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00:00:03
- Well, hey,
welcome to Crossroads.
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00:00:04
If you're new here
we are a church
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00:00:06
and a community of people
meeting all over the globe.
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00:00:09
Some meet in church
buildings like this one,
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00:00:10
but others meet online
or actually in homes,
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00:00:13
coffee shops, or even bars.
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00:00:14
My name is Andy and I lead
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00:00:15
our Crossroads
Anywhere community
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00:00:17
of people meeting
all over the globe.
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00:00:19
Now we're about to
start our time together
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00:00:20
with some worship,
which is just using music
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00:00:23
to remind ourselves
what's true about God
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00:00:25
and what God says
is true about us.
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00:00:28
Then we're going to
hear some teaching
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00:00:29
from our lead
pastor Kyle Ranson.
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00:00:31
And no matter who you are,
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00:00:32
what you believe
about God or the church
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00:00:34
or religion, or no matter
how your year is going so far,
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00:00:37
whether you're full of
excitement and energy
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00:00:39
or whether it's been really,
really rough since New Years,
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00:00:41
we're glad that you're here
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00:00:43
and hope that you
can hear how God
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00:00:45
has fresh vision and
encouragement for you
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00:00:48
as you head into
2025 and beyond.
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00:00:51
So sing with us, join in.
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00:00:52
We're so glad you're
here with us today.
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00:00:56
- What's up, everyone?
Welcome to Crossroads.
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00:00:59
So glad that you're here.
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00:01:00
My name is Eric
if we haven't met.
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Won't you stand to your feet?
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00:01:02
I just want you to know,
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00:01:05
no matter what you
believe about God,
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00:01:07
you're in the right place
and you're welcome here.
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00:01:10
We're going to start by
singing some songs to Jesus.
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00:01:13
Let's do it.
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00:11:20
- Yeah, that's. That's it.
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00:11:24
By the way, my name is Kyle.
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Welcome to everybody.
Welcome here.
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00:11:28
Welcome online, at our sites.
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00:11:31
Happy Martin Luther King Jr.
Weekend.
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00:11:34
Glad that you are with us.
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00:11:36
When you walked in,
if you're at a site,
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00:11:38
you got a little packet of clay.
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00:11:41
You can go ahead
and get that out.
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00:11:42
If you're watching online
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00:11:44
and you want to
want to follow along,
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00:11:46
make the service more tactile,
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00:11:47
grab something around
your house or apartment
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00:11:49
or coffee shop or wherever
that you can squish.
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00:11:52
It can be your kid's Play-Doh.
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00:11:53
You can go ahead and steal
that from them. That's fine.
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00:11:56
Some Silly Putty,
whatever it takes.
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00:11:58
If you don't have
anything like that,
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00:11:59
grab a pen,
something to draw with
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00:12:01
and follow along with us.
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00:12:03
Now, if you're in a room,
we gave you this clay
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00:12:06
for a very,
very important reason.
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00:12:10
We wanted to see who has ADHD,
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00:12:13
and the answer
would be those of us
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00:12:15
who've already
been playing with it
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00:12:16
and messing with it, and are now
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00:12:18
just pretending to
pull it out of the bag.
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00:12:21
If that's you. Welcome.
That's me too.
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00:12:22
Glad you're with us.
That's awesome.
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00:12:24
Everybody take it out
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00:12:25
and just start squishing
it around in your hands.
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00:12:29
See that clay in
your hands has to do
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00:12:32
with what we're
talking about today.
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00:12:33
We're examining this
piece of the gospel
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00:12:36
and hoping to make it
more personal and tactile,
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00:12:39
that we can feel it,
that we can walk out of here
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00:12:41
changed and reshaped, just like
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00:12:44
you're reshaping
that clay right now.
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00:12:46
And then that
piece of the gospel
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00:12:48
that we're going to
look at is the claim
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that you and I
are not accidents,
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00:12:53
that we are made by
a God who loves us
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00:12:57
and intended us
and purposed our life.
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00:13:01
I think there's no
more appropriate topic
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00:13:03
that we could be
covering this weekend
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00:13:05
that honors a man
who gave his life
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00:13:07
to literally share that message
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00:13:09
that all life has value,
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00:13:11
regardless of the
color of your skin,
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00:13:12
or whether you're
a man or a woman
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00:13:14
or anything else,
that you have infinite worth
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00:13:16
and value because
you've been made
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00:13:19
by the creator of the universe.
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00:13:22
We're going to sing a
song right now together
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00:13:24
that talks about that.
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00:13:26
It says that God
is the one thing
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who can tell us
what we're made for.
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00:13:32
Why? Because He's
the one who made us.
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00:19:05
- Come on, sing it again.
You are the one.
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00:19:48
- Lord, we stand before
You in silence right now,
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00:19:53
and all of Your beauty
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00:20:04
maybe wondering
if we could actually
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00:20:09
believe those words to be true,
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00:20:14
that You made us
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00:20:17
and you're the one
thing I was made for.
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I want to believe it, Lord.
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00:20:25
I want to walk with You
and give my heart to You.
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I pray all this because of you,
Jesus. Amen. Amen.
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00:20:39
It's great to be together.
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00:20:42
You might have wondered
what was in that white bag
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00:20:44
when somebody handed it to you.
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00:20:45
I don't know. I don't know.
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00:20:47
Maybe you were confused a bit,
but now you know,
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00:20:49
now you know
it's a piece of clay.
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00:20:51
Hey, why don't you turn
to somebody next to you
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00:20:52
and say, "Hey,
I'm glad to be here with you."
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00:20:54
If you're joining us online,
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00:20:56
glad you're here with us, too.
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00:20:57
Then you can have a seat.
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00:21:01
- Crossroads is a movement of
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00:21:03
regular, normal, everyday people
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00:21:04
growing closer to God
and changing the world.
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00:21:07
Now,
I know firsthand that I grow
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00:21:09
and get to a new place
with God and in my life
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00:21:11
when I'm surrounded
by a community of people
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00:21:14
who are both going to
challenge me when I need it
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00:21:16
and give me a
shoulder when I need it.
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00:21:18
Now,
this is a really big church,
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00:21:19
but that also means there's
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a really great
opportunity for you to find
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00:21:23
a group of people
that work for you,
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00:21:24
and I'm positive that
there's one for you here.
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00:21:28
You can actually head
to Crossroads.net/groups.
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00:21:30
There's actually even
a groups quiz tool
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00:21:32
to help you find your best fit
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00:21:34
for your current stage of life.
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00:21:36
And I get it,
if that's overwhelming for you,
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00:21:38
we can do some
personalized help for you.
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00:21:40
We'd love to do this for you.
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00:21:41
It's actually why my
whole team exists.
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00:21:43
You can just text
Anywhere to 301301.
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00:21:46
We'd love to help
you get connected.
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00:21:48
Now a reminder Crossroads
is made up of normal people,
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00:21:51
and these same normal
people are the ones
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00:21:53
who give money
and actually fund all of
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00:21:55
the great stuff that
happens around Crossroads
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00:21:58
all year long,
including the service
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00:21:59
that you're watching right
now and so much more.
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00:22:01
If you'd like to join the
team of faithful people,
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00:22:03
or just learn more about
what Crossroads believes
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00:22:06
and how we spend money,
-
00:22:07
you can just head to
Crossroads.net/give.
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00:22:09
I'll stop talking now
and get out of the way.
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00:22:11
Let's hear from our
Lead Pastor Kyle Ranson
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00:22:13
as we continue in our
series Leave Lies Behind.
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00:22:41
- Well, hey, welcome.
My name is Kyle.
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00:22:43
I'm the Lead Pastor
here at Crossroads
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00:22:45
if we've never met before.
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00:22:46
And yes, you can keep
this out the entire time
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00:22:49
and keep playing with it.
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00:22:50
That's what I'm going to
be doing the whole time.
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00:22:52
This is the second week
of a series that we started
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00:22:56
about the real gospel
versus the fake gospel.
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If you missed last week,
Brian kicked it off.
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00:23:02
Powerful, powerful experience.
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00:23:04
If you missed it,
catch up online.
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00:23:06
The best way to do that
is the Crossroads app.
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00:23:08
Free download.
Watch it in there.
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00:23:10
I think you will
learn something that
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00:23:13
will absolutely bless your
life if you invest that time.
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00:23:16
Speaking of learning something,
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00:23:18
I was a little bit too
old when I learned
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00:23:22
how babies are actually made.
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00:23:24
Just being honest.
It's my fault.
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00:23:26
See,
I thought I knew the answer.
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00:23:29
And because I thought
I knew the real answer,
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00:23:31
I never actually went
looking for the truth.
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00:23:34
Then one morning, my dad,
late Saturday morning,
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00:23:36
walked up to me and he said,
"Hey, Kyle,
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do you know how
babies are made?"
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00:23:41
And I thought it was a
little odd he was asking me,
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00:23:44
but I humored him.
I was like, "Yeah, absolutely.
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00:23:46
I totally know that answer."
He was like, "Okay, how?"
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00:23:48
I was like, "Well,
dad, pretty simple.
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00:23:50
When a mom and a
dad love each other,
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00:23:53
they go to the
doctor and get a pill
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00:23:56
that the mom takes that starts
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00:23:58
a baby growing inside
of her and her stomach,
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00:24:00
actually, which is weird.
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00:24:01
Apparently babies
are really resistant
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00:24:03
to Diet Coke and it grows there.
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00:24:05
And then after a period of time,
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00:24:06
you go to the hospital,
they scoop it out,
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00:24:08
you come home.
That's kind of how it works.
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00:24:10
Dad, weird you didn't know that,
right?"
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00:24:12
He was like, "Actually,
you missed a few details,"
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00:24:15
and he proceeded
to explain it to me,
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00:24:16
which if you don't know
how babies are made,
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00:24:18
I'm not going to
tell you right now.
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00:24:21
But you can email
Brian.Tome@crossroads.net.
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00:24:25
He will give you all the facts.
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00:24:27
Be spectacular
for you and for him.
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00:24:32
The best way to ensure that
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00:24:35
someone doesn't find the truth,
the real answer
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00:24:40
is to convince them
that they already have it.
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00:24:43
This is our world. This is
the world that we live in.
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00:24:46
There are many
gospels that shout at us
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00:24:49
in all directions, "I have it,
I have the answer.
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00:24:52
And if you believe
what I believe,
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00:24:53
then you've already got it."
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00:24:55
There are many, many gospels.
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00:24:57
Gospel doesn't have
anything to do in particular
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00:24:59
with religion or God.
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00:25:00
It just means good news about
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00:25:02
the way to have a good life.
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00:25:04
Some of them involve God.
Some of them don't.
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00:25:06
But they shout at us
from all over the place.
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00:25:10
Now the real gospel
and the fake gospel
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00:25:14
becomes a lifelong
quest that you and I have
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00:25:18
to sort through, all of us do.
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00:25:20
We have to determine
which of these
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00:25:22
do we believe is the real one?
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00:25:23
And you might be in here like,
"No, you don't.
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00:25:25
No, you don't.
I'm going to sit that one out."
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00:25:26
Well congratulations,
let me just tell you
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00:25:28
you haven't actually sat it out.
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00:25:30
You've chosen to
believe that the good life,
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00:25:32
the way to the
best life is apathy.
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00:25:35
See,
none of us get to sit it out.
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00:25:36
All of us have to
determine which is real
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00:25:38
and which is fake.
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00:25:40
And in the Bible,
it warns us again and again
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00:25:42
and again against
falling for one of the fakes.
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00:25:46
One place is Galatians 1:6.
Paul writes:
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00:25:48
I marvel that you are
turning away so soon
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00:25:53
from Him who called
you in the grace of Christ,
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00:25:56
to a different gospel,
which is not another.
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00:25:59
Paul goes, my mind is blown.
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00:26:01
You're leaving the real gospel,
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00:26:03
which he describes
as characterized
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00:26:05
by the grace of Christ,
for a different one,
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00:26:08
which he says actually
isn't even a gospel at all.
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00:26:10
In other words, it's a fake.
It's a phony.
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00:26:13
There's only one
real gospel of grace.
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00:26:17
And today we're going
to be diving into ten words
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00:26:20
that form this idea that
we've been talking about
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00:26:22
so far, the idea that
says that we are made.
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00:26:24
The Bible says this all over,
from cover to cover,
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00:26:27
but right in the
middle of the Bible,
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00:26:29
more or less by words,
the book of Psalms
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00:26:31
and towards the ends of Psalms,
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00:26:33
there's these ten
words that form
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00:26:35
this one clear, compelling claim
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00:26:38
that's at the foundation
of the gospel of grace.
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00:26:40
And they are these,
Psalm 139:14:
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00:26:43
I praise You because I am
fearfully and wonderfully made.
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00:26:51
It's the claim of the Bible,
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00:26:53
I praise You because I am
fearfully and wonderfully made.
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00:26:57
The real gospel says,
you are fearfully
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00:26:58
and wonderfully made,
and your job,
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00:27:00
which you need to do,
is to praise God because of it.
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00:27:04
I don't know if this
is a habit you have.
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00:27:07
Maybe every day you
wake up and you thank God
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00:27:08
for something about
how He's made you.
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00:27:10
But I would doubt it.
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00:27:11
I've never actually met somebody
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00:27:12
who has that
habit in their life.
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00:27:14
See, most of us find
it far easier to think of
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00:27:15
things that we that we
don't like about ourselves,
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00:27:17
things that are broken,
things that are off,
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00:27:19
things that we
wish were different.
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00:27:21
But I'm telling you,
nothing will lead you
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00:27:22
to the good life more than
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00:27:24
choosing to believe
these ten words:
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00:27:27
I praise You because I am
fearfully and wonderfully made.
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00:27:31
And not just believe them,
but actually do them.
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00:27:35
It's my hope and my prayer
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00:27:36
what happens
for all of us today.
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00:27:38
So before we go any further,
let's pray together.
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00:27:40
God, I'm asking that
You'd show up today
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00:27:42
and that just as
we're shaping this clay
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00:27:44
in our hands right now,
that You would shape us,
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00:27:48
that You would shape
our eyes to see You,
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00:27:51
our ears to hear the voice
of Your Spirit right now
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00:27:54
to reshape the way
we view ourselves.
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00:27:56
That we would have
the same value on us
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00:27:58
that You put on us. Amen.
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00:28:01
Now, throughout the Bible,
the most common picture
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00:28:04
for the image of God
making us is clay.
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00:28:09
God's the potter,
we're the clay. Isaiah 64:8:
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00:28:11
But now, O Lord,
You are our Father;
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00:28:13
we are the clay,
and You are our potter;
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00:28:16
we are all the
work of Your hand.
-
00:28:19
This is why JW is up here today,
a potter.
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00:28:21
Let's all say thank you to JW
for being here this weekend.
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00:28:26
[applause] Sometimes at
Crossroads we like to have
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00:28:28
these, like, subtle
metaphors that you have this
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00:28:31
moment at some point
you're like, "Wow, I get it."
-
00:28:33
I mean, just from the beginning,
-
00:28:34
I want to make sure you get it.
-
00:28:35
God. Us. Okay? God.
Us. Us. God. Right?
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00:28:42
Got it. Okay. He's making us.
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00:28:44
That the idea is that God
intentionally makes us.
-
00:28:46
Now that the fake
gospels that we're gonna
-
00:28:48
be comparing the
real gospel to today
-
00:28:50
are two broad ones, but I think
they kind of cover the spectrum.
-
00:28:53
One is the secular
gospel that says
-
00:28:56
you're not made,
instead you're random,
-
00:28:59
and you need to be proud of it.
-
00:29:01
That's the secular gospel.
-
00:29:03
The other gospel is the
religious gospel that says
-
00:29:06
you're at best
average or common,
-
00:29:08
and you need to accept it.
-
00:29:11
Now,
my burn for this message started
-
00:29:13
a few months ago at work.
-
00:29:16
And it was a staff meeting,
which I know, you know,
-
00:29:19
when you work at a church,
-
00:29:21
people understand
what you do on a Sunday.
-
00:29:23
Like people get
my job on a Sunday,
-
00:29:25
but the other days of
the week people are like,
-
00:29:27
"What do you -- what
do you guys do at work?
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00:29:29
You know what I mean?
Like, are you, like,
-
00:29:30
practicing baptism?"
Like, yeah, we do.
-
00:29:34
We have lawnmowers
and we practice this motion
-
00:29:38
because raising
people out of the water
-
00:29:39
is the most important part.
-
00:29:41
And so it really
builds the core.
-
00:29:43
No. Our job is the same
as yours most of the time,
-
00:29:47
right, you go to meetings,
you plan stuff.
-
00:29:48
You talk about stuff,
you strategize,
-
00:29:50
you meet with people, you know,
all that kind of stuff.
-
00:29:52
You review budgets.
-
00:29:53
But there is one
thing we do that
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00:29:55
you probably
don't do at your job,
-
00:29:57
which is we pray together
every morning for 30 minutes.
-
00:30:00
And the reason we
do that is because
-
00:30:01
the stuff that we're
going after is stuff
-
00:30:03
that we can't possibly
deliver on our own.
-
00:30:05
So we need God to show up,
so we invite Him into it.
-
00:30:07
And back in late November,
early December,
-
00:30:09
I was at one of these
meetings and the guy leading,
-
00:30:12
Josh Seurkamp,
led us on a gratitude exercise.
-
00:30:14
We're going to
have a gratitude day.
-
00:30:15
And the thing I want
you to be grateful for
-
00:30:18
is something about
how God made you.
-
00:30:20
He took us right
to Psalm 139:14,
-
00:30:23
I praise You because I am
fearfully and wonderfully made.
-
00:30:28
And he said,
"My guess is this might be
-
00:30:31
really hard for some of you,
-
00:30:33
and I want to encourage
you to fight through it
-
00:30:36
anyway and to be grateful."
-
00:30:38
And for the next 30 minutes,
I watched
-
00:30:40
and I listened as
teammate after teammate
-
00:30:42
who was actually
brave enough to pray
-
00:30:44
because this wasn't
pray silently in your seat.
-
00:30:46
You know? Just kind
of say it in your head.
-
00:30:48
No,
out loud in front of everybody
-
00:30:50
what are you
thankful for about you
-
00:30:52
because God made you well?
-
00:30:54
And I sat there for
30 minutes listening to
-
00:30:57
and watch my teammates,
people who have given up
-
00:30:59
their life to preach the gospel,
-
00:31:00
people who I know
deeply believe it,
-
00:31:02
at least intellectually,
as person after person
-
00:31:05
gave the same preamble,
-
00:31:06
a person who's
brave enough to go.
-
00:31:08
And the preamble
was something like,
-
00:31:10
"This is so hard because,
honestly,
-
00:31:13
I don't like much about myself.
-
00:31:15
Honestly, most of
what I think about myself
-
00:31:17
I think I'm at best,
common or average or fine.
-
00:31:22
And to be honest,
there's more things
-
00:31:23
I don't like than than I do.
It's really hard."
-
00:31:27
And it was heartbreaking.
-
00:31:28
So I sat there and thought,
-
00:31:30
if people who work for a church,
-
00:31:33
who've given up whatever
other money or success
-
00:31:35
or career they could have
-
00:31:37
in order to have
people know the gospel,
-
00:31:38
if they struggle to believe
this part of the gospel,
-
00:31:42
what about everybody else?
-
00:31:45
And I'll just say,
if you're in this room
-
00:31:47
and you struggle to believe
that that God made you,
-
00:31:50
that you're not an accident,
-
00:31:52
that you're not a mistake,
-
00:31:53
that he hasn't messed up,
-
00:31:54
that there's not
something tragically
-
00:31:56
forever broken about you,
-
00:31:57
if you struggle to believe
that you are normal.
-
00:32:01
That's what most people think
and most people believe.
-
00:32:04
That's why I wanted
to do this message
-
00:32:06
and dig into this claim:
-
00:32:08
I praise You because I am
fearfully and wonderfully made.
-
00:32:11
Now we're going to go
through it phrase by phrase,
-
00:32:13
and we're actually going
to start at the very end,
-
00:32:15
the last word,
because that's the foundation
-
00:32:17
for the entire claim,
the idea that you are made.
-
00:32:21
And it's on this one
word where immediately
-
00:32:24
the real gospel and
the secular gospel
-
00:32:26
completely diverge.
-
00:32:28
You have to choose
a path at this moment,
-
00:32:30
are you made or
are you a mistake?
-
00:32:33
Are you made or are you random?
-
00:32:35
Are you an accident?
Are you just chance?
-
00:32:38
The secular gospel
says that you are.
-
00:32:39
It's exactly what you are,
you're random,
-
00:32:42
that there is no design,
there's no intent behind you.
-
00:32:44
That accidentally
there was nothing
-
00:32:47
and then completely randomly,
there was everything,
-
00:32:51
including eventually you.
-
00:32:53
That's the foundation
of the secular gospel.
-
00:32:57
The other day,
my son looked at my daughter,
-
00:33:00
Gracie, took off her shoes,
-
00:33:02
just came home
from soccer practice.
-
00:33:04
And he said, "No offense,
Gracie, but your feet stink."
-
00:33:08
And then he was shocked
when she was offended.
-
00:33:10
And I had to explain to him
-
00:33:12
that's not what the
power of that phrase,
-
00:33:14
no offense doesn't mean
they won't be offended.
-
00:33:16
That's unfortunately.
-
00:33:17
That'd be awesome if it
worked that way, great.
-
00:33:19
It doesn't work that way.
-
00:33:20
So at risk of doing
the same thing,
-
00:33:22
let me just say this,
no offense, but
-
00:33:25
I find it strange that
the same people
-
00:33:29
who would criticize
someone like me and say,
-
00:33:31
"I can't believe that
an intelligent person
-
00:33:34
could ever believe in
the virgin birth of Jesus,"
-
00:33:38
themselves believe
in the virgin birth
-
00:33:41
of the entire universe.
-
00:33:43
There's no mother,
there's no father,
-
00:33:44
there's no creator,
there's no designer,
-
00:33:46
there's no intelligence,
there's just randomness
-
00:33:48
and then there was you.
-
00:33:50
I mean, none of us would
ever walk into this room,
-
00:33:52
see all these pots and go,
"You know,
-
00:33:53
I'll bet those just kind of
spontaneously happened."
-
00:33:56
Right? You might go,
"Yeah, because we can see
-
00:33:58
JW sitting right there
making them all."
-
00:34:01
Cool. Imagine if he wasn't.
-
00:34:03
Would any of you
ever walk in and go,
-
00:34:05
"I bet, I'll give,
I give 100 bucks
-
00:34:08
that thing just kind of
like happened that way."
-
00:34:10
No, no, of course not.
That defies logic.
-
00:34:13
The universe is
infinitely more complex
-
00:34:15
and more intricate and connected
-
00:34:17
and intentional in design
than any of these pots.
-
00:34:22
That's the secular gospel,
though,
-
00:34:24
you're a random accident.
-
00:34:25
Now,
besides the logical flaw in it,
-
00:34:27
that is very obvious,
I think there's another flaw
-
00:34:29
that's actually more
problematic because,
-
00:34:31
see, we humans,
we have this ability
-
00:34:33
if things aren't logical,
we can put them over here
-
00:34:35
and we can ignore them.
-
00:34:36
What we can't ignore are
the emotional consequences
-
00:34:38
of that fallacy.
-
00:34:40
And so what happens
when you believe that
-
00:34:41
you're random and
you're an accident,
-
00:34:43
you find it very hard
to have any self-worth,
-
00:34:46
any value of you,
because how could you?
-
00:34:51
There's no design, there's
no intent, there's no purpose,
-
00:34:53
there's no bigger meaning,
there's no love,
-
00:34:57
there's no nothing.
There's no real beginning
-
00:35:00
and there's no real end.
-
00:35:01
From nothing to nothing.
-
00:35:04
How do you create
value in the middle of it?
-
00:35:06
This is exactly how
some of us feel. Exactly.
-
00:35:11
Again, if you're here and
you don't believe in Jesus,
-
00:35:13
that's awesome. We really --
-
00:35:15
I don't want to make you feel
bad about that whatsoever.
-
00:35:18
I'm so honored that you're here.
-
00:35:20
I'm so honored that
you would even consider
-
00:35:22
and you'd listen to
something different.
-
00:35:23
That makes you above
normal to consider that
-
00:35:26
there might be something
that you don't know.
-
00:35:29
But let me just ask you,
if you believed
-
00:35:32
this secular gospel,
is it working for you?
-
00:35:37
Is the good news
about a good life,
-
00:35:38
is it producing a good life?
-
00:35:40
No, it's not, otherwise,
you wouldn't be here.
-
00:35:44
Of course it's not.
-
00:35:45
The good news I have
for you today is that
-
00:35:47
that's the fake gospel.
That one's not real.
-
00:35:49
The real gospel, instead,
is that you're not a mistake,
-
00:35:51
You're not random,
you are very intentionally made.
-
00:35:55
Made.
-
00:35:57
See,
the gospel says that this is us.
-
00:35:59
There's a creator behind us.
-
00:36:00
And that before we
ever lived a single day
-
00:36:04
He had purposed us,
He had designed us,
-
00:36:06
He had thought about us.
-
00:36:07
It says, before we lived a day
-
00:36:09
all the days were
written in His book,
-
00:36:11
before we were born
He knew the number
-
00:36:12
of hairs on our head
at each moment,
-
00:36:14
which for me is getting
less and less and less.
-
00:36:16
However, He already knew that.
-
00:36:18
He knows you and
He's shaping you.
-
00:36:21
And because you're made,
you have value.
-
00:36:24
This is what we
believe at Crossroads.
-
00:36:26
And we don't just believe it,
we act on it.
-
00:36:28
We've seen the headlines
the last week or so
-
00:36:30
about all of the destructive
wildfires in California.
-
00:36:34
I saw yesterday it now
burned down 12,000 homes,
-
00:36:37
largest natural disaster in
Southern California history.
-
00:36:41
I'm happy to tell you,
if you give to Crossroads,
-
00:36:43
you've actually
made a difference,
-
00:36:44
you've actually helped.
-
00:36:45
We were able to,
just a few days ago,
-
00:36:46
release $50,000 to our
partners Convoy of Hope
-
00:36:50
to help with that.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
-
00:36:53
That's going to help
1250 families have food
-
00:36:56
and shelter and supplies,
air purification for two weeks.
-
00:37:00
So very, very thankful to be
able to jump in and do that.
-
00:37:03
And you might hear
that and go like, "Really?
-
00:37:06
All those people in
Southern California,
-
00:37:07
aren't they all rich?
They really need help?
-
00:37:11
Give it to them?"
-
00:37:12
Well, yeah,
because all life has value,
-
00:37:15
rich, poor, young, old,
-
00:37:18
my politics, different politics,
doesn't matter.
-
00:37:20
The Bible says
all life has value
-
00:37:22
because every single
person has been made.
-
00:37:25
And not just made,
but made exceptionally.
-
00:37:28
Not just a lump,
but actually a masterpiece.
-
00:37:32
It says this in the middle of
Psalm 139:14, next phrase:
-
00:37:36
I praise You because I am
fearfully and wonderfully made.
-
00:37:42
Now,
fearfully doesn't mean scary.
-
00:37:44
It actually means awesomely,
the kind of fear
-
00:37:46
that's like awe or
reverence or respect,
-
00:37:49
that we've been made
in such an incredible way
-
00:37:51
that if you were
to truly see you
-
00:37:52
the way God sees you,
it would take your breath away.
-
00:37:55
"Oh, wow."
-
00:37:57
And wonderfully means
more than just wonderful.
-
00:38:00
We use that kind of commonly.
-
00:38:01
It actually means distinctly,
uniquely,
-
00:38:05
one distinguished
from the other.
-
00:38:07
There are no two the same.
-
00:38:09
God does not make
stuff that sells at Costco.
-
00:38:12
He doesn't create in bulk.
-
00:38:14
God's never gone, "You know,
I'm going to make 24
-
00:38:16
and they're all going
to be named Kim,
-
00:38:18
and they're the same."
-
00:38:19
Not what He does,
never, never done that.
-
00:38:21
God makes every
single person uniquely.
-
00:38:23
And what that adds
up to is that the idea is
-
00:38:25
that you are a masterpiece.
-
00:38:28
And this is where the
real gospel of God's grace
-
00:38:31
and I believe the
fake religious gospel
-
00:38:33
comes in conflict,
the religious gospel that says,
-
00:38:35
"You're not a masterpiece,
not at all.
-
00:38:38
You're at best
average or common,
-
00:38:41
and your job is
just to accept it.
-
00:38:43
You're not a beautiful
pot He's making.
-
00:38:45
You're just kind of a lump.
This is you, right?
-
00:38:49
God kind of, there you go.
-
00:38:51
You put a couple of
eyeballs and this little smile,
-
00:38:54
that's good enough, you know?
-
00:38:56
Yeah. Perfect name you, Wilson.
-
00:39:01
Talk to you on the beach."
-
00:39:06
This is what the
religious gospel says.
-
00:39:09
Best thing you can do is
accept that you're a lump.
-
00:39:13
You are terrible. You're awful.
-
00:39:14
There's nothing valuable
about you whatsoever.
-
00:39:17
But then God came along,
and for whatever reason,
-
00:39:19
He decided to save
you and rescue you.
-
00:39:22
And ever since, He's mostly
been bummed out about you.
-
00:39:26
That's the religious gospel,
-
00:39:27
but this isn't the
gospel of grace,
-
00:39:29
and this isn't the gospel
-
00:39:30
that we believe at Crossroads.
-
00:39:32
See,
we believe what these words say,
-
00:39:34
that you are fearfully
and wonderfully made,
-
00:39:36
that you are a masterpiece.
-
00:39:39
Now,
this idea that you're a lump,
-
00:39:40
it wasn't how you always
felt about yourself, was it?
-
00:39:43
You know, when you were a kid,
you felt differently.
-
00:39:46
In fact,
I've never met a five year old
-
00:39:50
who would tell me
they are average.
-
00:39:53
Right? Or common.
No, they do the do the opposite.
-
00:39:56
They tell you how
awesome they are.
-
00:39:57
Like, "Look what I made
out of macaroni and string
-
00:40:00
and pipe cleaners.
Isn't it beautiful?
-
00:40:02
Look how fast I am.
Look how high I can jump.
-
00:40:04
Oh, my gosh, I'm so strong."
-
00:40:06
That's five year olds.
-
00:40:08
When my kids were 4 or 5 and 6,
none of them
-
00:40:10
ever came up to us
at Halloween and said,
-
00:40:12
"You know, dad,
what I want to be for Halloween
-
00:40:15
is kind of how I feel inside,
my truest sense of self.
-
00:40:18
I want to dress up as a 45
year old cog in the wheel,
-
00:40:22
just trying to get by,
just making it through
-
00:40:26
my day to get to
Netflix and pass out.
-
00:40:31
Can you help me?" No. No.
-
00:40:37
Get your clay out if it's
not already in your hands.
-
00:40:39
And think about you 4,
5, 6 years old.
-
00:40:45
What did you think about you?
-
00:40:47
What were you proud about?
-
00:40:49
What did you want to
dress up for at Halloween?
-
00:40:51
Was it something
about being creative?
-
00:40:53
Were you so excited to
show people the masterpieces
-
00:40:56
that you made out
of macaroni or Legos?
-
00:40:59
Did you think you were strong?
-
00:41:00
Were you so excited to
show off your muscles?
-
00:41:02
Did you think you were fast?
-
00:41:04
Did you think you could
be a ballerina someday?
-
00:41:06
You were graceful and
the picture of beauty.
-
00:41:09
What did you consider yourself?
-
00:41:11
Whatever that is,
I want you to start to shape it
-
00:41:13
in your clay.
-
00:41:15
Maybe when you were five,
you wanted to be
-
00:41:17
a fireman for Halloween,
somebody heroic,
-
00:41:19
somebody who saves people.
-
00:41:21
Maybe you want to
be a football player.
-
00:41:23
If so,
just sculpt a little football.
-
00:41:24
Whatever it is,
I want you to make that thing
-
00:41:27
and hold it in your hand.
-
00:41:29
Now, what happens to all of us,
by the way,
-
00:41:32
is that we feel this way.
-
00:41:34
I think it's part of
the gift of grace
-
00:41:35
that God gives
us is that as kids
-
00:41:38
we truly do start believing that
-
00:41:39
we're fearfully and
wonderfully made.
-
00:41:41
However, at some point,
life starts to happen
-
00:41:45
and hit us and we see that
we're not good at everything.
-
00:41:48
And we start to think maybe
-
00:41:49
we're not fearfully
and wonderfully made.
-
00:41:51
Maybe we're just a lump.
-
00:41:54
Stuff we're bad at.
-
00:41:55
I know there's
stuff that I'm bad at.
-
00:41:57
As a dad there's
stuff I'm very bad at.
-
00:42:00
I think all dads are
actually bad at these things.
-
00:42:02
One is buying the correct
size shoe for my kids.
-
00:42:06
For the life of me,
I cannot do this.
-
00:42:09
I've spent an hour before inside
-
00:42:11
a Dick's Sporting Goods
doing the thumb thing.
-
00:42:13
You know, like,
is that the -- I don't?
-
00:42:15
Is this right?
Maybe it's two thumbs.
-
00:42:16
Getting the shoe expert.
-
00:42:18
He's like 15.5 to help me out.
Not helpful.
-
00:42:23
And I go home.
I'm like, "Look what I --
-
00:42:24
Got the right size."
And Sarah's like,
-
00:42:26
"You got a three
and she's an eight.
-
00:42:27
That's not even remotely close."
-
00:42:30
Bad at that as a dad.
-
00:42:32
Another thing us
dads are bad at is
-
00:42:34
picking up
prescriptions for our kids.
-
00:42:36
Okay, moms, when you go,
this is how it works for you.
-
00:42:39
You go up to the window,
they look at you,
-
00:42:40
you seem trustworthy,
they give you the medicine,
-
00:42:42
you drive off. It's awesome.
-
00:42:44
When us dads roll up,
they give us a test.
-
00:42:48
They say, "What's the
patient's date of birth?"
-
00:42:53
Uh. Whoa.
You know, winter is the general.
-
00:42:58
Is that enough? Can we stop?
Can we call that good?
-
00:43:01
You know,
you need a more specific
-
00:43:02
Jan-Feb kind of situation.
Q1, can we do that?
-
00:43:07
No, they want the numbers,
which I think
-
00:43:08
it should work like
Wheel of Fortune.
-
00:43:10
I think when you
guess one number,
-
00:43:11
like if you guess a one
and there's three ones,
-
00:43:13
they should give
you all of the ones.
-
00:43:15
Just fill it in.
It would go faster.
-
00:43:19
Dads aren't good at that.
-
00:43:20
Finding anything in a pantry
-
00:43:21
that also has other things
in it. Very bad at that.
-
00:43:26
I realized early on in my life
-
00:43:27
there were things
about me that maybe
-
00:43:29
weren't as awesome
as I thought they were.
-
00:43:32
When I was 8 or 9 years old,
I was playing baseball,
-
00:43:35
and I remember one
practice our coach had us
-
00:43:38
run out to the outfield,
touch the fence and run back.
-
00:43:43
And all of my teammates and me,
we run out,
-
00:43:46
we touch the fence
and we come back.
-
00:43:48
Only they all made it made
it back way before I did.
-
00:43:50
I was the very last one back.
-
00:43:53
And not just the last one back,
-
00:43:54
but I couldn't breathe
for another 15 minutes.
-
00:43:57
I was tired,
I was sucking in oxygen.
-
00:44:00
And in that moment,
it occurred to me that
-
00:44:03
maybe I'm not as strong,
-
00:44:04
maybe not as fast
as I think I was.
-
00:44:06
And later on I would
learn the word asthma.
-
00:44:10
It's the first time in my
life I have a memory of
-
00:44:12
going, "God,
I believe that You've made me,
-
00:44:15
but I don't like that one thing.
-
00:44:18
If I could just change that,
I would.
-
00:44:21
I would really like it.
-
00:44:22
I mean, I don't want to
criticize the whole thing,
-
00:44:24
just like that one part."
-
00:44:27
Later on, we grow up.
-
00:44:29
Everybody else would grow,
like, literally up.
-
00:44:35
Me? Not so much. Right?
-
00:44:39
And as a young boy,
what you're supposed to dream of
-
00:44:41
is being strong
and tough and all.
-
00:44:44
Well, what do you
do when you're small?
-
00:44:46
And again, I would go,
"God, if I could just tell You,
-
00:44:50
I don't like that You did that.
-
00:44:52
Can we change that part?"
-
00:44:55
In school, my classmates
had this amazing ability
-
00:44:59
where they could do something
-
00:45:02
and hear the teacher.
-
00:45:05
They could do their work
and hear instructions.
-
00:45:07
Me? Not at all. Not at all.
-
00:45:10
Whatever I was doing,
still to this day,
-
00:45:12
whatever I do, that's all that
exists in my entire universe.
-
00:45:15
I am not aware of
anything else at all.
-
00:45:18
I realized that my classmates
-
00:45:20
had this mental
capacity that I didn't,
-
00:45:22
and I would later
learn the word ADHD.
-
00:45:25
I said, "God, I don't like the
way You made me like that."
-
00:45:30
And this is us.
-
00:45:32
See, for all of us, all of us
-
00:45:33
have these moments that happen.
-
00:45:34
As a parent,
it's the hardest thing
-
00:45:36
when you're when
your kids hit this phase,
-
00:45:37
it's the hardest thing.
-
00:45:38
It's where my kids are at.
-
00:45:40
My daughter, Gracie,
was with me on Christmas Eve,
-
00:45:42
one of the
highlights of my year.
-
00:45:43
She read a verse during
a Christmas Eve services
-
00:45:46
if you were here,
and she did an amazing job.
-
00:45:48
And before and after
my wife asked her.
-
00:45:52
She goes, "Gracie,
were you nervous?"
-
00:45:54
And Gracie's like,
"No, you know, like,
-
00:45:58
why would you ask such
a weird question, mom?'
-
00:46:00
You know,
and for context, you know,
-
00:46:02
if you're newer to Crossroads,
-
00:46:03
if you're watching us online,
it's pretty big.
-
00:46:05
The first service that she did,
-
00:46:07
there were 3500
people in the room,
-
00:46:08
and there were 1100 and
overflow just at that one site.
-
00:46:11
Tens of thousands
of people saw her.
-
00:46:13
That, you know, would make
a normal person nervous,
-
00:46:16
but not her.
-
00:46:18
It's amazing, this grace
that God has given her
-
00:46:21
of confidence
that's just in her.
-
00:46:23
And yet that same
girl last weekend
-
00:46:25
walked off the soccer field,
went to me and Sarah
-
00:46:28
and said, "I feel like
I'm a disappointment,"
-
00:46:31
hung her head.
It happens to all of us.
-
00:46:34
When did it happen to you?
-
00:46:36
What was the moment in your life
-
00:46:37
you first noticed
something about you
-
00:46:39
that you didn't like?
-
00:46:40
Maybe it was
something about the way
-
00:46:41
that your body was shaped
differently than others.
-
00:46:44
Maybe you were too big,
maybe too small.
-
00:46:48
Just wish you were different.
-
00:46:50
Maybe it was something
about how everybody else
-
00:46:52
seemed to have
this ability to think,
-
00:46:54
or to interact,
or to make friends easily.
-
00:46:56
And for you, it just didn't
quite happen that way.
-
00:47:00
Maybe for you,
it was something else about you.
-
00:47:02
Maybe it was something
about the place
-
00:47:03
that God put you in life,
or the the family
-
00:47:05
that He's given you,
something that was shaping you
-
00:47:08
and you just went, "No, God,
I think you messed up."
-
00:47:11
See, this is us.
-
00:47:12
God's making us on the wheel,
and we just go,
-
00:47:15
"Nah,
I'd like you to start over.
-
00:47:18
I don't like that one."
-
00:47:21
And I know some of you are like,
"Kyle,
-
00:47:22
he worked so hard. Poor J.W.
-
00:47:29
Did you -- I mean,
he's the whole time
-
00:47:31
you've been seeing
him since that song
-
00:47:32
in the beginning,
he was making the pots.
-
00:47:35
How could you just
smash them like that?
-
00:47:36
How could you pick
at them like that?"
-
00:47:40
You know that's how God feels,
right,
-
00:47:44
when you pick at you,
when you critique the work,
-
00:47:47
when you hyper
focus on the thing
-
00:47:49
that you wish was different,
-
00:47:50
you wish was not the same,
-
00:47:52
when you miss the
masterpiece and you said
-
00:47:54
it's just to act and
assume like you are a lump.
-
00:47:58
You're not,
you're not, you're not.
-
00:48:00
It's not what God
says about you.
-
00:48:02
He says, you've got it all
backwards. Isaiah 29:16.
-
00:48:09
You turn things upside down.
This is God's words.
-
00:48:13
Shall the potter be
regarded as the clay,
-
00:48:16
that the thing made
should say of its maker,
-
00:48:19
"He did not make me";
-
00:48:21
or the thing formed
say of him who formed it,
-
00:48:23
"He has no understanding"?
-
00:48:25
He goes,
"Can you look at me, the pot?
-
00:48:29
Can you look up at me and say,
you're doing it all wrong?
-
00:48:31
You don't know
what you're doing.
-
00:48:33
You're messing
the whole thing up.
-
00:48:34
This isn't right.
I wish I was different."
-
00:48:36
Can you?
Can you do that? No, no.
-
00:48:40
See if you're in here
and you feel like a lump,
-
00:48:43
or you feel common
or you feel average,
-
00:48:46
you're not common,
you're not average.
-
00:48:48
You're a masterpiece.
-
00:48:49
Do you know what you call
a common Michelangelo?
-
00:48:54
A masterpiece.
-
00:48:55
Do you know what you call a
common Leonardo da Vinci?
-
00:48:58
A masterpiece.
-
00:49:00
Do you know what you call
-
00:49:01
a common Frank Lloyd
Wright house? A masterpiece.
-
00:49:05
Why? Because a
master artist created it
-
00:49:08
and a master artist
has created you.
-
00:49:11
Therefore, you are by
definition, a masterpiece.
-
00:49:20
You know what you call a
common Keanu Reeves movie?
-
00:49:23
Just kidding. [laughter]
I take it a little too far?
-
00:49:27
Take it too far. Ephesians 2:10:
-
00:49:30
For we are God's masterpiece.
-
00:49:33
He has created us
anew in Christ Jesus,
-
00:49:35
so we can do the good things
-
00:49:37
He planned for us long ago.
-
00:49:40
James 1:18 says that we
are His prized possession.
-
00:49:42
It builds on this
idea of a masterpiece
-
00:49:44
is that out of all creation,
-
00:49:46
out of everything made,
-
00:49:48
he looks at us and goes,
"You are the pinnacle.
-
00:49:51
You are the top.
You are my masterpiece."
-
00:49:54
Think of the most beautiful
sunrise you've ever seen.
-
00:49:57
Think of the most majestic
beach you've ever been on.
-
00:49:59
Think of the most
amazing mountain scene
-
00:50:01
your eyes have ever
seen or considered.
-
00:50:03
And God says you are
better than all of those things.
-
00:50:06
All the stars, all the galaxies,
-
00:50:07
all everything He's ever made,
-
00:50:09
you are the masterpiece.
-
00:50:11
I think some of us were afraid
-
00:50:13
to regard ourselves that way,
-
00:50:14
because we feel
like at some point,
-
00:50:16
God's going to come
along and be like,
-
00:50:18
"You thought you were what?
Oh my gosh.
-
00:50:20
I would laugh if you
weren't so dumb.
-
00:50:22
I mean, you thought
you were worth what?"
-
00:50:25
We're afraid of
overvaluing ourselves.
-
00:50:26
You ever overvalued something.
-
00:50:28
I do this all the
time in my life.
-
00:50:29
I don't really calculate
the cost sometimes
-
00:50:32
moving so fast. Right?
-
00:50:33
Last year, my kids in
September or August, I guess,
-
00:50:36
again, I'm a dad. I barely
know what school they go to
-
00:50:39
or what grade they're in.
-
00:50:40
I'm just saying, I don't know.
-
00:50:42
They started school
for the first time
-
00:50:44
in a traditional school.
-
00:50:45
They've been
homeschooled before that.
-
00:50:46
And so I wanted to
incentivize them towards grades
-
00:50:49
because they never had grades.
Right?
-
00:50:51
And so I decided I was
going to value their grades
-
00:50:55
so that they would
value their grades.
-
00:50:57
So I said, "I'll give
you 20 bucks for an A,
-
00:50:59
I'll give you 25
bucks for an A+.
-
00:51:01
I'll give you 15 bucks
for a B and so on.
-
00:51:04
And I'll give you a bonus
if you get straight A's."
-
00:51:06
And in my mind I'm like,
"What do they have,
-
00:51:08
like, three classes a piece?
I don't know."
-
00:51:10
No. They have 7 or 8 apparently,
didn't know that.
-
00:51:14
My wife's looking at me like,
"What are you doing?"
-
00:51:17
So they all got straight
A's and I'm very poor.
-
00:51:20
So I had to have a conversation.
-
00:51:23
Management is just
making some adjustments
-
00:51:24
to our compensation
structure for the next quarter.
-
00:51:26
You know, talk them
through that, overvalued it.
-
00:51:30
And this is what we're
afraid of is that someday
-
00:51:32
we're gonna be
caught in this place
-
00:51:33
where we have
overvalued ourselves.
-
00:51:35
But again,
that is utterly impossible.
-
00:51:37
You cannot overvalue yourself.
-
00:51:39
God is proud of you.
-
00:51:41
He says you are a masterpiece.
-
00:51:43
How do I know?
Well, how do you know a work
-
00:51:47
is something the
artist is proud of?
-
00:51:51
They sign their name on it.
That's how.
-
00:51:53
Do you know that
the Bible says that
-
00:51:55
God has signed his name on you?
-
00:51:57
It says it in a few places.
2 Corinthians 1:21:
-
00:52:00
Now it is God who
makes both us and you
-
00:52:03
stand firm in Christ.
-
00:52:04
He anointed us,
set His seal of ownership on us.
-
00:52:08
Meaning his signet ring.
-
00:52:09
He has stamped it,
his signature,
-
00:52:11
the thing that says,
I made this.
-
00:52:13
Set His seal of ownership on us,
-
00:52:15
and put His Spirit in
our hearts as a deposit,
-
00:52:17
guaranteeing what is to come.
-
00:52:20
Even more directly,
I love this picture
-
00:52:23
out of the very end of
the Bible in Revelation 22.
-
00:52:26
They will see his face,
-
00:52:28
and His name will
be on their foreheads.
-
00:52:33
God goes, "I'm going to sign you
-
00:52:36
in the most publicly
visible place,
-
00:52:40
because I want everyone
to know that I made you.
-
00:52:44
I want everyone to know
that I'm proud of you.
-
00:52:48
And I want you every
time you see yourself
-
00:52:50
in a mirror to see it
every single time."
-
00:52:53
He has made you.
-
00:52:56
And by the way,
maybe the best part of the news,
-
00:52:58
the middle two
words of the verse,
-
00:53:00
I praise You because I am
fearfully and wonderfully made.
-
00:53:05
Present tense.
Not I already did. It's done.
-
00:53:09
Not not past tense.
Not I was. I am.
-
00:53:11
There's a present-ness
to how God is making you.
-
00:53:14
See, He is still making you.
-
00:53:16
You are not done at all.
-
00:53:19
He's still in the
process of forming you.
-
00:53:22
Do you know who wrote Psalm 139?
-
00:53:25
It's King David.
-
00:53:26
Not at the
beginning of his life,
-
00:53:27
but at the end of his life.
-
00:53:28
Which means he wrote this Psalm
-
00:53:30
after he had had an affair,
-
00:53:32
after he had utterly
failed as a father,
-
00:53:34
and his son Absalom
had rebelled against him,
-
00:53:36
after he had
rebelled against God
-
00:53:38
and taken a census that cost
-
00:53:40
tens of thousands
of people their lives.
-
00:53:42
After all these things
that conclusively prove
-
00:53:45
that David wasn't
maybe the perfect thing,
-
00:53:47
all the way finished,
all the way done.
-
00:53:49
After all of that,
David said, "I praise You
-
00:53:52
because I am fearfully
and wonderfully made."
-
00:53:57
How in the world
could he do that?
-
00:54:00
How could David
possibly say that
-
00:54:03
when he had conclusively
seen his limitations,
-
00:54:05
conclusively seeing
all of his outages
-
00:54:07
and all the places that maybe
-
00:54:09
weren't fully formed in him,
how could he say that?
-
00:54:12
It's because David
knew the truth.
-
00:54:14
You and I live our
life on the wheel.
-
00:54:18
This is us currently,
right now in your life,
-
00:54:21
you are on the wheel.
-
00:54:22
If you're not dead yet,
you're on the wheel.
-
00:54:25
He's not done with you.
-
00:54:26
I hope that's good news for you.
-
00:54:27
I don't know where in your life
-
00:54:29
you stopped
thinking you can grow.
-
00:54:32
As adults I think this hits us,
-
00:54:33
right, at some point we go like,
"Man,
-
00:54:35
I'm just trying to fight
off decay and decline.
-
00:54:37
That's all I'm trying to do.
-
00:54:38
Keep that back limber.
You know, whatever."
-
00:54:40
We give up our dreams
of having an impact
-
00:54:42
and making a difference,
-
00:54:43
of having a bigger purpose,
-
00:54:44
and we just settle
into the grind of
-
00:54:46
the day after day
after day of raising kids
-
00:54:48
and getting groceries
and planning dinner
-
00:54:50
and the things and all the --
-
00:54:52
We just fall into this
monotony thinking that
-
00:54:53
this is who we are.
-
00:54:55
And what goes
along with that is that
-
00:54:56
the way that I am is the
way that I always will be.
-
00:54:59
No, that's not the gospel.
-
00:55:01
The gospel says
that the worst you
-
00:55:03
that will ever exist
is the you right now,
-
00:55:05
because tomorrow's
you will be better.
-
00:55:07
Why?
Because God's still working.
-
00:55:08
You're on the wheel, that's why.
-
00:55:10
He will make you more confident,
more patient,
-
00:55:12
more joyful, more loving,
-
00:55:14
more whatever it
is you hope to be
-
00:55:16
and less of whatever
God doesn't want in you.
-
00:55:18
He's making you still,
-
00:55:21
no matter what's
going on in your life.
-
00:55:23
Jeremiah 18:1 says:
-
00:55:25
This is the word that came
to Jeremiah from the Lord:
-
00:55:29
"Go down to the to
the potter's house,
-
00:55:31
and there I'll give
you my message."
-
00:55:33
So I went down to
the potter's house,
-
00:55:35
and I saw him
working at the wheel.
-
00:55:37
But the pot he was
shaping from the clay
-
00:55:39
was marred in his hands;
-
00:55:41
so the potter formed
it into another pot,
-
00:55:44
shaping it as
seemed best to him.
-
00:55:46
Then the word of
the Lord came to me.
-
00:55:48
He said,
"Can I not do with you, Israel,
-
00:55:51
as this potter does?"
declares the Lord.
-
00:55:53
"Like clay in the
hand of the potter,
-
00:55:56
so are you in My hand?"
-
00:56:00
See, you're not done.
You're not over.
-
00:56:04
That pot I threw down,
he made into a new pot.
-
00:56:06
This is exactly what
God does with your life.
-
00:56:08
Even if you trash it,
even if you throw it away,
-
00:56:11
even if you mess up,
even if you critique it,
-
00:56:13
God patiently picks you up,
puts you on the wheel,
-
00:56:16
and gets back to work.
-
00:56:18
That's the gospel of grace
for you. It's the gospel.
-
00:56:24
2 Corinthians 4:16 says:
-
00:56:26
We do not lose heart.
-
00:56:27
Though our outer self
is self is wasting away,
-
00:56:29
our inner self is being
renewed day by day.
-
00:56:34
Every single day.
-
00:56:37
Last week at the
start of this series,
-
00:56:39
I told you it was very powerful.
-
00:56:40
It really was. It was amazing.
-
00:56:42
We had a moment for
people to come forward
-
00:56:44
who wanted to
receive healing prayer,
-
00:56:45
and that's basically just,
if you think about it,
-
00:56:47
a way of saying anybody
who wants to get better
-
00:56:50
come forward, right?
-
00:56:52
We had 2400 people
come forward for prayer,
-
00:56:54
people chatting in online.
Absolutely incredible.
-
00:56:57
If you are one of the
300 prayer volunteers,
-
00:56:59
thank you, thank you, thank you
-
00:57:00
for giving up your weekend
and praying for people.
-
00:57:03
We've heard so many
stories of healing.
-
00:57:05
I actually,
just after the last service,
-
00:57:07
got handed a note by
somebody who really wanted
-
00:57:09
to get to the person
who prayed for them,
-
00:57:10
who happened to
be Josh Seurkamp,
-
00:57:12
who I mentioned earlier
leading the staff prayer.
-
00:57:14
Said she said,
"Josh prayed for my knee
-
00:57:16
and my knee has
been great ever since.
-
00:57:17
I want him to know.
It's incredible."
-
00:57:19
Heard all these healings,
which by the way,
-
00:57:21
if you came forward
for healing prayer
-
00:57:23
and it didn't
happen immediately,
-
00:57:25
do not lose heart.
You're still on the wheel.
-
00:57:28
It's okay. Keep pressing in.
Keep praying.
-
00:57:31
God is not done with you at all.
-
00:57:35
Now,
who came forward for prayer?
-
00:57:39
Think about that.
Who came forward for prayer?
-
00:57:42
It was the people who
believed they could get better.
-
00:57:45
Who didn't come
forward for prayer?
-
00:57:48
It was the people
who believe they can't.
-
00:57:52
I just press on
you just a little bit.
-
00:57:53
Again,
I don't mean this in any sense
-
00:57:55
of judgment or condemnation.
-
00:57:56
Please, please, please,
that's not my heart.
-
00:57:58
Please don't hear that.
-
00:57:59
If you were here and
you had something
-
00:58:01
in your life that needed prayer
-
00:58:03
that you believe could,
-
00:58:04
that you wanted to get better.
-
00:58:06
If you didn't come
forward for prayer,
-
00:58:08
maybe the excuse you made was
-
00:58:09
you needed to beat traffic,
-
00:58:10
or you needed to get
out of here for something.
-
00:58:12
But can we just be honest?
-
00:58:14
Underneath of that you
probably could have been late.
-
00:58:16
You probably could have sat
-
00:58:17
in five minutes of traffic,
right?
-
00:58:19
Wouldn't that have been worth it
-
00:58:20
for a chance to get better,
if you believed
-
00:58:23
you actually could be?
-
00:58:26
I sat in my seat last weekend,
-
00:58:27
heard that call for prayer.
-
00:58:29
And I'm very fortunate,
I don't have anything
-
00:58:30
in my body currently
that's like, man, I need,
-
00:58:32
you know, my knee hurts
or my elbow or whatever.
-
00:58:35
And so I wasn't planning
on going forward.
-
00:58:36
And then I heard Brian say,
you know,
-
00:58:38
"The thing I want
God to heal in me
-
00:58:40
is my self-centeredness."
-
00:58:41
And I was like, "Oh, right."
-
00:58:43
And I thought about that morning
-
00:58:44
how I'd been harsh with my kids
-
00:58:46
and the day before
been harsh with my family.
-
00:58:49
And I just felt like this,
"Oh my gosh, God,
-
00:58:51
that's right.
I have a vision of,
-
00:58:53
I think you want me
to become gentle."
-
00:58:55
Aggression and
strength and that kind of,
-
00:58:58
that comes really
naturally to me.
-
00:58:59
The gentle, humble,
gentle, kind,
-
00:59:01
that takes much more
work and much more effort.
-
00:59:04
And I just went, "God,
I want You to make me that way."
-
00:59:07
So I went forward
and I asked for prayer.
-
00:59:09
And a great volunteer
named Pam prayed for me
-
00:59:10
and I said, "You know,
I want God to make me gentle."
-
00:59:13
And she actually
shared that was her word
-
00:59:14
a few years ago
that God gave her
-
00:59:15
and how God had healed
her and had made her better,
-
00:59:17
and how she was more gentle,
-
00:59:19
and how thankful her
family was because of it.
-
00:59:21
And I'll tell you,
since receiving that prayer,
-
00:59:23
it's not that God's done,
it's not all the way done.
-
00:59:26
But man, I found it so
much easier to be gentle
-
00:59:28
because God has me on the wheel.
-
00:59:31
See, it's okay.
-
00:59:32
When you embrace
this picture of your life,
-
00:59:34
all of a sudden the things that
-
00:59:36
aren't exactly perfect
become much more bearable,
-
00:59:39
become much more
hopeful because you know
-
00:59:41
that God's not done with you.
-
00:59:43
Philippians 1:6 says:
-
00:59:45
I am sure of this,
-
00:59:46
that He who began
a good work in you
-
00:59:48
will bring it to completion
-
00:59:50
at the day of Jesus Christ.
-
00:59:52
God will finish you.
-
00:59:54
And because of all those things,
-
00:59:57
David writes the first words,
-
00:59:59
I praise You because I am
fearfully and wonderfully made.
-
01:00:07
And if you haven't agreed
with God about that,
-
01:00:10
let me just encourage you
that before you praise Him,
-
01:00:13
I would just encourage
you to repent
-
01:00:15
of not believing him.
-
01:00:16
And that might sound harsh.
-
01:00:17
Repentance doesn't mean you have
to grovel and feel horrible.
-
01:00:19
It doesn't mean that at all.
-
01:00:21
It means you can
just say to God,
-
01:00:22
"I recognize that I have
not agreed with You."
-
01:00:25
Humility is agreeing with God.
-
01:00:27
Pride is saying,
"I know more than Him."
-
01:00:29
And see,
when you critique the art,
-
01:00:31
whether or not you intend to,
-
01:00:32
you have criticized the artist.
-
01:00:35
Just say, "God, I'm sorry.
-
01:00:37
I believe that who I am
-
01:00:40
is fearfully and
wonderfully made.
-
01:00:42
Help me see it even more.
-
01:00:43
Help me bring to my reality.
-
01:00:45
And may it cause
me to praise You."
-
01:00:48
We're going to take
the rest of our time
-
01:00:49
and we're just
going to praise God.
-
01:00:51
Go back to that
exercise that we did
-
01:00:53
all those months ago
as a staff in prayer,
-
01:00:54
and thank God for a
way that He's made us.
-
01:00:57
Something about us
that we're grateful for,
-
01:01:01
that we want to praise Him for.
-
01:01:03
So get your clay back out,
-
01:01:05
if it's not in your
hand right now.
-
01:01:06
And I want you to
just think and consider
-
01:01:10
how has God made you?
-
01:01:13
Maybe it's something that
-
01:01:15
used to be a
frustration for you,
-
01:01:17
but now you can
see a strength in it.
-
01:01:20
Maybe it's something that
you dreamed of as a kid
-
01:01:23
and you've given up on it.
-
01:01:24
Maybe it's that people,
when they look at you,
-
01:01:26
they say that you're wise.
-
01:01:28
They seek you out for advice.
-
01:01:29
If that's the case,
make a little owl.
-
01:01:32
Maybe it's that God's made
you uncommonly strong.
-
01:01:34
Life has thrown punch
after punch after punch
-
01:01:36
at you, but you're still
here and you're still going.
-
01:01:38
If so, make something
that represents strength.
-
01:01:41
A barbell or a
lion or an elephant.
-
01:01:45
If it is something, like I
mentioned a ballerina earlier,
-
01:01:48
graceful and beautiful.
Make a ballerina slipper.
-
01:01:52
Make the thing
that would tell God
-
01:01:54
that you agree with Him,
and you want to praise Him
-
01:01:57
for how Ge's made you.
-
01:02:00
As we do this exercise,
as we praise God
-
01:02:02
and you can just
stay in your seat
-
01:02:03
for this if you want to.
-
01:02:05
Justin's going to sing a
song that talks about that.
-
01:02:08
And the whole time I want you
-
01:02:10
to have a conversation with God.
-
01:02:11
And I know, I know,
I got to run out.
-
01:02:13
I got to get the thing.
Don't do that yet.
-
01:02:15
Just -- just hang on.
-
01:02:16
Spend the next couple of minutes
-
01:02:18
having a conversation with
God about how He's made you.
-
01:02:21
And if you don't have one
come to mind, ask Him.
-
01:02:24
Say, "God,
would you give me a picture
-
01:02:26
of how You've made me?
-
01:02:28
Because I want to praise You."
-
01:09:26
- That's the gospel.
-
01:09:29
You're not a lump of clay.
-
01:09:32
You're not a random accident.
-
01:09:35
You're a masterpiece made by
-
01:09:37
the creator of the universe
who thought about you
-
01:09:39
before the
foundations of the earth
-
01:09:41
were ever put
into place and said,
-
01:09:43
"I'm excited to make you!"
-
01:09:47
I don't know what you
made to thank God.
-
01:09:49
I made a question mark,
it represents curiosity.
-
01:09:53
It's the thing I'm
most thankful for
-
01:09:55
about how God has made me.
It's a gift from Him.
-
01:09:58
I have this innate sense
of just asking questions
-
01:10:00
and being curious,
and it makes me a learner.
-
01:10:03
It's so great and
I love it from God.
-
01:10:05
It's a gift and my and
my response is to say,
-
01:10:07
"God, I praise You because
of how you made me.
-
01:10:11
You made me fearfully
and wonderfully."
-
01:10:14
And guess what?
He made you that way too.
-
01:10:19
I hope you said thank You
to Him as we sang that song.
-
01:10:23
God, I thank You for
the truth of your gospel,
-
01:10:26
that is always better
than all of the imposters.
-
01:10:31
I thank You for the
reality of the fact
-
01:10:33
that You've made us.
-
01:10:34
And I just pray, God,
for everyone here,
-
01:10:36
particularly the
person who walked in
-
01:10:39
believing they were
just a lump of nothing.
-
01:10:43
God, that You would
reform their identity,
-
01:10:46
that they'd say yes to You.
-
01:10:47
And I just say,
if you've never said
-
01:10:49
yes to Jesus before,
you can do it
-
01:10:50
for the very first time.
-
01:10:51
You just say, "Jesus,
I believe You are
-
01:10:53
who You say You are,
and I say yes
-
01:10:58
to everything You have for me.
-
01:11:01
You define me because
You made me. Amen.
-
01:11:08
- Hey, thank you so
much for joining us today.
-
01:11:10
Now, while it's impossible
for us to ship out
-
01:11:12
little pieces of clay to
everyone on the planet,
-
01:11:15
I hope that you were
connected with something
-
01:11:17
that Kyle shared today,
that it resonated with you,
-
01:11:20
and that you can find a
way to carry it into your life.
-
01:11:23
We never want this
to just be something
-
01:11:25
that you watch and
then forget about,
-
01:11:27
but our lives never change.
-
01:11:28
Everything that we do, we want
-
01:11:30
to help you grow closer to God.
-
01:11:31
And another way
to do that is actually
-
01:11:34
on your phone through
the Crossroads app.
-
01:11:36
Together as a church,
we read through
-
01:11:38
different Bible scriptures,
we daily pray together
-
01:11:41
thousands of
prayers for each other,
-
01:11:42
we post articles, podcasts,
and so much more.
-
01:11:45
Now, this isn't just more
content to consume,
-
01:11:48
it's actually tools
to help you grow
-
01:11:50
in relationship with Jesus
and grow closer to Him.
-
01:11:53
You can check it
out and download it
-
01:11:54
on your mobile device
wherever you get your apps.
-
01:11:57
Hey,
thank you so much for coming.
-
01:11:58
We'll see you back
here next week.