Discovering How God Sees You

Some of us might have sky-high self-esteem, while others are scraping the bottom of the barrel. This week, Kyle dives into how God’s grace shows you the real you—no fake filters, no distortion, just truth. The lie says you don’t have any value, but God says, “You’re worth way more than you believe you are.”

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    - Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads.
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    If you're new here we are a church
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    and a community of people meeting all over the globe.
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    Some meet in church buildings like this one,
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    but others meet online or actually in homes,
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    coffee shops, or even bars.
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    My name is Andy and I lead
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    our Crossroads Anywhere community
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    of people meeting all over the globe.
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    Now we're about to start our time together
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    with some worship, which is just using music
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    to remind ourselves what's true about God
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    and what God says is true about us.
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    Then we're going to hear some teaching
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    from our lead pastor Kyle Ranson.
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    And no matter who you are,
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    what you believe about God or the church
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    or religion, or no matter how your year is going so far,
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    whether you're full of excitement and energy
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    or whether it's been really, really rough since New Years,
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    we're glad that you're here
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    and hope that you can hear how God
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    has fresh vision and encouragement for you
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    as you head into 2025 and beyond.
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    So sing with us, join in.
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    We're so glad you're here with us today.
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    - What's up, everyone? Welcome to Crossroads.
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    So glad that you're here.
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    My name is Eric if we haven't met.
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    Won't you stand to your feet?
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    I just want you to know,
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    no matter what you believe about God,
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    you're in the right place and you're welcome here.
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    We're going to start by singing some songs to Jesus.
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    Let's do it.
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    - Yeah, that's. That's it.
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    By the way, my name is Kyle.
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    Welcome to everybody. Welcome here.
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    Welcome online, at our sites.
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    Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend.
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    Glad that you are with us.
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    When you walked in, if you're at a site,
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    you got a little packet of clay.
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    You can go ahead and get that out.
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    If you're watching online
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    and you want to want to follow along,
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    make the service more tactile,
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    grab something around your house or apartment
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    or coffee shop or wherever that you can squish.
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    It can be your kid's Play-Doh.
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    You can go ahead and steal that from them. That's fine.
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    Some Silly Putty, whatever it takes.
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    If you don't have anything like that,
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    grab a pen, something to draw with
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    and follow along with us.
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    Now, if you're in a room, we gave you this clay
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    for a very, very important reason.
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    We wanted to see who has ADHD,
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    and the answer would be those of us
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    who've already been playing with it
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    and messing with it, and are now
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    just pretending to pull it out of the bag.
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    If that's you. Welcome. That's me too.
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    Glad you're with us. That's awesome.
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    Everybody take it out
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    and just start squishing it around in your hands.
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    See that clay in your hands has to do
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    with what we're talking about today.
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    We're examining this piece of the gospel
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    and hoping to make it more personal and tactile,
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    that we can feel it, that we can walk out of here
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    changed and reshaped, just like
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    you're reshaping that clay right now.
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    And then that piece of the gospel
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    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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    that we are made by a God who loves us
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    and intended us and purposed our life.
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    I think there's no more appropriate topic
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    that we could be covering this weekend
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    that honors a man who gave his life
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    to literally share that message
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    that all life has value,
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    regardless of the color of your skin,
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    or whether you're a man or a woman
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    or anything else, that you have infinite worth
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    and value because you've been made
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    by the creator of the universe.
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    We're going to sing a song right now together
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    that talks about that.
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    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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    Why? Because He's the one who made us.
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    - Come on, sing it again. You are the one.
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    - Lord, we stand before You in silence right now,
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    and all of Your beauty
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    maybe wondering if we could actually
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    believe those words to be true,
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    that You made us
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    and you're the one thing I was made for.
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    I want to believe it, Lord.
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    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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    It's great to be together.
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    You might have wondered what was in that white bag
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    when somebody handed it to you.
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    I don't know. I don't know.
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    Maybe you were confused a bit, but now you know,
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    now you know it's a piece of clay.
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    Hey, why don't you turn to somebody next to you
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    and say, "Hey, I'm glad to be here with you."
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    If you're joining us online,
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    glad you're here with us, too.
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    Then you can have a seat.
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    - Crossroads is a movement of
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    regular, normal, everyday people
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    growing closer to God and changing the world.
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    Now, I know firsthand that I grow
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    and get to a new place with God and in my life
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    when I'm surrounded by a community of people
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    who are both going to challenge me when I need it
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    and give me a shoulder when I need it.
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    Now, this is a really big church,
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    but that also means there's
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    a really great opportunity for you to find
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    a group of people that work for you,
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    and I'm positive that there's one for you here.
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    You can actually head to Crossroads.net/groups.
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    There's actually even a groups quiz tool
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    to help you find your best fit
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    for your current stage of life.
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    And I get it, if that's overwhelming for you,
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    we can do some personalized help for you.
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    We'd love to do this for you.
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    It's actually why my whole team exists.
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    You can just text Anywhere to 301301.
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    We'd love to help you get connected.
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    Now a reminder Crossroads is made up of normal people,
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    and these same normal people are the ones
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    who give money and actually fund all of
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    the great stuff that happens around Crossroads
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    all year long, including the service
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    that you're watching right now and so much more.
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    If you'd like to join the team of faithful people,
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    or just learn more about what Crossroads believes
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    and how we spend money,
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    you can just head to Crossroads.net/give.
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    I'll stop talking now and get out of the way.
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    Let's hear from our Lead Pastor Kyle Ranson
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    as we continue in our series Leave Lies Behind.
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    - Well, hey, welcome. My name is Kyle.
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    I'm the Lead Pastor here at Crossroads
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    if we've never met before.
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    And yes, you can keep this out the entire time
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    and keep playing with it.
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    That's what I'm going to be doing the whole time.
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    This is the second week of a series that we started
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    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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    Powerful, powerful experience.
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    If you missed it, catch up online.
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    The best way to do that is the Crossroads app.
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    Free download. Watch it in there.
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    I think you will learn something that
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    will absolutely bless your life if you invest that time.
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    Speaking of learning something,
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    I was a little bit too old when I learned
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    how babies are actually made.
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    Just being honest. It's my fault.
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    See, I thought I knew the answer.
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    And because I thought I knew the real answer,
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    I never actually went looking for the truth.
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    Then one morning, my dad, late Saturday morning,
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    walked up to me and he said, "Hey, Kyle,
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    do you know how babies are made?"
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    And I thought it was a little odd he was asking me,
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    but I humored him. I was like, "Yeah, absolutely.
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    I totally know that answer." He was like, "Okay, how?"
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    I was like, "Well, dad, pretty simple.
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    When a mom and a dad love each other,
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    they go to the doctor and get a pill
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    that the mom takes that starts
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    a baby growing inside of her and her stomach,
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    actually, which is weird.
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    Apparently babies are really resistant
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    to Diet Coke and it grows there.
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    And then after a period of time,
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    you go to the hospital, they scoop it out,
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    you come home. That's kind of how it works.
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    Dad, weird you didn't know that, right?"
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    He was like, "Actually, you missed a few details,"
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    and he proceeded to explain it to me,
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    which if you don't know how babies are made,
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    I'm not going to tell you right now.
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    But you can email Brian.Tome@crossroads.net.
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    He will give you all the facts.
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    Be spectacular for you and for him.
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    The best way to ensure that
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    someone doesn't find the truth, the real answer
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    is to convince them that they already have it.
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    This is our world. This is the world that we live in.
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    There are many gospels that shout at us
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    in all directions, "I have it, I have the answer.
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    And if you believe what I believe,
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    then you've already got it."
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    There are many, many gospels.
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    Gospel doesn't have anything to do in particular
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    with religion or God.
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    It just means good news about
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    the way to have a good life.
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    Some of them involve God. Some of them don't.
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    But they shout at us from all over the place.
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    Now the real gospel and the fake gospel
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    becomes a lifelong quest that you and I have
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    to sort through, all of us do.
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    We have to determine which of these
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    do we believe is the real one?
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    And you might be in here like, "No, you don't.
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    No, you don't. I'm going to sit that one out."
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    Well congratulations, let me just tell you
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    you haven't actually sat it out.
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    You've chosen to believe that the good life,
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    the way to the best life is apathy.
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    See, none of us get to sit it out.
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    All of us have to determine which is real
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    and which is fake.
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    And in the Bible, it warns us again and again
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    and again against falling for one of the fakes.
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    One place is Galatians 1:6. Paul writes:
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    I marvel that you are turning away so soon
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    from Him who called you in the grace of Christ,
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    to a different gospel, which is not another.
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    Paul goes, my mind is blown.
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    You're leaving the real gospel,
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    which he describes as characterized
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    by the grace of Christ, for a different one,
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    which he says actually isn't even a gospel at all.
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    In other words, it's a fake. It's a phony.
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    There's only one real gospel of grace.
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    And today we're going to be diving into ten words
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    that form this idea that we've been talking about
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    so far, the idea that says that we are made.
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    The Bible says this all over, from cover to cover,
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    but right in the middle of the Bible,
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    more or less by words, the book of Psalms
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    and towards the ends of Psalms,
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    there's these ten words that form
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    this one clear, compelling claim
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    that's at the foundation of the gospel of grace.
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    And they are these, Psalm 139:14:
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    I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
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    It's the claim of the Bible,
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    I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
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    The real gospel says, you are fearfully
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    and wonderfully made, and your job,
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    which you need to do, is to praise God because of it.
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    I don't know if this is a habit you have.
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    Maybe every day you wake up and you thank God
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    for something about how He's made you.
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    But I would doubt it.
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    I've never actually met somebody
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    who has that habit in their life.
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    See, most of us find it far easier to think of
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    things that we that we don't like about ourselves,
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    things that are broken, things that are off,
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    things that we wish were different.
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    But I'm telling you, nothing will lead you
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    to the good life more than
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    choosing to believe these ten words:
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    I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
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    And not just believe them, but actually do them.
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    It's my hope and my prayer
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    what happens for all of us today.
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    So before we go any further, let's pray together.
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    God, I'm asking that You'd show up today
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    and that just as we're shaping this clay
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    in our hands right now, that You would shape us,
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    that You would shape our eyes to see You,
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    our ears to hear the voice of Your Spirit right now
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    to reshape the way we view ourselves.
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    That we would have the same value on us
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    that You put on us. Amen.
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    Now, throughout the Bible, the most common picture
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    for the image of God making us is clay.
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    God's the potter, we're the clay. Isaiah 64:8:
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    But now, O Lord, You are our Father;
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    we are the clay, and You are our potter;
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    we are all the work of Your hand.
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    This is why JW is up here today, a potter.
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    Let's all say thank you to JW for being here this weekend.
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    [applause] Sometimes at Crossroads we like to have
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    these, like, subtle metaphors that you have this
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    moment at some point you're like, "Wow, I get it."
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    I mean, just from the beginning,
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    I want to make sure you get it.
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    God. Us. Okay? God. Us. Us. God. Right?
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    Got it. Okay. He's making us.
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    That the idea is that God intentionally makes us.
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    Now that the fake gospels that we're gonna
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    be comparing the real gospel to today
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    are two broad ones, but I think they kind of cover the spectrum.
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    One is the secular gospel that says
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    you're not made, instead you're random,
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    and you need to be proud of it.
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    That's the secular gospel.
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    The other gospel is the religious gospel that says
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    you're at best average or common,
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    and you need to accept it.
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    Now, my burn for this message started
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    a few months ago at work.
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    And it was a staff meeting, which I know, you know,
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    when you work at a church,
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    people understand what you do on a Sunday.
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    Like people get my job on a Sunday,
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    but the other days of the week people are like,
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    "What do you -- what do you guys do at work?
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    You know what I mean? Like, are you, like,
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    practicing baptism?" Like, yeah, we do.
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    We have lawnmowers and we practice this motion
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    because raising people out of the water
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    is the most important part.
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    And so it really builds the core.
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    No. Our job is the same as yours most of the time,
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    right, you go to meetings, you plan stuff.
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    You talk about stuff, you strategize,
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    you meet with people, you know, all that kind of stuff.
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    You review budgets.
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    But there is one thing we do that
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    you probably don't do at your job,
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    which is we pray together every morning for 30 minutes.
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    And the reason we do that is because
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    the stuff that we're going after is stuff
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    that we can't possibly deliver on our own.
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    So we need God to show up, so we invite Him into it.
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    And back in late November, early December,
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    I was at one of these meetings and the guy leading,
  • 00:30:12
    Josh Seurkamp, led us on a gratitude exercise.
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    We're going to have a gratitude day.
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    And the thing I want you to be grateful for
  • 00:30:18
    is something about how God made you.
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    He took us right to Psalm 139:14,
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    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,
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    and I want to encourage you to fight through it
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    anyway and to be grateful."
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    And for the next 30 minutes, I watched
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    and I listened as teammate after teammate
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    who was actually brave enough to pray
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    because this wasn't pray silently in your seat.
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    You know? Just kind of say it in your head.
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    No, out loud in front of everybody
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    what are you thankful for about you
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    because God made you well?
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    And I sat there for 30 minutes listening to
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    and watch my teammates, people who have given up
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    their life to preach the gospel,
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    people who I know deeply believe it,
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    at least intellectually, as person after person
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    gave the same preamble,
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    a person who's brave enough to go.
  • 00:31:08
    And the preamble was something like,
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    "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.
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    And to be honest, there's more things
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    I don't like than than I do. It's really hard."
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    And it was heartbreaking.
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    So I sat there and thought,
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    if people who work for a church,
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    who've given up whatever other money or success
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    or career they could have
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    in order to have people know the gospel,
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    if they struggle to believe this part of the gospel,
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    what about everybody else?
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    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.

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

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up!

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

  1. What is something you wanted to be when you grew up? Why did it excite you?

  2. What stood out to you most from this week’s message? Why did that spark for you?

  3. What is something you are currently good at or proud of about yourself?

  4. When was the last time you felt unloved or undervalued? How did you move forward?

  5. Where in your life could you use more direction or purpose?

  6. Which do you identify with the most, the Secular Gospel (“you are random”) or the Religious Gospel (“you are average”)? Why do you think that is?

  7. Read Jeremiah 18:1-6.

    What makes it difficult for you to believe that God cares for you and is forming you into His masterpiece?

  8. Where this week can you take a step towards believing that you are fearfully and wonderfully made?

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

    “God, thank you for giving us grace that comes with purpose. Thank you for loving us and being proud of us. Give us mental and emotional strength to believe Your word and the fight lies about ourselves. Amen.”

More from the Weekend

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

  • Read 2 Corinthians 1:21-22.
  • How could your life be different if you trusted in this connection?
  • Do you feel like God is in the midst of re-molding something in your life right now?

Share with the group.

0 people are discussing these questions

(This stuff helps us figure out how many fruitcakes to make come December)

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Got it! Enjoy your discussion.


Jan 18, 2025 1 hr 12 mins

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