Faith = Belief X Action | Why Moving in Faith Means Doing It Scared

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- Who hasn't dreamed of being a hero, right?

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- There's something in all of us that wants our lives to matter,

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to be part of a story bigger than ourselves.

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- Yeah. That's right, and the funny thing is,

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when you look through the Bible,

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God's heroes usually aren't the people that you'd expect.

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They're ordinary people.

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People with doubts, flaws, setbacks, questions.

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There's even like murderers and adulterers,

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and somehow, somehow those are the exact people

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that God invites into something extraordinary.

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We think this church is filled with people just like that

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who can experience that more from God.

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Hey, welcome to Crossroads. My name is Andy.

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- And my name is Jen.

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Today we are kicking off a brand new series

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called Origin Stories, where we'll be exploring

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the moments that God met ordinary people

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and changed the trajectory of their lives.

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- Yeah. Because maybe the story that

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God wants to write through you starts the same way,

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not with having it all figured out,

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but by simply being willing to take that next step.

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So wherever you are, wherever you are,

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wherever you're coming from, hey,

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you get to come exactly as you are.

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Bring that to God right now.

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But we're going to jump in with a song

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about hope in the midst of uncertainty

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and about finding courage where we least expect it.

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- Well. Good morning. Welcome to Crossroads.

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Hey, if we haven't met, my name is Chris

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and I lead our students around here.

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And I'm excited to hang out with you guys today

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because we are kicking off a brand new series

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called Origin Stories.

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And this series is all about those moments

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where God meets ordinary people

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and invites them into something more.

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And whether you're in this room and you're so sure

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that God has more for you, or you're here

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and you're like, I don't know if I'm so sure

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about this Jesus thing,

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you're in the right place to experience God.

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And we're going to do something around here

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that we do every single week called worship.

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And worship is simply singing songs about God to God.

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And so why don't you stand up,

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join us as we worship this morning.

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If you're watching online, we're so happy you're here.

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- I love that we get to do this together.

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- Hey, look, I sing these songs over and -

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My name is Robbie, by the way.

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I sing these songs over and over again.

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And if I'm being totally honest, sometimes there's a war.

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There's a war going on here and here

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and like, somewhere in my stomach.

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And it's the -- here's the war.

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It's the war that sings songs like that

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in the midst of the struggle. Right?

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And I'm not foolish enough to think that

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it's sunshine and puppy dogs for all of us,

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that people have walked in here carrying some heavy stuff.

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The other side of the war is over here

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where I've experienced the faithfulness of Go,

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just in time, just enough, just tailored to my need.

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And so I can sing it from this side and say,

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yeah, I saw the Lord.

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And I recognized singing it from this side, going

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I'm seeking the Lord? I'm seeking the Lord.

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Is He really going to show up for me

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I know he showed up for Robbie,

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but is he going to show up for me?

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I love this room and I love this experience

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when we gather here and online, because I think

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this space is big enough for us to bring our situations

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and to bring our questions and to bring our heaviness

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and even our baggage and lay it here

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at the foot of the Cross and say,

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Jesus, do You really have the power to change?

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And as one who has lived hard things,

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I have experienced the goodness of God,

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that He has power to heal, power to save.

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Which is why we gather to find hope and to be encouraged.

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Sing this with me, He has power to heal.

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- And maybe you're on this side of the struggle

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and you just need to hear these words.

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It's okay to be on the aspirational side and just pray.

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- I believe those things about You

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because I've experienced Your goodness.

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That doesn't mean everything is all right all the time,

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but I have experienced Your goodness.

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I ask that You would see every person's click online

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to be with us or here in this room,

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as us knocking on Your door,

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of us with prayers that look like steps

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to come here to encounter You for who You are.

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I believe it's in Your desire and Your ability to meet us.

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It's in Jesus's name we pray. Amen.

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Y'all, it's so good to worship with you.

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It's so good. So good. Hey, do me a favor.

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Why don't you say hi to somebody around you.

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And just say good morning, you sing pretty.

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Hey, there are a lot of ways to make this big place

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feel smaller and to make relationship.

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We've got lots of ways to serve,

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but one of the things, one of the ways

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that we get connected is through community.

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And I want to share a story with you of a young man

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who experienced significant life change

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in the context of community.

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- For a lot of my early years,

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Crossroads was kind of my parents' church,

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it was my parents' faith,

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and it didn't really mean much more to me

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than something we did as a family.

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I think on the outside, I always desired to be in good image,

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but then there were certain chores of my life

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where I just wasn't willing to invite God in.

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I also liked being seen, so I like the fact

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that I had so many friends,

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but it was just the lack of depth I think

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that really kept me wandering around.

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When I got to college, I kind of immediately

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was thrown into the Greek life scene.

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Kind of just seemed like the thing to do at the time.

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And that kind of set the pace for that entire first year.

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I had toyed around with drinking

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and sort of the party scene in high school,

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and it kind of ramped up a lot.

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I felt like in those first couple of weeks,

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I dug myself into a bit of a hole.

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I kind of had God like in a small box

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during that time of my life.

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And it was really just like

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the Sunday morning church service.

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Coming back last summer I just decided

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to go with my family like it was any regular Sunday.

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It was, I think, a part of me that was looking for

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community to belong to over the summer,

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because I think I had this idea that maybe

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my freshman year of college wasn't exactly

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what I thought it was going to be.

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And after the service I ran into Tim

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who told me about 1824, that they were going

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to be hosting a Romans Bible study over the summer.

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Showing up that first time gave me an in

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to a community that I really had no idea

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how much of an impact it was going to have on my life.

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I remember during the small group time afterwards,

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I sat around in a circle on the floor of the auditorium

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with a bunch of guys who I didn't really know.

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I had an ability to bring part of the weight

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that I was carrying from this past year of college

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into the light in that circle.

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And like I remember leaving the George

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after the first Romans Bible study and being like,

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this is a place where I want to come back to

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for the entire summer.

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And I remember walking in alone

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and being a little bit nervous.

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I didn't really know anybody at the time.

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I ended up going up to a group of four guys

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who were kind of in conversation,

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and they openly welcomed me into their circle.

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And it was like five minutes into this conversation,

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and each of us in the circle are bringing out

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some of our darkest times in our lives

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and praying over one another.

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And I remember leaving and I was like,

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those sorts of conversations don't happen

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in any other space.

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And I even remember journaling:

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I don't know what's going on right now,

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but I feel like my faith is radically changing.

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This is a place where I want to come back to

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for the entire summer.

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Eventually, I came to realize and made the decision

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that going forward, I did not want my college experience

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to look like what it had been.

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That season of my life, honestly,

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was one of the most terrifying as I looked forward

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to going back to college because I had built

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such a strong faith community here in Cincinnati.

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But I knew that I didn't have that in Columbia.

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And at some point, as I'm telling my story

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about going back to a school where I was going

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to live in a fraternity house, I made a joke

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and I was like, "Well, what if I just

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brought this down to Columbia?"

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The girl that I was talking to, she was like, you could.

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And I remember I was just like, I'm not worthy.

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Like, I'm going to be living in a fraternity house.

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But then over the next two weeks,

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I would say, the thought kept coming back to mind.

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Could I actually start this in Columbia?

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Like, is that a possibility?

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Because I just had this deep desire of like,

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what if there's kids like me back down in Columbia

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who are broken, who are searching for something deeper

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and they just don't know where to go,

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they don't know where to start.

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I think one invite can change everything.

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And I think now, like, even as I attend Collective Nights

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and even as I attend outreach nights,

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like I try to be intentional about inviting

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people in my life to those who I feel like

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could experience some form of freedom in that.

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So I think there's a lot of power in just inviting people.

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And I think we all naturally desire

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to be invited into community.

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I think that's where a lot of people

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just experience freedom and experience joy.

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And I think young adult events embody that idea amazingly well.

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I think I felt like I was going to be trapped

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in this identity that I had built for myself

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freshman year, but in walking faithfully with God

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and just experiencing His presence in my life,

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I realized that I didn't have to be bound

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by the things that once held me down.

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So ultimately, I would say I experienced freedom

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in being able to bring myself and all of myself

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into community and into relationship with people.

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- Man, I love stories like that.

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Now, Carson's story is unique, but we also hear

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stories like it all the time at Crossroads.

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The story of life, change, of finding community

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and finding freedom.

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And it might be easy to say like,

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oh, look at how Crossroads changes life.

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That is not what happened here.

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God changes life.

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Crossroads just happen to be the setting where it happened.

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- Yeah, it can happen because of faithful people

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who call Crossroads home, who have been attending

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or streaming for a bit and we give of our money.

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And when we give of our money, it fuels the things

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that invite people like Carson

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into a different space to connect with God.

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- That's good. So whether you've been giving for years

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or maybe you've never taken that step before,

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there's no guilt, no obligation.

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But maybe today is a chance to explore

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what generosity could look like for you.

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I know it's changed my life.

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Hey, if you'd like to learn more or get started,

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head to Crossroads.net/give.

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- All right, speaking of taking a step,

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when was the last time you actually unplugged?

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And I'm not just talking about, like,

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answering texts from a prettier location,

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although I prefer that.

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But unplugged, like not checking your phone for hours at a time.

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I mean, like, really stepped away

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because a lot of us are running pretty hard right now.

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Work, kids schedules, laundry, laundry, laundry,

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laundry, bills, school.

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Somehow we're also supposed to have hobbies,

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and do you drink enough water, Andy?

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- No, hey, in all the things we're supposed to doing,

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all the things we're supposed to do,

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the to do list and the normal routine and grind

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isn't going to be the thing that changes you

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or helps you grow or get to a new place, right?

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So whether you're single or married, raising kids,

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fresh out of college, or just looking for a reset,

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there's probably a camp with your name on it.

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- Yes. Camp's outside. I think that's obvious.

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And it's a space for life change.

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Another story is a woman named Nikki.

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She's gone to Woman Camp for four years, and she says:

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when I went to camp with --

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She went with the same four women.

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She didn't expect that she was going to have

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a lifelong community and transformation

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that came out of that.

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I also just talked to a woman this week

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who wants to go to Woman Camp for the very first time,

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and we're going to help plug her in to a group

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for the first time.

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So whether you're bringing people with you

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or need to find a group,

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we want to make it happen with you.

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- That's great. Yeah.

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And I don't know what you're looking for,

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whether it's adventure, friends,

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or just an alternative, kind of the normal routine

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or scroll or grind or whatever.

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Check out everything that's coming up at camps.us.

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- Yep. Yep. One of my favorite things about camp

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are hearing all the stories of people that come out of it.

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- Yeah. Stories about taking risks

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or doing something different or new, like we said.

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Often, sometimes the thing is discovering that

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God's been at work the whole time.

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And actually, that's what our series is all about.

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- Yeah. We are in this new series called Origin Stories,

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and here we are for week one.

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- An origin story is the part nobody talks about,

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the part before confidence and success,

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before anyone knows your name.

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It's false starts, wrong turns, and total failure.

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It's the beginning.

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Every person you admire has one.

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The Bible may just be the greatest origin story ever told.

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It's a book about how God meets people at the beginning.

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In the beginning, God creates.

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In the beginning, humanity is formed from dust.

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In the beginning there is possibility,

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purpose and relationship.

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Then things fall apart.

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But God rebuilds and enlists humanity

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in the work of restoration.

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The Bible is full of people who eventually become known

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for things like faith and courage, wisdom and sacrifice.

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We call them heroes of the faith,

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but none of them started there.

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The story God tells is about Him meeting ordinary people

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in ordinary places

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and inviting them into something extraordinary.

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Today's origin story is about

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Gideon, a fearful worker who became a warrior.

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- Okay, now this is a story all about how

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my life got flipped turned upside down.

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So I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there.

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I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air.

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Let's try this one.

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In West Philadelphia, born and raised,

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on the playground is where I spent most of my days,

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chilling out, maxing, relaxing or cooling,

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or shooting some b-ball outside of the school.

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When a couple of guys they were up to no good

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started making trouble in my neighborhood.

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I got in one little fight and my mom got scared.

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You finish.

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- You're moving with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air.

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- Look at that, look at that, look at that.

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Oh, man. I think you could wake me up

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in the middle of the night, put a gun to my head,

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and I could rap that song.

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Like I just -- It just does it for me.

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Hey, I'm Chuck, if we've not met,

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I'm one of the teaching pastors here at Crossroads.

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And I started with that because it's fun,

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but also because Will Smith is telling an origin story.

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And today we're kicking off a new series

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called Origin Stories.

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Our God is a God who does extraordinary things

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through ordinary people, and I'm really glad about that.

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So today we're going to hear about a guy named Gideon

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who's one of those ordinary people.

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I don't know what comes to mind

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when you think about heroes of the faith.

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If you're like me, you probably think about people

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who are like, you know,

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they woke up on the right side of the bed.

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They were praying when they got out of bed

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and they were like running after God.

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They never wavered. They never shook.

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And I want to tell you, whatever you have in your mind

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as a prototypical biblical leader, that ain't Gideon.

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That ain't Gideon, and it's why I like his story,

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because Gideon is like me. Gideon is like us.

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This is a guy who is imperfect.

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His following of Jesus, his following of God, is messy.

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It's not up into the right all the time.

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He's unsure lots of the time.

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And yet God uses him to be a part of His bigger story.

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Do you know that you were made to be part of a bigger story?

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Do you know that even the mess in your life

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God wants to use as part of the bigger story

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He wants to write in you?

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But here's the question: Will you say yes? Will you say yes?

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So today I hope to help us all increase our faith

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in a God who invites us into a bigger story

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so that we will say yes.

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Let me pray as we get started.

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God, thank you for stories.

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Thank you for Your story that's playing out in this world.

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It's a story of redemption.

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It's a story of light overcoming darkness.

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And I thank You that You invite us to be a part of Your story.

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God, there may be people in here today

00:35:39

that aren't sure that You even exist.

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There may be people listening at home right now

00:35:43

that aren't necessarily tracking

00:35:45

with everything that I might say today.

00:35:48

There are probably people in here, though, who do,

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and there might be people even who do believe in You

00:35:52

but are struggling right now in their faith.

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Wherever we are, God, I pray that You would meet us

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in the same way that You met Gideon.

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I pray that You would speak to us

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and You would call in us and out of us

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who it is that You created us to be.

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I pray this in Jesus's name. Amen. Amen.

00:36:07

So this new series is all about people who acted in faith.

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What is faith?

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Simplest form faith is simply saying yes to God.

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But I'm going to give you the biblical definition of faith,

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which comes from the book of Hebrews,

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the New Testament letter.

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And in Hebrews 11:1, it defines faith this way:

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Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,

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the conviction of things not seen.

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You're going to break down faith to an equation,

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I would say faith is this.

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Faith is belief times action.

00:36:39

So you can be doing things,

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but if you are doing things in your own power,

00:36:44

not aware that you need a greater power,

00:36:46

God's power in your life, that's not faith.

00:36:48

And by the same token, you can read the Bible

00:36:51

backwards and forwards and be able to quote scripture,

00:36:53

but if you're not acting on what you read in there

00:36:56

and what God is calling you to do,

00:36:58

that's also not faith.

00:37:00

Faith is belief times action.

00:37:01

One writer put it this way:

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In Hebrew, there isn't even a noun form of the word faith.

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Because faith is only expressed as a verb

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because faith never exists apart from action.

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And this is the part we can miss,

00:37:15

it's never a straight line.

00:37:18

Faith is never a straight line.

00:37:20

It's always got its twists and its turns.

00:37:23

A couple of years ago, Crossroads actually filmed

00:37:26

a reality show. It was called Phantom Lake.

00:37:29

And the premise of the show was Brian

00:37:31

was taking several rookie riders,

00:37:33

me being one of those rookie riders,

00:37:35

on a really challenging,

00:37:36

some might even say treacherous course

00:37:38

called the Colorado Backcountry Discovery Route

00:37:41

off road motorcycling.

00:37:42

And none of us had done anything like this before.

00:37:45

And what that means is while most people have to,

00:37:48

you know, kind of get to have their meltdowns in private,

00:37:52

I got to have mine in public.

00:37:55

And they were filmed from multiple angles

00:37:58

and I was mic'd the whole time.

00:38:01

So welcome to one of the toughest days of my life.

00:38:08

- I have a fear of heights.

00:38:09

I have a fear of these kinds of things.

00:38:11

And for me, this trip will very much be about,

00:38:13

can I overcome that fear?

00:38:15

Can I do more than what I think I can?

00:38:17

Can I overcome things that

00:38:18

I don't know that I can overcome?

00:38:32

I want a role model that for my kids.

00:38:34

I don't want my kids to have these fears,

00:38:35

and I want my kids to have a heart for adventure,

00:38:38

to be open to new things.

00:38:46

- Yeah, buddy.

00:39:03

- And okay, so you let you let off here, right?

00:39:05

Okay. So you want to keep in it. Okay.

00:39:08

- Get on it.

00:39:10

- I was nervous about my direction.

00:39:12

- Okay. - I got you.

00:39:35

- Brad's doing a really, really great job

00:39:38

at being an encourager

00:39:40

and trying to patch people up emotionally

00:39:42

and specifically Chuck emotionally

00:39:44

as he tries to sweep him up to the top of this hill.

00:40:33

- There it is, there it is, there it is. Yeah.

00:40:45

- So we get to the top of Corkscrew Pass

00:40:48

and it is amazing. The view is amazing.

00:40:52

The camaraderie is amazing.

00:40:53

I felt like grabbing everybody by the helmet saying,

00:40:55

"See, I told you, I told you!"

00:40:58

The morale is sky high, the energy is sky high.

00:41:02

The belief that, yes, we can do this is sky high.

00:41:06

No question this is an emotional highlight for this trip.

00:41:09

- I'm just so thankful for these guys.

00:41:11

They encourage me.

00:41:13

They put something in me that I didn't have,

00:41:15

and I just wanted to get up one freaking mountain

00:41:17

and I got up this mountain.

00:41:27

This is dad.

00:41:29

I'm not even sure if I was going to work on this,

00:41:32

but I wanted to show you the top of the mountain.

00:41:37

It's the hardest thing I ever did,

00:41:39

and I didn't think I'd be able to do it.

00:41:41

It was so hard, and I needed everybody's help.

00:41:46

There were times I wanted to quit and turn around,

00:41:49

and when I got to the point where I was ready to give up,

00:41:52

I've probably fallen off my bike 15 times a day

00:41:55

getting up this hill.

00:41:56

And when I thought about giving up, I thought about you.

00:42:00

I thought about you, Nathan.

00:42:01

I thought about you, Sam.

00:42:03

And I thought about you, Isabel.

00:42:06

And I don't want you guys to ever be people who give up

00:42:09

because you can do amazing things with help,

00:42:12

with people's help, and with God's help.

00:42:15

So I just want to record this for you

00:42:17

because I want you to know

00:42:20

I made it to the top of this mountain

00:42:22

and you motivated me to do it.

00:42:23

I love you guys so much.

00:42:25

I love you, I believe in you,

00:42:28

I believe in everything that God's doing in your life.

00:42:31

And I just want you to know you can climb mountains.

00:42:35

Daddy climbed a mountain on his motorcycle today

00:42:37

and you can do the same thing. I love you guys.

00:42:50

- I'm not crying. You're crying.

00:42:54

I still think about that a lot

00:42:57

because it was such a challenge.

00:43:00

I don't know if the --

00:43:01

I don't know if the footage does it justice,

00:43:03

but like, you know, off to the right there\,

00:43:05

that was death. That was death.

00:43:07

So certainly maiming and maybe death,

00:43:10

like it was really challenging.

00:43:11

And you're at altitude, so you're huffing

00:43:13

and puffing and breathing.

00:43:14

And, you know, I think about that story because

00:43:16

there are two ways that I could tell that story, right?

00:43:18

One way I could tell that story is,

00:43:20

hey, let me tell you about the time when I made it up

00:43:22

one of the most challenging hills

00:43:23

that you can ride on a motorcycle.

00:43:25

But as you now know, there's way more to the story than that.

00:43:28

There's a lot more twists and turns than that

00:43:30

There's a lot more fits and starts than that.

00:43:32

There's frustration and pain and difficulty.

00:43:35

And I want you to know today,

00:43:37

I think that is more of what it looks like

00:43:39

to live a life of faith than not.

00:43:41

Big idea today is this: faith zigzags. Faith zigzags.

00:43:46

So if you're at a place in your life

00:43:48

where your life is more zig and zag

00:43:50

than it is up and to the right,

00:43:51

you may not be doing anything wrong.

00:43:53

You may be doing it right.

00:43:56

And so we can learn from Gideon's zig zag story.

00:43:59

A little bit more on who Gideon was.

00:44:01

He lived in Israel at a time when they were

00:44:03

under oppression from a nation called Midian, the Midianites.

00:44:07

And what that meant was economic oppression.

00:44:10

Because every time the Israelites

00:44:11

would try to grow crops to feed themselves,

00:44:13

the Midianites would come in

00:44:14

and destroy their crops.

00:44:15

So there was economic oppression in the time of Gideon.

00:44:18

There was also some family pain that was specific

00:44:21

to his family that he was also dealing with.

00:44:24

And because of that, there was shame. There was shame.

00:44:28

In fact, we find Gideon hiding.

00:44:30

That's that's how he comes into, this hero,

00:44:32

that's how this hero enters the story.

00:44:34

He's hiding in a winepress.

00:44:36

He's trying to grow food in a way

00:44:38

that wouldn't be revealed to the Midianites.

00:44:40

Gideon is a nobody from nowhere.

00:44:42

And I wonder if anybody felt like that or feels like that.

00:44:47

I want you to know God uses nobodies from nowhere.

00:44:50

In fact, he says himself, he's from the weakest

00:44:52

and the smallest tribe in Israel.

00:44:54

And yet there's nobody from nowhere

00:44:56

who was hiding in a wine press is visited

00:44:58

by an angel of the Lord that says this

00:45:00

to Gideon in Judges 6:12:

00:45:01

The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.

00:45:06

To which Gideon says, say what now?

00:45:10

You talk -- You see somebody else?

00:45:12

Are you talking to me? That's what he says.

00:45:14

I'm from the smallest tribe.

00:45:15

Like Gideon doesn't believe this,

00:45:17

but this is the first zig zag of faith.

00:45:19

Faith begins with an encounter.

00:45:22

Faith is not about courage that you muster up.

00:45:27

It's about responding to a God who initiates with you.

00:45:31

Like I said, Gideon was hiding.

00:45:32

He wasn't sharpening his sword,

00:45:34

hoping that God would pick me to be the rescuer.

00:45:36

No, no, no, he was hiding.

00:45:38

He wasn't praying. He wasn't fasting.

00:45:40

He wasn't looking for God.

00:45:42

But here's the good news, God was looking for Gideon.

00:45:45

And wherever you are today, I want you to know

00:45:47

God is looking for you. He's seeking you out.

00:45:50

Do you know that you have a calling on your life?

00:45:53

Do you know that you were created

00:45:55

with a purpose in mind by the creator Himself?

00:45:57

And He wants to bring that out of you,

00:46:01

even if you don't see it in yourself.

00:46:04


00:46:07

I have a couple friends of mine who I'm really excited for

00:46:10

because they're early in their journey of fatherhood.

00:46:12

One of my friends actually just announced

00:46:15

that him and his wife are expecting.

00:46:16

It's a honeymoon baby, so I'm excited about that for them.

00:46:19

And then there's another friend of mine

00:46:20

who's on paternity leave right now

00:46:22

because he just had his first kid.

00:46:24

And I love these guys,

00:46:25

and I love when people step into parenthood.

00:46:27

I really get excited about that, especially fatherhood,

00:46:30

because that's my unique experience.

00:46:31

But I love that because any parent in here

00:46:34

knows this to be true: You weren't born a great parent.

00:46:38

Nobody is born a great parent.

00:46:42

You become a great parent, right?

00:46:46

But the potential is there from the beginning.

00:46:49

I love it because this is how God looks at us.

00:46:52

This is how God looks at Gideon.

00:46:54

God says to Gideon: I see in you a mighty man of valor.

00:46:59

And maybe someone today needs to believe that,

00:47:01

that God sees in you a faithful person,

00:47:04

that God sees in you an overcomer,

00:47:07

that God sees in you someone

00:47:08

who is not going to be limited by their past,

00:47:11

but someone who can heal and grow from their past.

00:47:13

God saw something in Gideon

00:47:15

that Gideon didn't see himself.

00:47:17

Was God being unrealistic?

00:47:19

Was God being too optimistic? No.

00:47:22

I actually would suggest that God is being

00:47:24

radically realistic because when it comes to your calling,

00:47:28

it doesn't matter the measure of the man or the woman,

00:47:31

what matters is the power of the God who calls you.

00:47:36

God's word meant more than Gideon's word in that moment.

00:47:38

And here's the good news.

00:47:40

It means more than the words

00:47:41

that may have been spoken over you by other people,

00:47:44

who said you won't measure up,

00:47:45

there's no way you can be all that you want to be,

00:47:48

there's no way that you can be used by God.

00:47:50

If those are words that others have said to you,

00:47:53

Faith is choosing to believe what God says over you

00:47:57

and not what others say over you.

00:48:00

Ephesians 3:20 says this:

00:48:01

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly

00:48:05

than all we ask or think.

00:48:08

Whatever is the biggest, boldest prayer

00:48:11

you could have for your life,

00:48:12

God can do exceedingly far and abundantly more.

00:48:16

So you gotta ask yourself the question

00:48:18

what was Gideon's greatest enemy?

00:48:20

Was his greatest enemy the Midianites, the enemy out there?

00:48:25

Or was Gideon's greatest enemy the same

00:48:28

that is often our greatest enemy,

00:48:30

which is the enemy in here?

00:48:33

Our minds get us into trouble all the time

00:48:35

when it comes to living out faithfully

00:48:37

what God calls us to.

00:48:38

Because we can fall into two ditches about ourselves.

00:48:41

One is we can think too highly of ourselves.

00:48:44

We can think that we have what it takes.

00:48:47

Bible calls that pride,

00:48:49

and it says pride always comes before a fall.

00:48:52

But on the other side of the coin,

00:48:54

we can think too lowly of our potential

00:48:57

and we can be stuck in shame or self-pity

00:48:59

and forget that what ultimately matters

00:49:01

is not what we say, but what God says about us.

00:49:05


00:49:08

Next, though, faith isn't certainty. Faith is uncertainty.

00:49:14

People say, well, doubt the opposite of faith?

00:49:16

I don't think so.

00:49:18

I think that doubt is a part of faith.

00:49:20

In fact, I would put to you this way

00:49:22

if you are communicating your doubt to God

00:49:25

like we're about to see Gideon do in a moment here.

00:49:27

If you're telling God, God, I'm not sure.

00:49:29

God, I don't know. God, you gotta help me with this.

00:49:32

I would say communicating your doubt

00:49:34

is in and of itself an act of faith.

00:49:37

It is an act of faith.

00:49:39

It only becomes not faith when you walk away

00:49:42

from the conversation with God.

00:49:45

And maybe some of us are here today and we've done that.

00:49:48

We've walked away from the conversation with God.

00:49:51

Well, I got good news for you.

00:49:53

God is waiting with open arms for you to come back.

00:49:55

He's waiting with open arms to engage you again

00:49:58

in the conversation that you may have walked from.

00:50:00

Gideon, man, this dude is doubtful.

00:50:04

God calls him and he is doubtful.

00:50:06

Have you heard the term looksmaxxing?

00:50:08

It's like in kind of the social media realm right now,

00:50:10

people trying to do sometimes unfortunate

00:50:12

and painful things to themselves to be more beautiful,

00:50:14

be more handsome.

00:50:15

Well, Gideon's not looksmaxxing,

00:50:17

but he is definitely doubtsmaxxing in this story.

00:50:19

Let me tell you how Gideon responds

00:50:21

to a literal angel who comes to him. He says:

00:50:25

Please, my Lord, if the Lord is with us,

00:50:28

why then has all this happened to us?

00:50:30

And where are all the wonderful deeds

00:50:31

that our fathers recounted to us, saying,

00:50:34

'Did not the Lord bring us up out from Egypt?'

00:50:36

But now the Lord has forsaken us

00:50:38

and given us into the hand of Midian.

00:50:42

Gideon's like, hey, forgive me, I know you're an angel,

00:50:46

but I'm having a little difficulty trusting

00:50:48

what you're saying when I look at the situation in my life.

00:50:51

And isn't that real?

00:50:54

Anybody else struggle to trust God because life is hard?

00:50:58

Maybe because there's a string of disappointments

00:51:02

on the thing that you really are sure God called you to?

00:51:05

The victory hasn't happened yet,

00:51:07

and Gideon is honest enough to say it.

00:51:10

I had to learn this in my own journey with God

00:51:12

that I can be emotionally honest with God.

00:51:15

I don't know about you,

00:51:16

but I grew up in my family of origin,

00:51:17

there were certain emotions that were on the table.

00:51:19

Yes, you can express those.

00:51:21

And there were certain emotions that were off the table,

00:51:24

or at least I never saw them expressed in a healthy way.

00:51:27

And so I took them off the table because I'm like,

00:51:29

"Whoa, this might be bad."

00:51:30

And for sure, one of those was anger.

00:51:32

And absolutely, I can't be angry at God.

00:51:35

Oh my goodness, you won't God strike me with lightning

00:51:38

if I express anger at Him.

00:51:40

But let me be honest,

00:51:41

is there any close relationship in your life

00:51:45

where anger isn't a part of it?

00:51:47

I mean, you heard me crying on that video,

00:51:49

talking to Isabel and Sam and Nathan.

00:51:51

Man, them suckers can make me angry.

00:51:53

I love my kids, but man, they can make me angry at times,

00:51:56

right, because there's a love relationship there.

00:51:58

I had to learn this about God.

00:52:00

God is the most psychologically safe being in the universe.

00:52:05

If there is anybody that you can express

00:52:07

the fullness of your emotions to, it is God.

00:52:10

Think about it. God already knows how you feel,

00:52:12

so you're not surprising Him.

00:52:14

He also never takes it personally. Isn't that awesome?

00:52:18

He loves you no matter what,

00:52:21

and He loves you enough to tell you the truth.

00:52:24

That's the most psychologically safe being

00:52:26

you can ever be in relationship with,

00:52:27

and yet He is gentle and gracious.

00:52:30

And so even though Gideon expresses uncertainty,

00:52:33

God doesn't strike him down.

00:52:35

God allows for him to need reassurance.

00:52:38

That's the third thing: faith allows reassurance.

00:52:41

See, maybe you've not heard or read

00:52:43

the story of Gideon in the Bible,

00:52:45

but you may have heard this term

00:52:46

that comes from Gideon's story.

00:52:48

You ever heard somebody say, I'm putting a fleece out

00:52:50

to try to determine whether I should do this or not?

00:52:53

Well, that comes from Gideon's story, even though,

00:52:55

and I gotta keep coming back to this, y'all,

00:52:57

even though he was visited by a literal angel.

00:52:59

Isn't that crazy? Can you just think about like,

00:53:01

I would think if God actually showed up

00:53:03

with a literal angel, I might have a little bit more faith.

00:53:05

I'm, I don't know, maybe not.

00:53:07

But like, I would think like, man,

00:53:08

I might be able to lean in a little bit.

00:53:10

But no, even though he sees a physical angel,

00:53:13

Gideon says, okay, God, you want me to do something for you?

00:53:16

Well, I'm going to test you.

00:53:17

I need you to do something for me.

00:53:19

This is how it shows up in judges 6:36.

00:53:22

Then Gideon said to God,

00:53:24

"If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said,

00:53:27

behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor.

00:53:31

If there is dew on the fleece alone,

00:53:33

and it is dry on all the ground,

00:53:36

then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand,

00:53:39

as You have said." And it was so.

00:53:42

When he arose the next morning, he squeezed the fleece.

00:53:45

He wrung out enough dew from the fleece

00:53:47

to fill a bowl with water.

00:53:48

God overdelivered on his ask.

00:53:52

What does Gideon do?

00:53:53

He says, "Great God, I just need it one more time.

00:53:56

I need you to do it one more time."

00:53:58

He says, "Let not your anger burn against me.

00:54:00

Let me speak just once more.

00:54:02

Please let me test just once more with the fleece.

00:54:04

Please let it be dry on the fleece only

00:54:06

and on all the ground let there be dew."

00:54:10

And God did so that night.

00:54:12

And it was dry on the fleece only

00:54:13

and on all the ground there was dew.

00:54:16

Guys, I gotta tell you,

00:54:17

this is not sounding like a mighty warrior.

00:54:19

This is not sounding like a guy

00:54:21

who we should be looking at as an example of faith.

00:54:24

At some point, you gotta wonder if God is like,

00:54:26

man, I'm like, I might have the wrong guy here, man.

00:54:29

I need to move on. Right?

00:54:31

But here's the thing, we can judge Gideon for testing God,

00:54:34

but don't we test God all the time?

00:54:36

We do that here's how it might sound.

00:54:39

Alright, God, if the job offer comes by Friday,

00:54:42

I'm going to take it. Right? Anybody done that?

00:54:45

How about this one?

00:54:46

God, if these test results come back clean,

00:54:50

I am going back to church.

00:54:52

Some of y'all are here because you got clean test results.

00:54:55

Praise God for that. I'm glad you're back.

00:54:57

Welcome back. We're glad to have you back.

00:54:59

Okay, maybe that doesn't resonate with you.

00:55:00

How about this one?

00:55:02

God, if there's no line in Chickk-Fil-A,

00:55:04

it means I'm supposed to get

00:55:05

the pimento pepper sandwich and the milkshake.

00:55:07

Somebody clapping because you tested God that way this week.

00:55:11

We test God all the time.

00:55:12

How about this one? God, if the parking space

00:55:15

at the front of Target is open,

00:55:17

You do want me to buy that $40 candle that I don't need.

00:55:19

Some of y'all testing God right after church that way.

00:55:22

I get it, I get it. How about this one?

00:55:24

Okay, God, if she likes my Snapchat within five minutes,

00:55:28

we're basically engaged.

00:55:29

I mean, we test God all the time.

00:55:33

We test God all the time.

00:55:34

And listen to this, I think it says something

00:55:36

that God allows for us to need to be in conversation

00:55:40

in our faith journey.

00:55:41

He's okay with the zigzags of our faith journey.

00:55:43

I told you that Hebrews 11:1 defines faith.

00:55:47

Just a couple verses later it says this:

00:55:48

And without faith it is impossible to please Him,

00:55:51

for whoever would draw near to God

00:55:53

must believe that He exists

00:55:55

and that He rewards those who seek Him.

00:55:58

See, I want you to hear this: it's okay

00:56:00

to need reassurance as long as we are drawing near to God.

00:56:05

God cares far more about the posture

00:56:08

and the trajectory of your heart than He does

00:56:11

about where you find yourself at this moment.

00:56:14

In this moment you might be fearful.

00:56:16

In this moment you might be frustrated.

00:56:18

In this moment you might be numb.

00:56:20

In this moment you might be angry.

00:56:22

God is not judging you for where you are in this moment,

00:56:25

but He's asking you to lean in,

00:56:28

to let the trajectory of your heart be toward Him

00:56:31

and not away from Him.

00:56:32

And it's so important that we continue to draw near,

00:56:35

because don't miss this, faith has a deadline on hesitation.

00:56:41

There does come a point where God will say it's time to move.

00:56:47

There does come a point where your reluctance

00:56:49

and hesitation to trust God will lead to

00:56:52

some things not happening in your life

00:56:54

that could otherwise happen if you would trust God.

00:56:57

Regardless of what you think about Michael Jackson,

00:56:59

he had some troubles in his life for sure,

00:57:01

but he was a prolific singer and songwriter.

00:57:03

And one thing he said one time is this.

00:57:05

He said, "I feel like I have to keep receiving these songs

00:57:08

because if I don't, God might give them the Prince."

00:57:13

He might have been right.

00:57:14

He might have been right about that. Seriously.

00:57:17

We see this in Gideon's story.

00:57:20

At some point, Gideon just has to move.

00:57:23

It's interesting how plays on his story.

00:57:24

Gideon has to face an army of 135,000 Midianites.

00:57:29

Now, I have not been to war college.

00:57:31

I don't have a military background.

00:57:33

I am not an expert on war strategy.

00:57:35

But simple math would say to me, it's probably better

00:57:39

if I have more soldiers than the enemy does.

00:57:43

Well, Gideon has to face this 135,000 soldiers

00:57:48

with only 32,000.

00:57:51

Sorry, but that math does not math.

00:57:54

But our God is faithful

00:57:56

and our God is more than enough.

00:57:57

So how will God close that gap between 135,000 and 32,000?

00:58:03

How's God going to close that 103,000 gap?

00:58:06

You know what He's going to do?

00:58:07

He's going to drastically reduce Gideon's numbers even more.

00:58:11

What? What?

00:58:13

That's exactly what happens.

00:58:14

First this happens, in Judges 7:3, Gideon says,

00:58:18

at God's guidance, "Tell whoever is fearful and trembling,

00:58:22

let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead."

00:58:25

Now, you might think in that case, 10% would go home,

00:58:29

which still leaves them with a pretty decent sized force.

00:58:31

No. 22,000 of the 32,000 said, peace out.

00:58:35

See you later. I'm out, I'm out.

00:58:38

And here's the thing about the people who ran home,

00:58:41

they might have saved their hides that day,

00:58:44

but you know what? They missed out on the victory.

00:58:47

I wonder if there are things that could be yours

00:58:52

that are not yours because you didn't trust God.

00:58:55

I wonder if there are opportunities

00:58:58

that you could be leveraging right now,

00:59:00

relationships you could be in right now,

00:59:03

ways that healing and growth has happened in your life.

00:59:06

You might be on the other side of some things

00:59:08

that you're struggling with right now,

00:59:10

but because you didn't trust God enough,

00:59:12

you're still in that place.

00:59:14

That's a sobering reality that I think about all the time.

00:59:17

I have a friend and he's an author, he's written some books.

00:59:21

He said there was a specific book that he felt

00:59:23

and knew God called him to write,

00:59:25

but out of fear or reluctance, whatever it was,

00:59:27

he didn't write the book.

00:59:29

He said, "I'll never forget, several years later,

00:59:31

I'm on Amazon and I saw the book."

00:59:34

Somebody else wrote his book,

00:59:36

and God reminded him, "I gave that to you."

00:59:39

I just wondered today if there was something

00:59:41

that God has placed in your hands.

00:59:43

I wonder today if there's something

00:59:45

that God wants you to step into.

00:59:46

Gideon had to be fearful, no doubt,

00:59:49

when God took even the 10,000 that remained

00:59:52

down to 300 against 135,000.

00:59:56

But Gideon teaches us a lesson about faith

00:59:58

that you and I need to know, which is this:

01:00:00

faith moves scared. Faith moves scared.

01:00:04

Friends, sometimes you gotta do it scared.

01:00:06

Sometimes you gotta do it with what you have.

01:00:09

I love God's words to Gideon and Judges 6:14.

01:00:11

He says, "Gideon, go in the strength that you have."

01:00:15

Yeah, I know you wish you had more resources

01:00:17

before you started that business.

01:00:19

And God is saying, go in the strength that you have.

01:00:21

Yeah, I wish you would, you know, you wish

01:00:23

you had more time to kind of prepare

01:00:25

for the journey of becoming a parent.

01:00:27

But God says go in the strength that you have.

01:00:29

I know you're feeling like I gotta get my ducks in a row.

01:00:31

I gotta get my life together before I go all in for Jesus.

01:00:34

But no, Jesus is saying, come to Him

01:00:36

in the strength that you have.

01:00:38

I don't know what it is in your life.

01:00:39

I do know this: God is saying

01:00:41

sometimes you have to do it scared.

01:00:44

Sometimes you have to do it

01:00:45

before your friends think it's a good idea.

01:00:47

Sometimes you have to do it

01:00:48

before your parents are on board.

01:00:50

Sometimes you have to forgive

01:00:52

before you feel ready to forgive.

01:00:54

Sometimes you need to ask forgiveness

01:00:56

before you feel ready to ask for forgiveness.

01:00:58

Sometimes you and I have to do it scared.

01:01:02

But here's the good news, you may be called

01:01:04

to do it scared, but you are never, ever, ever

01:01:07

going to have to do it alone.

01:01:09

Let me give you the promise that God gives to Gideon

01:01:13

just two verses later after He says

01:01:14

go in the strength that you have.

01:01:16

He says, "I will be with you."

01:01:19

Friends, can I be honest? That's all you need.

01:01:22

That's all you need is to know that God is with you.

01:01:27

Going back to the corkscrew video there,

01:01:29

you heard Brian talk about Brad.

01:01:31

Brad was the guy who was patching me up in the video.

01:01:35

Brad was the guy that when I was too weak

01:01:37

and winded to pick up my bike,

01:01:38

he picked up my bike for me.

01:01:39

Brad was the guy you saw with his arm around me,

01:01:42

encouraging me.

01:01:43

Brad was the guy who was beside me, coaching me

01:01:45

when my fear caused me to forget

01:01:47

how to use a clutch on a motorcycle.

01:01:48

God, he brought Brad to be alongside me.

01:01:51

And here's what I need you to know.

01:01:52

I need you to know that God loves you so much.

01:01:55

He believes in what He has put in you

01:01:57

so much that He didn't just send you a human,

01:02:00

He actually came Himself in the form of Jesus,

01:02:03

the perfect human and also God to live a life

01:02:06

that you and I could never live,

01:02:08

to die the death that you and I deserve,

01:02:10

so that we could know that when life zigzags,

01:02:13

we've got Jesus on our side.

01:02:15

We've got Jesus wrapping His arm around us,

01:02:18

saying it's going to be okay.

01:02:19

We've got Jesus coaching us when we forget

01:02:22

how to pull the clutch on a motorcycle.

01:02:23

We've got Jesus when we're fearful.

01:02:25

We've got Jesus when we're angry.

01:02:27

We've got Jesus when we're on the mountaintop.

01:02:29

We've got Jesus when we're on the valley

01:02:32

because God believes in you so much

01:02:35

that He wanted to prepare you to do it scared.

01:02:38

And here's the thing, when you step out on faith

01:02:43

and you actually do the thing that God has called you to do,

01:02:47

faith glorifies God, not us.

01:02:50

Can I just be honest with you?

01:02:53

Gideon is not the hero of this story.

01:02:56

God is the hero of this story.

01:02:59

And guess what? God is the hero of your story.

01:03:03

Some of you, the reason that God has you where He has you,

01:03:06

and He's asking you to do the thing that freaks you out

01:03:08

is because you don't know the impact

01:03:10

that's going to have on the people around you.

01:03:12

You don't know how other people are going to say,

01:03:14

"Hey, you know what? I'm interested in this God.

01:03:16

If he was faithful to you in that sickness,

01:03:19

maybe I can trust Him with stuff in my life."

01:03:21

You don't know the legacy you might be setting up

01:03:24

right now for kids that may not have even been born yet,

01:03:26

that you're going to have

01:03:27

as you walk a faithful journey with God,

01:03:30

you just never know.

01:03:32

But know this, you're part of a bigger story.

01:03:34

God wants you to be a part of a bigger story.

01:03:37

God rescued Israel from an army of 135,000,

01:03:41

with 300 men armed with lanterns and trumpets.

01:03:48

But it's so God would get the glory.

01:03:52

In fact, when they celebrate it,

01:03:53

they say it this way in Judges 7:18:

01:03:55

For the Lord and for Gideon!

01:03:57

And I think the order matters.

01:03:59

I think it's really important to know

01:04:01

the glory goes to the Lord.

01:04:03

But don't miss this, God rewards faithfulness.

01:04:08

Gideon got rewards for his faith.

01:04:10

Let's go back to Hebrews 11:6 again.

01:04:12

It says: Without faith it is impossible to please Him,

01:04:15

for whoever would draw near to God

01:04:17

must believe that He exists and that He rewards.

01:04:20

Everybody say rewards.

01:04:23

He rewards those who seek Him.

01:04:25

I've learned that there are so many things

01:04:28

when it comes to following God we receive by grace,

01:04:33

meaning we don't earn it. We don't work for it.

01:04:36

It's not about our effort.

01:04:38

It's what God gives us freely.

01:04:40

Rescue from our sins.

01:04:42

Jesus dying on that Cross on our behalf

01:04:44

so that we don't have to face sin and hell and the grave.

01:04:47

That's something we simply receive as a gift.

01:04:50

The gift of the Holy Spirit,

01:04:51

God's literal being living inside of us,

01:04:53

animating our thoughts, animating our actions,

01:04:56

animating our life and our love.

01:04:57

That's a free gift that we receive. Amazing.

01:05:01

Being a part of this family called the church.

01:05:03

And I don't mean a physical building.

01:05:05

I don't even mean just Crossroads.

01:05:06

I mean that wherever people around the globe

01:05:08

name the name of Jesus, it isn't like I'm their brother.

01:05:12

No, we really are brothers and sisters.

01:05:14

That's a gift that we receive.

01:05:17

And there are some things when it comes to following God

01:05:21

you will not receive if you don't act.

01:05:25

There are some things you have to obtain,

01:05:28

as the Bible says.

01:05:30

So there are some aspects of God you will never know

01:05:33

if you don't trust Him.

01:05:35

If you don't ever trust God to be your provider,

01:05:37

you will not know that He's a provider.

01:05:40

If you don't trust God to be a redeemer,

01:05:42

you will not know that He can redeem.

01:05:45

If you don't trust God to be a healer,

01:05:46

you will not know that He can actually heal.

01:05:49

Only if you act.

01:05:51

Remember what is faith? Believe times action.

01:05:54

Only when we move do we experience those things.

01:05:57

And here's the good thing,

01:05:58

God is still looking for people.

01:06:01

He's still looking for people hiding in winepresses.

01:06:04

He's still looking for people

01:06:05

who are trapped in their addictions.

01:06:06


01:06:08

who are struggling with their fear.

01:06:09


01:06:10

who are stuck in their anger.

01:06:11


01:06:13

who are wrestling with their doubts.

01:06:14

God is still looking for partners

01:06:16

to be a part of the bigger story that He is writing.

01:06:19

So I'm going to leave you with two questions,

01:06:21

and these are questions that you can apply

01:06:23

as you think about Gideon's story,

01:06:25

but you can also apply them every week of this series.

01:06:27

I think this is the conversation

01:06:29

I want you to be having with God

01:06:30

every week in this series.

01:06:31

Question number 1: Am I findable? Am I findable by God?

01:06:39

Yes, Gideon was hiding.

01:06:41

But once the angel of the Lord came to him,

01:06:43

he started engaging.

01:06:44

Yes, in clumsy ways.

01:06:46

Yes, in kneading the fleece thing twice,

01:06:48

Yes, in his fearful hesitancy.

01:06:50

But he was engaging with God.

01:06:51

You gotta ask yourself, am I findable by God

01:06:54

or am I running from God?

01:06:56

It's a question, just bring to yourself,

01:06:58

wrestle with in your own.

01:06:59

And here's the second question:

01:07:01

Will I say yes to the next step?

01:07:05

I just talked to a guy after the service before this,

01:07:08

who's struggling with community

01:07:09

and really wrestling with some pain in his life.

01:07:12

And as we talked and I prayed with him,

01:07:14

we identified a next step.

01:07:15

And I just said, "Hey man,

01:07:16

you don't need to know the rest of it.

01:07:18

You just need to know that."

01:07:19

I wish I could tell you that if you follow Jesus,

01:07:21

He's going to unload to you the beginning

01:07:23

to the end of your life.

01:07:24

You will know steps one through 25.

01:07:26

Anybody who's been following Jesus for five minutes

01:07:28

knows that's not true.

01:07:32

But if you trust Him with the next step,

01:07:34

He'll reveal the step after that and the step after that,

01:07:36

and the step after that, and the step after that.

01:07:38

And over time, you'll look at your life and realize,

01:07:41

oh my gosh, look at this zigzag journey

01:07:43

that has absolutely been taking me to the place

01:07:45

that God always intended to take me.

01:07:49

Will you say yes to the next step?

01:07:52

Faith equals belief times action.

01:07:55

And when you say yes to God, you get to be a part

01:07:57

of the bigger story He's writing in your life.

01:07:59

Let me pray for us. God, I pray that

01:08:01

You would help us in this series to lean in.

01:08:04

I think that one of these stories,

01:08:06

maybe it's Gideon for some,

01:08:07

it might be Joseph for others,

01:08:08

it might be some of the others

01:08:10

that we're doing later in the series for others.

01:08:11

There's going to be a story that's like,

01:08:13

oh, that's for me.

01:08:15

And so I just pray that we would be open

01:08:17

to what it is You want to say to us,

01:08:19

that we would hear Your voice, we'd be findable by You,

01:08:23

and we would take the next step.

01:08:24

And I pray this in Jesus's name. Amen.

01:08:27

- Man, I love the reminder that faith

01:08:29

isn't always up and to the right, like it has zigzags.

01:08:33

It's got a left turn

01:08:34

when you think you're supposed to go right,

01:08:36

it's two steps forward, one step back.

01:08:38

That is one of the parts of just what it means to follow God.

01:08:41

It's not always going to be a straight line.

01:08:43

It's not always going to be easy.

01:08:44

And God has good stuff when we walk with Him through it.

01:08:47

- Yeah, I've definitely done the zigzag of,

01:08:49

especially in my career.

01:08:50

Like, I'm gonna trust God,

01:08:51

I'm gonna trust a really untrustworthy boss or advice,

01:08:55

or I'm going to trust myself

01:08:57

and then I'm gonna trust God again. It's like this thing.

01:09:00

- That's right. So while faith isn't ever a straight line,

01:09:03

it's also not meant to be something

01:09:05

that we walk through alone.

01:09:06

Chuck talked a lot about how Brad was there by his side,

01:09:09

pushing up the mountain, coaching him, encouraging him.

01:09:11

We all need a Brad.

01:09:13

We all need somebody who's there with us,

01:09:15

coaching us, encouraging us,

01:09:16

just helping us to take the next step.

01:09:18

We'd love to do that for you

01:09:20

and not just like we Crossroads in general,

01:09:22

but I mean like Jen and myself and our team.

01:09:24

- We're a team of people.

01:09:25

- We're here for it. You can text "Anywhere" to 301301,

01:09:29

just literally text the word "Anywhere" to 301301

01:09:31

and we'll reach out and connect with you

01:09:34

or you can email us directly.

01:09:35

We'd love to connect with you,

01:09:37

help you find your next step so you don't feel stuck,

01:09:39

so you don't feel like you're only taking steps backward,

01:09:42

but you are continuing to grow alongside other people.

01:09:45

And we actually have an opportunity,

01:09:46

if you live in the Midwest or the Great Lakes region,

01:09:50

for you to grow and for you

01:09:51

to take a next step alongside other people.

01:09:53

- I'm excited about this.

01:09:54

Yes, we are doing an Anywhere Weekend on the road

01:09:58

in the Sandusky, Ohio area, which hits a lot of locations.

01:10:02

We have a lot of people that stream

01:10:03

within two hours of there, and we are doing

01:10:05

a weekend where we're going to be able to connect

01:10:07

with people face to face, grow spiritually,

01:10:10

and also just have some good old unplugged time,

01:10:13

if you will, of hanging out with each other

01:10:14

and making friends. And it's going to be awesome.

01:10:16

It is August 28th, 29th, 30th. - That's right.

01:10:19

- And you can learn more about it online.

01:10:21

And we'll really love to have anyone there who can come.

01:10:23

- Yeah, just check out crossroads.net/anywhere

01:10:25

for all the details.

01:10:27

Hey guys, thank you so much for joining us.

01:10:28

We'll see you next week at Crossroads.

01:10:30

- See ya.

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