Religion, Rebellion, and Why Neither Work

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[music: Crossroads Music, Count Me In]

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- Chuck Mingo here with one of our teaching pastors.

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Thanks for joining us online.

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- Hey, I'm Austin, I'm the worship leader

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at Crossroads East Side, and we are a church

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of many locations, with many different people.

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But today we are in Cleveland, Ohio.

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No lines. Yeah, baby. Hey, there you go.

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Alright, let me give you some vision for this.

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So as a church, we begin praying this prayer

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that God would let us reach new people and new cities. Why?

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Because there's a way that God has wired Crossroads

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to reach people who we would say

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may have given up on church, but not on God.

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- That's why here. - 100%.

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It's a real place for real people.

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And in fact, hey, just a reminder,

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next month, October 17th,

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we're going to be in Louisville, Kentucky.

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It is going to be legendary. - Yes.

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- It's going to be so good.

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And so before we get into what we're doing today,

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I just want to tell you, like you said,

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we are a real place and real people in the life of our church

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there's been some topics, some things we've talked about

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that just really resonated

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where we just saw the truth the way it is.

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And so we're in a series where we're coming back

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to those topics and just seeing what it looks like

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to approach it in a fresh way.

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So today you're going to be hearing from

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our Lead Pastor Kyle Ranson,

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and he's going to tell you a story that you may have heard.

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I don't know if you've heard it the way he's going to tell it.

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- Maybe not. But today we're going

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to start our time off with worship first.

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We do this every week, and this is just a way

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for us to orient our minds and our hearts

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toward God as one body, one people.

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So we're going to start doing that right now.

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However, however we are in the land.

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- We are in the land. - We're in the land.

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And there's only one way that we start things in the land.

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- Let's do it.

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- And this is how we do it. Ready? One. Two. Three.

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- Come on, help me sing. I know.

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- My name is Vashti, and what I do here at Crossroads

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is I'm part of the welcome team,

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and that's what we call the engagement team.

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I'm here to welcome folks in

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and make sure that they can connect and get engaged,

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and what makes sense for them

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and where they are in their journey.

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What drives me to help in the engagement

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and welcome team per se, and want to meet and greet people,

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I think that has a lot to do with just my profession.

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I'm in human resources.

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I think I have the best career ever

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where I get to work with people

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and really get to understand and see them.

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And so I get to do that again here, but I do it for Christ.

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This is a very diverse environment.

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It's, you know, you've got all walks of life

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coming into these doors.

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So like Joe, Marie and myself, we're the dancers, right?

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You're going to see us bouncing around,

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and then you have others who are a little more reserved,

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and they're a little more quiet in their approach.

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My schedule is hectic, and there are times

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where I do feel tired, but I know

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when I walk in those doors and I, you know,

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put that Crossroads shirt on

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and I'm standing at that desk that it's always bigger than me.

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I really hope that people walk in

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and feel overwhelmed with love.

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I hope they feel welcomed.

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I hope they feel curious so that they can start to,

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you know, have their own internal pull

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and want to have that deeper connection.

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This is where I fill my cup.

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- Vashti is a perfect example of

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someone who gets off the sidelines,

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gets into the game, gets her jersey dirty,

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and gets her dance on too in the process.

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I saw that, right? - Yes.

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- And that is who we are.

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We don't just go to church. We are the church.

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I hope you caught it there at the end.

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She said, this is where I fill my cup.

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- Oh, doesn't that make you feel so good?

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- Yes, it really does.

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Even with her busy schedule

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and all the things she's got going on,

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she's making time to volunteer because she wants

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other people to feel seen, known, and connected.

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I'm Chuck, and I'm one of the teaching pastors,

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and we're about to open the doors in Cleveland.

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That's where we are. That's right.

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For our Crossroads live pop up event.

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So, Vivienne, why don't you tell us about that

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and tell us a little bit about you?

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- Sure. So I'm Vivienne

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and I'm part of the Crossroads management team,

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and I'm also an OG around here.

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So I'm totally bought into this place.

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One of the reasons we're here in Cleveland

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is that we're trying to start Crossroads in other cities,

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and we want to plant seeds and see where God is moving.

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We have about 30 volunteers here with us helping us out

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and like we do at all our sites.

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And one of my favorite volunteer roles at sites

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is being a door greeter.

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So I love making people feel welcomed when they're coming.

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And then also being able to greet them when they leave.

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And so I've met some of the most wonderful people

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volunteering together

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and they become some of my really good friends.

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- I love hearing that.

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And you are an OG, I have to say it,

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like you're one of the founders.

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Your fingerprints are all over this place.

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And so are all the volunteers at Crossroads.

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So maybe that's something you're passionate about.

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Maybe you love spending time with kids in Kids' Club,

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or maybe you're a behind the scenes kind of person.

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You know, we have volunteers that are running camera

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and lights and maybe that's more your speed.

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But whatever it is, you can make an impact

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that clears the path for someone else to take a step toward God.

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And so site people, I'm looking at you. I'm one of you.

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It's time for us to get in the game

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to get our jersey dirty with volunteering.

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- Yes. And our biggest needs right now

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are in Kids' Club and Connections.

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That could mean hanging out with kids for an hour

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and making space for some more families,

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or helping parked cars, making coffee

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or being a door reader like me to welcome people.

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You can sign up to volunteer

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or just sign up to learn more about volunteering

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by texting the word "more" to 301301.

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You click the link, scroll down,

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and then you sign up to volunteer.

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You'll fill out a form where you'll select your site,

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and someone will reach back out to you and get you connected.

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- That's so good. That's so good.

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And do it now. We mean it, do it.

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We mean it. Do it now. That's right.

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Take your phone out now.

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Another way that we get to be a part

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of what God's doing around here is giving.

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And just like volunteering, it's a way

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of getting off the sidelines and into the game.

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It's saying, God, I trust you with what we've been given,

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what I've been given, and we're fueling everything

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that you heard about today through the generosity

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of regular, everyday folks like you.

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So if you call Crossroads home, I want to encourage you

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to make giving a part of your rhythm.

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And you can do that today by texting that same link "more."

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You should have your phone out by now, 301301.

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Or you can head to Crossroads.net/give.

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- So all right, we're headed into the fall,

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which is camp season.

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We just had Family Camp,

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and Woman Camp is next weekend. I'm going to be there.

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And Man Camp is coming up in October.

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- It is. Taking my son for the first time.

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He turned 18, so I'm taking my son to Man Camp.

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- What a special experience to have together.

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- It's going to be really cool.

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- That's awesome.

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Some of you who've been around here a while

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might be wondering, is Revival happening this year?

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Well, the answer is yes.

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We are excited to officially announce that Revival is back.

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And it's going to be on Friday night, October 23rd,

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and all day October 24th.

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So mark your calendars and if you're new

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and have no idea what I'm talking about,

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Revival is a couple of days of amazing worship

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and teaching and loads of fun out at Base Camp.

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And we set up this time telling God,

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"We want you and we're expecting you to show up."

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And we'll have more information to come,

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so for right now, just save the date.

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- All right. Well, as we head into today's message,

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we're kicking off a new series.

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And Kyle Ranson, our Lead Pastor, is going to be

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taking us into a story that

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I think we think we already know,

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but I don't think you've ever heard it quite like this.

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Well, hey, everybody. Good to be with you.

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Today is a great weekend.

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Number one, because it's the start of the NFL season.

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Come on. We're back.

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And I just want to say from the beginning,

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I think we should pray more for our quarterbacks this year.

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You know, keep them free from harm.

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Joe Burrow in Cincinnati, our friends over in Indianapolis,

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I see you Daniel Jones coming back,

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Cleveland four quarterbacks on your roster.

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I'm not sure prayer is going to help, to be honest,

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but we should try. We should try.

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And then our friends in Columbus,

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I don't know what happened yesterday.

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I went to bed and I was like, this is in hand.

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I woke up and still haven't seen the highlights, no idea.

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I just want you to know Psalm 34 says

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the Lord is close to the brokenhearted.

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So God is with you this morning.

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I want you to know that.

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Lexington, you're like, why are we talking about football.

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It's not even basketball season yet.

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I hear you, I hear you.

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Awesome because we're starting football.

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We're also starting a brand new series

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today at Crossroads called Raw.

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Some things in life are better raw:

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sushi, medium rare steak.

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And some things are not: chicken.

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Never seen raw chicken on a menu for a reason.

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But at Crossroads we believe that church belongs

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in the list of things that are better raw.

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And it's not always the case when you go to a church.

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Sometimes it feels like you gotta come in your Sunday best.

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You gotta put on your happy smile,

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pretend like everything's okay,

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pretend like you understand it.

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Pretend like you believe it.

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Pretend like you're good.

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That's not what we do here at all.

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You heard that announcement before about revival.

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We as a church, we're pushing to see revival.

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We're pushing to see awakening in our country.

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And part of that is that Revival event you heard about,

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save the date for that,

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but part of it is also expanding into new cities,

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taking the message of Jesus

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in a language people can understand into more places.

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We had a pop up in Cleveland last night.

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100 people showed up. It was great.

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And when we do these events,

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we hear the same thing from people

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when we ask this question:

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Why would you want Crossroads to be your church?

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And they say, because it feels like it's a place

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where I can be the real me, the real raw, unfiltered me,

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and then that real me can be put into action

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as part of the team.

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It's a value we hold very, very dearly around here.

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So much so you'll even see it reflected in the buildings.

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If you go to a Crossroads home site,

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maybe you're in one right now,

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you'll see exposed ductwork to communicate this value.

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You'll see floors that are nasty.

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They're just kind of -- we put a little like

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a stain on top of them, but they're pretty much raw.

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If you're at Dayton right now,

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maybe you walked in for the first time and you're like,

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why does this atrium floor look so weird?

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It's because it was a Sears and the floor is from Sears.

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That's why. No more appliances, but we kept the floor.

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We're not trying to hide who we are.

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That's the value we try to communicate.

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And in this series, we're taking a raw look

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at some of the most important parts of life:

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love, sex, purpose, identity in this series, addiction.

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And today we're going to start with love

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and ask this question honestly,

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again, not looking for the religious right answer,

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not looking for what would you say

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if your grandma was here

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because she taught you in Sunday school or whatever,

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but what do you really, truly actually believe and feel?

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The question we're tackling today is

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how do I gain God's approval and love?

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And if I were to gain it, how do I keep it?

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But God knew that would be a question

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that was on all of our hearts,

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so he talks about it all over the Bible.

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But today we're going to zoom into one chapter, Luke 15,

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and look at three parables that Jesus tells in sequence.

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Now, parables are literally made up stories.

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And it might seem kind of weird, like,

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how are we going to get truth from made up stories?

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Well, the answer is that Jesus's words are not like our words.

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The same words that spoke these stories,

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the same mouth that spoke them is the same mouth

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that spoke creation into existence.

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So I just want to invite you to look at these stories

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maybe differently than you ever have before.

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These are words that create reality.

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And I'm telling you today they can create

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a different reality inside of your life.

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Jesus himself described his words this way,

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I think it's the right place for us to start, Matthew 7.

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Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine

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and puts them into practice is like

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a wise man who built his house on the rock.

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The rain came down, the streams rose,

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and the wind blew and beat against that house;

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yet it did not fall,

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because it had its foundation on the rock.

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Maybe in your life right now you feel tossed around,

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you feel kind of turned upside down.

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Or maybe when it comes to this question

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of how do I know that God really loves me?

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How can I earn? How can I gain his approval?

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How can I keep it?

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Maybe it feels like some days you have it and some you don't.

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And what you're looking for is stability.

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Today, my hope and my prayer for you is that you find it.

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Let's pray together before we go any further.

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God, I'm asking that today we would hear your word,

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that you would anchor all of us, whether we believe zero

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or whether we believe as most as we ever have before in life.

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God, that you would still drill us down

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deeper to the rock, to the truth.

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Anchor us to your words.

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Help us understand how we can have your love. Amen.

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So the parable we're looking at,

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it's one of the most famous parables

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and most important ones in the entire Bible.

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It's called the parable of the Prodigal Son

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is what is usually known by.

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But that title actually does not show up in the Bible.

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And it's fairly misleading because

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it's not actually a story about one prodigal son.

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It's actually a story about one father and two lost sons.

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This one story contains this incredible,

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powerful, profound truth, and that is that

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every single human idea about how to gain God's love

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and approval, how to gain it and keep it,

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every single human idea about that is 100% wrong.

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Every religion, every guru, every mystic,

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every philosopher throughout human history

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has always been wrong.

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Jesus explodes all of it in this parable.

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You know, when Christianity first arose,

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the Romans referred to Christians as atheists,

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and in part, it's because of the truth

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that Jesus shows to this parable.

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They look at what he says about how to gain God's love

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and approval, and they're like, that's not religion.

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It's like an unreligion.

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So much so that the people who follow this unreligion,

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we're going to call them atheists.

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Jesus explodes all of it in this story.

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That basic idea about how to connect to God,

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how to gain his approval, and have his love is

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you do the right things, and if you do the right things,

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you gain his approval and love.

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And if you ever do the wrong things, you have to regain it.

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That's the basic concept.

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Now, Jesus doesn't jump into the story about the sons, though.

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In Luke 15, he actually starts with two opening parables,

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and he starts to tell them to an audience

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with two groups in it.

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Here's the beginning, in Luke 15:1, it says:

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Now the tax collectors and sinners

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were all drawing near to him.

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And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying,

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"This man receives sinners and eats with them."

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So you have an audience that's literally divided.

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You have the sinners on one side,

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and then you have the religious people,

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the self-righteous people, the Pharisees on the other.

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And one of the things I love about Crossroads is,

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you know, we kind of intermingle

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people from all over, different backgrounds,

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we kind of all mingle together. It's awesome.

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It looks like the kingdom of God.

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That's not how this scene would have looked.

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This scene would have looked like one group

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on one side of the street and another group on the other,

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because the religious people wanted

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nothing to do with the bad people.

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So there have been a line down the sand.

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But Jesus doesn't start by talking to them distinctly.

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Instead, he starts with the thing that they share in common,

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and that is that they and all of us are lost.

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He starts with these two parables.

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He tells a story about a man who has a hundred sheep

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and one of them wanders off and gets lost.

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But rather than stay with the 99 sheep,

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the man leaves them and he wanders off

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to go find, to hunt down the lost sheep.

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He searches high and low until he finds the sheep.

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And then he follows it up with a story

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about a woman with ten coins.

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She loses one of them.

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Rather than be satisfied with the nine that she still has,

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she turns her house upside down.

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She flips over her furniture.

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She hunts and she digs until she finds her lost coin.

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And in both cases, the man with the sheep

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and the woman with the coin,

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when they find the lost thing that's precious to them,

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they celebrate.

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Jesus starts with this story and he says, "This is you.

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You are lost."

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Then he goes into the parable that we call the Prodigal Son.

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Verse 11, he said: There was a man who had two sons.

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His two sons, they represent the two types of lost.

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The two types of lost you could call them

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rebellion and religion.

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There's a famous theologian, he passed away a few years ago,

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probably the best teacher, best theologian

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of the last hundred years.

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His name was Dr. Timothy Keller.

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And he described these two sons as

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moral conformity in self-discovery.

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There are two ways to go seeking God's approval,

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to go earn his love.

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The self-discovery route is the rebellious route.

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It's the one that says, I'm going to take

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everything I've ever heard, whatever tradition I grew up in,

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and I'm going to rebel against that.

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I'm going to reject it, and I'll go discover for myself

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how to have the good life,

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what it looks like to gain favor.

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And then there's the religious route.

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The religious route in this case is the Pharisees in the crowd.

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It's the class that says, I'm going to do everything right.

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I'm going to hit every mark. I'm going to earn it.

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I'm going to deserve it.

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I'm going to have the perfect resume.

00:28:03

And then I'll get God's love and get God's approval.

00:28:06

Two ways to end up lost.

00:28:09

And the secret that I want you to hear

00:28:11

from the very beginning is that the lostness

00:28:14

is the same in both cases, the same.

00:28:18

I think it can be easy to approach this parable

00:28:20

and ask the question, well, you know, what am I?

00:28:22

Am I the self-righteous kind of camp,

00:28:24

the religious camp, or am I in the rebellion camp?

00:28:27

Which one am I?

00:28:28

I actually don't think that's the point of this parable.

00:28:30

I think the point of the parable is to say

00:28:32

that you and I are usually both.

00:28:35

It's this weird thing, you know,

00:28:37

I have both voices going on inside of my heart.

00:28:39

In the same day I can make mistakes,

00:28:42

I can feel like a rebel,

00:28:43

I can feel like an outsider and a sinner.

00:28:45

I'm the same exact day, even moments later,

00:28:47

I can have a self-righteous moment.

00:28:49

I'm right and you're wrong.

00:28:50

Or I might be bad, but at least I'm not as bad as you.

00:28:54

Both voices are inside of each of us.

00:28:58

And Jesus starts with the rebel inside of us

00:29:00

kind of act one, so to speak.

00:29:03

Rebellion. The younger son.

00:29:05

He says this, verse 12:

00:29:06

The younger of them said to his father,

00:29:09

"Father, give me the share of property that's coming to me."

00:29:14

And he divided his property between them.

00:29:17

Now it seems fairly cut and dried here, you know,

00:29:19

not a good thing to do.

00:29:20

When he asks for property, he's saying,

00:29:22

I wish you were dead. Maybe you've heard that before.

00:29:24

100% that's in there.

00:29:26

But it looks like he asked for stuff, property,

00:29:28

and then he gets stuff.

00:29:30

But critically, if you go to the original language,

00:29:32

the Greek that this was first recorded in,

00:29:35

you'll find a noteworthy difference,

00:29:36

and that is this: the first time property is used,

00:29:39

give me the share of property,

00:29:41

the word is ousia, the Greek word,

00:29:44

and it does mean stuff.

00:29:45

It means possessions, money, whatever.

00:29:47

But the second time, when it says

00:29:49

the father gave him his property,

00:29:52

it's actually the Greek word bios

00:29:55

where we get the word biology and it means life.

00:29:58

So don't miss this in the story,

00:30:00

the son asks for stuff and the father gives him not stuff,

00:30:05

but his very own life.

00:30:09

Critical and important.

00:30:10

Amazing gift to be given life.

00:30:13

Now what does the son do with this life?

00:30:15

What does he do with the gift that his father gave him?

00:30:18

He completely, utterly wastes it.

00:30:22

Verse 13: Not many days later, the younger son

00:30:25

gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country,

00:30:29

and there he squandered his property,

00:30:31

squandered his life in reckless living.

00:30:35

He kind of wastes everything. Blows everything.

00:30:37

By the way, this is enough money,

00:30:38

it should have lasted him for a lifetime.

00:30:41

This is decades worth of money and he blows it.

00:30:44

Nobody is sure how long it takes.

00:30:45

Best guesses are it's 2 to 3 years

00:30:47

before he runs completely dry,

00:30:49

and he ends up in a pigpen

00:30:51

wishing he could have their food.

00:30:53

And here's the raw moment for me with this story.

00:30:56

Raw moment number one.

00:30:58

If I'm honest, I read this story

00:31:01

and I look at what the guy did and I'm like,

00:31:03

man, that's really bad, you know?

00:31:05

And to be clear, I've had some moments

00:31:07

where I've had reckless living in my life.

00:31:09

I've had some prodigal type moments.

00:31:11

I went to college. I was in a fraternity.

00:31:14

First time I ever drank bourbon,

00:31:15

I poured an entire pint glass of it

00:31:17

and drank the whole thing.

00:31:18

That's a bad idea, in case you didn't know.

00:31:21

Woke up at 3 p.m. the next day on my buddy's floor

00:31:23

with a tongue that tasted like sandpaper. Bad.

00:31:26

But do you know what I've never done?

00:31:29

I've never looked at my dad and said I wish you were dead.

00:31:33

I've never taken an inheritance that should last a lifetime

00:31:36

and blown it in a couple of years.

00:31:38

I've never done that.

00:31:40

And so I can look at this story and I can go,

00:31:42

you know, that's really bad.

00:31:43

And I'm not as bad as that guy.

00:31:45

I haven't done what he did.

00:31:46

I'm not the prodigal.

00:31:49

I think for most of us in churches,

00:31:51

that's probably how we feel.

00:31:52

And I want to recognize there are some of us in the audience

00:31:54

who we hear this story and we're like,

00:31:56

that's exactly what I've done.

00:31:57

Exactly what I've done, feels that way.

00:31:59

But for many of us, it doesn't.

00:32:02

And so we have to ask this question,

00:32:03

what was the prodigal son's primary sin?

00:32:07

Was that the wild party lifestyle?

00:32:09

Was it drinking and carousing?

00:32:11

Is that the primary problem in here? No.

00:32:17

The prodigal son's primary sin is squandering,

00:32:22

wasting the life the father gave him.

00:32:25

It's taking the life he had,

00:32:28

the life he couldn't earn,

00:32:29

the life he didn't even ask for but was given

00:32:32

and wasting it on a zero impact, zero meaning life.

00:32:36

That's the prodigal son.

00:32:39

One of the most impactful sermons I ever heard in my life

00:32:42

was when I was 19 years old.

00:32:44

And it was a sermon by a guy named John Piper.

00:32:46

And when I was 19, I wasn't trying to waste my life.

00:32:50

To be clear, I wasn't trying to do that.

00:32:52

I didn't want to wake up one day and go, you know,

00:32:54

I'm just going to completely waste the life God gave me.

00:32:57

I had a dream at that point in my life.

00:32:59

My dream was to go to a good college, got into one,

00:33:03

get good grades, get a good job,

00:33:06

buy a good house, meet a good woman,

00:33:08

have good kids, take nice vacations,

00:33:12

have a good retirement

00:33:13

and die in like a not so painful kind of way.

00:33:16

That was my basic dream in life, right?

00:33:22

And then someone shared this sermon with me

00:33:24

and it messed me up.

00:33:26

It messed me up in a way

00:33:28

that has changed the course of my life.

00:33:30

And I'm going to share it with you raw,

00:33:32

it is ugly old footage.

00:33:34

It's 20 plus years old

00:33:36

and the guy giving it looks like Larry David. Okay.

00:33:40

He's got pleated khakis up to his waist.

00:33:43

He does not look raw, but the way that he communicates

00:33:46

is completely, completely raw.

00:33:49

He flipped my understanding of what it means to waste a life.

00:33:53

Check this out.

00:33:56

- Anybody in this crowd can make a worldwide difference

00:34:01

because it isn't you,

00:34:02

it's what you're gripped with.

00:34:10

But one of the really sad things

00:34:12

about this moment right now is that

00:34:14

there are hundreds of you in this crowd

00:34:17

who do not want your life to make a difference.

00:34:26

All you want is to be liked,

00:34:28

maybe finish school, get a good job,

00:34:41

find a husband or a wife,

00:34:45

a nice house, a nice car, good vacations,

00:34:48

grow old healthy, have a fun retirement,

00:34:53

die easy, no hell. And that's all you want.

00:35:01

And you don't give a rip

00:35:03

whether your life counts on this earth for eternity.

00:35:09

And that's a tragedy in the making.

00:35:13

That is a tragedy in the making.

00:35:15

About three weeks ago, we got news at our church

00:35:19

that Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards were killed in Cameroon.

00:35:30

And I asked my people, "Is this a tragedy?

00:35:35

Two women in their 80s, almost,

00:35:43

a whole life devoted to one idea,

00:35:47

Jesus Christ magnified among the poor

00:35:51

and the sick in the hardest places.

00:35:58

And 20 years after most of their American counterparts

00:36:03

had begun to throw their lives away

00:36:05

on trivialities in Florida and New Mexico.

00:36:09

Is this a tragedy?" I asked.

00:36:14

It is not a tragedy.

00:36:15

I'll read you what a tragedy is.

00:36:17

Title of the article: Start Now, Retire Early.

00:36:23

Bob and Penny took early retirement

00:36:27

from their jobs in the northeast five years ago

00:36:30

when he was 59 and she was 51.

00:36:36

Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida,

00:36:40

where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler,

00:36:44

play softball and collect shells.

00:36:53

That's a tragedy. That's a tragedy.

00:36:59

And there are people in this country

00:37:01

that are spending billions of dollars to get you to buy it.

00:37:06

With all my heart, I plead with you, don't buy that dream.

00:37:15

The American dream: a nice house, a nice car,

00:37:22

a nice job, a nice family, a nice retirement,

00:37:26

collecting shells as the last chapter

00:37:33

before you stand before the creator of the universe

00:37:37

to give an account with what you did.

00:37:41

"Here it is, Lord, my shell collection.

00:37:47

Look, Lord, my shell collection.

00:37:51

And I've got a good swing.

00:37:54

And look at my boat.

00:37:58

God, look at my boat, God."

00:38:07

Well, not for Ruby, and not for Laura.

00:38:13

Don't waste your life. Don't waste it.

00:38:24

- I did exactly what you guys did when I saw that.

00:38:28

I laughed because I'm like, "Yeah, ridiculous.

00:38:31

At the end of your life, look at my shell collection."

00:38:34

How crazy is that?

00:38:37

But I had a realization.

00:38:39

I might not have ended up collecting shells

00:38:42

with the life God gave me,

00:38:44

but whatever answer I was going to give him

00:38:45

with what I did do.

00:38:47

God, look at my bank account.

00:38:49

Look at my large house.

00:38:51

Look at my nice cars.

00:38:52

Look at my vacation photos that I took.

00:38:54

God, look at my trinkets I collected, God.

00:38:57

It was going to be the same thing.

00:39:00

See, I realized that I was the prodigal.

00:39:04

It's the same thing, whether you waste your life fast

00:39:07

or whether you waste your life slow doesn't really matter.

00:39:11

What matters is are you wasting your life?

00:39:13

Are you squandering the life that God gave you?

00:39:16

And please hear me clearly.

00:39:18

For me, when I watched that, it messed me up.

00:39:19

It put me on the on the path to where I am now.

00:39:22

If I had never seen that sermon,

00:39:23

I don't know that I'd be a pastor right now.

00:39:25

I really don't.

00:39:26

But I'm not telling you that

00:39:28

what you're supposed to do with your life

00:39:29

is exactly what I did with mine.

00:39:31

Because the life God gave you

00:39:32

is not the life he gave me. It's different.

00:39:34

The calling that God gave you

00:39:35

is not the calling that he gave me.

00:39:37

We're not all supposed to become pastors.

00:39:38

That's not the point of what I'm saying.

00:39:40

But we are supposed to do, all of us,

00:39:42

is to use the life that God gave us

00:39:44

to invest it in the eternal reality of his kingdom

00:39:48

coming more and more and more on this earth.

00:39:51

That's why your community pastors just spent time

00:39:54

begging you to open your phone

00:39:56

and tap a sticker in front of you.

00:39:58

Like, would you please just volunteer and sign up

00:40:01

and would you please get in the game?

00:40:02

We all have a jersey and the point is not to keep it clean.

00:40:05

The point is to get it dirty by serving in the kingdom.

00:40:08

And I'll be clear, it might not be a Crossroads.

00:40:10

That's okay. You don't want to volunteer at Crossroads, fine.

00:40:13

Don't worry about it. Maybe not for you.

00:40:15

But where are you making a difference?

00:40:18

Where are you using the life that God gave you,

00:40:20

the energy and the gifts that he invested in you

00:40:24

for Him and His kingdom?

00:40:25

Don't waste your life.

00:40:27

That's the prodigal's sin, a life given by the father,

00:40:31

gifts given by the father and completely, utterly wasted.

00:40:35

Do not waste your life.

00:40:38

Now, what's amazing in this story

00:40:41

is that the prodigal son wastes his life, the entire thing.

00:40:45

And eventually he comes to in the pigpen and he's like,

00:40:47

"Oh no, I've wasted it. I've squandered everything."

00:40:50

And so he formulates this plan

00:40:52

about how to come back to the father.

00:40:55

And the plan follows the ideals of every human idea ever

00:40:59

about how to gain God's love and approval.

00:41:01

It's I will earn it.

00:41:03

He goes, you know, I'm going to approach him

00:41:05

and I'm going to say, "Make me one of your hired hands."

00:41:08

Now a hired hand, misnomer about this story,

00:41:10

a hired hand is not a slave.

00:41:12

A hired hand was somebody apprenticed

00:41:14

in a really valuable skill who earned a good income.

00:41:17

In fact, they had their own property.

00:41:19

And so what the son is doing with his hired hand plan

00:41:23

is he's saying, "I'm going to be able to pay my dad back.

00:41:26

I'll show up and I'll talk to him about

00:41:28

how much I might earn per year as a hired hand.

00:41:30

I'll make a payment plan,

00:41:31

and maybe we'll put some interest in there

00:41:33

and I'll give him my pay you back,

00:41:34

earn my way back into your love and approval plan."

00:41:39

That's not what the father does to him.

00:41:42

You know, I used to imagine that the father in this story

00:41:46

was just sort of like sitting

00:41:47

and waiting for his son to come home, you know?

00:41:50

Like every day he was on at the farmhouse

00:41:52

and he would wake up in the morning,

00:41:54

he would make his coffee, he would go out to the porch,

00:41:56

he'd sit in the front porch,

00:41:58

and he'd just kind of sip his coffee

00:41:59

and look over the horizon.

00:42:01

"I wonder if my son's coming home today.

00:42:03

Don't see him. Oh, well."

00:42:04

Put the coffee down, go about his day.

00:42:08

But, you know, the father didn't do that.

00:42:10

This is what's incredible.

00:42:11

How does the father respond to a wasted life,

00:42:15

to a kid who's so rebellious they're squandering everything?

00:42:18

The father goes after him.

00:42:21

Remember our first two parables,

00:42:22

the guy with the sheep and the woman with the coin?

00:42:24

Those actually weren't about the lost object.

00:42:26

Very little is said about the sheep.

00:42:28

We don't know anything about it.

00:42:29

Very little is about the coin.

00:42:31

We don't know how much money it was.

00:42:32

The point of those stories was to tell us

00:42:34

about the person who lost something precious to them,

00:42:37

and root us and establish us in what God is like.

00:42:39

He hunts them down. He goes after you.

00:42:43

Do you know you have a God your entire life

00:42:45

who's come after you?

00:42:46

That father wasn't sitting on the porch waiting

00:42:48

and sipping his coffee.

00:42:49

He was sitting out search teams.

00:42:51

He was buying billboards.

00:42:53

He was mailing letters to cities saying,

00:42:54

"Hey, if you see my son, would you read on this note for me?

00:42:57

I just want him to know. It says, son, I love you.

00:42:59

I want you back. I'm still here for you.

00:43:01

I believe in you, I accept you.

00:43:03

I have good plans for you.

00:43:04

In fact, I can't wait to celebrate you

00:43:06

when you finally come.

00:43:07

If you see my son, would you give him this letter?"

00:43:09

That's the father.

00:43:14

And whether you realize it, your entire life

00:43:16

you have a father who, even if you've squandered your life,

00:43:20

he goes, I don't care. I'm coming after you.

00:43:22

I'm sending letters after you. I'm coming.

00:43:24

I want you to hear what what I have for you.

00:43:27

Has anybody in here seen the Odyssey?

00:43:29

Anybody seen the Odyssey?

00:43:31

I'm going to spoil it for you.

00:43:32

And before you complain, the book came out 3000 years ago.

00:43:38

You had time. In the movie version,

00:43:43

Christopher Nolan focuses on this story.

00:43:46

He tells an incredible story about a father

00:43:49

who will stop at nothing to be reunited with his lost son.

00:43:52

It's the reason the movie is so powerful.

00:43:54

Yes, it's beautiful. Yes, it's artistic.

00:43:56

Yes, you should see it for those reasons.

00:43:58

But the reason it resonates so deeply

00:44:00

and is setting records is because it is this story,

00:44:04

the real story of a God who loves us so much

00:44:07

he'll stop at nothing to be reunited with us.

00:44:11

So when the father does finally see his son,

00:44:13

we don't know if it's close to home.

00:44:15

We don't know if it's far away from home.

00:44:16

When he finally sees his son, he runs to him.

00:44:21

Here's the story, verse 20:

00:44:22

He arose and came to his father.

00:44:24

But while he was still a long way off,

00:44:26

his father saw him, felt compassion,

00:44:29

and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

00:44:32

He ran.

00:44:34

I don't know if you know this about us dads, we don't run.

00:44:38

Don't do that. There was a time in my life I ran.

00:44:40

My kids are all running right now.

00:44:42

They're all doing cross country.

00:44:43

This was a couple Saturdays ago, they had a cross country meet.

00:44:46

And they run their race and I'm cheering them on.

00:44:49

And I don't know what happened to me,

00:44:50

but something snapped in my mind because

00:44:53

I went to Chipotle for lunch.

00:44:56

Extra rice. Sour cream.

00:44:59

And then as soon as I get home, I had this thought.

00:45:02

I was like, "You know what I'm gonna do?

00:45:03

I'm going to run." I haven't run in years.

00:45:07

I'm like, "Three miles. They made it look easy.

00:45:09

How hard can it be?" Turns out very hard. I almost died.

00:45:12

Very hard. Don't recommend it. Dads don't run.

00:45:18

In Middle Eastern culture, Middle eastern dads did not run.

00:45:22

It was actually a sign of shame.

00:45:25

You didn't run to people.

00:45:26

The more prestigious you were, the more powerful,

00:45:29

the more influential, you didn't run to people,

00:45:32

they ran to you.

00:45:34

And so when the father does this,

00:45:35

he's violating everything that's known

00:45:38

about how dads are supposed to act.

00:45:40

And here's the wild part.

00:45:41

When the father runs up to him,

00:45:43

huffing and puffing for sure, hands on knees,

00:45:45

here's what he says, verse 21:

00:45:48

The son said to him, "Father,

00:45:50

I have sinned against heaven and before you.

00:45:51

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son."

00:45:54

But the father said to his servants,

00:45:55

"Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him,

00:45:57

and bring a ring and put it on his hand,

00:45:59

and shoes on his feet.

00:46:00

And bring the fattened calf and kill it.

00:46:03

Let us eat and celebrate.

00:46:04

For this my son, my son was dead and is alive again.

00:46:08

He was lost and is found."

00:46:10

And they began to celebrate.

00:46:11

Wild what he does.

00:46:13

Here's the best robe. My robe.

00:46:14

Put a ring on his finger. My ring.

00:46:16

Kill the fattened calf. The one I've been saving

00:46:18

and hoping and waiting

00:46:19

and wishing that he's going show up."

00:46:21

It's amazing what he does.

00:46:23

But what's even more amazing is what he doesn't do.

00:46:26

Because what he doesn't do is say, "Hey, son,

00:46:28

I've got a couple of questions.

00:46:31

There are some rumors about you.

00:46:33

There was some some accusations out there

00:46:36

about what you did and this wild party lifestyle."

00:46:38

He's got a couple questions for you.

00:46:40

He does not do that at all.

00:46:44

Doesn't even let him get his plan out

00:46:46

about the hired hand thing.

00:46:47

Completely cuts him off.

00:46:49

All the son says is, "Father, I've sinned."

00:46:51

And he's like, "That's enough for me."

00:46:54

No apology, no excuses, no questions, just

00:46:58

"Now, you're my son. Welcome home son."

00:47:01

Why would he do that?

00:47:03

Because when the father views his son,

00:47:05

when your Father views you, he's not looking at your past.

00:47:10

He's not reciting the Rolodex of your sins.

00:47:13

He says this in Psalm 103:

00:47:15

As far as the east is from the west,

00:47:17

so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

00:47:20

As a father shows compassion.

00:47:22

We just read those words in this story.

00:47:24

As a father shows compassion to his children,

00:47:27

so the Lord sows compassion to those who fear him.

00:47:30

Compassion.

00:47:32

What's wild, though, is how many people who are around faith

00:47:36

and in faith circles struggle to actually believe this.

00:47:41

A couple of years ago I was on a trip,

00:47:43

a kind of a spiritual growth centered trip

00:47:45

with some people from Crossroads.

00:47:46

We were in Germany studying the life of Martin Luther.

00:47:49

Amazing people, deep spiritual people,

00:47:51

people who followed Jesus for a long time,

00:47:53

people who know a lot of Bible verses.

00:47:55

But this strange theme emerged as the trip went on.

00:47:58

And it was this: There were a lot of people

00:48:00

who had been divorced in their past on this trip.

00:48:03

And I would get into these conversations with people

00:48:05

and it become really clear they all still held this view

00:48:08

of like God looked at them as less than.

00:48:11

Like if they were to show up at God's house,

00:48:14

God might not kick them out the door,

00:48:17

but God wasn't going to welcome them in,

00:48:19

give him a hug, call them son, call them daughter,

00:48:21

say he was proud of them and give them a seat at the table.

00:48:23

That was never going to happen to them.

00:48:25

It's like God was still holding on to the past.

00:48:27

And so in conversation after conversation,

00:48:29

I just had to go like, have you read the Bible?

00:48:32

Do you know what the gospel says?

00:48:34

As far as the East is from the west,

00:48:36

do you know how far apart that is?

00:48:38

Infinitely far apart.

00:48:42

See, when you come to the father

00:48:44

and they ask this question,

00:48:45

how do I gain God's love and approval?

00:48:47

How do I keep it? The answer is you don't.

00:48:50

You don't. The lost thing can't find itself.

00:48:54

The one who's fallen out of favor can't regain favor.

00:48:56

Instead, the incredible, crazy, seen nowhere else gospel

00:49:00

that's an unreligion is the truth that

00:49:03

the father just loves you and gives it to you.

00:49:07

Amazing. Amazing.

00:49:10

If you've been in a spot in your life where you're like,

00:49:13

man, I gotta earn my way back.

00:49:15

I got to overcome my past.

00:49:16

I gotta follow through on my mistakes.

00:49:18

No you don't, no you don't.

00:49:20

That is not -- that is not it. That's religion.

00:49:24

If you've been wearing a low opinion of yourself

00:49:27

as a religious merit badge, I would suggest

00:49:30

you get a new religion because that's not Jesus.

00:49:33

That's not what he has for you.

00:49:35

Now, there is this voice in us, though,

00:49:37

that we got to talk about.

00:49:39

There's the voice of the rebel that speaks to us,

00:49:41

that wants to keep us in shame

00:49:42

and keep us stuck in our past.

00:49:43

But then there's the religious voice that tells us

00:49:46

that we have to stay there, this religious voice,

00:49:48

and that is the voice of the older son now.

00:49:50

It's more like a button at the end of the story.

00:49:52

There's not as much about the older son,

00:49:54

but we need to look at it. Verse 25:

00:49:57

Now his older son was in the field,

00:49:59

and as he came and drew near to the house,

00:50:01

he heard music and dancing.

00:50:03

And he called one of the servants

00:50:04

and asked what these things meant.

00:50:06

And he said to him, "Your brother has come,

00:50:08

and your father has killed the fattened calf,

00:50:11

because he has received him back safe and sound."

00:50:14

But he, the older son, was angry and refused to go in.

00:50:18

His father came out and entreated him,

00:50:21

but he answered his father, "Look."

00:50:24

Husbands, if you start a conversation with your wife

00:50:27

with the word look, does it go well for you?

00:50:32

Doesn't for me.

00:50:33

If I did that I would be looking for a new place to sleep.

00:50:36

That would happen for me.

00:50:38

But the older son, he's so full of self-righteousness,

00:50:42

"I am right. I have done what's right.

00:50:45

I have earned, and I deserve your affection.

00:50:48

I deserve your approval.

00:50:49

I deserve the stuff that you should give me. I am owed it."

00:50:52

He's so sure of this that he starts with look.

00:50:56

And then he says, "These many years I've served you.

00:50:58

I've never disobeyed your command.

00:51:00

Yet you never gave me a young goat," a cheeseburger.

00:51:03

You're not asking for a fattened calf.

00:51:05

You never bought me Taco Bell

00:51:07

"That I might celebrate with my friends.

00:51:09

But when the son of yours came

00:51:11

who's devoured your property with prostitutes,

00:51:15

you kill the fattened calf for him."

00:51:17

And here's the moment the two kinds of lost

00:51:21

are actually the same.

00:51:24

Both think they have to earn God's love.

00:51:28

Both think they need to deserve.

00:51:31

Both think there's something called

00:51:33

I can be owed. I can earn it.

00:51:36

Both think there's a thing called enough.

00:51:38

I can do enough.

00:51:41

And the father says no.

00:51:43

What's amazing is the father responds to them both

00:51:46

the same way.

00:51:48

He runs to the younger son

00:51:51

and he goes to the older one too. Verse 28:

00:51:54

He was angry and refused to go in.

00:51:56

His father came out.

00:52:00

Again the father goes to the lost older son

00:52:04

and he calls him son. Verse 31:

00:52:07

He says, "Son, you were always with me.

00:52:11

All that is mine is yours.

00:52:13

It was fitting to celebrate and be glad

00:52:15

for this your brother was dead and is alive;

00:52:17

he was lost and is found."

00:52:21

And that's where the story ends.

00:52:23

Do you know what we don't get in the stories?

00:52:27

We don't know how the older son responds.

00:52:30

Did you notice we also didn't get

00:52:32

how the younger son responds?

00:52:35

There's nothing in the parable the younger son goes,

00:52:37

"Oh my gosh, amazing. Wow."

00:52:40

We don't get that moment.

00:52:41

There's not a moment where the older son either rejects it,

00:52:44

"Dad, that's ridiculous. I just can't stand for it,"

00:52:46

and stays outside, or where he goes, "You're right,

00:52:49

you're right, dad. I just want to receive your love.

00:52:53

I'll come back inside. I'll celebrate."

00:52:55

We don't get that moment. Why?

00:52:57

Because the point of the parable is how will you respond?\

00:53:03

Not somebody else, not theory, not head knowledge,

00:53:08

raw, unfiltered how will you respond to this kind of love?

00:53:13

How will you? That's how you have a father.

00:53:16

He's got a raw, unfiltered view of you.

00:53:18

He knows it all. He's seen it all.

00:53:19

He's seen your rebellion.

00:53:21

He's seen your religion.

00:53:23

And his response to you is the same as in this story:

00:53:26

He runs to you and he just wants to tell you he loves you.

00:53:30

He just wants to tell you that you are enough.

00:53:34

In my life this was a transformative time for me.

00:53:38

Back when I saw that video

00:53:39

and started thinking these thoughts and going,

00:53:41

"Man, I don't want to waste my life.

00:53:43

And God, I think I've been working to gain your approval.

00:53:46

I thought I had it, and now I feel kind of knocked sideways."

00:53:49

And so I spent two years searching through scripture,

00:53:52

trying to find every place I could with God

00:53:55

what do you say about your love and how I can earn it?

00:53:57

How I can gain it, how I can keep it?

00:53:59

What do you actually say?"

00:54:02

I spent two years, wrote it all down.

00:54:04

By the way, if you tap the sticker in front of you,

00:54:06

it's the thing you'll get

00:54:07

when you click on Kyle's notes and verses.

00:54:09

It's many pages of scripture.

00:54:12

I don't have time to go through all of them right now,

00:54:14

but as we end our experience, I just want you to hear

00:54:16

the words of your father, enough from me.

00:54:19

You've heard my interpretation.

00:54:21

You've heard my thoughts.

00:54:23

But I want you to hear the words of your father.

00:54:25

Do you know before you were born,

00:54:28

he started hunting you down.

00:54:30

He was buying billboards.

00:54:32

He sent out search teams, his church

00:54:34

to hunt you down and find you.

00:54:36

He sent letters, His Word across the universe

00:54:41

in hopes that one day you would hear it and believe it.

00:54:45

Maybe you're in a spot in your life where you're like,

00:54:47

"I've already heard it.

00:54:48

I heard it a long time ago and I'm good."

00:54:50

Friend, if you ever think you're past the point

00:54:54

of needing to hear how God loves you,

00:54:57

warning sign, flashing red light in your life.

00:55:01

None of us are too far gone.

00:55:02

None of us know this enough. No.

00:55:05

All of us approach God the same way as children,

00:55:09

the father who loves us.

00:55:11

These are the words of your father. I'll give them to you.

00:55:16

We'll have some song between

00:55:17

to give you time to sit and to soak in the words.

00:55:19

If there's something that jumps out to you,

00:55:21

I encourage you take a picture of it on the screen

00:55:23

or write down where it is in the Bible.

00:55:27

Here's God's words, Jeremiah 31:3:

00:55:31

I have loved you with an everlasting love;

00:55:36

I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

00:55:43

John 15:15, Jesus says: No longer do I call you servants,

00:55:49

for the servant does not know what his master is doing;

00:55:52

but I have called you friends,

00:55:53

for all that I've heard from my father

00:55:57

I have made known to you.

00:57:25

Jeremiah 1:5: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

00:57:31

before you were born I set you apart.

00:57:36

1 John 3:1: See what great love the father has lavished on us,

00:57:41

that we should be called children of God!

00:57:43

And that is what we are!

00:57:46

Galatians 4:7: You are no longer a slave, but a son,

00:57:51

and if a son, if a daughter, then an heir through God.

00:59:12

Jeremiah 29:11: For I know the plans I have for you,

00:59:16

declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil,

00:59:20

to give you a hope and a future.

00:59:23

Psalm 18:19: He brought me out into a broad place;

00:59:28

He rescued me because he delighted in me.

00:59:32

When God thinks about you, he's not going through

00:59:34

the Rolodex of sins in your past.

00:59:36

And he's also not looking at

00:59:37

the list of great stuff you've done.

00:59:39

He just delights in you because he made you,

00:59:41

because you're his son and his daughter.

00:59:44

Psalm 27 says: Even though my father and mother forsake me,

00:59:51

the Lord will receive me.

00:59:52

No matter what your earthly father did or didn't model

00:59:56

about a good God who loves you no matter what,

00:59:58

no matter what your earthly mother modeled or not,

01:00:00

God says, I am the father who loves you.

01:00:03

Just because you're mine.

01:00:05

What a father we have. What a father.

01:01:04

- Would you stand right now?

01:01:07

Remember, these words are not normal words.

01:01:11

These are the words

01:01:12

of the one who spoke and reality came to me.

01:01:16

These are the words that can change you and reshape you.

01:01:19

These are the words that can put your feet on the solid rock.

01:01:23

These are the words that can change your past

01:01:25

and give you a vision for the future.

01:01:27

And so I want you to stand as a sign of saying,

01:01:30

God, would you saturate me with your word,

01:01:32

with believing that what you say is true for me,

01:01:35

even me, from head to toe.

01:01:37

Your father says this, James 1:18:

01:01:41

He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word.

01:01:44

And we, out of all creation,

01:01:47

out of every amazing, majestic mountainscape,

01:01:51

out of every sunrise,

01:01:52

out of every beautiful sunset he ever painted,

01:01:54

He says we, out of all creation,

01:01:56

became his prized possession. Us. You.

01:02:02

Isaiah 46:4: Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he,

01:02:07

I am he who will sustain you.

01:02:09

I have made you, and I will carry you;

01:02:11

I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

01:02:14

Doesn't matter how old you are,

01:02:16

doesn't matter how far away you walk,

01:02:18

doesn't matter how much life you think you've squandered.

01:02:20

God says, I am still for you. Still.

01:02:24

And Zephaniah 3:17: The Lord your God is in your midst,

01:02:28

a mighty one who will save;

01:02:30

He will rejoice over you with gladness;

01:02:32

He will quiet you by his love;

01:02:34

He will exalt over you with loud singing.

01:02:38

I encourage you to sing loud right now.

01:02:40

I just want you to know as loud as you sing,

01:02:42

as loud as you ever shout to God,

01:02:44

God sings and he shouts louder over you, "I love you."

01:04:15

Man, what a powerful message from Kyle on identity.

01:04:18

And instead of asking

01:04:19

what character or son do I resonate with,

01:04:22

ask yourself: Do I believe that God really loves me?

01:04:25

That without doing anything to earn it, he loves me?

01:04:28

It's such a profound thing to believe,

01:04:30

and yet a hard thing to believe, to live out

01:04:32

But the head and heart of that journey

01:04:34

can change everything about the way you live.

01:04:36

Thanks so much for joining us today.

01:04:38

As always, we want to help you take your next step

01:04:40

in your journey with God.

01:04:42

Whether that's signing up to volunteer,

01:04:44

or getting in the game,

01:04:45

or just getting in a group or finding community,

01:04:47

maybe you just need someone to pray with you right now.

01:04:50

You can do all of that

01:04:52

by texting the word "more" to 301301.

01:04:55

A real person would love to connect with you.

01:04:57

Well, hey, we'll see you back next week

01:04:59

with our Senior Pastor Brian Tome,

01:05:01

and I'll see you in two weeks

Religion, Rebellion, and Why Neither Work

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