Play & Purpose Journey | Week 2: Play

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Well, welcome to Crossroads, we're so glad to have you on the

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Crossroads Anywhere broadcast.

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And today we're in a series called Play and Purpose.

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And it's actually more than a series, it's a whole journey that we're

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going on as a church to get more play, more purpose in our lives.

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And we're gonna do this in the midst of conversations with God and in

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the midst of conversations with other people and in the midst of this

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service. And today is all about play.

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It's gonna be awesome.

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And to start, we're actually going to spend some time worshipping

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together, singing together.

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And so maybe turn down your lights, turn up your music and try

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something new and sing along with us.

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Lord, we praise you because You are great and mighty, because You are

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with us, because You are powerful.

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It's amazing that You are who You are, King.

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You care about us.

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You hear us. So we praise You.

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I praise You. I sing like that because I see who You are, Jesus.

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So I sing to You, I praise that way, Lord, because of who You are,

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Amen. Yeah.

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Thanks for singing with us.

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[applause] Yeah, you sound great. Hey, before you grab a seat, why

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don't you turn and introduce yourself to somebody.

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If you're considering camping out at all, you're on the edge, I will

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just say to you, do it.

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It is so worth it.

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It's worth figuring out how to get there.

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It's worth the expense of that.

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It's worth figuring out the child care and all those logistics.

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Man, you will go to a new place with God.

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You'll go to a new place in your friendships.

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And if we're talking about Couples Camp, you're going to go to a new

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place in your marriage. Whether your marriage is on fire right now or

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it's crumbling, Couples Camp might just be exactly what you need.

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So you can head to Crossroads.net/camps

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to sign up to do that.

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And maybe even consider doing this with a few people who are in your

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Journey group right now. Speaking of Journey, we are in this series

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called Play & Purpose.

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And it's not just a series, it's a Journey that we're going together,

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going on together as a church.

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And we call it that because, man, there are lots of elements to this

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that are gonna put us in some uncomfortable places, some new spaces.

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And at the end of it, we're going to be in a different place.

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We're going to be different.

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And so the way that you get the most out of this journey is by doing

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the reflection and activities that are in the Journey Guide, which

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you can get it Crossroads.net/journey.

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You can get a digital form of that.

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Or if you're already in a Journey group, you can get that Journey

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Guide at your Journey group, your leader, if they are part of

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Crossroads Anywhere has that.

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And if you regularly attend a site or you live near a Crossroads

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location, you can go to the Crossroads site closest to you to pick up

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a Journey Guide. Just chat with us to find out where and how you

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might do that. But it's not too late to get into a group, if you're

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not in one already you can still sign up for a group.

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Those are starting to meet this week.

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And this is more like dinner party, fun experience.

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Not at all like sit in a circle and share your deepest, darkest

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moment and go around the circle and cry.

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That's not what this is. It's going to be fun and active.

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And those group meetings start this week.

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And, you know, I'm just so thankful that I get to be on the

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Crossroads team

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and that I get to be on the Crossroads team alongside of other

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teammates who are generously giving to make all of this possible,

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who are generously sacrificing of their finances so that we get to

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experience church online,

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so that we get to have creative elements as part of this Journey that

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are gonna help us go to a new place with God.

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And so that we get to have things like Camp where, man, you get

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outside of your normal everyday grind, outside of the rut that you're

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in and go off the grid for a weekend.

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It's because of generous givers and Crossroads teammates that that's

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all possible. And so if you want to become a teammate, you want to

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become a giver, you can head to Crossroads.net/give

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and sign up to give once or recurring and help make all of these

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things possible so that you and your friends and your family can

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experience God in a new, fresh way through Crossroads.

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And today, in the midst of this Journey, we're talking all about

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play.

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Not a soul up ahead and nothing behind

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There's a desert in my blood and a storm in your eyes

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all

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Well I remember the fight and I forget the pain

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I got my hand in your pocket and my key on your chain Am I the king

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heart is a mess Is it the only defense against the wilderness?

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Cross my heart and hope to die Taking this one step at a time Got

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your back if you got mine One foot in front of the other One foot in

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front of the other

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have trust Ain't nothing left of us, this is the exodus (inaudible)

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One foot in front of the other ad

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time. Got to go back.

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Got.

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loneliness?

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wilderness

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Cross my heart and hope to die Taking this one step at a time

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I got your back if you got mine, One foot in front of the other

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One foot in front of the other.

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One foot in front of the other. One foot in front of the other.

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- What happened to our conga line?

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I thought we had a conga line going.

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Man, I'm out of breath now.

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Singing karaoke, dancing in front of people at the same time.

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(panting) I'm getting to be an old man.

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All right, I got to get my stuff together because they're gonna be

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taping me for other sites.

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So hold on here. [laughter]

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I know we're having fun. Whew! [cheers and applause] All right, here

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we go. Watch this.

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I love that song.

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I utterly love that song.

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One foot in front of the other.

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Today -- Today, the big idea is this: a life that prospers makes room

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for play. I'm going to say that again.

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A life that prospers makes room for play.

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Turn to somebody right close to you, smile and say, "Hey, did you

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know a life that prospers makes room for play?".

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Tell somebody beside you that right now.

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Because they don't believe me. Now, remind me, remind me

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to tell you later how you could possibly get a thousand dollars.

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So just remind me because, you know, I might forget.

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But let me pray right now before we do anything else.

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God, I want everybody within earshot to prosper.

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I want everybody in earshot to have a life that is full, a life

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that's satisfying,

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a life where we sense You and where we get closer to understanding

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You and feeling Your love and power.

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I know that play has something to do with that.

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And I know that You have something for all of us who are here today.

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So help me to serve Your people.

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I pray these things according to character and identity of Jesus.

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Amen. You know, I know some of us might have a bit of a religious

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background. And people who have religious backgrounds tend to not be

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very fun. I'm sorry to say it, but it's true.

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People who, you know, just man, they just want everything right.

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They want do everything right and moral.

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They want to -- They want to have things buttoned up.

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They think that God is an engineer.

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He is an engineer and He's also an artist.

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He is somebody who gives instruction.

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And He also is somebody who I believe skips rope.

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And I wish that I could tell you right now, I wish I could give you

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chapter and verse in the Bible of a verse that would say, "Thou shalt

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not -- Thou shalt play.".

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I wish I could find one that said: thou shalt play.

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There it is, guys, thou shalt play.

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There it is, so obviously God wants us to play.

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I can't show you that verse today.

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I also can't show you a verse in the Bible that says: Thou shalt eat.

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I can't show you one in the Bible says: thou shalt sleep.

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I can't find you one in the Bible says: thou shalt brush your teeth.

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But all these things we know are good and important.

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And we know that God has wired us to need things and want them.

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My goal today is to get you to play because the mark of everybody who

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prospers is a mark of somebody who makes time to play.

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And what I mean by play? Play is this definition:

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Time just slips away from us and results in us being more energy --

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energized. Anything that is fun, we lose time over, and it energizes

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us for the rest of our life.

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I've been in this topic now for, gosh, several years.

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All of us naturally want to play.

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I'll get into that in a moment.

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There's something about that, something that says something about us

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as humans, that all little humans, little children naturally play,

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and then we lose it as we get older.

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It's like our life and culture just kicks the play right out of us.

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And when a person who's been responsible to help me sort of have a

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play awakening over the last decade or so is his name is Dr.

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Stuart Brown. Here's what he says:

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I love that.

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It appears purposeless.

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It appears like there's no point to it.

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But no, it does something in our neurochemistry.

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I don't know why it is, but if you were an over eater, we would have

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a better time of getting you to change your food intake than if you

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were an anorexic.

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It's harder to get somebody who is overindulging to stop something

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than it is to take somebody who is not doing anything of something

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and have them start it.

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I'm very confident we don't have very many people who are playing too

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much. I'm very confident of that.

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And I've got a job ahead of me in the midst of this Journey to try to

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get many of us who are play anorexics to actually start to consume

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play. Why don't we play?

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Just five ideas for you real quick.

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One is we believe it's for children.

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Children grow up and so therefore, I've grown up and I don't play,

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just like kids don't play. Two, we don't want to allocate resources

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to it because play takes resources, time resources, money resources.

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We also fear that if I play, I'm going to step out of the purpose

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train and I'm going to lose my slot.

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Someone else is going to come in and do my job or someone else is

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going to show people that I'm really not all that necessary.

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We're afraid of losing control, losing our spots.

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Four, there isn't a play movement.

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Maybe Dr. Stuart Brown has affected me so much because like he's one

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coherent voice that talks about play.

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Maybe we should just start a play movement #Iplay.

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There's no #Iplay anywhere.

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No one's exposing that because everyone's like, "I don't want to let

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anyone know that I'm playing.

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They might think I'm really juvenile.

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I don't want to let anyone know that I'm actually spending a lot of

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money on stupid things

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that will have that will have nothing to show for it, other than a

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healthier me." The fifth reason is that we have bad theology.

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We have a -- theology is just the study of God.

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Ology, study or word, theo is where we get God.

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We have bad theology. We don't know how to how to study God.

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And all the while in our culture, friends, we are hurting.

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Opioid addiction, opioid usage is skyrocketing.

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People on painkillers, other coping mechanisms.

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Play is our natural way to cope.

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And since we're not playing, we're not naturally coping and we're

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leaning more and more into artificial means.

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CNBC said this recently:.

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We don't want any of those in here.

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Why are we burned out?

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Because we're always on the purpose train.

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We're always wanting to make our life count for something.

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We always want to check everything off the to do list.

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We always want everything to have a point to our life.

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We want to just keep pushing and pushing instead of playing.

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And in this culture that we're in, the Bible gives us verses that

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just smack us in the face of our cultural reality of dissing play.

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Here's one from Ecclesiastes 3:9-13, it says this:

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God's gift to men is that we get to earn money and we get to use some

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of that money to pay for play, to pay for pleasure.

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This is God's gift to men.

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And when we can identify ways that we are blessing ourselves, ways

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that we are experiencing pleasure, ways that we are playing, we are

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shunning the very gift of God.

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Who who likes it when you give a gift and someone shuns it?

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Nobody likes that. It's insulting.

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God has given us the ability to play.

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When we don't play, we are shunning his gift.

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J.I. Packer who just to look at him, I don't know if this guy's ever

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known a day of play in his life.

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I don't know. Just look at that guy.

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My gosh, it looks like he eats lemons for breakfast.

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[laughter] He's actually a very well-known theologian who died a few

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years ago. And here's what he says.

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Not good. Too many of us, we're just stuck in the status quo of our

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current world. We're stuck in the monotony of our current world.

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We're stuck in the grind of our current world that's just grinding us

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down to a nub. And what play is, play is revenge against status quo.

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Play is revenge against monotony.

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Play is revenge against the life that's grounding us down because I

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thumb my nose at all of that stuff when I say,

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"No, no, I'm not a human doing, I'm a human being.

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And I will be in this earth and I will be with my God.

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And I will experience every joy that He has given me.

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I will experience every opportunity that comes my way to detach, to

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laugh, to play."

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There's four aspects of play.

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As I share this list, these things are all ways that we play, they're

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all signs that we are playing.

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And the more of these things that you can have engaged in your play,

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the more fulfilling your play is going to be.

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One aspect of how we play is spiritual.

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Play is a spiritual rhythm.

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Play forces us to trust God.

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When I play, I'm not earning money, I'm not getting ahead in the

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workplace. I am trusting that God is going to keep my job and I'm

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going to eat.

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So it's very important to understand when the earth was first

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created, God creates the earth in six days.

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Whether those are figurative days or literal days, you can have your

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own debate on those. That's not really my interest at this point.

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And He on the sixth day, God creates men and women.

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And then it says on the seventh day, God rested.

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So when God rests on the seventh day, what do people who just got

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created on the sixth day, what do they have to do?

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Rest, they have to rest.

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Which really sounds odd, like day six human beings are created.

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We're supposed to be fruitful multiply.

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So you'd think God would say, "Okay, I've created you.

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Chop, chop, go, go, go.".

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As if human beings are like, "Okay, let's go.

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Let's go. I can't leave my first day, full day of existence, can't

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go. And what dod I do my first day?

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I rest.

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I play because we're not human doings, we are human beings.

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And it says something about the spirituality of prayer, the

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spirituality of playing that when we're not playing, we're actually

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not trusting God.

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When we're not playing, we're actually puffing ourselves up, thinking

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that we're so important to the universe the world can't do without me

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being on purpose every single day.

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It's not true. It sends us something to the sign about the

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spirituality of play.

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Another one, the very first miracle that Jesus ever does is creating

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wine out of water.

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It's at a wedding.

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It's towards the end of the wedding.

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And it's crazy. There's a lot of stuff going on in this miracle,

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there is. But we can't get away from what actually took place is the

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first miracle of Jesus, the son of God does is enable the party to

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continue. He enables play to keep going for -- don't give me any of

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this crap of oh, well, that was Welch's grape juice that He created.

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No, he didn't.

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The wine steward at the events says, "Oh, my gosh.

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Here we are later on the party and you brought out the best wine.

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Most of the people bring the awful wine to begin with and then once

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their taste buds are are numb --

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the good wine to begin with, once their taste buds are numb, then

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they bring the awful wine out.

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But you brought the best wine out layer.".

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Yeah, that's my God. That's my God who starts and keep the party

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going. Yeah. You can clap for that.

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That's fine. [applause] I want you to think about your parents,

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however old your parents are, however old you are, if you're, you

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know, if you're 14 or you're 24, or you're 34.

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We want to be around our parents if it's a life giving experience,

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that's what we want.

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We don't want to be around our parents if every time they're going to

00:30:57

be around us they're going to give us purpose.

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Every time we're around our parents they're going to give us a new

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list of things that we need to be doing in our life.

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We just don't want to do that.

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And if we think that being around God it's just about getting a new

00:31:09

list to obey, just getting new responsibility to follow through on,

00:31:13

well, guess what? No wonder many of us don't want to be around God.

00:31:16

God is not a dentist.

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He's not a dentist. Hermey wants to be a dentist.

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I want to be a dentist.

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Remember that from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Hermey?

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Hermey wants to be a dentist.

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No, this is -- this is not who God is created to be.

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He's not a dentist.

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He's not a divine dentist in the sky who's looking to give you pain.

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My apologies to all your dentists out there.

00:31:40

God loves dentists.

00:31:42

He does. I just don't love dentists, at least I don't like going to a

00:31:46

dentist. My dentist understands that, too.

00:31:48

Thank you for everything. But God wants us to be in relation with

00:31:53

Him. And He wants us to feel.

00:31:54

He wants us to experience His fullness.

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And we can't do that if we're not playing.

00:32:01

Exodus 5:1:

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This is when the nation of Israel gets out of slavery.

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They're led by Moses and they get out of slavery.

00:32:17

And God tells Pharaoh, who is controlling nation of Israel the

00:32:22

reasons is I want them to lead a festival for me in the wilderness.

00:32:26

And there's like seven of these things that God institutes actually

00:32:30

were coming into a Jewish festival season right now.

00:32:33

These festivals still continue and some of these things are amazing

00:32:37

multiday parties.

00:32:38

They're are a lot, a lot of fun.

00:32:39

And God instituted these things because He wants His people to

00:32:43

experience Him, to have fun with Him, to actually play with Him.

00:32:50

The second thing that play taps into isn't just the spirituality of

00:32:56

play, it's the physicality of play.

00:33:00

It's the physicality of play.

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Play happens in periods of rest.

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Play can be restful, but play does not equal rest.

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What I mean is simply vegging out is not play.

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Simply taking a nap is not play.

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Simply sleeping is not play.

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Even taking a vacation is not necessarily play.

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Play can happen on those things, but play is when we get engaged in

00:33:27

our environment. We dance, one foot in front of the other or we we

00:33:31

play checkers with somebody else or we would take a walk through a

00:33:35

park or we go with some friends to a ballgame and we cheer or we ice

00:33:40

skates or we bird watch or we're doing something out and we're

00:33:45

physically engaging and we lose ourselves in the physicality of it.

00:33:52

Proverbs 17: 22 says:.

00:34:01

A crushed spirit dries up the bones.

00:34:04

I don't know if when this passage was written, if they were giving a

00:34:08

clue as to why some cancers happen and ulcers take place.

00:34:13

Because when we are stressed and when we were in purpose all the time

00:34:17

and when we are not detaching, our bones literally can get brittle.

00:34:22

We literally have physiological effects from not playing.

00:34:28

It's a massive, massive thing and might be why are our health rate

00:34:33

and our life expectancy has dipped in the last couple of years.

00:34:36

It's ridiculous that it would dip in the last couple of years as our

00:34:38

medicine advances, our medicine advances.

00:34:41

But medicine can't keep up with our poor choices of not playing.

00:34:45

Medicine can't keep up with our poor choices of not rest fully

00:34:48

playing, of not engaging all of our mind.

00:34:51

When we're on purpose, when we're doing our job, our normal thing,

00:34:55

whatever that is, if it's raising our kids or balancing the books or

00:34:58

closing sales and, well, whatever, keeping up our apartment or house

00:35:02

that everyone. When we're on that stuff, our enzymes our

00:35:07

neurochemicals in our brain are going the same direction all the

00:35:11

time. W e literally wear a groove in our thinking.

00:35:14

We get a rut in our thinking, in our neurochemistry.

00:35:17

That's what happens, which is why the longer you're on the job, if

00:35:22

you're going to work past 60 hours, you are fooling yourself, maybe

00:35:26

some would arguing past 50 hours, you get -- you get exponentially

00:35:30

less productive the longer you are at work.

00:35:33

And it's a neurochemical scientific reason because you're your

00:35:36

chemicals keep going the same way.

00:35:38

You're trying to get your brain to just work harder and think of a

00:35:42

new breakthrough. But it's worn out.

00:35:44

The grooves are there. When you play, when you detach and you do

00:35:48

whatever you're doing, your neurochemicals take a rest in those

00:35:51

grooves and they start finding different neural connections.

00:35:55

And this is why it's recuperative, too.

00:35:56

This is why it's restorative.

00:35:57

This is why time and time again my biggest breakthroughs don't come

00:36:02

through when I'm in the office.

00:36:03

My biggest breakthroughs don't come when I'm in brainstorming

00:36:06

meetings. My biggest breakthroughs come when I'm on a bike trip.

00:36:10

My biggest breakthroughs come when I'm hiking with my family.

00:36:13

My biggest breakthroughs come when I'm doing anything, anything at

00:36:16

all other than my purpose.

00:36:19

It's a beautiful, it's a wonderful thing, it's how God has created

00:36:22

us. Spiritual: when I am physically engaged in my environment, I

00:36:29

spiritually feel close to God.

00:36:32

I'll find myself just laughing and just smiling.

00:36:36

When I'm laughing and smiling I'll just say to God, "God, thank you.

00:36:39

Thank you that I get to do this.

00:36:41

Thank you that I get to get physically engaged."

00:36:44

Relational. Spiritual, physical, relational

00:36:49

When we play with people, it's beautiful, it's amazing.

00:36:52

Last weekend there was balls that were dropped from ceilings and we

00:36:58

had a good old time. Apparently at Crossroads Eastside, they dropped

00:37:01

bowling balls from the ceiling. Someone didn't appreciate it up

00:37:03

there. [laughter] But was these balls that dropped and where I was

00:37:07

sitting in the front row there was this ball right from me.

00:37:09

And I thought, "Oh, man, I'm just going to loft this one way over,

00:37:11

get it kind of in back rows."

00:37:13

So I went up and I kicked this thing, except I didn't get the loft

00:37:16

that I anticipated. I pelted this woman right in the face, like from

00:37:22

six feet away. She had glasses on, wham, I just smashed her right in

00:37:25

the face. And I felt so bad.

00:37:26

I was like, "Oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry."

00:37:28

I was going up there, I'm hugging her.

00:37:30

I'm sorry. And she was laughing.

00:37:31

She's like, I'm sorry.

00:37:33

I'm glad I didn't get -- I didn't get anything from an attorney this

00:37:37

last week. It was good. So the second service, the second service,

00:37:41

same thing. A ball came, okay.

00:37:42

I got that. I'm not going to -- I'm not going to kind of go towards

00:37:45

this section which was right beside me. .

00:37:46

I'm going to loft it over on this section.

00:37:49

So same thing, went to loft it up, same thing, line drive, pelted

00:37:53

this guy right smack in the nose.

00:37:55

I mean, bam, it just put his head back, the whole thing.

00:37:58

Same thing, I feel like -- I feel like a turd.

00:38:01

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

00:38:04

And there -- and I realized, that was after the two Saturday services

00:38:07

that I did, I realized that like in both situations, even though

00:38:11

these people got pelted in the face unexpectedly, I made two new

00:38:16

friends. [laughter] Like we laughed.

00:38:20

There was something about us laughing each one for a minute, just

00:38:23

laughing that literally bonded us together.

00:38:25

So I went into Sunday's service saying, "I'm going to pelt somebody

00:38:27

in the face every service." [laughter]. I didn't kick it because it's

00:38:30

too hard, so I was just throwing it in people's faces.

00:38:31

And the same thing, everyone laughed every single time.

00:38:34

I'm not saying you have to abuse somebody or get abused for play, but

00:38:39

it helps. It does. There's something about when we are relational and

00:38:44

we are engaged with one another.

00:38:46

I was on this -- we're on this bike trip that I did with some friends

00:38:52

and I. It's a way that we're relational.

00:38:54

We're physically engaged this motorcycle trip.

00:38:56

And we do talk about God and we thank God for it, but it's really not

00:39:00

a God trip. It's a bike trip, right?

00:39:01

We found this last bike trip just weird, weird stuff happened.

00:39:06

We got to the end of the day, we're tired.

00:39:07

And bunch of us were just sitting on the side of this creek and

00:39:10

someone picked up this rock, just took this rock and just like threw

00:39:13

it at this bigger rock in the creek.

00:39:15

And someone's like, "Oh, I could hit that, too.".

00:39:18

So he went up and hit it.

00:39:19

And then, Oh, I can hit it. And then before we knew it, a game broke

00:39:22

out. It was, okay, see who can get it best out of five.

00:39:26

So we did that and so whoever won that round, then got to choose the

00:39:31

next rock that we were going to all aim for.

00:39:33

We kept score and time passed up.

00:39:36

We might have done that for two hours, just sitting there a bunch of

00:39:41

40 and 50 year olds. I guess there was my son, 20 year old, just

00:39:44

throwing rocks. It was so fun.

00:39:46

We did it like every night.

00:39:47

One night there was no rocks, we were on the side of a hill where

00:39:49

there was -- where there was pine trees.

00:39:53

So we had to use pine cones.

00:39:55

That's hard. I mean, in pine cones, 20 yards, because you've got to

00:39:59

account for the drag.

00:40:00

It was -- we laughed every time.

00:40:03

It didn't cost us a dime, that thing didn't.

00:40:06

We were bonding with each other.

00:40:07

We were physically doing something, it was just beautiful.

00:40:12

There used to be a saying decades ago, I don't know if it still goes

00:40:16

round or if you've heard or not.

00:40:17

But there was some religious organization that paid for it, this the

00:40:20

saying was on billboards. I think it's a good saying.

00:40:22

The saying is: families who pray together, stay together.

00:40:26

Families who pray together, stay together.

00:40:30

I'm pro prayer, just in case you're wondering.

00:40:32

I am pro prayer. I pray a lot.

00:40:36

I appreciate prayer. It's wonderful.

00:40:37

Wonderful. And my family, my kids would tell you that our prayer

00:40:43

times together we're very rarely anything else but a time for them to

00:40:47

cry. I was just awful at family prayer times.

00:40:51

I was awful like let's get everyone together and, you know, study the

00:40:55

Bible together. And I'm a relatively good teacher.

00:40:57

But they were always train wrecks, always train wrecks.

00:41:01

I believe you should be praying with your family, I think it's

00:41:02

wonderful. But I tell you what I found out is just as powerful and

00:41:05

maybe a starting place, maybe even more potent is families that play

00:41:10

together, stay together.

00:41:12

Couples that play together, stay together.

00:41:15

Friends who play together, stay together.

00:41:18

Teams that play together, stay together.

00:41:22

There's something about the relational glue of being with somebody

00:41:25

and laughing that binds us close together.

00:41:28

My kids could tell you nothing that they remember of a formal family

00:41:32

kind of worship thing or Bible study thing or a formal family

00:41:35

praying. They probably couldn't recount a single one.

00:41:39

But my gosh, you get us started talking about the stupid stories that

00:41:41

we have, they go on and on and on and on.

00:41:45

Wherever we were in a pool, any pool, anywhere, wherever it was, it

00:41:48

never -- it wasn't our own.

00:41:50

We never had a pool. Where ever it was, there would be games in the

00:41:52

pool. You know, jump.

00:41:54

Hey, you all jump off those different three marks and I'll throw a

00:41:57

ball to you and we'll keep score of who catches the ball the most.

00:42:00

It's called circuit

00:42:01

Or I'd get them in there and I'd throw them around the pool and I'd

00:42:04

have things like, oh, we're gonna make this one washing machine.

00:42:06

I would just take them and go, just jamming them up in the water, you

00:42:09

know, up, down, up, down, up, down.

00:42:11

And so this is gentle cycle.

00:42:14

And then I'd say, this is deep cleansing.

00:42:16

I'd smash them up. And all different kinds of stuff that --

00:42:20

They would laugh. [gasping] That would laugh.

00:42:24

We lived in this little, little house on Linwood Road in the Mount

00:42:28

Lookout part of area of Linwood Road is a very busy road.

00:42:31

And on our yard, the backyard wasn't conducive for a trampoline.

00:42:35

The front yard was a little bit more conducive for a trampoline.

00:42:38

So we put it on the front yard.

00:42:40

And the trampoline had a lean to it.

00:42:42

And neighbors love, by the way, when you put a trampoline in your

00:42:45

front yard. They just -- they just love that.

00:42:48

So we would get -- We would go out and do trampoline at night.

00:42:52

And they would come to me and say, "Dad, let's go out to the

00:42:54

trampoline.". And I would do this little game I didn't really want to

00:42:56

go. Because after an adult does the trampoline a few times, it's just

00:42:59

not fun anymore, you know? So I'd be like, "Ookay, after -- as soon

00:43:03

as I've finish my wine." And I would take my wine and I'd go --

00:43:11

And I put it down and keep talking to my wife.

00:43:13

And I would take -- I've taken like half a drop of wine.

00:43:16

There's only this much wine, but I took it down like that much.

00:43:19

I'd say, "Oh, let me finish."

00:43:20

I'd do it again. And these little kids would be looking me going --

00:43:22

[laughter] They kept hoping that all the wine was gone and then it

00:43:27

was gone I'd take them out on the trampoline thing.

00:43:31

You know, it was great when they were like two or one and a half.

00:43:34

They were just starting to walk.

00:43:35

And I used to love doing backdrops where I would hold them.

00:43:37

So I would hold on my chest and then come up backdrops, so their face

00:43:41

is coming straight down to the mat.

00:43:44

[yells], wham, you come back up, it's wonderful, is was great stuff.

00:43:48

One time we're on the front there, I say, "Hey, let's go sled

00:43:50

riding.". The best hill we had was the front yard because the front

00:43:53

yard was very gentle and then there was a drop off.

00:43:57

But remember, I said it was a very busy street.

00:43:59

That's right. So the -- so the snowplows would come down and they

00:44:03

plowed that big berm of snow and so acted like a perfect jump

00:44:06

So here's an idea. Get up the top and like sled down and I'll just

00:44:10

stand on the edge of like this lane and I'll catch you.

00:44:14

That's exactly they did. They'd come down and they'd fly through the

00:44:16

air in their saucer and I'd catch them.

00:44:18

And then till someone swore at me, they were very mad, who was

00:44:20

driving, driving by because it scared the heck out of them.

00:44:23

And I stopped doing that. But today still, whether it's going camping

00:44:28

as a family. I took the family to Vegas a couple months ago.

00:44:33

You did? I did. It was pretty awesome.

00:44:35

It was wonderful. It was. It was -- it was really good.

00:44:39

Anything you can get going with laughing with other people?

00:44:43

is going to bind you together, change your neurochemistry, give you

00:44:47

zest for life.

00:44:49

NBC recently said this:.

00:45:07

I'll just say it this simple now: if I can't -- if I can't laugh with

00:45:11

you, we're not going to be friends.

00:45:14

We're not. If I can't play with you, we're not going to be friends.

00:45:16

I can be friendly to you and I love you and I'm thankful for you and

00:45:20

care for you, but we only self select to spend time with people who

00:45:24

we get a charge out of, who we can play with, whatever the form of

00:45:27

play is. It may not be any of the stupid stuff that I just mentioned.

00:45:32

But if your thing is birdwatching, you're going to wanna play with

00:45:35

someone who birdwatches.

00:45:37

If your thing is skateboarding, it's gonna be you want to be with

00:45:40

somebody who skateboards with you.

00:45:41

If your thing is finger painting, you're going to want to be with

00:45:44

somebody who finger paints with you.

00:45:45

Whatever it is, it bonds us closer together.

00:45:49

And when we do this, we start to change as a person.

00:45:55

We start to -- We start to come alive.

00:45:58

One last quote from my play heroes, Dr.

00:46:00

Stuart Brown, he says this:

00:46:12

The opposite of play is not work.

00:46:15

The opposite of play is depression.

00:46:18

And I'm not saying that everybody who has clinical depression hasn't

00:46:21

been playing. I'm not saying that.

00:46:24

I am saying there's a heck of a lot of us who walk around our heads

00:46:28

down who don't feel right.

00:46:29

There's a very simple solution.

00:46:32

You were created to play.

00:46:33

Your Heavenly Father made you to play.

00:46:36

And if you can't identify when you've been playing and when you've

00:46:38

been losing time, it only makes sense that we'd be losing our minds.

00:46:43

It only makes sense.

00:46:44

There isn't a single parent I know that's excited when his kid makes

00:46:49

the honor roll and all they do is study, all they do is study.

00:46:53

In fact I know parents who are very concerned about their kids

00:46:56

because they can't get their face out of the books.

00:46:58

Eventually you start to grieve, like you want to see your kids

00:47:01

laughing. You want to see your kids running around a soccer field,

00:47:04

even if they're not any good.

00:47:05

You want to see your kids in the sandbox.

00:47:07

You want to see your kids at Taekwondo or doing something.

00:47:11

As parents, we understand this.

00:47:13

I'm telling you, this is your Heavenly Father, He grieves.

00:47:18

He grieves when his children aren't taking advantage of the gift of

00:47:23

pleasure. The gift of play.

00:47:27

I was surfing the Internet and I ran across -- actually no, I didn't

00:47:32

surf.

00:47:33

Someone gave me a heads up of this video that somebody made on their

00:47:37

Facebook page.

00:47:38

And man, I think it's -- I think it's insightful enough that we would

00:47:41

all be well served to watch it.

00:47:47

-I wanted to see if people in the city were too busy to take a moment

00:47:49

for themselves. So I went downtown with a group of friends and we

00:47:54

built a giant ball pit. And I asked people this question:

00:48:03

-Excuse me, sir.

00:48:05

Are you busy? -I've got a meeting.

00:48:08

How busy? Are you too busy to have fun for just like a couple

00:48:11

minutes? Hey, what's up man?

00:48:13

Are you busy right now? -Um, a little bit.

00:48:16

Are you busy right now? We've got a ball pit here e get off it here.

00:48:19

We just want to see if people are too busy to have fun.

00:48:23

-A ball pit? -Yeah. You want to jump in?

00:48:31

-You're in? -I'll do it.

00:48:33

-Let's have fun. -I'll do it. -Awesome.

00:48:35

Let's do it. I'm coming.

00:48:38

I'm coming in. Baby. [music and laughter]

00:49:20

-Yo, what's up? We're downtown.

00:49:25

-When was the last time you just took a break to have fun?

00:49:28

-Really? Dan, what do you do?

00:49:30

. -Pretty stressful?

00:49:34

-Why do you think some people are afraid of having fun?

00:50:16

-No problem, no problem. Have a great day, man.

00:50:18

Thank you so much, man. I appreciate. -This was good, man.

00:50:37

[cheers and applause} -Isn't that good? Man, just something comes

00:50:41

alive inside just watching it.

00:50:44

And that last little piece is just emotional, it's emotional.

00:50:48

There's a spiritual thing that happens when we play because we're

00:50:51

doing something God has wired us to do.

00:50:54

We're physically doing something when we're playing.

00:50:57

It relationally bonds us.

00:50:59

And the result of this is there is something emotional that takes

00:51:02

place in this.

00:51:04

Our fear subsides.

00:51:08

Our paranoia is subside.

00:51:11

Our stresses go away.

00:51:12

we forget about everything else.

00:51:14

That's why it's important to have tactile multisensory play,

00:51:18

because the more of our humanity we get involved in the whatever your

00:51:22

prefer play is,

00:51:23

the more of ourselves is preoccupied so that it is not possible to

00:51:27

think about the things we're stressed about.

00:51:29

It's not possible to think about our problems.

00:51:32

They all just go away.

00:51:34

They vanish. And emotionally, this is a huge thing.

00:51:39

One of my hobbies, it's a pretty sick hobby, but I'll just tell you

00:51:41

what it is. One of my hobbies is doing -- getting intel on people who

00:51:46

crash and burn their life.

00:51:48

So there's a lot of peers of mine, people who do have similar lives

00:51:53

that I do, do a similar job that I do, who just just check out, they

00:51:58

go off the deep rails. See, the thing is, all of us are wired for

00:52:02

play. Your Heavenly Dad wired you for play.

00:52:06

So you'll either take care of yourself and you will play or you will

00:52:11

stay on the purpose bandwagon and eventually you will find some kind

00:52:15

of play that is destructive and will hurt you.

00:52:18

You will start abusing alcohol.

00:52:20

You will start to have -- you will start to have an adulterous

00:52:23

affair. You will take up some other addictive behavior that is a

00:52:27

secret vice and you will be destroyed by it.

00:52:30

It's where -- all of us have to play.

00:52:32

You will play one way or the other.

00:52:33

It will be healthy or it will be destructive.

00:52:36

I'll be secretive. And that's one of the things I found out when I do

00:52:39

these biopsies, autopsies of people who have tanked their lives or

00:52:44

tanked their ministries.

00:52:45

A consistent theme is they didn't have play.

00:52:50

They didn't have a hobby.

00:52:51

If I asked them, what do you do for fun?

00:52:54

They'd go, "(stammering) Read from my next sermon.

00:52:56

I really like reading. I really like reading."

00:52:58

I like reading, too, but if I'm reading for what I'm going to preach

00:53:02

about, that is work, that is not play because I'm reading constantly

00:53:06

thinking, "Okay, well I can..."

00:53:08

Do you know? What is it? What is it that you do for fun?

00:53:13

What is that?

00:53:14

The book of 1 Timothy 6:17 and following it says this:.

00:53:19

"As for the rich in this present age," which by the way, who is the

00:53:23

rich in this present age?

00:53:24

That would be anybody who has any money to do anything outside of

00:53:29

your shelter, your utilities and your food, because that's really all

00:53:32

you need. If you've got money for anything else, you're rich because

00:53:36

most of the other rest of the world can't do that.

00:53:45

...who richly provides us with everything so we can help the poor.

00:53:49

No, it doesn't say that. God who richly provides us with everything

00:53:54

so we have fat savings.

00:53:55

No, it doesn't say that. God who richly provides us with everything

00:53:59

so we can feel good about how much money we have.

00:54:02

No, it doesn't. God who richly provides us with everything so we can

00:54:06

get our name on the museum. No, it doesn't say that.

00:54:08

"God who richly provides us with everything so we can enjoy it."

00:54:12

So in other words, if you've got any sense of cash at all, a godly

00:54:19

expenditure of your money is to enjoy your money, which means to play

00:54:23

with your money.

00:54:24

To buy play, to buy pleasure, whatever that is, a vacation, a

00:54:30

scooter, a lesson to skydive, a skateboard to zoom on, some roller

00:54:38

blades. I don't know, I mean there are hundreds of different places

00:54:41

to play, and I have to work really hard to think of ways that I

00:54:46

wouldn't play, because I know I'm on.

00:54:47

I'm not naming the ways I play.

00:54:49

I'm thinking of all the ways that everybody who is not like me can

00:54:52

play. You don't have to play like me, but you do have to play.

00:54:56

You do have to play. So here's where we're gone as we get ready to

00:55:01

get out of here today. We have our first group meeting this week,

00:55:04

first group. It is not too late to get in a group.

00:55:06

You want to be in a group.

00:55:07

You're not going be able to play if you're not going to get in a

00:55:10

group. These are gonna be very, very fun multisensory things.

00:55:14

You can still go to the app, to the website and get in a group.

00:55:17

If you are a leader, you've got to have the Crossroads app for your

00:55:22

leader, guys. If you're a leader of one groups, you've got to have

00:55:24

the Crossroads app for your leader guide.

00:55:25

If you don't have a guide, go ahead and get your guide.

00:55:29

Okay? All right.

00:55:30

Then I think that's about it.

00:55:32

Let's -- (shouting) A thousand dollars?

00:55:34

Some of you are like, "A thousand dollars.

00:55:36

You said a thousand dollars.

00:55:38

What is it? Thousand dollars?".

00:55:41

Well, now that you ask, we are going to have a treasure hunt where

00:55:48

you can get a thousand dollars.

00:55:51

There is a hidden treasure.

00:55:53

There is a hidden treasure someplace on planet Earth.

00:56:00

And if you live in Ohio, Kentucky or Indiana, you have a much better

00:56:04

shot at getting this hidden treasure.

00:56:06

But anybody can get it anywhere.

00:56:09

And you're going to be talking about that in your first group.

00:56:11

There's a thousand dollars to be had if you -- not only the first

00:56:15

one. If you get to that treasure, you'll be able to enter your name

00:56:20

for getting that thousand dollars.

00:56:22

You'll get more of that in your group for details.

00:56:24

I'm also gonna give you a clue.

00:56:26

I'm going to buy some followers on Instagram.

00:56:28

So if you want to come to check me out on Instagram, I'm going to

00:56:30

give a clue in my stories on Instagram.

00:56:33

All you need is someone in your group who's Instagram friendly, or

00:56:35

maybe you want to try it yourself.

00:56:37

We're gonna give -- I'm gonna give a clue this week.

00:56:39

It's gonna be one of the ways we play.

00:56:42

You know, you need to know this. Your Heavenly Dad is nuts about you.

00:56:47

He is. He' just nuts about you.

00:56:50

And He likes your smile.

00:56:52

He he likes to hear you laugh.

00:56:55

He even likes to hear 40 year olds who weigh 300 pounds giggle.

00:57:01

He likes it.

00:57:03

He likes to see you use your creativity to do things that are totally

00:57:08

unproductive and do nothing but bring you joy.

00:57:12

You would do Him a great favor to figure this thing out this Journey.

00:57:16

And that's why part of why this Journey is here, to help all of us in

00:57:21

that area, because He's really nuts about you.

00:57:23

And we need to get this one done.

00:57:25

We need t get this one right for our ourselves, for our own sanity.

00:57:29

Come on. Your life is not that important.

00:57:31

It's not. We don't have to be as serious as we are.

00:57:36

We have what we have because our God wants us to experience the

00:57:40

fullness of life. We've got to play to do it.

00:57:42

God, I thank You that You're not a taskmaster, You're not just some

00:57:47

rule maker and rule enforcer.

00:57:50

You're somebody who wants us to detach.

00:57:54

Thank You for giving us the truth that you've given us today.

00:57:56

I thank You that you've given us a book like the Bible that has so

00:57:59

many examples of this, I couldn't even get all of them today.

00:58:02

I pray for a spirit of levity to come on every person who's in the

00:58:07

Journey, a spirit of levity.

00:58:09

That we would just get light and we'll get happy and this would

00:58:12

enable us to be more prosperous.

00:58:15

I pray these things according to the name of Jesus.

00:58:19

Amen. All right.

00:58:23

We'll see you next week.

00:58:24

Have fun at your groups. It's not too late.

00:58:26

Get on them. -Well, the treasure hunt is on.

00:58:32

You're not going to want to miss this. So be on the lookout for that

00:58:36

first clue. And if you think you figure out where the treasure is and

00:58:40

it's further than 200 miles from where you live,

00:58:44

we want to enter you into still win something special.

00:58:47

And so if you want to chat with us and let us know where you think

00:58:51

the treasure is and give us some information about you,

00:58:55

you'll be entered into win a five hundred dollar gift card for your

00:58:58

whole group to share.

00:58:59

Because this is meant to be a group thing, some play for your group

00:59:03

to do together. Find that treasure.

00:59:05

And so just chat with us when you think you know where that treasure

00:59:09

is and you'll be entered into win.

00:59:12

Speaking of group, it's not too late to get in a group.

00:59:15

Head to Crossroads.net/journey

00:59:18

to get in a Journey group.

00:59:20

This is your last chance, like these 24 hours are probably your last

00:59:24

chance. And if you're in a group right now, that first group

00:59:27

gathering is this week.

00:59:29

And I hope it's a ton of fun with lots of play for you.

00:59:33

We'll see you next week for week three of the Play & Purpose Journey.

	Worship	0:41
	Community Life	10:17
	Message	17:00

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