How to Build a Life of Faith That Lasts

00:00:13

- Hey, welcome to Crossroads. I'm Jen.

00:00:15

- And I'm Mico. We're so glad you're joining us.

00:00:17

And whether this is your first time joining us

00:00:20

or you've been around for 30 years, we're so happy you're here.

00:00:23

- Yes, we are continuing our series called Origin Stories.

00:00:26

But before that, during worship,

00:00:28

one of my very favorite things we're going to do,

00:00:29

which is baptisms. I love baptisms

00:00:32

because so often the way that God moves is invisible.

00:00:35

You know what I mean? Like forgiveness

00:00:37

or spiritual breakthrough

00:00:38

or emotional or relational breakthrough.

00:00:41

There's freedom and there's joy that we don't get to experience.

00:00:43

But today we get to see the tangible pictures

00:00:46

of how God is moving.

00:00:48

- Yeah, I know, last week we saw middle school students

00:00:50

get baptized, and this week, hundreds of people

00:00:53

across all of our sites are taking that exact same step.

00:00:56

- Yes, you're going to see like

00:00:57

a conversation happening in the water.

00:00:59

And what that is, is the person getting baptized

00:01:01

is answering a few questions so that they know

00:01:03

exactly what they're doing.

00:01:05

They're saying goodbye to their old life,

00:01:07

and they're coming back up as a new creation in Jesus.

00:01:10

We're going to be celebrating. It's going to be awesome.

00:01:12

So join us in worshiping right now.

00:09:21

- Sing to the one who's changed all these people's lives.

00:15:18

- Jesus, there is no other name above Yours.

00:15:27

110 people this weekend here at Oakley giving their lives to You,

00:15:33

saying yes to You because You've redeemed them,

00:15:35

set them free, forgiven them.

00:15:38

Because they've experienced joy and peace and life

00:15:41

like maybe they never thought was possible, all in You.

00:15:47

So we do not lift high the name of Crossroads.

00:15:50

We don't lift high the name of anyone else other than You,

00:15:53

King Jesus, You are above all, in all,

00:15:57

and You sustain all things and all of us.

00:16:01

Thank you, King Jesus,

00:16:02

for being exactly who we needed and who You are.

00:16:07

Your name reigns above all other names throughout all history.

00:16:12

I praise You for it, give you all the glory

00:16:15

and all the honor this morning.

00:16:17

We pray this in You, Jesus. Amen. Amen.

00:16:23

Come on, make some noise for everybody who got baptized today.

00:16:27

Celebrate with them.

00:16:33

If you're brand new here, you came on

00:16:34

one of my favorite weekends that we have throughout the year.

00:16:37

You know, my family and I, every month we worship Jesus

00:16:40

by giving a portion of our income to Him.

00:16:43

And we do that every single month.

00:16:45

But the byproduct of that is what we just saw in front of us.

00:16:50

Where else would I want my money to go to

00:16:52

than people seeing Jesus and experiencing life, right? Yes.

00:16:57

So you can do that with us too at crossroads.net/give.

00:17:01

Right now, if you're in the room, why don't you turn to somebody,

00:17:03

give them a high five.

00:17:04

Say, hey, we came on a great weekend.

00:17:07

Glad you're here with us online too.

00:17:16

- Baptism will never get old to me.

00:17:18

People are taking that step because Jesus has rescued them.

00:17:22

Bonds of addiction have been broken.

00:17:24

People are overcoming anxiety, depression,

00:17:26

bitterness, resentment.

00:17:27

All those things are happening in their lives,

00:17:30

and that's just not normal in this world.

00:17:33

So if you're thinking, "I'm ready to take that step of baptism,"

00:17:36

but you don't live near a site, awesome.

00:17:39

I want to talk to you. Don't let that stop you.

00:17:41

Crossroads Anywhere is a whole community of people

00:17:43

that we're all over the globe, and we do this

00:17:46

where we meet people and different people in different locations

00:17:50

and get you guys connected so that you could get baptized

00:17:53

by someone in our community or someone can pray for you.

00:17:55

There might even be other people who literally

00:17:57

live in your city or watching alongside of you right now.

00:18:00

- Yeah. And whether or not you actually want to sign up

00:18:02

for baptisms or just get connected with the Anywhere team,

00:18:05

text the word "more" to 301301,

00:18:09

fill out a connect card and you'll get connected to real people.

00:18:12

- Yeah, real people, not robots.

00:18:15

So texting 301301, it's actually a new thing that we are trying

00:18:19

because we want to be able to get you the links to today

00:18:22

without you having to search for them.

00:18:24

So if you text "more" to 301301, we will send you those links.

00:18:27

You won't be signed up for any subscriptions

00:18:29

or anything like that, but we want to get to know you

00:18:32

so much that we are coming to you August 28-30.

00:18:36

We're having an Anywhere Weekend on the road in Sandusky, Ohio,

00:18:40

where people who are part of our Anywhere community

00:18:42

will all meet together in one place.

00:18:44

- Yeah. And it's so true that

00:18:46

life is not meant to be lived alone.

00:18:48

That's not how God designed it.

00:18:49

You need people around you,

00:18:50

people to celebrate your kids' birthdays with you,

00:18:53

people to sit with you and pray with you in grief or loss,

00:18:55

people to hype you up for date night. We need people, man.

00:18:59

- Hype you up for date night, that's right.

00:19:00

Crossroads is a big church, but that doesn't mean that

00:19:03

you can't belong to a community of people that care about you.

00:19:06

So come out to Anywhere Weekend, meet new friends,

00:19:09

get filled up, again, August 28-30 in Sandusky.

00:19:13

Text the word "more" to 301301.

00:19:16

- Yeah. And there's probably, I would imagine,

00:19:18

a lot of people who also don't know that Crossroads

00:19:21

is in prisons all over the US.

00:19:23

Crossroads has a physical presence in a few prisons here in Ohio,

00:19:26

but all over the nation, Crossroads has a digital presence.

00:19:29

So if you've got friends or family member,

00:19:31

a loved one who's incarcerated, please tell them

00:19:33

check out Crossroads on the Pando app on their tablets.

00:19:36

They can watch the weekly teachings.

00:19:38

They can watch our worship.

00:19:40

We actually, I myself, I do a daily devotional

00:19:43

for the men and women who are incarcerated

00:19:45

Monday through Friday. All sorts of content.

00:19:47

I'll be honest, I'm a little biased

00:19:49

as the prison director here,

00:19:50

but I think it's one of the best things

00:19:52

that we get to do at Crossroads.

00:19:54

- Yeah, and you said it's the Pando app.

00:19:55

So if you had a family member or friend and you said Pando app,

00:19:58

they're going to know what you're talking.

00:20:00

- They're going to know.

00:20:01

- That's awesome. Since we've started,

00:20:02

there's been over 4600 incarcerated residents

00:20:05

who have said yes to Jesus

00:20:07

and about 3000 who watch on a weekly basis.

00:20:11

It's incredible what God is doing.

00:20:13

- Yeah, man. All right, one more thing. Right.

00:20:15

We got one more thing coming up that you should know about:

00:20:18

Go Trips. Talk to them about Go Trips.

00:20:20

- Yeah, yeah. Go Trips.

00:20:22

They are trips that could be to another country

00:20:24

or somewhere in a different region of the US,

00:20:26

where, one, we get to step out of our comfort zone

00:20:29

and do something that's just different.

00:20:31

Two, we get to serve alongside other organizations

00:20:34

who are on the ground and are experts in what they're doing.

00:20:37

And then three, of course, you get to make a tangible impact.

00:20:41

So whether you're doing and you're building ditches

00:20:44

for clean water or you're painting a school

00:20:46

or coming along sex trafficking rescue and recovery,

00:20:49

you get to help change the world.

00:20:51

And I bet that will change you in the process.

00:20:54

- Yeah. And now we're continuing in our series Origin Stories,

00:20:57

talking about how God for thousands of years

00:21:00

has used imperfect, ordinary people

00:21:02

to do extraordinary things.

00:21:04

And today we're hearing about the story of Cain and Abel

00:21:07

from one of our leaders, Rob.

00:21:09

Typically, Rob is behind the scenes,

00:21:11

but today he's teaching on the Cain and Abel story.

00:21:15

- Yeah. Rob's been around Crossroads for 26 years.

00:21:17

He started out as a volunteer and then he came on staff

00:21:20

and he now directs strategy and content.

00:21:24

And so we get to hear from him.

00:21:25

He says he hasn't taught on here in seven years.

00:21:29

So super excited to hear from Rob.

00:21:32

And he'll get to tell you about Go Trips

00:21:34

because he was part of making all Go Trips happen decades ago.

00:21:39

So the story that we're about to hear about Go Trips

00:21:43

is also all about community.

00:21:44

Someone who just said yes to go on a trip.

00:21:47

And from that trip she made friends

00:21:50

that she still friends with today.

00:21:52

- Her dad was impacted. It was incredible.

00:21:54

- Yeah. So you're good to see that.

00:21:56

And then it also she gets baptized through it all.

00:21:58

So I feel like I'm telling you --

00:22:00

- It's kind of spoiler alert.

00:22:01

- Spoiler alert on the video,

00:22:03

but check out this video and her story.

00:22:18

- I live in a different city than my family,

00:22:20

and so when they became members of the Crossroads Mason site,

00:22:24

I attended the services when I was there with them,

00:22:27

but I was only able to really watch Crossroads online

00:22:30

for a majority of the time.

00:22:31

I knew that Crossroads had such a community feel,

00:22:34

but I felt like I was almost missing that

00:22:36

not being able to volunteer and, you know,

00:22:39

really like work directly with the community every single week.

00:22:43

I felt like I didn't have a group of people

00:22:45

that could push me in my faith journey.

00:22:48

When I was able to, you know,

00:22:50

see that Crossroads had a Go Trip,

00:22:53

I felt like this would be a great opportunity

00:22:55

to just really build that sense of community

00:22:57

that I was, you know, longing for.

00:23:00

I just had this overwhelming feeling that I should be on it.

00:23:05

I wanted to bring my parents with me

00:23:07

because I knew that I wanted to go,

00:23:09

and I thought that it would be amazing

00:23:11

if they wanted to join me.

00:23:13

So I was able to convince them both to go

00:23:15

and it's been really cool seeing how God has impacted all of us,

00:23:19

but also how God has impacted us as a family.

00:23:23

One of the nights at worship,

00:23:25

we were given the opportunity to pray out loud.

00:23:27

I have never had a stronger feeling that God was in a room

00:23:32

than in that worship room the other night.

00:23:34

God was speaking through every single person when they spoke.

00:23:37

Hearing my dad speak up and pray out loud in a group,

00:23:41

um, made me extremely emotional right off the bat,

00:23:43

because I don't think that he would have had the confidence

00:23:46

to pray, especially out loud in a group of people

00:23:49

that he just met a couple of days ago.

00:23:52

I broke down because I felt like I was the first person

00:23:58

that put this Go Trip in his head.

00:24:00

And so the fact that he had been touched so, um, meaningfully

00:24:04

just by me asking him if he wanted to go was incredible.

00:24:12

This Go Trip has had an enormous amount of change on my life.

00:24:16

I feel like I have that community

00:24:17

that I was longing for.

00:24:19

It's also really inspired me to do more work in small groups

00:24:24

and to even maybe start a small group where I live.

00:24:28

It was absolutely worth it for me to go on a Go Trip.

00:24:31

I think that I have been impacted in ways

00:24:33

that I couldn't even imagine.

00:24:35

And I know from this Go Trip that I now have

00:24:37

a community of people that will support me

00:24:39

every day in the future as well.

00:24:54

- You know, any story that ends with a baptism

00:24:56

is a great story, right?

00:24:58

Hi, I'm Rob, it is great to be here this weekend.

00:25:00

20 years ago, I got to be a part of the team

00:25:03

that invented Go Trips as a volunteer.

00:25:06

It's amazing that we let volunteers do stuff like that.

00:25:08

We took our first trip to South Africa, 300 people in 2006,

00:25:13

since then we have had close to 4000 people go to South Africa.

00:25:18

We have had 12,500 people go on Go Trips.

00:25:22

And I'll tell you for me that's really how

00:25:25

God revealed to me my purpose, that is how I made

00:25:27

some of the best friends in my life.

00:25:29

Go Trips were instrumental and my wife and I getting together.

00:25:32

So if you want to take your life to a new place,

00:25:34

who knows what God's going to do, but try a Go Trip.

00:25:36

Go Trips are are just amazing.

00:25:39

Yeah, yeah that's right. Yeah.

00:25:42

I have been on staff for 17 years

00:25:45

and I lead our teaching and strategy.

00:25:49

I'm often in the back room with our teachers talking about,

00:25:52

you know, what are we going to say?

00:25:54

We should change this, take this out, try this, stuff like that.

00:25:57

And every once in a while, Kyle likes me to get up here

00:26:00

because he says it creates empathy.

00:26:03

So it's been seven years since I've been up here,

00:26:08

so seven years without any empathy.

00:26:11

So I guess it is time.

00:26:14

A little about me,

00:26:15

I have been married to Allison for 19 years now.

00:26:17

We have 19, we have one more, next year 20 years, 19 years.

00:26:22

We have three daughters, London, 16;

00:26:24

Annabelle, 14; and Becca, age 10.

00:26:26

And earlier this week, my oldest daughter, unprompted,

00:26:29

says, "You're teaching this weekend, right?" I said, yeah.

00:26:32

She said, "You know, a lot of kids in our school

00:26:35

go to Crossroads," which was like a shot across the bow.

00:26:39

And then my middle daughter adds, like an hour later,

00:26:43

"If you don't do a good job, it comes back on us."

00:26:47

So I have the full support of my family up here,

00:26:49

so that feels great.

00:26:51

So the best thing for me to do

00:26:53

is to tell you a story about them, right? Yeah.

00:26:55

So I've been around Crossroads a long time,

00:26:57

and I always heard Brian Tome say,

00:26:59

"You want to be first to market with your kids."

00:27:02

Right? It's great parenting advice.

00:27:03

You want to be the one that they hear from first on anything,

00:27:07

any of the difficult stuff, right?

00:27:08

Drugs or sex

00:27:10

or whatever you want them to hear from you first.

00:27:12

I always took that, that sounds like great advice.

00:27:14

So I wanted to do that.

00:27:15

So this is like eight years ago,

00:27:16

and I think my oldest daughter is probably

00:27:18

like 7 or 8 at the time.

00:27:19

And something comes on the TV.

00:27:21

I don't remember what it was, but it was, it was weird.

00:27:23

And, and she had a question like, what does that mean?

00:27:25

And I'm like, this is my moment.

00:27:27

So I say, I say, "London, you can ask me anything

00:27:32

and I will tell you the truth, no matter what it is,

00:27:34

if it's scary, if it's weird, no matter what it is,

00:27:36

you ask me and I will tell you the truth."

00:27:38

And she gets really quiet

00:27:41

and I start to panic inside because I'm not ready.

00:27:44

I hadn't thought this through.

00:27:45

I'm not ready for what comes next.

00:27:47

And she looks at me and she says, "Daddy, what is Area 51?"

00:27:55

Ironically, it's the one thing I'm not allowed to talk about.

00:27:58

My middle daughter, same situation.

00:28:01

"Daddy, what is kid prison

00:28:04

and what do you have to do to be sent there?"

00:28:06

Like, are you planning something right now?

00:28:09

My youngest daughter, different situation.

00:28:11

I'm asking her questions.

00:28:12

She's like four years old, sitting around the dinner table.

00:28:15

I said, "Becca, what makes your mommy a great mommy?"

00:28:18

Without hesitation, "Wine."

00:28:23

So there she's very observant. [laughter]

00:28:26

No, no, my wife insisted -- I know she's here right now.

00:28:31

My wife insisted that I tell everyone,

00:28:33

for the record, she is not a wino.

00:28:35

So that is on the record. That is true. All right.

00:28:38

26 years ago, I walked into a Crossroads,

00:28:41

and that's back when we were meeting in

00:28:42

a Montessori school auditorium at the time,

00:28:44

so it looked very different.

00:28:46

So I've seen a lot of things happen over the years.

00:28:48

However, the DNA has not changed.

00:28:50

And when I walked into that auditorium,

00:28:52

the reason I did is because I believed

00:28:54

that living a life of faith would lead to a better life.

00:28:57

But I didn't know what that meant.

00:28:59

I didn't know what faith was, faith and what?

00:29:00

I didn't know how it worked.

00:29:02

I had all kinds of questions.

00:29:03

I'm a natural skeptic.

00:29:05

I saw a lot of stuff in Christian culture

00:29:06

that I didn't like. Right? I, if I tried, I failed.

00:29:11

And oftentimes I didn't feel like it.

00:29:13

So I had all those questions.

00:29:14

And I'm going to assume that you came here today

00:29:17

because you feel similarly, because you think,

00:29:19

"If I can be faithful,

00:29:21

I think that would lead to a better life."

00:29:23

But you don't know exactly how to do it.

00:29:26

The Bible story we're going to look at,

00:29:27

we're going to go to an ancient, ancient Bible story,

00:29:29

one of the earliest in the Bible.

00:29:31

But I think it unlocks -- It can unlock this for us

00:29:33

because I think it does make faith simple,

00:29:36

doesn't make it easy, but I think it does make it simple.

00:29:39

And this is going to be a three point message today.

00:29:43

And I should tell you that in preparing this message,

00:29:46

I noticed some outages in my own life that were kind of

00:29:49

surprising that I've been wrestling with,

00:29:51

which I'm going to point out.

00:29:52

And then also a little warning, early in my message

00:29:56

for about three minutes, I'm going to talk about money.

00:29:59

All right? Just three minutes

00:30:00

and we're going to get through it together, I promise.

00:30:03

All right. So let me pray.

00:30:04

God, thank you for this day.

00:30:06

Thank you for this opportunity.

00:30:08

Thank you for bringing us all together.

00:30:10

We're all here to meet with You,

00:30:12

and I pray that You will show up.

00:30:13

Please show up. And, um, yeah, let us encounter You

00:30:17

and learn about You. In Jesus's name I pray. Amen.

00:30:20

All right. We're going to start with one of

00:30:22

the most ancient biblical stories.

00:30:24

So second only to Adam and Eve

00:30:26

because we're talking about their kids, Cain and Abel.

00:30:28

Now, why are we doing that?

00:30:29

Well, if you've been to any other weekends of the series,

00:30:32

you've seen that we've been mining from Hebrews chapter 11,

00:30:35

often called the Hall of Faith.

00:30:37

Hebrews is a book in the New Testament of the Bible.

00:30:39

It comes after Jesus. In chapter 11 lists a bunch

00:30:42

of biblical characters who are celebrated for their faith.

00:30:46

So we figured, why don't we just teach about those people?

00:30:48

I'm sure they have stuff that they can teach us.

00:30:51

And the first person mentioned in the Hall of Faith is Abel,

00:30:56

Adam and Eve's second child.

00:30:57

Let me read it to you. Hebrews 11:4.

00:31:03

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice

00:31:06

than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous,

00:31:09

God commending Him by accepting His gifts.

00:31:12

And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

00:31:15

So what actually happened?

00:31:17

That Abel, thousands of years later, is called out

00:31:20

as having faith that still speaks today.

00:31:22

Well, let's let's read the story. It's not that long.

00:31:25

So we're going to go back to Genesis chapter four,

00:31:27

the first book of the Bible,

00:31:29

the first thing that happens after Adam and Eve.

00:31:32

Genesis 4:1-5:

00:31:35

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain,

00:31:38

saying, "I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord."

00:31:41

And again she bore his brother Abel.

00:31:43

Now Abel was a keeper of sheep,

00:31:45

and Cain a worker of the ground.

00:31:46

In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord

00:31:49

an offering of the fruit of the ground,

00:31:50

and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock

00:31:54

and of their fat portions.

00:31:56

And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,

00:31:59

but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.

00:32:05

So the first thing is, you kind of ask like, really?

00:32:08

Like, what the heck's going on here? Right?

00:32:10

Because it kind of feels like my kids make me Father's Day cards,

00:32:13

and the first one I take, I'm like,

00:32:15

"Oh, this is beautiful, honey. Thank you."

00:32:16

And the second one, I rip it up and throw it.

00:32:18

I'm like, "This is crap," right?

00:32:20

Is that what's going on here?

00:32:21

No, no. And we're going to talk about that.

00:32:24

But remember this is early on, the rules are being written,

00:32:26

right? The fundamental principles

00:32:28

are being put in place here.

00:32:30

And Abel does something here.

00:32:32

He establishes a very important principle about faith,

00:32:35

which is why he's celebrated,

00:32:37

and that is to get the order right.

00:32:42

Faith equals first.

00:32:46

This verse says that Cain is a farmer.

00:32:50

And it says over the course of time,

00:32:52

Cane gives offerings to God.

00:32:54

That means he's bringing in crops,

00:32:56

and he's setting some aside

00:32:57

over the course of time to give to God.

00:33:01

Most of us will look at that and say, "Attaboy, well done.

00:33:04

You paid the God tax. Good job, good job."

00:33:07

But does it really show trust in God that he does this?

00:33:10

Compare him to his brother Abel.

00:33:13

Abel is a shepherd,

00:33:15

and he brings the firstborn of his flock.

00:33:19

That is a huge risk for a herder.

00:33:22

Why? Because every lamb is capital, right?

00:33:24

And also, you don't know what's coming next.

00:33:28

So you give the first, you don't know if anything's coming next,

00:33:34

which makes you incredibly vulnerable,

00:33:36

and that's the key here.

00:33:38

By giving his first,

00:33:40

Abel is making himself vulnerable to God,

00:33:43

saying, "I trust You."

00:33:46

And that forces us into faith.

00:33:48

For you football fans, training camp started this week.

00:33:50

I am a Browns fan. [mixed reaction]

00:33:53

Yeah, I was, I was born into it.

00:33:57

And remember we taught --

00:34:01

We taught suffering, perseverance, character, hope,

00:34:06

full of hope, full of hope because of all the suffering.

00:34:09

Now, first round draft picks are incredibly valuable, right?

00:34:14

You learn that when you trade away three

00:34:16

for a quarterback with 22 pending lawsuits.

00:34:20

You also learn that when you spend one

00:34:22

on someone like Johnny Manziel.

00:34:23

Not every team can be the worst team in the league

00:34:28

the year a generational talent like Joe Burrow comes out.

00:34:30

It just doesn't work that way.

00:34:32

But you learn the value of first.

00:34:34

Those first round draft picks are so important, right?

00:34:38

Because they're first and you don't know what's coming next.

00:34:42

By giving his firstborn and thereby getting the order right

00:34:46

and making God first,

00:34:48

Abel is making himself vulnerable before God.

00:34:52

He says, "I trust You over all else,"

00:34:56

and that's what God commends him for and says is faith.

00:34:59

Our relationships are defined by what we do first.

00:35:03

Who do you call first when you get the promotion,

00:35:08

you get the diagnosis, you make the team?

00:35:10

I would argue that is your most important relationship, right?

00:35:15

Your first call. Why?

00:35:17

Because that information is valuable

00:35:19

and it makes you vulnerable to share it.

00:35:22

My wife and I married for 19 years,

00:35:25

I know within half a word if this is a good call

00:35:29

or a bad call, right? Right?

00:35:31

Because because we've been doing this for 19 years

00:35:33

and we've been vulnerable with each other.

00:35:35

What you do first is the most important thing in your life.

00:35:39

Now this is -- I said I was going to talk about money.

00:35:42

Three minutes. That's it. Bear with me. Okay.

00:35:45

This is why we teach the tithe at Crossroads,

00:35:49

which you may have heard before.

00:35:50

There are people in your midst who tithe,

00:35:53

and we define tithe as giving the first 10%

00:35:57

of your gross income to your local church.

00:36:00

Not just 10%, which don't get hung up on 10%,

00:36:04

totally different message, but not 10% of the whole,

00:36:07

the first 10%. Why?

00:36:10

Because that's a principle.

00:36:12

It's because of this story.

00:36:14

That's a principle that creates a proper order

00:36:17

and puts God first.

00:36:18

And when we put God first in our lives in any way,

00:36:20

not just money, we just find that

00:36:22

things start to work out better.

00:36:24

Proverbs 3:9-10 says:

00:36:25

Honor the Lord with your possessions,

00:36:27

and with the first fruits of all your increase;

00:36:30

so your barns will be filled with plenty,

00:36:32

and your vats will overflow with new wine.

00:36:34

I do this every paycheck.

00:36:35

I get paid every two weeks.

00:36:36

My wife gets paid every two weeks.

00:36:38

The first thing I do the morning of payday

00:36:40

is I go in and I give and I do it,

00:36:43

and I give out of the gross, not the net. Why?

00:36:45

Because if I give -- if I let taxes be taken out first

00:36:48

and I give to the government first,

00:36:50

that means I'm putting my faith in the government

00:36:52

and I'm not putting my faith in the government,

00:36:54

no matter who's in charge.

00:36:57

I want God to be first in my life.

00:36:58

Now, does it matter if I pay my mortgage first and then I give?

00:37:01

Probably, I don't know, probably not.

00:37:03

I think it is good for my soul.

00:37:04

But I'll tell you what, the day that I don't have enough

00:37:07

to do all the things, I hope I'm found faithful

00:37:11

and I'm turning to God and saying, "I'm relying on You.

00:37:15

I have faith in You because I'm putting You first."

00:37:19

So that's why we tithe, not because Crossroads --

00:37:22

Not for the money to do ministry.

00:37:24

No, it's because we want to build faithful people.

00:37:27

And it's a principle established early on.

00:37:31

Money part's done. Okay, relax. We're moving on.

00:37:34

Okay, here's another example.

00:37:35

This is one of my wife and I where I think this is

00:37:38

where we absolutely failed in our life to put God first.

00:37:40

So after we had our first child,

00:37:43

Allison was feeling very strongly the Lord saying,

00:37:45

"I want you to leave work."

00:37:47

And that was really scary for us because

00:37:48

she had always wanted to work and she had always worked.

00:37:52

And that was more at the time, more than 50% of our salary

00:37:56

if she quit her job.

00:37:57

So she ultimately did leave her job.

00:38:00

But we did what many people do,

00:38:01

we compromised to protect ourselves.

00:38:04

She left her job, but took a different job.

00:38:08

And that different job looked really good:

00:38:10

More exciting company, I think she got a raise.

00:38:12

We're like, "Oh, this is this is great.

00:38:13

Like, we're following what the Lord said

00:38:15

and we're making more money. Like, this is awesome."

00:38:18

And then it started to go downhill, of course.

00:38:21

Hours changed, pay changed, then we have our second child.

00:38:24

She comes back from maternity leave and things get really bad.

00:38:28

They change the hours, they add more hours,

00:38:31

the whole job changes.

00:38:33

And it's at that point we're like, "I think we should --

00:38:35

I think it's time to be faithful."

00:38:38

So she quits her job

00:38:39

and 50% of our salary walked out the door that day,

00:38:44

and we did not have a plan to replace it.

00:38:47

That day she's praying to God saying, "I trust You,

00:38:52

but if You can encourage me in some way, I would love it."

00:38:56

At the exact same moment, I'm at work,

00:38:59

I get a call to come down to the front desk.

00:39:02

This box showed up anonymously. I don't --

00:39:06

I still don't know to this day who sent it.

00:39:09

It looks like a ransom note and it says,

00:39:13

"Whatever you need, God's got you covered."

00:39:17

And inside that box are 24 $100 bills.

00:39:21

I still have no clue where it came from.

00:39:24

I think that was God using someone to encourage us

00:39:29

to say, "I got you. Put your faith in Me.

00:39:33

Make Me first, be vulnerable in front of Me, and I've got you."

00:39:37

I'll tell you, this box still speaks to us 15 years later.

00:39:40

It's been sitting on the shelf in our office for 15 years.

00:39:42

I knew exactly where it was because we see it all the time

00:39:45

and it still says to us, "I got you.

00:39:48

Be vulnerable in front of me."

00:39:49

It's not just about money, though.

00:39:50

There are other ways of being faithful and giving your first.

00:39:54

Prayer. Let me ask you this. You get sick.

00:39:57

I'm a big fan of modern medicine.

00:39:59

I'm a big fan of prayer.

00:40:00

But which one do you do first?

00:40:02

You get sick. Is the first thing you do go to Doctor Google

00:40:06

and then you go to a real doctor.

00:40:08

And then if that doesn't work out, you go to prayer?

00:40:11

Or it's the first thing you do prayer,

00:40:14

and then go to Doctor Google and then a real doctor, right?

00:40:18

It's just the order.

00:40:19

Do both, but you get the order right?

00:40:21

Well, maybe not Doctor Google, but do both.

00:40:24

You get the order right.

00:40:26

And I think that's where God shows up.

00:40:27

Here's another one. Relationships.

00:40:29

You meet someone for the first time, anywhere,

00:40:31

and is the first thing you do was

00:40:35

what I think God wants us to do, which is say,

00:40:37

"How can I benefit this person?"

00:40:39

Or is the first thing you do is say,

00:40:40

"How can I get something out of this person?"

00:40:43

I think it's a lesson in putting God first.

00:40:45

If you want to be faithful, just start looking for

00:40:48

where you can put God first in your life

00:40:51

and make yourself vulnerable to Him.

00:40:54

That is a great start, and that's what Abel teaches us.

00:40:57

Now part two. Let's talk about Cain,

00:41:00

because Cain is a cautionary tale,

00:41:02

and I'm going to read you this.

00:41:03

I'm going to read you the rest of the story.

00:41:05

It's a little longer, but just bear with me

00:41:07

because I want you to hear the whole thing.

00:41:11

All right, back to Genesis.

00:41:12

So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.

00:41:14

The Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry,

00:41:16

and why has your face fallen?

00:41:18

If you do well, will you not be accepted?

00:41:21

And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.

00:41:24

Its desire is for you, and you must rule over it."

00:41:27

Cain spoke to Abel his brother.

00:41:29

And when they were in the field,

00:41:30

Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

00:41:33

Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?"

00:41:36

He said, "I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?"

00:41:39

And the Lord said, "What have you done?

00:41:41

The voice of your brother's blood

00:41:43

is crying to me from the ground.

00:41:44

And now you're cursed from the ground,

00:41:46

which has opened its mouth

00:41:47

to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

00:41:49

When you work the ground,

00:41:50

it shall no longer yield to you its strength.

00:41:52

You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth."

00:41:55

Cain said to the Lord,

00:41:56

"My punishment is greater than I can bear.

00:41:59

Behold, You have driven me today away from the ground,

00:42:01

and from Your face I shall be hidden.

00:42:03

I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth,

00:42:05

and whoever finds me will kill me."

00:42:07

Then the Lord said to him, "Not so!

00:42:09

If anyone kills Cain,

00:42:11

vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold."

00:42:14

And the Lord put a mark on Cain,

00:42:15

lest any who found him should attack him.

00:42:18

Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord

00:42:20

and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

00:42:22

Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch.

00:42:25

When he built a city, he called the name of the city

00:42:27

after the name of his son, Enoch.

00:42:30

This is all we know about Cain.

00:42:32

So Cain is giving to God over time, right?

00:42:35

Setting some aside, he thinks he's doing the right thing,

00:42:37

but that doesn't work out.

00:42:39

Then he gets angry about it, that leads to violence.

00:42:43

Then he lies when he's called on it,

00:42:45

then he tries to defend himself.

00:42:48

Then after he gets punished, he complains, right?

00:42:51

And he's worried other people are going to kill him.

00:42:54

Which, little side note, at this point,

00:42:56

there have only been four people introduced in the Bible, right?

00:42:59

Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel.

00:43:01

So who are these other people?

00:43:04

It's a fair question, and I think it's exhibit A

00:43:06

that Genesis gives us God's truth about creation,

00:43:09

but doesn't give us the full picture.

00:43:10

And that's okay to ask that question around here.

00:43:13

Okay. God still shows Cain mercy.

00:43:19

And Cain ultimately builds a city

00:43:21

which is a symbol of protection in the ancient world

00:43:23

because cities are surrounded by city walls.

00:43:26

For many biblical scholars and theologians,

00:43:28

Cain is the first person to adopt religion

00:43:34

as his defense mechanism.

00:43:35

He's trying to make it look good. He's not -- He's not.

00:43:38

He's just doing the right thing, right?

00:43:39

He's trying to do the right thing --

00:43:41

Or not even trying to do the right thing.

00:43:42

He's trying to make it look good.

00:43:44

And then when he gets called on it,

00:43:46

he defends himself in every way possible to protect himself.

00:43:49

This is called out later in the New Testament,

00:43:51

Jude, Jesus's brother, writes a letter

00:43:54

to some other believers who are having

00:43:56

difficult people in their midst.

00:43:57

And here's what he says:

00:43:59

But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand,

00:44:02

and they're destroyed by all that they,

00:44:04

like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

00:44:06

Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain.

00:44:10

Cain is a cautionary tale because we cannot fake faith.

00:44:15

Cain tried.

00:44:17

While his brother made himself vulnerable before God,

00:44:22

Cain did not. He only worked to protect himself.

00:44:26

Faith equals first, not fake.

00:44:31

Jesus says in Matthew:

00:44:32

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord, '

00:44:34

will enter the kingdom of heaven,

00:44:37

but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

00:44:41

On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord,

00:44:44

did we not prophesy in Your name,

00:44:46

and cast out demons in Your name,

00:44:48

and do many mighty works in Your name?'

00:44:50

And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you;

00:44:53

depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'"

00:44:57

This verse haunts me a bit because I work for a church,

00:45:01

and it is very easy for me to look like

00:45:05

I'm doing the right things and I'm being faithful.

00:45:08

And I don't want to do that.

00:45:09

Let me give you two examples.

00:45:10

I'm going to say something very controversial,

00:45:12

something you may have never heard up here before,

00:45:15

especially from someone who's worked at a church for 17 years.

00:45:18

I don't like worship music. I know, I know.

00:45:22

Let me say, let me say it first,

00:45:24

our worship leaders are incredible musicians.

00:45:26

Incredible.

00:45:27

And they write a lot of the songs that they play up here.

00:45:30

They're amazing, and the ones I know personally

00:45:33

are even better humans. They are.

00:45:35

They are faithful. They are wise.

00:45:37

They are fun. I absolutely love them.

00:45:40

So we should all just be grateful to be led by them.

00:45:43

The problem is, I don't like worship music.

00:45:47

You're not going to see me with my hands up.

00:45:51

On Wednesday mornings we have all staff worship.

00:45:55

And it can get pretty intense.

00:45:57

I'm often kind of standing in the back just kind of watching.

00:46:02

Because here's what's happening inside my head.

00:46:03

I told you I'm a -- I'm a questioner, I'm a --

00:46:07

And every lyric I'm asking myself the questions:

00:46:11

what does that mean? Does that fit with--

00:46:14

Do I believe that?

00:46:16

And by the time I get through those,

00:46:18

they've moved on to another lyric and I'm doing it again.

00:46:21

And if I get through all of that,

00:46:24

then the questions are: do I feel that way?

00:46:28

I don't think I feel that way.

00:46:29

Am I supposed to feel that way?

00:46:31

Does that person feel that way?

00:46:34

I don't think they feel that way.

00:46:35

They're looking at me. Am I supposed to feel --

00:46:37

Do I have to have my hands up?

00:46:39

Like it's nonstop in my head.

00:46:41

I just cannot get into it.

00:46:42

And I'll tell you when I'm at my worst,

00:46:46

the people who are really into it, I'm judging them a bit.

00:46:49

Like you don't really feel that way, right?

00:46:53

But when I'm at my best, I'm jealous.

00:46:56

I'm saying, "I wish I felt that way, I wish I had that."

00:47:01

It's an ongoing struggle for me.

00:47:03

I'm working in a church. it would be easy for me to fake it.

00:47:05

I know all these songs. I hear them all the time.

00:47:08

I could lip sync the words. I could.

00:47:11

I could put my hands up. I could do the sway, right?

00:47:15

I could do that, but that would be fake for me.

00:47:19

It would. It would be fake. I'd be faking it.

00:47:21

Now, this is one of the outages I noticed in my life, though,

00:47:24

this has left me wondering how in my life

00:47:27

am I really showing God praise and reverence and adoration?

00:47:32

Where am I? Is there something in my life

00:47:34

where I'm really doing that?

00:47:36

And I've kind of been left wanting,

00:47:38

like I haven't found it.

00:47:39

And I'm kind of disappointed by that.

00:47:41

And it's something I'm thinking about.

00:47:43

Is there something I need to change in my life

00:47:45

to get to that point? There is.

00:47:46

But it needs to be truthful and real.

00:47:48

Here's the second one, also controversial.

00:47:51

I don't usually pray before meals.

00:47:54

Now, before you send me emails,

00:47:58

I know Jesus prayed before meals,

00:48:01

so I am not standing on solid ground here. I understand.

00:48:03

But for me it was such -- it was so fake for me to do that.

00:48:10

It was not real.

00:48:11

It was just, you know, just going through the motions,

00:48:13

saying the words, right, just to get to the meal.

00:48:18

And you know, because I don't pray before meals,

00:48:21

it leads to a lot of awkward situations where, you know,

00:48:24

people expect me to because I work for a church, right?

00:48:26

So we go to lunch and all the food comes out

00:48:29

and everybody gets quiet, and they're kind of looking at me

00:48:33

and I start moving my fries around.

00:48:35

And I might put one in my mouth and sometimes I -

00:48:37

sometimes I will bite because it's really awkward

00:48:39

and I will pray, but, but usually, I just don't do it

00:48:44

because I don't want to fake it.

00:48:45

But like I said, Jesus prayed before meals.

00:48:48

So he modeled regularly giving thanks to God.

00:48:51

So I've been asking myself this question,

00:48:54

where in my life am I really doing that,

00:48:56

like, truthfully, giving God thanks and gratitude?

00:49:00

And I've also lost a little disappointed

00:49:03

in what I discovered there.

00:49:04

I don't think I'm doing that very well.

00:49:07

That's something that I think I'm gonna have to work on.

00:49:09

But I share both of those examples just to say to you,

00:49:12

we don't want people faking it around here.

00:49:15

You don't have to fake it around here.

00:49:17

If you are into worship music, by all means,

00:49:21

be all in on worship music.

00:49:23

Be in the aisles dancing. Like, go for it, right?

00:49:25

If you want to pray before meals, by all means,

00:49:28

make it the greatest prayer ever. Please.

00:49:31

But it's okay if you don't always feel that way

00:49:35

because you cannot fake faith.

00:49:39

All right. Part three.

00:49:41

Paul writes:

00:49:43

I fought the good fight,

00:49:44

I have finished the race,

00:49:46

I've kept the faith.

00:49:48

Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness

00:49:50

which the Lord, the righteous judge,

00:49:52

will award to me on that day, and not only to me,

00:49:55

but also to all who have loved His appearing.

00:49:58

Paul finished well, I want to finish well

00:50:03

and I want you to finish well.

00:50:06

I am thrilled, I'm so excited

00:50:08

for everyone who got baptized today.

00:50:10

Man, that is the most vulnerable thing you can do, right?

00:50:14

Putting God first. And you can't fake it, right?

00:50:16

You're going into the water and that is just amazing.

00:50:21

But I want to talk to the rest of us,

00:50:23

those of us who've been in this for a couple years,

00:50:26

even a couple decades, because you know as you go through

00:50:29

all the things, as you go through school and kids

00:50:32

and job changes and tragedy and triumph

00:50:36

and all the questions and all the moves and everything,

00:50:39

you know it does not always feel that way. Right?

00:50:43

It doesn't always feel that way.

00:50:46

But the real goal is to stay faithful through all of that.

00:50:49

I once heard our Anywhere Pastor, Andy Ryder,

00:50:51

say that there's a faithfulness measured not in days or weeks,

00:50:56

but in years and decades.

00:50:59

That's the type of faithfulness that I want.

00:51:02

Faith equals first, not fake, to the finish.

00:51:08

Someone on our staff told me, he said, "You know,

00:51:10

if you ever got a tattoo, to the finish would be a sweet tattoo."

00:51:13

I said, "You're right."

00:51:14

So I asked them to mock it up like what I would look like.

00:51:18

So if I get a tattoo, that's what it's going to look like:

00:51:23

to the finish.

00:51:30

You're going to have many times in your life

00:51:32

when you fail to put God first.

00:51:35

You're going to have times in your life

00:51:36

when you fall into religion or even fake it.

00:51:40

Jesus said we're going to have trials and tribulations,

00:51:45

but it's very important that we put that into perspective.

00:51:48

I saw a clip of Roger Federer, the tennis great.

00:51:51

He did a commencement address at Dartmouth University

00:51:54

two years ago, and he said something that

00:51:56

I think really gives some insight into faith.

00:51:58

Hear what he had to say.

00:52:01

- Perfection is impossible.

00:52:03

In the 1526 singles matches I played in my career,

00:52:08

I won almost 80% of those matches.

00:52:12

Now I have a question for you:

00:52:14

What percentage of points do you think I won in those matches?

00:52:20

Only 54%.

00:52:22

In other words, even top ranked tennis players

00:52:25

win barely more than half of the points they play.

00:52:29

When you lose every second point on average,

00:52:31

you learn not to dwell on every shot.

00:52:35

- Isn't that amazing? 80%.

00:52:38

He won 80% of his career matches,

00:52:40

but only won 54% of the points.

00:52:43

Just over half of the points.

00:52:46

I think that's a great way to look at faith,

00:52:48

which is try to get more wins than losses.

00:52:51

Now, you might hear that and think, "I have a losing record.

00:52:54

I'm never going to have a winning record."

00:52:56

And I would say to you,

00:52:57

"Well, the good news is that's the gospel

00:53:00

because you don't have to have a winning record.

00:53:03

You only have to believe in Jesus."

00:53:06

But once we have that as our baseline,

00:53:09

then I think a great attitude is just to say,

00:53:12

"I'm going to try to get more wins then losses.

00:53:14

If I lose today, I'm going to move on.

00:53:16

I'm going to try tomorrow.

00:53:17

If I lose this one, I'm going to try to win the next one."

00:53:20

And over time, those start to build up

00:53:22

and you build a life of faith that is completely resilient

00:53:26

to everything that life is going to throw at you.

00:53:29

Let's return to Abel and Cain for a moment.

00:53:31

The word Cain in Hebrew means possess or get.

00:53:36

It comes from Eve's quote: I have acquired a man.

00:53:41

The word Abel, however, means breath or vapor,

00:53:47

something that's not permanent.

00:53:49

So the one who is celebrated for his faith

00:53:53

is the one who represents moving on.

00:53:57

Whereas the one who's a cautionary tale

00:53:59

is the one who represents holding on tightly.

00:54:03

This is how we finish well, by adopting that attitude,

00:54:06

that Abel attitude.

00:54:08

We say, I'm going to trust You.

00:54:10

I'm going to keep putting You first.

00:54:12

I'm not going to fake it.

00:54:14

And when I lose, I'm going to move on

00:54:16

and try to win the next one

00:54:18

and move on and try to win the next one.

00:54:20

And we have to help each other do this

00:54:21

because we can't do it alone.

00:54:23

We have to lift each other up when we fail and say,

00:54:26

"It's all right, get the next one."

00:54:28

Paul said: Therefore encourage one another

00:54:30

and build one another up.

00:54:33

The people who gave us this box,

00:54:35

whoever they were, were encouragers.

00:54:37

They've been encouraging us for 15 years in that one act.

00:54:42

Now I'm going to give you a gift at the end of this service.

00:54:44

But before I do, I want to end by telling you

00:54:47

about one of the most faithful people I know.

00:54:50

And he would disagree with that.

00:54:51

He would say, "I'm not faithful at all."

00:54:53

But it's my friend Dave.

00:54:55

And if you -- um, Dave has every reason to not be faithful.

00:55:00

Dave was abused in the church at a young age.

00:55:05

Dave experienced bankruptcy at a time

00:55:08

when he was trying to raise a young family.

00:55:13

He then got back on his feet

00:55:14

and he's been very successful in his later years,

00:55:16

which, frankly, is one of the biggest threats to faith

00:55:19

because we start to rely on our own success

00:55:22

and our own money and our own efforts.

00:55:25

Dave is a lawyer. He's a critical thinker.

00:55:27

He reads all the books and he asks all the questions,

00:55:29

like, I don't understand this.

00:55:31

I don't get what this means. Why this?

00:55:33

He has all the questions that you and I have.

00:55:35

And 18 months ago, if you'd asked Dave to make you

00:55:37

a top ten list of the closest friends in his life,

00:55:39

in that 18 months, three of them have passed away early

00:55:43

from different medical issues.

00:55:45

And just about a month ago,

00:55:47

just days after officiating the celebration of life

00:55:51

for one of those friends, he got a call

00:55:52

that a fourth has extremely serious cancer.

00:55:56

He has every reason to not be faithful.

00:55:58

But every year Dave has an event at Christmas time

00:56:02

where he invites over 100 guys for bourbon and cigars.

00:56:05

He pays for the whole thing.

00:56:07

These are business acquaintances and friends,

00:56:10

and many of them have no faith

00:56:13

or lost their faith a long time ago.

00:56:14

But at the end of the night, Dave will stand up on stage

00:56:17

every year, and in his own way,

00:56:19

he actually changes it every year, which is impressive.

00:56:21

But he says the same thing, he says,

00:56:24

"I believe there's a God.

00:56:27

I believe He's good.

00:56:29

And because of that, I want to be there for all of you

00:56:33

and encourage you."

00:56:34

And then he tells everyone in that room,

00:56:36

all you have to do is text me four words: I need a beer

00:56:40

and I got you and I'm there for you.

00:56:43

Dave recently shared an email with me

00:56:45

that he sent to his friend,

00:56:47

the friend who's currently battling cancer.

00:56:49

And I'm going to read you a part of it.

00:56:50

Here's what he said to his friend. He said:

00:56:52

We've both seen some of the worst of religion.

00:56:55

For me, that started when priests abused

00:56:58

their trust in position of power.

00:57:00

We've witnessed firsthand people justifying questionable actions

00:57:03

based on some convenient theology

00:57:04

or obtuse interpretation of the Bible.

00:57:07

It's easy to give up on all of it.

00:57:09

Believe me, I've tried, but I can't.

00:57:11

I can't shake my belief that this is not our only existence.

00:57:15

I have witnessed and experienced too much love

00:57:17

and too much grace in my life to deny the existence of God.

00:57:20

My faith may be amorphous, but it is unshakable.

00:57:23

I'm leaning into that right now to help navigate

00:57:25

or understand what the hell is happening.

00:57:28

I want to encourage you to do the same.

00:57:30

Consider it another form of the treatment regimen."

00:57:34

See, he said his faith is amorphous. It's Able.

00:57:38

But it's unshakable. That is faith, right?

00:57:41

Even despite all the questions and all the doubts

00:57:44

and all the things, putting God first,

00:57:45

making yourself vulnerable, not being fake about it,

00:57:48

and using it to encourage other people.

00:57:51

Now, I said I want to give you a gift.

00:57:52

And I said I don't like worship music, but I do love music.

00:57:55

And I heard a song about a year ago,

00:57:57

and the first time I heard the song, it made me cry.

00:58:00

It's not a Christian song, but I heard it,

00:58:01

it made me cry because, um,

00:58:04

I wanted someone to sing it to me, frankly.

00:58:06

And I want you to hear it.

00:58:08

You don't have to do anything right now,

00:58:10

but just sit back and take this in.

00:58:25

[music: Shaboozey, Stephen Wilson Jr.,

00:58:30

Took A Walk]

01:01:15

- I told you the first time I heard that, I cried

01:01:17

because I want someone to sing that to me

01:01:22

and I want to sing it to you.

01:01:25

We gotta encourage each other to the finish

01:01:27

to be faithful to the finish.

01:01:29

Because at the finish

01:01:30

God has indescribable good things for us.

01:01:34

Now I know the lyric I know you're tired,

01:01:36

hell, so am I will, generate some emails, I understand.

01:01:38

And let me just say, I'm just going to say this,

01:01:41

like I do respect your position, I get it, I understand.

01:01:43

And we talked about it, but we decided to leave it in

01:01:47

just like it was in Dave's email,

01:01:49

because that's the real emotion and that's what we want.

01:01:53

That's the real feeling that we are in this together

01:01:57

and if we walk beside each other and carry each other to the end

01:02:00

and we stay faithful, we continue just to put God first,

01:02:03

to be vulnerable to Him, to not fake it to the finish,

01:02:11

that what He has for every one of us individually

01:02:15

and us as a church community is beyond our imagination.

01:02:22

So let me just pray for you before you go today.

01:02:24

God, thank you for all the people in these rooms.

01:02:30

I just pray that You will, if they weren't encouraged

01:02:32

by this message, that You will encourage them

01:02:34

in some other way today, that You will just carry them,

01:02:37

carry them forth, and be present

01:02:39

as we all continue to put You first.

01:02:43

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

01:02:48

- Something that we often say around here is

01:02:50

Crossroads is a real place for real people,

01:02:53

and Rob just embodies that so well.

01:02:55

I loved how vulnerable he was to just share

01:02:58

that authentic struggle that he has with

01:03:00

his wrestle with prayer before meal and worship. Right?

01:03:04

But he didn't stay there, right?

01:03:06

He allowed -- He's allowing God in his heart to like,

01:03:09

pull him to how do I praise God regularly?

01:03:12

How do I give thanks to God regularly?

01:03:14

Man, I love that.

01:03:15

- Yeah. It was really good.

01:03:16

If today's teaching impacted you or you know someone

01:03:19

who might benefit from it, you can just simply share

01:03:22

this link with them and text them.

01:03:24

Or if you know someone who's incarcerated,

01:03:26

remember the Pando app, they can watch this service themselves.

01:03:30

- Yeah. Well, before we go,

01:03:31

we got three quick hitters for you, right?

01:03:33

No matter your age or life stage,

01:03:35

first you've got summer movie night August 7.

01:03:37

- Summer movie night at our sites.

01:03:38

- I can't say the name of the movie,

01:03:41

but this quote goes, heroes are remembered; legends never die.

01:03:47

So good, so good. - Right?

01:03:49

Yeah. If you don't care about '90s baseball movies,

01:03:52

maybe you would be better liking

01:03:54

our Young Adults Collective Night.

01:03:57

If you were in your 20s, it's a really good time.

01:04:00

In your 20s is like, the best of times and the worst of times.

01:04:03

And so don't go through it alone.

01:04:05

It is happening this Thursday night, August 6th.

01:04:08

Come for the teaching or the worship or the friendship

01:04:11

or make new friends or just come for the ice cream

01:04:13

and the food trucks. Ages 18-29ish, we say,

01:04:17

at Crossroads Uptown, which is on UC's campus.

01:04:19

- Listen, 40 is the new 29-ish, if you ask me.

01:04:22

- Huh-uh. - No?

01:04:23

- You can go because you work here. But 40 year olds, sorry.

01:04:27

- Got it. Yeah. They're checking IDs also.

01:04:29

Don't show up if you're not 29ish.

01:04:31

But anyway, yeah, s coming up,

01:04:32

we've actually got community marriage.

01:04:34

And on August 2nd, tonight.

01:04:37

So if you're watching this now,

01:04:38

tonight we're going to have great conversation

01:04:40

and we're not going to make it weird.

01:04:42

- What's the topic? - We're going to talk about sex.

01:04:44

- Okay. - We gonna talk about sex, baby.

01:04:46

- Okay. Okay. - We're going to talk about it.

01:04:47

Don't make it weird. We're going to talk about.

01:04:49

- I used to do student ministry,

01:04:51

and we'd have to do a sex series every year

01:04:52

and it was always like, you're with students.

01:04:54

But God talks about it and it's good.

01:04:56

And so we would make the students

01:04:58

yell sex at the beginning of the service.

01:05:00

And it was -- it's, yeah,

01:05:01

it's church, we should talk about this

01:05:03

and it shouldn't be weird.

01:05:04

- Don't make it weird. Don't make it weird. Right. Yeah.

01:05:06

- So join us. - Join us.

01:05:07

And the marriage community for an honest conversation

01:05:09

about something that's critical in your marriage.

01:05:12

Right? And it's all online.

01:05:13

So whether you're streaming in

01:05:14

or you want to attend a local site,

01:05:16

you don't actually have to leave your couch to attend.

01:05:19

You just have to be married

01:05:20

and hopefully that makes it easy for you.

01:05:22

- Yeah, you can even be screen off

01:05:23

if sex is that awkward for your conversation.

01:05:26

- Yeah.

01:05:27

- So anyway, thanks so much for being a part of Crossroads.

01:05:31

We hope that you can take one step closer

01:05:35

in your relationship with God.

01:05:36

And so thanks for joining us and we will see you next week.

How to Build a Life of Faith That Lasts

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up!

Prayer

Bonus Questions

Recent Series