-
00:00:03
- Hey, this is
Crossroads, and I'm Kyle.
-
00:00:05
We believe that you
were born for adventure
-
00:00:07
and we exist to guide
you and equip you
-
00:00:09
for that adventurous life.
-
00:00:11
Now I've heard this
a lot, if you have too,
-
00:00:13
let me confirm a
couple of things.
-
00:00:15
I'm not like Tom Cruise.
-
00:00:17
For one, I'm way taller.
-
00:00:18
I'm 5 foot 6 and
6/17 of an inch.
-
00:00:20
He's only 5 foot
5 and 7/12 inch.
-
00:00:23
And I get it, you
might confuse us,
-
00:00:24
because like him,
I broke my foot.
-
00:00:27
He was jumping off
a building in a movie.
-
00:00:28
I was very similarly
jumping into my pool.
-
00:00:31
Regardless, whether
it's Mission Impossible
-
00:00:33
or The Journey, we
have a mission for you,
-
00:00:36
a challenge that we
want you to lean into.
-
00:00:39
Our senior pastor, one
of my mentors, Brian,
-
00:00:42
is going to give us
that challenge right now.
-
00:00:46
- You can have little
or you can have much.
-
00:00:49
The decisions you
make with the things
-
00:00:52
God's given you
will determine that.
-
00:00:55
Hey, my name's Brian,
Senior Pastor at Crossroads.
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00:00:57
Treat to be with you today.
-
00:00:58
Last week, Kyle did
a great job saying
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00:01:00
there's no civilians in
the Kingdom of God.
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00:01:02
All of us need
to be in the fight.
-
00:01:04
All of us need to be soldiers.
-
00:01:06
Today is going to
be a big day for you.
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00:01:08
It can be a big day
-
00:01:09
or just be another day where
-
00:01:11
you stream some churchy
stuff on your screen.
-
00:01:14
But you're going to leave
here today making a choice.
-
00:01:18
I'm going to do a deep dive
-
00:01:21
in something that
Jesus talked about,
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00:01:22
which is critical for
anybody who is to be heroic,
-
00:01:26
anybody who is to be great.
-
00:01:28
It comes the Book of Matthew 25,
-
00:01:31
and I don't know if
you see this or not,
-
00:01:32
but it's all red letters.
-
00:01:34
So red letters means Jesus,
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00:01:38
it means it's important.
-
00:01:39
Let's just go ahead
and read this,
-
00:01:41
and then I'll talk about it.
Here's what says:
-
00:02:14
Now it says money,
but I got to be clear,
-
00:02:16
we're not talking
about money today.
-
00:02:18
This is not a money thing.
-
00:02:20
There's no money
ask here at all.
-
00:02:22
There is financial
principles in this passage
-
00:02:24
that can be applied,
-
00:02:25
but we're not looking
at those today.
-
00:02:27
We're talking about our talents.
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00:02:30
There are three
things that God blesses
-
00:02:33
you and I with, three things,
-
00:02:35
and you decide how
you're going to use them.
-
00:02:37
And how you use
them will determine
-
00:02:39
whether or not you
have little or much.
-
00:02:41
Your time, your
talents, your treasure.
-
00:02:45
Now we're not talking
about treasure at all today.
-
00:02:47
We're talking about
our time and talent.
-
00:02:49
Now interestingly
enough in this passage,
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00:02:51
it talks about talents,
-
00:02:53
but this is actually a
unit of financial currency.
-
00:02:58
A talent was equal
to about 6,000 denari,
-
00:03:03
and they used to have
a phrase back then
-
00:03:05
or saying: another
day, another denari.
-
00:03:07
So a talent is worth
6,000 days' labor,
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00:03:12
which is about
16.5 years' labor.
-
00:03:16
What's the big point there?
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00:03:17
No matter what God's given you,
-
00:03:19
you've got stuff to put
into the field of play.
-
00:03:23
The goal isn't to
just be well known.
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00:03:28
The goal is to use
what God's given you.
-
00:03:31
Billionaire Jay-Z
says this, he says:
-
00:03:46
The person who
goes away that Jesus
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00:03:47
is talking about,
this landowner,
-
00:03:49
he represents God
-
00:03:51
and God disperses to
three different people,
-
00:03:53
three different
talents, three amounts;
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00:03:56
five, two, and one to all of us.
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00:03:59
All of us do not have the same
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00:04:01
as the person next to us,
-
00:04:02
but we all have
been given something
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00:04:04
or some things that
are incredibly valuable.
-
00:04:09
And you finding and unearthing
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00:04:13
what those things are
-
00:04:14
and putting them
into play will determine
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00:04:16
whether or not you have little
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00:04:18
or whether or not you have much.
-
00:04:20
Here we have these guys.
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00:04:22
The guy who has
five, he invests it.
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00:04:26
He makes it work for him.
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00:04:27
The guy who has
two, he invest it
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00:04:29
and makes it work for him.
-
00:04:30
Here's what it says, God comes
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00:04:31
to those people at
five and two, he says:
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00:04:43
So they had little.
-
00:04:45
Actually, five talents is
actually more than two,
-
00:04:48
and two talents
is more than one,
-
00:04:50
but they had little relevant
to what they could have,
-
00:04:53
relative to what
they could have.
-
00:04:55
So you and I decide,
will we have little
-
00:04:57
or we have much?
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00:04:59
And the determining
factor is what we do
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00:05:02
with the abilities and
capacities that we have.
-
00:05:06
All of us have different things.
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00:05:08
One guy decides to take
what God has given him
-
00:05:12
and bury it.
-
00:05:14
When you bury
what God's given you,
-
00:05:18
other people can't get blessed
-
00:05:19
and you're not being heroic,
-
00:05:21
you're being a weenie
boy and a weenie girl.
-
00:05:23
You're being lazy.
You're being conservative.
-
00:05:28
God has given us
things to bless people,
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00:05:31
put them into play.
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00:05:32
Let me tell you some things that
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00:05:33
I've been tempted to bury.
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00:05:38
Oh, what do I -- oh, here.
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00:05:41
Oh, I got something here.
-
00:05:42
Tempted to bury. What do I have?
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00:05:44
Oh man, I haven't
seen this for a while.
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00:05:48
You know what?
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00:05:49
This is my birth certificate.
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00:05:53
I was born at a very early age.
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00:06:00
- What did he say?
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00:06:03
- Born at a very early age
and then I was adopted.
-
00:06:08
And this is my
birth certificate,
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00:06:10
which has my birth parents,
-
00:06:11
who are my parents on it.
-
00:06:13
Richard Earl Tome
and Eileen C. Costello.
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00:06:17
I'll tell you what's
significant about this.
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00:06:19
It isn't just that
God gave me a gift
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00:06:21
of birthing me when
some people are
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00:06:25
from conception don't have
the opportunity to be born.
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00:06:28
It wasn't just that
that was a gift.
-
00:06:30
What was a gift
is recognizing that
-
00:06:33
this was a spiritual reality.
-
00:06:37
God was pulling me into
his family through adoption,
-
00:06:41
and this is the way it
happens in the Bible.
-
00:06:43
We're not born into
the family of God.
-
00:06:45
We're adopted in
the family of God.
-
00:06:47
And this is something
that I've had to unearth
-
00:06:50
because it's why I want
people to be part Crossroads.
-
00:06:52
It's why I want you to come
to know God in a deeper way.
-
00:06:54
It's why I want to
interact with somebody
-
00:06:56
who's waiting on a table
where I am or wherever it is.
-
00:06:59
I'm always going, "What's
your spiritual story?
-
00:07:01
Who are you?"
-
00:07:02
I want to have some sort
of spiritual conversation,
-
00:07:05
that's critical.
-
00:07:08
What else might we have?
-
00:07:09
I want to unearth that.
-
00:07:10
I want to put my
birth story out there.
-
00:07:13
Oh, geez, oh, here we go.
-
00:07:15
Huh? What we got here?
-
00:07:18
We got a Crossroads mug.
That's what we got here.
-
00:07:21
Now Crossroads, I
didn't create Crossroads.
-
00:07:24
God created Crossroads,
-
00:07:26
but I had something
to do with it.
-
00:07:28
And what I had to do with it was
-
00:07:30
using the gifts that
God has given me.
-
00:07:32
And Crossroads, it's a
thing that as a leader,
-
00:07:37
as a leader, I can
make decisions
-
00:07:40
to put Crossroads into play
-
00:07:41
or make decisions
to bury Crossroads
-
00:07:43
and keep it very, very safe.
-
00:07:46
When we do compassion
international days
-
00:07:48
where we try to get people
to adopt kids financially,
-
00:07:52
adopt kids through
Compassion International
-
00:07:53
and feed them and educate them,
for their entire childhood,
-
00:07:56
for like $38 a month.
-
00:07:58
We do that at great risk
-
00:07:59
of Crossroads' financial future
-
00:08:01
for people
cannibalizing their giving
-
00:08:05
because we don't
want to bury the power
-
00:08:08
and force that
Crossroads can be.
-
00:08:10
We want to unearth it
and and bless people.
-
00:08:13
That's what we have to do.
-
00:08:16
Oh, what else we got here?
-
00:08:17
We've got -- Oh,
oh, oh, this is nice.
-
00:08:24
Oh, we've got a microphone here.
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00:08:28
Hello. I have the microphone.
-
00:08:34
You do not have the microphone
-
00:08:37
and you will sit
here and you like it.
-
00:08:41
Yes, a microphone.
-
00:08:44
Don't you wish
you had a bullhorn?
-
00:08:48
Do you have your earplugs
in your ears, Mr. Cameraman?
-
00:08:54
Okay.
-
00:08:55
- All right. Loser. Loser,
you're a loser (screaming)
-
00:09:06
- There actually is a story
behind this from my past.
-
00:09:12
When I was in high
school, my high school
-
00:09:15
had a very clear pecking
order of who is at the top,
-
00:09:18
who are the cool kids,
who are the popular kids,
-
00:09:20
and then who was at the bottom.
-
00:09:23
I was in probably the top 25%.
-
00:09:25
To do that you
had to be an athlete
-
00:09:26
or a cheerleader or
something like that
-
00:09:28
in my high school at that time.
-
00:09:30
But I wasn't in the
top, top, top, top.
-
00:09:32
So come time for homecoming,
-
00:09:37
all the school would
be gather together
-
00:09:38
for a mandated assembly
at the end of the day.
-
00:09:43
And they needed like
six senior football players
-
00:09:46
to go up and and
give it a little speech.
-
00:09:48
And first five are very obvious
-
00:09:50
who people wanted to hear from,
-
00:09:51
who was popular,
all that kind of stuff.
-
00:09:53
They were obvious
and they only needed six.
-
00:09:55
And they went, "Six.
So well, let's get Brian.
-
00:09:59
Let's get Brian
Tome. He'll be fine."
-
00:10:01
And so they line me
up last just because
-
00:10:03
I was picked last because
I was at least worthy.
-
00:10:05
I spoke last.
-
00:10:07
And I sat there in that assembly
-
00:10:09
looking at the students
bored out of their gourd
-
00:10:12
and very cynical.
-
00:10:14
We had a losing
team year after year
-
00:10:15
after year after year, so people
-
00:10:17
just didn't have
any expectations.
-
00:10:18
And I felt this and I
was starting to get angry.
-
00:10:20
So when I went up
and I took the podium,
-
00:10:24
I said, "Look,
here's what we need.
-
00:10:26
We don't need you
being down on us
-
00:10:28
and being negative.
-
00:10:29
We need you supporting
us. We represent you.
-
00:10:31
We need you to
get to a new place."
-
00:10:33
I don't know exactly my words,
but that's basically I did.
-
00:10:35
I called the student body out,
and everyone like listened.
-
00:10:38
Wow.
-
00:10:40
That night we had
a tradition to take
-
00:10:44
a dummy of the opposing team
-
00:10:48
and you take a man sized thing
-
00:10:50
and you stuff them
and you have the colors
-
00:10:52
of Plum Borough High School,
-
00:10:53
which was what it
was, and a helmet.
-
00:10:55
You could never get
away with doing this today,
-
00:10:57
but this was the '80s.
It was awesome.
-
00:10:59
You could do virtually
anything you wanted.
-
00:11:02
And we would have this guy
-
00:11:03
who looked like a
Plum Borough guy
-
00:11:05
and then somebody
would throw it into the fire
-
00:11:08
and give a rah-rah speech of how
-
00:11:10
we're going to win the next
day's homecoming game.
-
00:11:12
And they came to me
and the cheerleaders said,
-
00:11:14
"Hey, would you do that?"
I was like, "Me? Yeah, OK."
-
00:11:18
And I got to be the guy who
threw the dummy in the fire
-
00:11:20
and I had a bullhorn
and I motivated people
-
00:11:24
to do the best they
possibly could the next day.
-
00:11:27
That was when I
realized that God
-
00:11:30
had given me something
that had on Earth.
-
00:11:32
I never took a public
speaking lesson.
-
00:11:34
I never watched somebody
who was a mobilizer motivator.
-
00:11:37
I didn't.
-
00:11:38
I never read
books on being that.
-
00:11:41
It was something
that God gave me.
-
00:11:44
And now I make the decision,
-
00:11:46
how will I use that gift
-
00:11:48
to be about God's purposes?
-
00:11:50
I can have little less,
if I keep it buried,
-
00:11:53
it's a little less.
-
00:11:55
If I use it, I could have much.
-
00:11:57
And by much I don't mean
-
00:11:58
I in my financial
standing can have much.
-
00:12:01
I mean much in
terms of opportunities
-
00:12:03
to use my voice,
much in terms of joy,
-
00:12:07
joy over seeing
and feeling myself
-
00:12:10
used by God with other people.
-
00:12:13
Really, really good stuff.
-
00:12:16
- We'll get back to
Brian in just a second,
-
00:12:18
but first I want
to say thank you
-
00:12:20
to all of the givers.
-
00:12:22
You make videos like this
-
00:12:23
and all the ministry
at Crossroads possible
-
00:12:25
and you're literally
impacting thousands
-
00:12:27
and thousands of lives.
-
00:12:29
And if you want to
join that community
-
00:12:30
of generosity, it's super easy.
-
00:12:32
You just go to
crossroads.net/give.
-
00:12:34
We even made a
way to take some of
-
00:12:36
the stress out of it for you
-
00:12:38
called the 90 Day Tithe Test.
-
00:12:39
You sign up, you
try tithing for 90 days.
-
00:12:41
And if at the end
of those 90 days,
-
00:12:42
you don't feel more
of God in your life.
-
00:12:44
We'll give you all
of your money back.
-
00:12:46
Again, just go to
Crossroads.net/give.
-
00:12:50
- I'm Lindsey.
-
00:12:52
- And I'm Eric, and
we go to Crossroads.
-
00:12:54
- Our story starts with we
-
00:12:56
went to Christian High School,
-
00:12:57
we met in Christian college
-
00:12:59
and got married
right after school
-
00:13:01
and just kind of
lived our lives,
-
00:13:02
but didn't really
understand what it meant
-
00:13:04
to have a real
relationship with God.
-
00:13:06
- We were about a year
removed from my affair.
-
00:13:10
I had left Lindsey,
moved out of my own
-
00:13:12
is when we stepped foot
into Crossroads Oakley.
-
00:13:14
We were visiting
some family out here
-
00:13:17
in the Cincy area
from Philadelphia.
-
00:13:19
Chuck was preaching on stage
-
00:13:20
and I had heard God say,
-
00:13:23
"This is where I want you
and your family to worship."
-
00:13:26
And I was like, "How
are we going to do that
-
00:13:28
if we live in Philadelphia
-
00:13:30
and Crossroads is
out here in Cincinnati?"
-
00:13:33
- They had just started to
launch Crossroads Anywhere.
-
00:13:35
We started watching off and on,
-
00:13:37
but it wasn't until
The Brave Journey
-
00:13:38
that happened that following
year that we decided,
-
00:13:41
"Okay, let's really
lean into this."
-
00:13:45
I reached out to
Crossroads to see if
-
00:13:46
there was a small
group we could join
-
00:13:48
and there wasn't one currently,
-
00:13:49
but they asked me if
I'd be willing to lead,
-
00:13:51
and I decided, Sure, why not?
-
00:13:52
We did it via video chat
and we met every week
-
00:13:55
just like the small groups
did that were in person.
-
00:13:58
We got to meet these people
-
00:13:59
who lived all over the
U.S. via video chat,
-
00:14:02
and we probably got
to know those people
-
00:14:03
better than we knew
some of our friends
-
00:14:05
who we had had for many years.
-
00:14:07
- It was during that
Brave Journey that
-
00:14:10
I had really felt
God saying, "Hey,
-
00:14:12
I want you to step
up and be the man
-
00:14:14
that I have called you to be
-
00:14:16
and be that spiritual
leader in your house."
-
00:14:18
And so I started
leading our small group.
-
00:14:21
I led a few Man Camps.
We co-led couples camp.
-
00:14:27
We flew out to
Oakley to be baptized
-
00:14:29
and really took that
role in our family,
-
00:14:31
which was awesome.
-
00:14:33
- Meanwhile, all of our friends
-
00:14:34
who weren't really
involved in Crossroads
-
00:14:36
kind of saw this
major change in Eric.
-
00:14:39
They wanted to understand
what was the difference.
-
00:14:41
So one couple in
particular we invited
-
00:14:44
to start watching church
with us every Sunday,
-
00:14:46
and that was kind of where
Crossroads Philly was born.
-
00:14:50
So we just want
to say thank you.
-
00:14:51
Thank you for giving.
-
00:14:52
It has made a huge
difference in our lives.
-
00:14:55
- Thank you for your generosity.
-
00:14:56
Through that generosity
Crossroads is able
-
00:14:59
to stream live each week
-
00:15:02
and develop those
Anywhere communities.
-
00:15:03
And without that
Anywhere community,
-
00:15:05
we don't know where
we would be today.
-
00:15:07
You've changed our life.
-
00:15:08
You've changed our marriage.
-
00:15:10
You've changed the
trajectory of our kids' lives
-
00:15:12
and you're changing generations.
-
00:15:14
And that's good
stuff, so thank you.
-
00:15:21
- Well, what else
do we have here?
-
00:15:22
We also have, oh,
family here, yeah.
-
00:15:28
Oh, family, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah.
-
00:15:31
I did something to
make my family here,
-
00:15:33
at least three of them,
I did something to it.
-
00:15:35
I won't -- You can
figure out what I did,
-
00:15:37
but I did something.
-
00:15:38
But you know, these
folks, they're not mine,
-
00:15:41
they're they're God's.
-
00:15:44
And how I act as a
dad or a dad-in-law,
-
00:15:49
father-in-law will
determine whether or not
-
00:15:51
I'll get much or little.
-
00:15:53
If I just look at these
as six relationships
-
00:15:56
that don't matter
one way or another,
-
00:15:59
I'm not going to have more joy.
-
00:16:01
I'm not going to have
more descendants.
-
00:16:02
I'm not going to have more.
-
00:16:03
Let me tell you something,
I've been around long enough,
-
00:16:06
every other
relationship in my life
-
00:16:07
will come and go,
every single one.
-
00:16:09
These folks and this one are
-
00:16:11
the most important
relationships in my life by far,
-
00:16:17
and I can have a
little joy or much joy.
-
00:16:21
And it depends
on how I treat them
-
00:16:23
and how I organize vacations,
-
00:16:25
how I build into
them as a father.
-
00:16:29
I can't bury that.
-
00:16:31
Oh, yeah, oh, here we go, we go.
-
00:16:36
This is a jet boil.
-
00:16:42
This is a thing where you take
-
00:16:44
and you put it together
-
00:16:46
and you boil
water really quickly.
-
00:16:48
So this is my
coffee every morning
-
00:16:50
whenever I'm camping
-
00:16:51
or it's how I do dehydrated
food, boiling water.
-
00:16:55
I use this when I
do a backpack hunt,
-
00:16:57
which I'll be doing
in a couple of weeks
-
00:16:58
in Colorado going after elk
-
00:17:00
or I use it if I'm
camping with people
-
00:17:03
or overlanding with
people or motorcycle trips.
-
00:17:05
It's a big deal.
-
00:17:06
And here's the thing,
the reason I have this,
-
00:17:08
what I find very
interesting about this.
-
00:17:10
Camping has become
a big thing for me.
-
00:17:15
It's something God has
given me the ability to do.
-
00:17:18
And one time I was
sitting around a campfire
-
00:17:22
with eight -- seven other guys
-
00:17:25
and we were having
a deep conversation
-
00:17:27
talking about what's
going on in life.
-
00:17:30
We realized there's a
lot of guys who need this,
-
00:17:32
but we got here on motorcycles.
-
00:17:34
A lot of guys don't
like motorcycles
-
00:17:36
or people don't
like motorcycles.
-
00:17:37
What can we do to have
a camping environment
-
00:17:39
where people are
pushed and stretched
-
00:17:41
and they're built into?
-
00:17:43
And out of that came
Man Camp, Woman Camp,
-
00:17:47
Couple's Camp, and the rest.
-
00:17:49
Thousands and thousands
and thousands of people
-
00:17:52
have been built into
spiritually because
-
00:17:54
I said, "Hey, God's
given me something
-
00:17:56
with the camping
thing. I've got to use that.
-
00:17:58
How can I put that into play?
-
00:18:01
When I put that into play,
maybe God can use it."
-
00:18:03
And that's exactly what He did.
-
00:18:04
32 different guys --
-
00:18:07
or 32 states represented
at last week's Man Camp
-
00:18:10
because I and others
made a decision
-
00:18:13
to not bury the
things that we liked,
-
00:18:15
but to actually use them.
-
00:18:17
Now let's keep going on
-
00:18:19
And this is this is you.
I'm talking to you.
-
00:18:21
There's things
God's given you that
-
00:18:23
you can choose to keep it buried
-
00:18:25
or you can unburied
and put in the field of play.
-
00:18:28
That is critical to you.
-
00:18:30
I am who I am right now
because of the people
-
00:18:33
who unburied their
gifts and built into me.
-
00:18:36
Right now in your neighborhood,
-
00:18:37
in Crossroads are people
-
00:18:38
who could be different people.
-
00:18:39
There's a person
that could be different
-
00:18:41
if you unbury your
talents and gifts
-
00:18:45
and you use your
time to be heroic.
-
00:18:47
Let me tell some of
the people did it for me.
-
00:18:50
Mrs. Geiger. She was
my Sunday school teacher.
-
00:18:53
She, which is kind
of weird, you know,
-
00:18:56
Sunday school
teachers, you think, ehh.
-
00:18:58
If you want kids to
come to Sunday school,
-
00:19:00
don't have it on Sunday
and don't call it school.
-
00:19:03
That's the key.
-
00:19:04
But I was forced
to go, so I went
-
00:19:05
and Mrs. Geiger,
she built into me
-
00:19:07
and gave me the
basic understanding
-
00:19:09
of basic teachings in the Bible.
-
00:19:11
When I open up
the Bible and I have
-
00:19:12
an understanding of
the different structures
-
00:19:14
and systems, it's
because Mrs. Geiger,
-
00:19:17
I had her in grade
school in Sunday school.
-
00:19:20
You have no idea if
you serve in Kids' Club
-
00:19:22
whose life or how many
people you're affecting
-
00:19:26
a generation later.
-
00:19:28
Denny Patton
unburied his personality,
-
00:19:31
unburied his faithfulness,
-
00:19:33
and he built into a teenager
-
00:19:35
that has become your pastor.
-
00:19:37
And Denny right now
is on his deathbed.
-
00:19:40
He's got not very long to live,
-
00:19:43
and he will be one
of the very few people
-
00:19:45
I've known who has
been faithful to God
-
00:19:46
since he gave his life to
Christ till when he died.
-
00:19:50
He unburied his life,
and I'm on his down line
-
00:19:54
because he put it into play.
-
00:19:56
Joan Driscoll, Sharon Hinzman.
-
00:19:58
These are women who in college,
and then shortly after college,
-
00:20:00
they fulfilled a
mother role for me.
-
00:20:02
They mothered me, they fed me.
-
00:20:04
They gave me wisdom.
-
00:20:05
They gave me
nurturing. It was huge.
-
00:20:09
Cathy and Pete Beechem,
long time Crossroads.
-
00:20:11
Pete's been dead several years.
-
00:20:14
Kathy dead for about
three years or so.
-
00:20:16
But man, they are
servants who left a legacy
-
00:20:18
because of the things
they would say to me,
-
00:20:20
the way they would serve me,
-
00:20:22
the way they were
huge blessings.
-
00:20:24
And they had much
as a result of it.
-
00:20:26
You want little,
you want little?
-
00:20:27
Then keep it all buried.
-
00:20:29
You want much?
Then put it into play.
-
00:20:32
If these people
had buried their gifts
-
00:20:35
I shudder to think where
I would be right now
-
00:20:37
and where many people
on my down line would be.
-
00:20:41
This is what God says to
those who bury their gifts,
-
00:20:43
he says, this one guy says:
-
00:20:50
Buried it. Didn't
overcome it. Buried it.
-
00:20:54
And God says:
-
00:21:06
He calls them
wicked, lazy servant.
-
00:21:11
There are some people
who look very nice
-
00:21:14
and have high morals
and don't do pornography
-
00:21:18
and pay their taxes and are
acceptable to the masses,
-
00:21:24
who to God are wicked
and lazy because
-
00:21:29
the unique ability
is God's given you,
-
00:21:32
you buried them.
-
00:21:33
You haven't put them
in the field of play.
-
00:21:35
You have no chance
of getting much.
-
00:21:37
You have no
chance of being great.
-
00:21:39
You have no chance
of being heroic.
-
00:21:41
That's what God wants to do.
-
00:21:42
That's what Jesus
wants us to do,
-
00:21:43
that's why He tells this story.
-
00:21:45
He makes this story up,
-
00:21:47
but it's absolutely true
to spiritual principles.
-
00:21:49
It ends this way,
Jesus says this:
-
00:21:54
Whoever has little,
-
00:21:55
they'll have much
when they bury it.
-
00:22:14
People who gave me
their time and their talent
-
00:22:19
changed my future,
changed my family's future,
-
00:22:22
changed a lot of
people's future.
-
00:22:25
That's what happens
when you take
-
00:22:27
the little that God
has given you
-
00:22:30
and you put it on
the field of play,
-
00:22:32
you have the possibility
of it becoming much.
-
00:22:36
So your choice:
little and buried,
-
00:22:41
or much and put
into the field of play.
-
00:22:44
1 Peter 4:10 says each
of us has received a gift,
-
00:22:48
use it to serve one another.
-
00:22:50
As good stewards
of God's very grace,
-
00:22:52
whoever speaks as one
who speaks oracles of God,
-
00:22:55
whoever serves as one who serves
-
00:22:57
by the strength of God supplies,
-
00:22:59
nor that in everything
God may be glorified
-
00:23:03
through Jesus Christ.
-
00:23:08
Little or much?
-
00:23:12
You playing it safe
or God getting glory?
-
00:23:15
You get to make
that choice right now.
-
00:23:21
- They want you to
behave, to settle in,
-
00:23:23
and settle down into your
God, not make any waves.
-
00:23:27
They want you to be average
-
00:23:28
and build a nice, sensible
house on Normal Street.
-
00:24:20
- This entire journey has
been building to this moment.
-
00:24:24
See, you really were
made for greatness,
-
00:24:26
you were made to be your hero.
-
00:24:27
But it's a choice that you have
-
00:24:29
to choose to step forward into.
-
00:24:31
And we're here
to help with that.
-
00:24:32
This is a group of my friends
who I actually work alongside of
-
00:24:35
as part of the
online church team.
-
00:24:37
And they have an
amazing, amazing amount
-
00:24:41
of volunteer opportunities
for you to step into.
-
00:24:43
And we'd love to tell
you just a bit about them.
-
00:24:45
I'm going to start over here
-
00:24:47
with my friends,
Rachel and Animaesh.
-
00:24:49
These folks help lead
everything that we do
-
00:24:53
when it comes to community
and care and connection,
-
00:24:55
which is maybe extra
critical in our world right now.
-
00:25:00
- Yeah, I know that
when I first became
-
00:25:02
a volunteer at Crossroads,
-
00:25:03
the thing that was
motivating to me
-
00:25:05
was getting to
know other people.
-
00:25:06
And a lot of
people don't realize
-
00:25:08
you can do that online.
-
00:25:09
This is not just a
thing that you watch.
-
00:25:11
This is a thing that
you can be a part of
-
00:25:13
and that you can know
people and you can be known.
-
00:25:15
And we have so many
roles that we need
-
00:25:17
to be able to connect
people all over
-
00:25:19
the country to what we're doing,
-
00:25:21
to God and to one another.
-
00:25:22
So whether that's
responding to chats
-
00:25:24
and texts and emails
from your house,
-
00:25:26
whether that is
joining the prayer team,
-
00:25:27
whether that's being
a leader for your area.
-
00:25:30
There are so many
different ways to get involved.
-
00:25:33
And with the way
the world is hurting
-
00:25:36
and lonely right now, we
need people to help us,
-
00:25:38
not just be a thing
that you watch,
-
00:25:40
but a thing that you're
actually a part of.
-
00:25:42
- Yeah, in line with
what Rachel said,
-
00:25:44
we live in a big world
and it's full of people
-
00:25:46
who are hurting and need care,
-
00:25:48
and you just might
be that person
-
00:25:49
who can care for them.
-
00:25:50
And so a large need that
we have is also group leaders.
-
00:25:53
And for Crossroads online,
that looks like camp leaders.
-
00:25:55
It looks like coaches
and it looks like guides.
-
00:25:58
All these roles are centered
around the very reason
-
00:26:00
that I started
volunteering myself,
-
00:26:02
which is caring
for other people.
-
00:26:04
- What I know, I'm sure you guys
experience this as well.
-
00:26:06
I get emails every week
from people who are hurting,
-
00:26:08
more than I could ever
possibly respond to,
-
00:26:10
get messages
through social media,
-
00:26:12
all sorts of places.
-
00:26:13
And the thing here
that I want you to see
-
00:26:15
and what you heard
in Brian's message is
-
00:26:16
that the church isn't
us, the church is us
-
00:26:20
and God's designed you to help.
-
00:26:21
If you're somebody who
has a gift of compassion,
-
00:26:24
the gift of listening.
-
00:26:25
If you're somebody
who just has the ability
-
00:26:27
to pray for people,
have patience with them,
-
00:26:30
we need you. The world
needs you right now.
-
00:26:33
And if that's not you, don't
worry, there's more spots.
-
00:26:36
God gave you a
gift, and our job is
-
00:26:38
to help put that into action
-
00:26:40
no matter who you are,
what God's made you to be.
-
00:26:43
Maybe for you,
the place to serve is
-
00:26:45
more along the lines
of our production team.
-
00:26:47
Good news, this
is my friend Jamie,
-
00:26:49
who can tell us more about it.
-
00:26:50
- Yeah, if you would
like to have an impact
-
00:26:53
on the very thing that
people are experiencing
-
00:26:54
like this or other content
and things that we create,
-
00:26:57
there's a place for you.
-
00:26:58
Our production team
has plenty of roles
-
00:27:00
that are not only
doable, but can have
-
00:27:02
a direct impact on
what people experience
-
00:27:05
when they come across
Crossroads online.
-
00:27:07
Whether you're a video editor
-
00:27:08
or you have audio experience,
-
00:27:10
maybe you have a
background in graphic design,
-
00:27:12
no matter what, we
have a role for you.
-
00:27:14
And maybe that seems
a little too sophisticated
-
00:27:16
and that's not your bag,
-
00:27:17
and that's not what
you're familiar with.
-
00:27:19
We also have simple ways
for you to engage with us,
-
00:27:22
like commenting
on our social media
-
00:27:24
or engaging with our
social care coordinator.
-
00:27:26
- There's so many
opportunities to jump in
-
00:27:28
and serve again the
point is, God made you.
-
00:27:31
He gave you a gift.
-
00:27:32
We just want to help
you put that into action.
-
00:27:34
And maybe you're
somebody like me.
-
00:27:35
When I first came
around Crossroads,
-
00:27:37
I was blown away
that this message,
-
00:27:40
this idea that God made
me to change the world
-
00:27:43
and Crossroads was
letting me just go do it.
-
00:27:45
If you're somebody who
has that same sort of like,
-
00:27:47
"Oh my gosh, I think this
is what I feel called to,"
-
00:27:50
you need to meet
my friend Victor
-
00:27:52
because Victor leads
everything we do
-
00:27:53
with online church in
terms of changing the world.
-
00:27:56
- Yes, so like Kyle said,
-
00:27:58
we're all about
changing the world,
-
00:28:00
and that means
that you and I and us,
-
00:28:02
we get to be a part
of that world change.
-
00:28:05
And maybe that
could be a role like
-
00:28:07
supporting folks that
are wanting to serve
-
00:28:09
their local community
or maybe people that
-
00:28:11
are looking to how
can I have even
-
00:28:12
a bigger impact
in the entire nation
-
00:28:14
or in the entire world?
-
00:28:15
So that could be an
opportunity for you
-
00:28:17
to engage in and
coach other folks.
-
00:28:20
It could also be that
after the disaster,
-
00:28:22
we actually can
go and help folks
-
00:28:23
that have been
impacted, either folks
-
00:28:25
from our community
or folks for just
-
00:28:27
the communities out there
that have been impacted
-
00:28:29
by an earthquake or hurricane,
-
00:28:31
and so many other things.
-
00:28:33
And it world change
seems intimidating,
-
00:28:35
but maybe communicating
about world change
-
00:28:37
is something that
you're interested in,
-
00:28:39
then maybe you
can enroll with us
-
00:28:41
in brand and
relationship marketing,
-
00:28:42
just even writing
and editing articles.
-
00:28:45
- So many different
ways to serve.
-
00:28:46
What you've heard is just
a very like small taste of it.
-
00:28:50
We have over 400
different volunteer roles.
-
00:28:53
And I just have
this belief about you
-
00:28:55
that this is a church
that God's called you
-
00:28:58
to be a part of, that
God's wired you to plug in
-
00:29:02
and to help and to serve.
-
00:29:03
You don't have to serve
as part of Crossroads.
-
00:29:05
You can serve in so
many different ways.
-
00:29:07
But here's the thing,
Jesus is the head of the church,
-
00:29:11
and our job is to exist to
help you plug in and serve.
-
00:29:15
These are the
roles that we have.
-
00:29:16
We would love to
help you find your spot.
-
00:29:18
You can go to
online.Crossroads.net
-
00:29:21
and you can browse all
400 different roles there.
-
00:29:25
400 different roles,
it's amazing to me.
-
00:29:27
We'd love to help
you get plugged in.
-
00:29:29
We'd love to engage with you.
-
00:29:30
We're looking
forward to emails, text,
-
00:29:31
phone calls with you, zooms,
-
00:29:33
whatever it takes to
help you find your place.
-
00:29:36
Again, Online.Crossroads.net,
-
00:29:39
check out all of the roles.
-
00:29:42
We'll see you next
week on Crossroads.
-
00:29:45
- Life is unpredictable.
-
00:29:48
So when the world is anything
-
00:29:49
but secure, stable and
sure, we can be rock solid.
-
00:29:55
Come to Crossroads and find out
-
00:29:58
to have a life built to last.
-
00:30:00
- Hey, don't forget,
make sure you subscribe
-
00:30:03
to not miss any of
our upcoming videos,
-
00:30:05
or if you want to keep
watching right now,
-
00:30:07
we made a play
list just for you.