fear.
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    Questioned why, like, why am I going over there?
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    I'm not trained to do this.
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    Getting over to the base that I was going to support,
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    not knowing anybody, you didn't really have any community,
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    didn't really have anybody to tag along with
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    or to guide me.
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    But the Marines that were there treated me like family
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    right off the bat.
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    I had a different uniform on that they were wearing.
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    They're like, "We can't have you
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    looking like somebody else out here."
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    So they gave me like the uniforms that they were wearing.
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    They had this sense of peace that, like,
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    didn't really make sense in an environment
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    that is a war zone essentially.
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    There are things happening,
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    there are things that they see,
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    people get hurt, people die.
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    But they walked and talked with an assurance
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    that things are going to be okay.
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    The reason that they had that confidence and that peace
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    is because of the strength of their faith.
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    They came in with it.
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    They lived it while they were there.
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    It spread amongst everybody that was around them.
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    Things like holding prayer groups
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    or eating with their guys at lunch,
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    embracing folks when they come back off of
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    being out in the field after a long day of work
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    having seen some things
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    that could really mess with your mind,
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    the way that they embraced them.
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    That's the type of leadership and love
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    that I hope that I could exude.
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    Just being around that I wanted more of it. Right?
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    So I wanted more of it.
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    They were a piece of that.
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    And so me being able to attach onto them,
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    ask them questions, talk about their walk,
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    understand how they came from where they were
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    to get to where they are now.
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    It wasn't a group of folks that were just born great
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    and strong in their faith, which made their journey
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    to where they are now even more impactful.
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    I think one of the guys, he had struggled with alcoholism.
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    He was divorced, had a kid who didn't have custody of.
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    When he connected with this group
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    it helped change his life as well.
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    And now he was sober.
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    He has a relationship with his daughter
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    and a working relationship with his ex-wife.
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    And so the stories like that,
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    it's kind of allowed me to connect with that.
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    Like, all right, I got some issues too, right?
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    I got some things going on.
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    I got to the point where I was like, I want that too,
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    and I want that before I go back to the States.
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    I want it now.
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    At that point, I went to the chaplain on base
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    and just told him that I wanted to give my life to Christ.
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    And on Christmas Day 2010, did that
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    in the middle of the desert with that group
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    and a bunch of other folks surrounding me
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    with love and encouragement.
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    And that was how I came to know God.
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    Definitely was a weight off the shoulders.
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    The fear and the worry, the things that I had
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    coming into the deployment were just released,
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    and it was just reassured by the folks that were around me.
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    - Kelvin looked at these people, these Marines,
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    and they had a peace.
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    And he said, "Well, how do they have this peace?"
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    That peace comes from what we've been talking about
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    the last few weeks, the gospel.
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    Gospel is good news, good tidings.
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    And people who give the gospel are known as evangelists.
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    And these are words that were around
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    before the New Testament was written.
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    It's just ancient words, good news, good news.
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    And someone who gives it is known as an evangelist.
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    These folks, these Marines, were evangelists of good news.
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    He saw peace that he couldn't have had any other way.
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    There was a level of power
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    because of the presence of the Spirit of God.
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    There was forgiveness.
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    All of these are reasons why the gospel is good news for us.
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    Now I'm going to share today.
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    I'm going to take one of our --
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    I'm going to take our Lead Pastor Kyle Ranson's cue,
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    I thought last week he did a great job
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    and he shared some of his story.
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    I'm going to share some of my story with this today,
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    and hopefully it's helpful.
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    And let's pray before we get any further.
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    God, I am really looking forward to
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    what it might look like for this many people
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    to really be turned on by You.
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    I'm looking forward to what could happen
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    if people got led by Your Spirit to a greater degree
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    to bring more people into the good news.
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    Help me to communicate this as compellingly,
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    clearly, and accurately as possible.
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    Thank You for the honor, Jesus, I appreciate it.
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    In Your Name I pray. Amen.
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    So big idea for this, the main sign,
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    the main sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit
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    in your life is you sharing your faith,
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    if you have faith.
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    Wherever you are in the faith spectrum,
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    the closer you get to God,
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    the more you're going to get of His Spirit,
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    the more this is critical.
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    And I know that sounds really weird to a lot of us,
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    but you got to hear hear me on this.
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    This is just a basic Bible thing
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    for some reason gets really lost with people.
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    I stuck to Kelvin's story so much because
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    he was connected with the Marines,
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    and that's a part of my story.
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    I didn't go to the Marines,
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    but I am a rebellious human being.
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    I don't know if you know about anything about me,
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    but you should know that about me.
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    And you're the same way, right?
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    We tend to be rebellious human beings.
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    And my parents had a will for my life,
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    and I didn't want to accept it.
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    My parents were big, big into schooling.
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    Big, big into higher learning.
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    They were both valedictorians.
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    They were saving money for me
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    to just do anything I wanted education.
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    That's what they wanted for me.
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    And I didn't want that for me at all.
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    I didn't want to be an aca -- acama -- academician.
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    Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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    There's a professor from NKU gets that one,
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    academician, right.
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    I didn't want to be an academician.
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    I didn't want that. I was rebelling against that.
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    So if you're not going to go to school where I was
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    the only choice, they said, well, go to the Marines.
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    So I started working,
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    going down to the marine headquarters,
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    started doing like their fitness tests,
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    hang out with the recruiters, all that sort of stuff.
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    And I had some skills.
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    This was early in high school.
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    It was kind of a fun thing for me to do.
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    I had some skills because back in the early 80s,
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    man, going to high school was, man, it was amazing.
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    They had this thing called shop class,
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    this thing called shop class.
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    You could cut your finger off in school.
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    It was awesome.
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    They had that. They had power mechanics.
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    You would go and work on engines,
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    be taught how to work on engines.
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    And if you took a look at my life
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    from my sophomore year in high school
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    all the way to my senior year,
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    it tells the story of my spiritual progression.
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    Here I am in the sophomore yearbook.
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    I'm at power mechanics class.
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    Kneeling down, trying to get a lawn mower engine running.
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    That year we also took a Gran Torino
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    and chopped the roof off of it and made it a convertible.
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    It was great, man. Wonderful.
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    That guy, that guy right there
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    wasn't just learning how to work on engines,
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    it was helping him in his Marine Corps entrance exam.
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    It was also a guy who got drunk every Friday night,
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    every Saturday night, and every couple of weeks
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    skipped school to do day drinking.
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    That's what I was about.
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    That's what my world was about.
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    And my parents, if they wanted me to go to school,
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    I wasn't going to go to school.
  • 00:29:54
    I'm doing my own thing.
  • 00:29:55
    They didn't drink at all.
  • 00:29:56
    They didn't, I'm going to drink.
  • 00:29:58
    I'm gonna drink a lot.
  • 00:30:02
    During this time, getting into my junior year,
  • 00:30:05
    this transition, spiritual transition.
  • 00:30:07
    I never had like a -- it wasn't like a
  • 00:30:08
    necessarily a light on and off.
  • 00:30:10
    It was just this slow, gradual working
  • 00:30:13
    of the Spirit of God in my life.
  • 00:30:15
    I found myself in my junior year not starting,
  • 00:30:22
    but playing. I was on special teams.
  • 00:30:24
    And this is in the yearbook
  • 00:30:26
    from Franklin Regional High School.
  • 00:30:28
    I would come off and I'm huffing and puffing.
  • 00:30:32
    I wasn't catching any passes.
  • 00:30:33
    I wasn't good enough to catch passes,
  • 00:30:35
    wasn't good enough to start.
  • 00:30:36
    But I was, you know, I was a hustler
  • 00:30:38
    so I was on the kickoff team.
  • 00:30:39
    And this guy at Franklin Regional High School
  • 00:30:41
    would sit up against the fence and say,
  • 00:30:43
    "Hey, Tome, do something.
  • 00:30:44
    Why don't you do something?
  • 00:30:45
    Why are you sitting on the bench? Do something."
  • 00:30:47
    He was, like, who is this guy?
  • 00:30:50
    And I learned that this guy worked for an organization,
  • 00:30:52
    national organization called Young Life,
  • 00:30:55
    that would go around trying to help people,
  • 00:30:57
    students, understand the good news of Jesus.
  • 00:31:00
    And he was just trying to playfully heckle me,
  • 00:31:03
    woo me into some sort of friendship with him.
  • 00:31:06
    This 28 year old guy or so like that.
  • 00:31:08
    And I'm, "Who is this guy?"
  • 00:31:10
    Found out Young life, this and that.
  • 00:31:11
    And there's a guy on my team who said, "Hey,
  • 00:31:15
    I've got -- we got this thing going on.
  • 00:31:17
    Do you want to, uh, would you want to come
  • 00:31:19
    to a Young Life meeting with me?"
  • 00:31:20
    I was like, "Uh, okay, okay, fine. I'll go."
  • 00:31:23
    So I go to this meeting
  • 00:31:25
    and there's kids in this living room
  • 00:31:28
    and they're singing songs.
  • 00:31:29
    They got this guitar, like, it's kind of weird
  • 00:31:31
    when you sound like, right?
  • 00:31:32
    Kids come together, like, sing songs in somebody's house.
  • 00:31:35
    But it was cool, actually, I liked it.
  • 00:31:37
    And then this guy gets up and he opens up the Bible
  • 00:31:40
    and he starts talking.
  • 00:31:41
    And because my mom played the organ,
  • 00:31:43
    my dad sang in the choir, I could --
  • 00:31:45
    I knew most of the stories, a lot of them.
  • 00:31:47
    And he's telling the story, and I'd heard the words before,
  • 00:31:51
    but for the first time, the melody came alive.
  • 00:31:54
    I heard the melody for the first time.
  • 00:31:56
    I was mesmerized.
  • 00:31:58
    He spoke in a language that that I could understand,
  • 00:32:01
    all because somebody had invited me.
  • 00:32:05
    John 1:46, this is how Jesus created a following
  • 00:32:09
    and how you're here today,
  • 00:32:11
    no matter where you are spiritually.
  • 00:32:13
    John 1:46 says: Nathanael said to him, a friend of his,
  • 00:32:17
    "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
  • 00:32:19
    Like Jesus is known as Jesus of Nazareth.
  • 00:32:21
    Nathaniel is asked by Philip to come and see who Jesus is.
  • 00:32:25
    "Nazareth?" Like, think of the grossest,
  • 00:32:28
    least respectable area of town that you grew up in
  • 00:32:31
    or where you live right now.
  • 00:32:33
    That's not as bad as Nazareth to early Middle Easterners.
  • 00:32:36
    "Nazareth?
  • 00:32:38
    You're saying that the Son of God came from Nazareth?
  • 00:32:41
    What good come out of Nazareth?"
  • 00:32:42
    And Philip, he doesn't have all the answers.
  • 00:32:44
    He just says this in John 1:46.
  • 00:32:46
    He says, "Come and see. Just come and see."
  • 00:32:50
    He's inviting him into a relationship with Him.
  • 00:32:54
    When I got into this group, I started changing
  • 00:32:59
    and something significant started to happen in my life.
  • 00:33:02
    And somewhere along the line,
  • 00:33:03
    I ended up crossing the line of faith.
  • 00:33:06
    And then my senior year in high school,
  • 00:33:08
    if you look at my senior year, I got a new number.
  • 00:33:10
    I got a new number because they wanted to use me
  • 00:33:12
    and I realized I had horrible hands.
  • 00:33:14
    So I was kind of a grunt worker.
  • 00:33:16
    They said, "We're going to put you in line."
  • 00:33:18
    "Great. I'll take the line."
  • 00:33:19
    So here I am.
  • 00:33:21
    By the way, my middle name is Douglas,
  • 00:33:23
    in case you're wondering about that.
  • 00:33:24
    Like, oh got it. Okay.
  • 00:33:28
    I should have brought that up with the other services.
  • 00:33:30
    All right. Got it. Okay, good.
  • 00:33:33
    So here I am, here I am. Maybe around a campfire.
  • 00:33:38
    So here I am -- Not that, really.
  • 00:33:41
    Here, here I am, my senior year. Different number.
  • 00:33:45
    And two friends are to my right.
  • 00:33:48
    To my right is a friend of mine named Bob.
  • 00:33:51
    An we partied hard together, hard.
  • 00:33:55
    And right behind him is AT.
  • 00:33:57
    We partied and drank hard together a lot.
  • 00:34:01
    And when I came to know Christ,
  • 00:34:03
    I didn't want to give up the parties
  • 00:34:07
    because I had formed relationships there,
  • 00:34:10
    I'd formed friendships there, and it was important
  • 00:34:13
    to me to actually be in those relationships.
  • 00:34:15
    Here's what The Atlantic says not too long ago.
  • 00:34:18
    It says: Simply put, America is in a party deficit.
  • 00:34:21
    Only 4.1% of Americans attended or hosted
  • 00:34:25
    a social event on an average weekend or holiday in 2023,
  • 00:34:29
    according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics;
  • 00:34:32
    this is a 35% decrease since 2004.
  • 00:34:36
    So of course, we're getting more and more lonely,
  • 00:34:38
    of course, because we're not partying with each other,
  • 00:34:41
    we're not hanging out with each other.
  • 00:34:43
    And for me, in high school,
  • 00:34:45
    alcohol was a social lubricant.
  • 00:34:47
    Now, I've actually read people bemoaning that
  • 00:34:51
    people in high school aren't drinking like they used to.
  • 00:34:55
    Now it's please, kids, don't do this. Don't do this.
  • 00:34:58
    Hear me out all entirely. Okay?
  • 00:35:02
    I knew as Jesus came into my life,
  • 00:35:05
    He started transforming me, I needed to stop drinking
  • 00:35:08
    and abusing alcohol, but I also
  • 00:35:10
    didn't need to stop going to parties
  • 00:35:11
    because that's where my friends were.
  • 00:35:13
    So I would go to these parties with a red solo cup.
  • 00:35:16
    I fill you up with apple juice.
  • 00:35:18
    I would sit there with apple juice. No one cared.
  • 00:35:20
    I was just as funny as I was before
  • 00:35:21
    or as stupid as I was before, and just hanging out
  • 00:35:24
    with my red solo cup and interacted because I --
  • 00:35:28
    Because here's the thing, here's the reason
  • 00:35:30
    I came to know Christ wasn't just that
  • 00:35:33
    Denny Paton from Young Life was heckling me
  • 00:35:36
    and inviting me in.
  • 00:35:38
    He was praying for me.
  • 00:35:40
    I was on his mirror in a list called a paste list,
  • 00:35:45
    which as he brushed his teeth, he was praying for me.
  • 00:35:48
    And I learned this from him.
  • 00:35:50
    So for 45 years I've had a paste list
  • 00:35:54
    and these guys were on my paste list.
  • 00:35:57
    And I'm going to go, I'm going to go to work for them.
  • 00:36:00
    I want them to have the good news.
  • 00:36:01
    Isn't that when something makes sense to you
  • 00:36:03
    and is great and impacts your life,
  • 00:36:05
    don't you want other people to have it?
  • 00:36:07
    Like who invented toilet paper first?
  • 00:36:09
    You'd be like, "Dude, you got to do this.
  • 00:36:11
    This is amazing. You gotta, you gotta."
  • 00:36:13
    You can't keep quiet about toilet paper, right?
  • 00:36:16
    Sliced bread, whatever it is.
  • 00:36:18
    So I wanted to have them say, "Come and see, come and see."
  • 00:36:23
    I didn't have all the right answers, all the right stuff.
  • 00:36:25
    I just come and see.
  • 00:36:27
    So I went to Danny and I said, "Hey, how about
  • 00:36:29
    if we have Young Life at my house?"
  • 00:36:32
    "Oh, yeah. Yeah, we could do that."
  • 00:36:34
    So scheduled it. And, man, I worked it hard.
  • 00:36:37
    I invited everybody who I knew.
  • 00:36:39
    I went --we had the largest Young Life meeting
  • 00:36:41
    of the year in my house, and it was massive.
  • 00:36:44
    And furniture got broken in my house
  • 00:36:46
    because people were standing on dining room chairs
  • 00:36:48
    to be able to see over this thing.
  • 00:36:50
    And it was awesome, except for my mother
  • 00:36:52
    who had her furniture broken.
  • 00:36:55
    And I was going to give my testimony
  • 00:36:57
    and I asked to give my testimony.
  • 00:36:58
    And Denny said, "You want to give testimony?" "I do."
  • 00:37:01
    So I got up and first time
  • 00:37:02
    I basically ever public speak like that,
  • 00:37:04
    and the first time I ever cried and I cried
  • 00:37:08
    because I don't know what it was,
  • 00:37:09
    the weight of the moment,
  • 00:37:11
    the beauty of telling the greatest story ever told.
  • 00:37:14
    And I'd never cried before.
  • 00:37:15
    I cried when I got paddled.
  • 00:37:18
    Yeah, yeah, yeah.
  • 00:37:20
    Man, you used to go to school to get your fingers cut off
  • 00:37:23
    and get paddled.
  • 00:37:25
    Like, how many people here got paddled? How many people?
  • 00:37:28
    Amazing. We're all alive and we're not scarred.
  • 00:37:32
    Mom and dad, you ought to try it. Just saying.
  • 00:37:34
    So that's another sermon for another day.
  • 00:37:37
    I will give that sermon someday.
  • 00:37:39
    I never cried before in public, ever,
  • 00:37:42
    or about something emotional.
  • 00:37:44
    I never cried about something.
  • 00:37:45
    It was really, really odd.
  • 00:37:47
    And afterwards Bob came up to me and he said,
  • 00:37:49
    "Hey, man." He had hushed tones.
  • 00:37:52
    He said, I'll never forget, he said,
  • 00:37:54
    "That thing that happened with you,
  • 00:37:57
    was that you or was that God?"
  • 00:38:00
    I said that was God.
  • 00:38:04
    AT to my right would never go to Young Life.
  • 00:38:06
    I'll try something. I'll try something else.
  • 00:38:08
    I was involved peripherally in this church.
  • 00:38:10
    It was meeting in an abandoned grocery store,
  • 00:38:12
    and they were trying to have this outreach.
  • 00:38:14
    They had this guy who was a former Hell's Angel,
  • 00:38:19
    not Hell's Angels, but one of the competing biker gangs.
  • 00:38:21
    And he had become a professional arm wrestler.
  • 00:38:24
    And he was going to give his story.
  • 00:38:26
    And they came to me and said, "Hey,
  • 00:38:28
    what if you got the strongest person
  • 00:38:29
    you could get in the school and see if
  • 00:38:31
    they'll come arm wrestle him
  • 00:38:32
    and we'll make that kind of a thing?"
  • 00:38:34
    I said, "Huh. Okay." So I went to AT who is at my right
  • 00:38:37
    and said, "Hey, we need the strongest guy in high school."
  • 00:38:39
    Like, hint, hint, nudge nudge,
  • 00:38:41
    kind of compliment for you, "to arm wrestle this guy.
  • 00:38:44
    And he's going to give a little talk afterwards.
  • 00:38:46
    Can you do it? We really need you."
  • 00:38:47
    He said, "Uh, yeah, I'll do it."
  • 00:38:50
    I'll never forget him coming in.
  • 00:38:51
    And of course, David Story was his name,
  • 00:38:53
    he put him down immediately down.
  • 00:38:56
    But there was AT who stayed the whole time.,
  • 00:38:59
    listened to this guy's story.
  • 00:39:00
    Guy shook his hand. It was beautiful.
  • 00:39:01
    I don't know, I didn't see either of those two guys
  • 00:39:04
    come to know Christ and receive the good news
  • 00:39:06
    while I was there, and I don't know right now
  • 00:39:09
    where they are, but I will tell you,
  • 00:39:11
    there was something powerful and profound
  • 00:39:14
    in my life with God in doing that work.
  • 00:39:18
    In fact, because of that, I said,
  • 00:39:20
    "I'm not going to do the Marines.
  • 00:39:22
    I'm rebelling against God.
  • 00:39:23
    I'm actually going to do ministry.
  • 00:39:24
    Can I do this and get paid to do this?
  • 00:39:26
    Have more time to do this? I'm in."
  • 00:39:28
    And that meant I had to go to school.
  • 00:39:30
    I had to go to college.
  • 00:39:31
    It's like, "God, count me in.
  • 00:39:33
    This is what I want to give my life."
  • 00:39:35
    Now, where are we going with all of this?
  • 00:39:38
    Where we're going with this goes back to
  • 00:39:39
    the core of the faith, the core of your faith.
  • 00:39:43
    All of us in here right now are here
  • 00:39:44
    because you want to be more spiritually alive.
  • 00:39:46
    That's why you came here on a beautiful day.
  • 00:39:48
    All of you are in here right now because you want more of God.
  • 00:39:51
    All of you in here right now because
  • 00:39:52
    if there's some X factor, you want it.
  • 00:39:54
    All of you are here today because you're hoping
  • 00:39:56
    there's something you can't see and you want it.
  • 00:39:58
    That thing, that entity is known as the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:40:03
    That's the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:40:04
    When we say, I receive Jesus, I did receive Him.
  • 00:40:07
    I said He's my Messiah.
  • 00:40:08
    But Jesus doesn't live in here.
  • 00:40:11
    Jesus isn't in my heart. He wouldn't fit.
  • 00:40:15
    But the Holy Spirit, His Spirit He's one with
  • 00:40:18
    is in here and in anybody who receives Him.
  • 00:40:21
    When we learn about this Holy Spirit, we find that He --
  • 00:40:24
    When I say he, it is a he, he's a person with a personality.
  • 00:40:28
    He's given the definite article
  • 00:40:29
    in the original Greek when was recorded.
  • 00:40:31
    Jesus talking about this, a masculine definite article.
  • 00:40:35
    He's a person with a personality.
  • 00:40:37
    And when Jesus forecasts Him coming, here's what He says.
  • 00:40:41
    It's read in Acts 1:8 says this:
  • 00:40:46
    You will receive power
  • 00:40:47
    when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,
  • 00:40:49
    and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem
  • 00:40:53
    and in all Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth.
  • 00:40:55
    Kyle talked about this verse really well last week,
  • 00:40:57
    but I want to highlight something else in this.
  • 00:40:59
    He's talking about how does the good news spread
  • 00:41:02
    to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria? And how does it spread?
  • 00:41:06
    It spreads through you and me.
  • 00:41:10
    And we're not strong enough.
  • 00:41:12
    So what is the agent of power?
  • 00:41:14
    It's the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:41:17
    The Holy Spirit, what the Holy Spirit's main job
  • 00:41:21
    is to get Jesus publicity.
  • 00:41:25
    The Holy Spirit's main job is to give you and I
  • 00:41:29
    power for sharing our faith.
  • 00:41:32
    So when you're not sharing your faith,
  • 00:41:35
    or we're not interested in evangelism,
  • 00:41:37
    to use a dirty word, we're saying,
  • 00:41:40
    "I'm not interested in the X factor
  • 00:41:41
    of the Holy Spirit in my life."
  • 00:41:43
    Because Jesus says here, this is the reason
  • 00:41:45
    the Spirit is coming, to empower us to communicate who He is.
  • 00:41:51
    Now, if we go to Acts chapter two, the next chapter,
  • 00:41:55
    Jesus had said this is going to happen.
  • 00:41:57
    The Holy Spirit's coming.
  • 00:41:58
    When we see when the Holy Spirit actually comes,
  • 00:42:00
    because up to this point, people didn't get the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:42:04
    You could get the Holy Spirit once you got Jesus,
  • 00:42:06
    once you committed to Him,
  • 00:42:07
    that's when the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in you
  • 00:42:09
    and gives you a peace that passes understanding,
  • 00:42:12
    gives you forgiveness, gives you an identity,
  • 00:42:15
    all of these things.
  • 00:42:16
    But this is like brand new stuff.
  • 00:42:18
    No one in the Old Testament ever had this.
  • 00:42:20
    Like, people group didn't have this.
  • 00:42:22
    So when the Holy Spirit first does come
  • 00:42:25
    and actually inhabit His people,
  • 00:42:26
    I'm going to read it for you. It's pretty crazy.
  • 00:42:28
    It's at Pentecost.
  • 00:42:29
    Pentecost is a Jewish holiday.
  • 00:42:32
    It's an Old Testament holiday.
  • 00:42:34
    And so Jews from all over the place
  • 00:42:36
    have come to Jerusalem to celebrate
  • 00:42:40
    and have a high holy day.
  • 00:42:41
    That's what holiday means, a holy day.
  • 00:42:44
    They've come in to have this,
  • 00:42:45
    people all over the place with different languages
  • 00:42:48
    and different backgrounds. One thing in common.
  • 00:42:50
    They all believed in Yahweh
  • 00:42:51
    and they all believed in keeping
  • 00:42:53
    the Old Testament scriptures. That's why they're there.
  • 00:42:55
    So let's look at what happens.
  • 00:42:57
    Okay, here it is.
  • 00:43:03
    When the day of Pentecost arrived,
  • 00:43:06
    they were all together in one place,
  • 00:43:08
    and suddenly there came from heaven
  • 00:43:12
    a sound like a mighty rushing wind. [wind sounds]
  • 00:43:16
    And it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
  • 00:43:25
    The apostles have gone to lick their wounds
  • 00:43:27
    after Jesus has been crucified.
  • 00:43:28
    They've gone back to the upper room.
  • 00:43:31
    They've gone there to lick their wounds and go inward.
  • 00:43:35
    Instead something else happened is going to take them outward.
  • 00:43:41
    And divided tongues as of fire appeared on them
  • 00:43:47
    and rested on each one of them,
  • 00:43:51
    and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
  • 00:43:57
    and began to speak in other tongues
  • 00:44:00
    as the Spirit gave them utterance.
  • 00:44:03
    [overlapping talking]
  • 00:44:10
    Not everybody gets this gift.
  • 00:44:16
    The gift of being able to share your faith,
  • 00:44:19
    because you got people in who are Jews,
  • 00:44:21
    who are speaking French,
  • 00:44:22
    people who speak German speaking Germany,
  • 00:44:24
    people who are Acadian speaking Acadian,
  • 00:44:27
    people, whatever they are, they're all in.
  • 00:44:29
    And the Holy Spirit wants these people to know
  • 00:44:33
    about the possibility of forgiveness and empowerment.
  • 00:44:36
    And so what He does is He empowers people
  • 00:44:38
    to speak languages they've never learned in class.
  • 00:44:45
    That's what the Holy Spirit does.
  • 00:44:49
    All of us want something unique to happen in our lives.
  • 00:44:53
    I do.
  • 00:44:54
    All of us want some some vision from God. I do.
  • 00:44:58
    All of us want some miraculous new spiritual gift. I do.
  • 00:45:03
    All of us want some new spiritual feeling,
  • 00:45:05
    wherever we get it, I do.
  • 00:45:08
    Let me be very clear, very, very, very clear,
  • 00:45:11
    the Holy Spirit, though you may have a vision,
  • 00:45:13
    is not about giving you a vision.
  • 00:45:15
    The Holy Spirit that you may get
  • 00:45:17
    a miraculous spiritual gift, His goal is not
  • 00:45:19
    for you to have a miraculous spiritual gift.
  • 00:45:22
    The Holy Spirit, though we may and want
  • 00:45:25
    mountaintop experiences, that's not His role.
  • 00:45:29
    His role is to equip you to do evangelism.
  • 00:45:33
    That's what He does.
  • 00:45:35
    Jesus said, this is going to happen.
  • 00:45:37
    You're supposed to do this, and then the first thing,
  • 00:45:40
    when the Holy Spirit comes, the very first thing,
  • 00:45:42
    they start telling people about their faith.
  • 00:45:44
    And people en masse start starts converting
  • 00:45:47
    over to Jesus being the Way, the Truth and the Life.
  • 00:45:51
    Jesus talked about this.
  • 00:45:52
    He said this is going to happen.
  • 00:45:54
    In the book of John 15:26 He said this:
  • 00:45:57
    But when the Helper comes,
  • 00:45:59
    that's the Holy Spirit, capitalized H.
  • 00:46:03
    When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you
  • 00:46:06
    from the Father, the Spirit of truth,
  • 00:46:08
    who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me.
  • 00:46:13
    And you also will bear witness,
  • 00:46:15
    because you have been with Me from the beginning.
  • 00:46:18
    So the Helper, the Helper here
  • 00:46:20
    isn't just helping you in your medical trauma,
  • 00:46:23
    isn't just helping you through your emotional trauma,
  • 00:46:25
    just helping you do a good presentation at work.
  • 00:46:28
    All those things may be true and are true
  • 00:46:30
    to one degree or another.
  • 00:46:31
    But the Helper, the Helper is so you can bear witness.
  • 00:46:38
    So if you want the Holy Spirit
  • 00:46:40
    you have to be a bearer of good news.
  • 00:46:42
    The Holy Spirit empowers us for evangelism.
  • 00:46:46
    Sometimes we're part of churches where
  • 00:46:50
    churches are afraid of the Holy Spirit,
  • 00:46:51
    like afraid of what might happen
  • 00:46:53
    if the Holy Spirit got unleashed.
  • 00:46:54
    Afraid of what crazy things might happen.
  • 00:46:57
    So people like me might not talk about the Holy Spirit
  • 00:47:00
    because we're like, "I don't know how this is going to work."
  • 00:47:02
    And then what happens, if you leave
  • 00:47:04
    from a church like that where that wasn't happening,
  • 00:47:06
    you get to another church where it's all Holy Spirit
  • 00:47:08
    all the time and, like, no one ever comes to know Christ.
  • 00:47:11
    It's just a bunch of disenfranchized
  • 00:47:13
    previous church people were hanging out
  • 00:47:15
    in those places where there's no power.
  • 00:47:16
    Why? Because there's no evangelism that happens.
  • 00:47:20
    The Holy Spirit is actually uncomfortable
  • 00:47:23
    I'm talking about Him right now.
  • 00:47:25
    He doesn't want to be talked about.
  • 00:47:26
    Just take Jesus's Word, "He will bear witness about Me."
  • 00:47:31
    The Holy Spirit wants Jesus to be talked about.
  • 00:47:34
    He wants Jesus.
  • 00:47:36
    So he's a little squeamish about it.
  • 00:47:38
    All this to say, friends, if you want
  • 00:47:40
    a supercharged spiritual life, if you want the X factor,
  • 00:47:44
    it rests in the Holy Spirit,
  • 00:47:46
    and you have to go where the Holy Spirit is.
  • 00:47:48
    And the Holy Spirit's about pointing people to Jesus.
  • 00:47:50
    The Holy Spirit's about people receiving Jesus.
  • 00:47:55
    And if you want a spiritual buzz, man,
  • 00:47:57
    your best game in town is putting people on a mirror
  • 00:48:01
    and praying for them and then asking God,
  • 00:48:04
    asking God how you can be used
  • 00:48:06
    to actually articulate your faith.
  • 00:48:08
    Asking God for some place you can invite them.
  • 00:48:11
    As I mentioned, I've been 45 years
  • 00:48:13
    I've had someone's name on my mirror.
  • 00:48:15
    And a lot of them are part of this church right now
  • 00:48:17
    have come to know Christ. It's wonderful.
  • 00:48:19
    I've met playing basketball or doing whatever.
  • 00:48:20
    And some are up there have there for a while.
  • 00:48:23
    I had one guy in there for a couple few years now,
  • 00:48:26
    and I've invited him to things, "Come and see."
  • 00:48:29
    And try to talk to him and just, you know,
  • 00:48:32
    no, no, no apparent warmth there at all.
  • 00:48:35
    No -- just just nothing.
  • 00:48:37
    I found out a couple of weeks ago a mutual friend
  • 00:48:41
    that we have, a mutual guy we know
  • 00:48:43
    invited him to Man Camp and he's coming to Man Camp.
  • 00:48:45
    I'm like, "Man Camp? My gosh, Man Camp is a far cry
  • 00:48:52
    from Super Bowl of Preaching, let me tell you,
  • 00:48:54
    a far, far, far cry."
  • 00:48:56
    As is revival, which is coming up in a few weeks,
  • 00:48:59
    our Revival.
  • 00:49:01
    It's interesting how I've read --
  • 00:49:04
    I read just recently in Relevant Magazine,
  • 00:49:06
    it's a Christian magazine that
  • 00:49:07
    80% of all people in America surveyed said
  • 00:49:13
    if I was invited to church, I would go. 80%.
  • 00:49:17
    Especially, here's the other thing.
  • 00:49:19
    The younger you are, the more likely you are
  • 00:49:21
    to take somebody up on your invitation
  • 00:49:22
    because in America right now, the younger you are,
  • 00:49:24
    the more spiritually hungry you are.
  • 00:49:26
    That defies everything.
  • 00:49:27
    Like, that's not the way it was 20, 30 years ago, right?
  • 00:49:31
    But that's the way it is now.
  • 00:49:33
    And what's missing? Just being asked.
  • 00:49:37
    And my friend asked him to Man Camp.
  • 00:49:40
    Not Super Bowl of Preaching.
  • 00:49:42
    He wasn't interested in that shenanigans,
  • 00:49:45
    which I love it, but like I guess,
  • 00:49:47
    I haven't talked about this.
  • 00:49:49
    I guess I'm up for getting hit in the mouth.
  • 00:49:51
    I want to see the X factor.
  • 00:49:53
    I don't know what he's thinking,
  • 00:49:55
    but all I know is wonderful. Wonderful.
  • 00:49:56
    Been praying for him
  • 00:49:57
    and God's working through somebody else.
  • 00:49:59
    It's awesome.
  • 00:50:00
    Friends, the greatest adventure you'll ever be a part of
  • 00:50:03
    is seeing how God uses you to work
  • 00:50:06
    in and through somebody else. The revival.
  • 00:50:09
    Revival is another one, man. I'm telling you, Revival.
  • 00:50:13
    You can come, you can come camp two nights,
  • 00:50:15
    you can camp one night, you can come up and back.
  • 00:50:18
    You can come up and back, one time if you want.
  • 00:50:21
    You can put your kids, tuck them in bed
  • 00:50:23
    and come up and come up at midnight,
  • 00:50:24
    stay until four in the morning for worship in the woods.
  • 00:50:27
    It's one of the most transcendent things
  • 00:50:28
    that many of us did.
  • 00:50:29
    You do whatever you want.
  • 00:50:30
    We just want you and I to be revived.
  • 00:50:33
    And what do you know, what do you know?
  • 00:50:35
    There might be people that you know
  • 00:50:38
    that wouldn't go to church, but would go to a field
  • 00:50:41
    and have a beer and hear about Jesus. You know?
  • 00:50:44
    There just might be.
  • 00:50:46
    As I've done a deep dive on revivals and awakenings,
  • 00:50:51
    I've unearthed a lot, a lot of really good stuff.
  • 00:50:55
    Cane Ridge Revival in northern Kentucky,
  • 00:50:58
    somewhat close to us. It was in Bourbon County.
  • 00:51:03
    And the historians say the Spirit flowed
  • 00:51:07
    as freely as the spirits in Bourbon County.
  • 00:51:13
    20,000 people came to that thing over the course of a week.
  • 00:51:17
    Historians say as they come,
  • 00:51:18
    this is not a highly populated area, right?
  • 00:51:20
    It's not like 20,000 people here for something.
  • 00:51:23
    20,000 people, and they said as they came
  • 00:51:24
    on their horses and their carriages,
  • 00:51:26
    it sounded like the rush of Niagara Falls from miles away.
  • 00:51:32
    Just the amount of people praying
  • 00:51:34
    and the singing and the utterances.
  • 00:51:37
    A friend of mine, Paul McConaughey says that
  • 00:51:40
    every church has to have its own Pentecost.
  • 00:51:42
    Every church has to have its own thing
  • 00:51:44
    where the Spirit of God does something unique in it.
  • 00:51:46
    I think we're in the -- Have been in the midst
  • 00:51:49
    of some sort of Pentecost
  • 00:51:50
    or some sort of revival, awakening.
  • 00:51:53
    I'm not sure what the right word is to give it,
  • 00:51:56
    but over the last several years, you know,
  • 00:51:58
    for the last 3 or 4 years,
  • 00:52:01
    we've on a rolling 12 month basis, any 12 months,
  • 00:52:04
    we've baptized 2000 people every 12 months, every time.
  • 00:52:08
    That is crazy.
  • 00:52:10
    We're seeing healings, legitimate healing.
  • 00:52:12
    I just met with another guy yesterday
  • 00:52:14
    or earlier service about it.
  • 00:52:16
    We're seeing legitimate, miraculous Holy Spirit
  • 00:52:19
    kind of things, and I believe there's another level
  • 00:52:23
    the Spirit's going to take us to.
  • 00:52:25
    I believe in large part because He wants
  • 00:52:29
    to equip more of us to talk about the thing
  • 00:52:31
    He's really fired up about,
  • 00:52:32
    which is the good news of Jesus Christ.
  • 00:52:34
    And I think that, I'm praying, man, Lord, do something,
  • 00:52:38
    something different at our Revival.
  • 00:52:40
    Maybe, maybe, I don't know.
  • 00:52:42
    But I know it's an amazing journey to be on.
  • 00:52:47
    What if we share our faith?
  • 00:52:50
    What if we share our faith and we get rejected?
  • 00:52:53
    Well, it's a good thing the gospel says
  • 00:52:55
    that Jesus doesn't reject you. It's a good thing.
  • 00:52:57
    What if I do something? What if I say the wrong thing?
  • 00:53:00
    Well, good thing that the gospel says you're forgiven.
  • 00:53:02
    So no matter what you say, you're forgiven. Great.
  • 00:53:04
    Well, what if I go out and I say it
  • 00:53:06
    and they actually kill me because they're so offended?
  • 00:53:09
    Well, good news. You go to heaven.
  • 00:53:11
    It's wonderful. Good, good news you go to heaven.
  • 00:53:13
    Well, what if I can't?
  • 00:53:15
    This is the good news. You can't lose on this.
  • 00:53:17
    And it's the very thing the Holy Spirit is about.
  • 00:53:20
    It's the very thing that Jesus did and He came to do.
  • 00:53:24
    So there's all kinds of things I can talk about,
  • 00:53:26
    about my I'm rebelliousness and all that.
  • 00:53:28
    But man, when I'm walking with God, this is always on it.
  • 00:53:32
    Let's fast forward from high school
  • 00:53:34
    all the way to like, the present day
  • 00:53:36
    how's it playing out in my life.
  • 00:53:38
    As you may know, Lib is, we're going through chemo,
  • 00:53:42
    chemotherapy, Lib is. She's doing it.
  • 00:53:44
    And we we go in and we, every other week
  • 00:53:47
    she's getting these chemical concoction stuff jammed in her.
  • 00:53:50
    And she's lost her hair.
  • 00:53:51
    And she's she's doing really well, by the way.
  • 00:53:53
    Thank you for your praying. She's doing really good.
  • 00:53:55
    But we go in and we've come to look forward
  • 00:54:01
    to chemotherapy because we get to go in
  • 00:54:05
    and spend a day with people who maybe,
  • 00:54:07
    maybe we get to bring someone to Christ.
  • 00:54:10
    We go in and my daughter, my daughter Moriah
  • 00:54:13
    has a friend that we knew actually in high school
  • 00:54:16
    who's a nurse in the same nurse practice thing,
  • 00:54:18
    but not in this office, someplace else.
  • 00:54:20
    And she went to our daughter and said,
  • 00:54:22
    "Man, all the nurses and the staff, they love your parents."
  • 00:54:25
    They said, like, my daughter's like, "Oh, really? Why?"
  • 00:54:28
    They said, "Well, they actually look them in the face
  • 00:54:30
    when they talk to him.
  • 00:54:32
    They look at their name tags and call them by their name.
  • 00:54:35
    They try to make them a little humorous.
  • 00:54:36
    They bring bananas."
  • 00:54:38
    When we go in, like, let's take something,
  • 00:54:39
    let's not go empty handed.
  • 00:54:41
    Let's take for everybody enough bananas
  • 00:54:42
    for people to eat if they want them.
  • 00:54:44
    Orange juice for people.
  • 00:54:45
    Let's do whatever that is.
  • 00:54:47
    The last couple times we've taken in hoagies, sandwiches.
  • 00:54:50
    Let's take it up a notch.
  • 00:54:52
    First time I went, I'm going around,
  • 00:54:54
    aAnd now people know, like, "Oh, you're the people
  • 00:54:56
    who just are nice and do that," right?
  • 00:54:57
    This woman, I go up to her and say,
  • 00:54:59
    "Hey, we got these different sandwiches.
  • 00:55:00
    Which one would you like? Would you want one?"
  • 00:55:02
    She tries saying something. She couldn't.
  • 00:55:04
    She couldn't get her words out.
  • 00:55:07
    And I said, "Well, I'm sorry. What did you say?"
  • 00:55:09
    She said, "I wish there was more people like you."
  • 00:55:15
    And I said, "Can I pray for you right now?" Yes.
  • 00:55:19
    Reach over, put my hand on her knee.
  • 00:55:21
    I prayed for her. I probably chickened out.
  • 00:55:23
    I probably could have baptized her right then and there,
  • 00:55:25
    but I prayed for her there.
  • 00:55:29
    Now I blow -- I've blown all kinds of opportunities,
  • 00:55:32
    but it's fun to talk about things recently
  • 00:55:34
    that haven't gone all that bad.
  • 00:55:37
    We want to be a witness. We're there.
  • 00:55:38
    We're in the same room, the same, the same everything.
  • 00:55:41
    We're on mission here. This is our Jerusalem.
  • 00:55:42
    Here in this room maybe, maybe God sent us
  • 00:55:46
    for these people right here, right now.
  • 00:55:48
    Maybe this is the adventure. I don't know.
  • 00:55:51
    So we just -- I'm just more verbose with my faith
  • 00:55:54
    than I would have been even ten years ago.
  • 00:55:56
    I don't know if it's me getting more gonads
  • 00:55:58
    or I don't know if it's our culture shifting
  • 00:56:00
    or what it is, I'm just a little more verbose.
  • 00:56:02
    So one of the injections they give you
  • 00:56:04
    when you first start the whole chemotherapy,
  • 00:56:06
    at least what Lib is on is the nurse said,
  • 00:56:08
    "Are you ready for red devil?" "Red devil?"
  • 00:56:12
    "Yeah yeah yeah. It's this thing you got to take
  • 00:56:15
    the next four weeks, these red vials."
  • 00:56:17
    We learned that it it gives you metallic taste in your mouth.
  • 00:56:22
    And it just not, not good.
  • 00:56:25
    So you have to chew ice or ice cream while you have it,
  • 00:56:29
    while they're injecting this in you like red devil.
  • 00:56:31
    And it's kind of a humorous thing.
  • 00:56:32
    They're like, "People call it the red devil
  • 00:56:34
    because it makes them feel bad and all that stuff."
  • 00:56:36
    And I got the humor. That's cool.
  • 00:56:38
    Afterwards, we were thinking about it.
  • 00:56:40
    After the first one, we said, "Red devil, we don't like that.
  • 00:56:43
    You know, the Bible says, as a man thinketh, so is he.
  • 00:56:47
    Like what? What? We need to rename that."
  • 00:56:50
    So we said, "We're going to call this the blood of Christ
  • 00:56:53
    is what we're going to call it."
  • 00:56:54
    So we go we go in.
  • 00:56:57
    She nurse brings out the vials, right?
  • 00:56:59
    She brings out the vials.
  • 00:57:00
    And we told her right when this picture was there,
  • 00:57:02
    like we said, "We ready for red devil?"
  • 00:57:04
    "We're ready for the blood of Christ."
  • 00:57:06
    And she said, "What was that?"
  • 00:57:08
    "Well, we look at this concoction as bringing healing,
  • 00:57:12
    and that's what Jesus does to us, He brings us healing.
  • 00:57:15
    So we're going to call this the blood of Christ."
  • 00:57:17
    She was like, she looked at me, she went,
  • 00:57:21
    "I like that, I like that. Good."
  • 00:57:22
    So I don't know if it's going to stick for everybody else.
  • 00:57:25
    But it was another opportunity for us
  • 00:57:27
    to do some sharing of our faith with them.
  • 00:57:32
    Man, it's a powerful thing when you see God use you.
  • 00:57:36
    It's a powerful thing to opt into God using you.
  • 00:57:40
    And you can do this in any environment you're in.
  • 00:57:43
    You can choose because you're the one who's sent.
  • 00:57:46
    You're the one who has the opportunity.
  • 00:57:48
    I don't, the person next to you doesn't, you do.
  • 00:57:51
    We have some people up in our Dayton campus,
  • 00:57:53
    they saw an opportunity.
  • 00:57:54
    They said, "Man, there's a lot of people going to strip clubs.
  • 00:57:58
    Maybe we should go minister to those people."
  • 00:58:00
    That's -- somebody's like, "Ooh, ooh,
  • 00:58:02
    I'll do some strip club ministry.
  • 00:58:04
    I'm gonna have to go in there.
  • 00:58:06
    I have to go in there and build some relationships.
  • 00:58:09
    And, you know, you got to be seen to be heard.
  • 00:58:12
    So I gotta just check the place out for a while,
  • 00:58:15
    make sure it's -- make sure everything --"
  • 00:58:17
    I don't recommend internal strip club ministry,
  • 00:58:20
    but nonetheless, they went up ahead of time.
  • 00:58:23
    They talked to the the owner that week,
  • 00:58:25
    the owner, the general manager, I'm not sure which.
  • 00:58:27
    They said, "Hey, we'd just like to serve the people
  • 00:58:29
    who are coming out and the employees.
  • 00:58:32
    Would it be okay if we set up a coffee truck
  • 00:58:34
    here in the parking lot when they come out?"
  • 00:58:36
    And they said, the guy said,
  • 00:58:37
    "Yeah, yeah, it's fine, no problem."
  • 00:58:40
    So they go up, they go up.
  • 00:58:42
    A guy comes out at like 2:00 in the morning.
  • 00:58:44
    They go, these folks say, "Hey, do you want some?
  • 00:58:46
    Would you like some coffee?"
  • 00:58:47
    He goes, "No thanks, I have cocaine."
  • 00:58:49
    He keeps going. Okay, whatever works for you.
  • 00:58:57
    A couple comes out, husband, wife or couple,
  • 00:58:59
    dating couple, I don't know, I don't know.
  • 00:59:01
    They come out and say, "Hey, would you like some coffee?"
  • 00:59:04
    "Yeah, yeah. Who is this? What?"
  • 00:59:07
    "Oh, it's our church, Crossroads Church."
  • 00:59:11
    They go, "Crossroads Church.? That's my effing church.
  • 00:59:17
    That's my church. We go to Oakley. [laughter]
  • 00:59:24
    Told ya, all types of people come here.
  • 00:59:27
    It's wonderful. Awesome.
  • 00:59:29
    I will tell Oakley staff has to start
  • 00:59:32
    upping their game, that's for sure.
  • 00:59:36
    Another woman comes up.
  • 00:59:39
    She comes up and she has tears in her eyes.
  • 00:59:42
    She says, "What's going on?"
  • 00:59:43
    They tell, they tell her.
  • 00:59:44
    She starts getting emotional.
  • 00:59:46
    She's one of the dancers.
  • 00:59:50
    She said, "I felt like God has given up on me.
  • 00:59:53
    I just asked Him earlier today if He would send me a sign."
  • 01:00:01
    [applause] And she took it as the sign is what she took it as.
  • 01:00:05
    And she's been going to Crossroads Mason.
  • 01:00:08
    So she, she doesn't want to go in Dayton
  • 01:00:10
    because patrons and stuff. She feels a little awkward
  • 01:00:13
    and she's got a lot to work through and how to --
  • 01:00:15
    But she's been going to a safe place
  • 01:00:18
    where she's hearing and walking in the good news.
  • 01:00:20
    Friends, come on. My gosh, My gosh.
  • 01:00:26
    Your greatest adventure, bar none, nothing second,
  • 01:00:30
    your greatest adventure is going to be
  • 01:00:33
    allowing the Holy Spirit to do
  • 01:00:34
    what the Holy Spirit wants to do,
  • 01:00:36
    which is to bring people to Jesus.
  • 01:00:39
    And as you listen to the lie of the evil one says,
  • 01:00:41
    "No, I can't do that. No. Not me. No, no.
  • 01:00:44
    That's rude. No, I can't do that."
  • 01:00:45
    What, what?
  • 01:00:48
    This is the greatest blessing you can give somebody.
  • 01:00:50
    They're not going to kill you. They'll be okay.
  • 01:00:52
    And you're going to partner with the Spirit,
  • 01:00:53
    you just might find that this is the reason you're stuck.
  • 01:00:58
    This is the reason why you're not sensing Him.
  • 01:01:02
    Because, like, you're not into things that He's into.
  • 01:01:06
    This is what heHs into, the Spirit.
  • 01:01:09
    And He wants to fill you fresh.
  • 01:01:10
    He wants to set you on a place to do things
  • 01:01:14
    in ways that you couldn't do in your normal,
  • 01:01:16
    natural flesh, and where people in their natural flesh,
  • 01:01:18
    they wouldn't even say, naturally, "Yes, I will,"
  • 01:01:21
    but they will.
  • 01:01:22
    And that's the good news in their life,
  • 01:01:25
    in eternity will be changed forever.
  • 01:01:28
    And it can be because of you.
  • 01:01:31
    Make somebody thankful for your life.
  • 01:01:35
    Make that happen.
  • 01:01:38
    God, I am honored that someone prayed for me
  • 01:01:42
    and took swings for me and sacrificed for me.
  • 01:01:45
    And I'm honored to be able to do that
  • 01:01:47
    in some other way with others.
  • 01:01:48
    And I'm honored to be laboring alongside other people
  • 01:01:52
    who get that vision. God, we just want more.
  • 01:01:54
    We want more people to know You.
  • 01:01:56
    We want more people to have Your Spirit,
  • 01:01:57
    more people to have the power and the forgiveness
  • 01:02:00
    and the identity that comes from Jesus.
  • 01:02:03
    I pray these things in His Name. Amen.
  • 01:02:06
    - Hey, thank you so much for watching.
  • 01:02:08
    Now, I hope that God spoke to you today,
  • 01:02:11
    that maybe God sparked something in you today,
  • 01:02:15
    man, that helps you understand that,
  • 01:02:17
    God created you to make an impact,
  • 01:02:18
    God created you and wants to see you share H
  • 01:02:21
    is story with the people around you and make an impact
  • 01:02:23
    in the lives of your friends or your family
  • 01:02:25
    or your neighbors or coworkers.
  • 01:02:27
    And this is so challenging, it's so inspiring,
  • 01:02:29
    it's so convicting, and it's exciting.
  • 01:02:31
    This is the adventure of a lifetime
  • 01:02:33
    and the adventure of faith that I want to be on.
  • 01:02:36
    And I want for you, too.
  • 01:02:37
    Now, speaking of God moving, man, Brian talked about it.
  • 01:02:41
    One of the biggest things happening
  • 01:02:42
    in our entire year is Revival.
  • 01:02:45
    You know what I'm talking about.
  • 01:02:47
    It is Revival, and it's right around the corner.
  • 01:02:49
    This is our church wide family reunion
  • 01:02:51
    meets, man, expecting God to show up in a powerful way.
  • 01:02:55
    Every site, every city, all coming to one place
  • 01:02:57
    to see God move. We've been praying for this.
  • 01:02:59
    We've been preparing, we've been planning.
  • 01:03:01
    And man, it's almost here. We say Revival.
  • 01:03:04
    We're talking about not just another event,
  • 01:03:06
    not just about something you sit through,
  • 01:03:08
    but we're talking about an experience
  • 01:03:10
    that you get to have with God
  • 01:03:11
    where He brings dead things back to life, joy, faith.
  • 01:03:15
    Man, God's going to do something beautiful,
  • 01:03:17
    and we want you there.
  • 01:03:18
    And we want your friends and your family there too.
  • 01:03:20
    So some details for you.
  • 01:03:22
    It's happening November 1-2 out of Base Camp.
  • 01:03:24
    Saturday morning, 11 a.m. sharp
  • 01:03:26
    we're going to get rolling
  • 01:03:27
    with incredible teaching, worship,
  • 01:03:29
    multiple sessions, prayer, incredible stuff,
  • 01:03:31
    baptisms, even fireworks at night.
  • 01:03:33
    It will be an incredible time for you
  • 01:03:35
    and the whole family, and for your people,
  • 01:03:37
    your friends who need to experience Jesus.
  • 01:03:39
    If you're a part of our Anywhere Community,
  • 01:03:41
    don't live near one of our physical sites,
  • 01:03:43
    we're actually going to be hosting you starting on Friday.
  • 01:03:45
    We'd love for you to join us.
  • 01:03:47
    You can get all the details at Crossroads.net/Revival.
  • 01:03:52
    And if there's anything we can do
  • 01:03:54
    to encourage you in your walk with God,
  • 01:03:56
    encourage you to experience more revival,
  • 01:03:59
    more of God bringing dead things to life in you,
  • 01:04:02
    in your heart, in your situation, man,
  • 01:04:04
    we'd love to pray for you around those things.
  • 01:04:06
    You can just email anywhere@crossroads.net
  • 01:04:08
    or just click the chat button.
  • 01:04:11
    We're here to help you experience more of God
  • 01:04:14
    wherever you are. Thanks so much for watching.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up! This is content that reflects on the Weekend message and how it can apply to your life. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. What’s the best party you’ve ever been to OR the best party you’ve ever thrown? What made it so great?

  2. What stood out to you most from the message?

  3. Describe a time in your life you invited someone to “come and see” something that you were excited to share with them.

  4. What was the “come and see” moment in your life that brought you to wherever you are in your spiritual journey today?

  5. What questions or doubts do you have about the Holy Spirit’s role in your life?

  6. Read 2 Corinthians 3:17 and 2 Timothy 1:17.

    How have you experienced the Holy Spirit as a source of freedom, power, love, and self-control in your life? If you’re unsure, share where you would like to experience the Holy Spirit in your life.

  7. As you share your experiences from question 6, you’re also sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. Who in your life might need to hear part of your story so they can encounter the good news?

  8. Last week we asked, What’s one step you can take this week to talk to someone in your circle about Jesus? How did it go? If you’re seeing the question for the first time, then share what you’re going to do.

  9. Let’s end our time praying together. You can say something like;

    “Jesus, thank you for sending your spirit to be with us and give us power to share your good news. Help us to be more aware of opportunities to invite others to “come and see” and build our trust on the Holy Spirit’s guidance. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.”

More from the Weekend

Bonus Questions

Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper.

  • Everyone go around and practice your 1-2 minute “come and see” invite to the next Crossroads thing you’re excited about. How’d it go?
  • Who’s on your “paste list”? If you don’t have one, write three names down. Bonus points if you pray for them as a group.

That’s it for this week - see you next time!


Oct 12, 2025 1 hr 7 mins 4 sec

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