The Real Reason You Can't Slow Down

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[music: Count Me In]

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- Hey, what if I told you that anxiety

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doesn't have to rule your life, right?

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That that constant stress loop going through your heads

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isn't the full story.

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Hey, welcome to Crossroads.

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We've got a great day ahead of you

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as we wrap up our series called Well Played.

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And I got my buddy Jair here with me.

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- Yes! I'm so excited to be here.

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And we've got a great message today.

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Chuck Mingo is here.

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And we've been in an amazing series for the past four weeks,

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just helping each one of us understand

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how to release control to God.

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And it's a good thing. It's a good thing.

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- Yeah. Hey, if you're new to Crossroads,

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you should know we're a church made of people

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meeting in buildings like this one

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and people all over the United States and the world

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running after Jesus together, even while we're spread out.

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So hey, special shout out to Dulce in Mexico City today.

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- Yeah, yeah, our community is incredible.

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And we were just in Sandusky

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for Crossroads Anywhere Weekend.

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Shout out to Hudson if you're watching, you're awesome.

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And um, this next few hours or this next hour

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that we're spending time in, we're actually going

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to get to talk about something maybe a little personal to you.

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We're going to learn how God deals with anxiety in our life.

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But before we do that, what's going to happen?

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- Before that, we're actually going

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to be taking communion together today.

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So right now, take a moment, go run to the kitchen,

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find some bread or crackers, some juice.

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It's less about like the materials

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and more about just teeing things up for you

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to have a moment to connect with God.

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This has been a sacred practice for followers of Jesus

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for thousands of years

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to remember God's forgiveness of our sins.

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And so if you're not there yet,

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you're not sure what you believe about God or Jesus.

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Hey, no worries, this moment just isn't for you.

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- Yeah. And we're going to start with worship.

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And I actually had a friend, he told me that worship

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is just our love for God expressed to him in music.

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And so we're going to sing together this morning.

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- That's great. So whether you're at home

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or in the car or at the gym right now,

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that doesn't mean you can't worship.

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We'd love for you to sing along and consider these words

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and what they might say to you,

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and what God might have to say to you

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and through you right now.

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Let's sing together wherever we are.

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- Man, the words in that song are beautiful, right?

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But I gotta be honest, they are easier to sing on a Sunday

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than they might be to believe on a Wednesday,

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or face on a Friday in the midst of challenges

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or relationships or bad habits or whatever.

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So I think that's why Jesus is so intentional

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all throughout the pages of the Bible,

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but specifically in this moment where he was gathering

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his closest friends around a meal

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where he wanted them to remember something.

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He wanted them to remember something

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that they could take with them every day.

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And that's what we're going to celebrate in just a moment.

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My name is Andy Ryder.

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I'm Community Pastor for Crossroads Anywhere,

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and it's really great to be with you,

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whether you're joining online

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or whether you're here in the room with me.

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If you're joining, uh, if you're joining here in the room,

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you walked in with one of these,

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one of these little communion kits.

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And I gotta be honest, it is, uh, it's a little --

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It's a hard packaging to get excited about,

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like a little plastic shot glass doesn't scream,

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"Hey, this is sacred and important and meaningful."

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And yet it is.

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There's a verse that we've been reading

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through this whole series,

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and I want to read it to you right now.

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It's from Matthew 11 and it says this:

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Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,

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and I will give you rest.

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Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me,

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for I am gentle and lowly in heart,

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and you will find rest for your souls.

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For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

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Jesus knew those words, and so many others

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were going to be hard to remember

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in the throes of normal everyday life,

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when life is lifing

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and it's coming our way at a million miles an hour.

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So Jesus gathered his friends

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and he gave them the practice of communion.

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The followers of Jesus have been following

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in these footsteps to remember God's goodness

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and his easy yoke since then.

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So if you would take out your communion kit

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or whatever elements you have prepared at home,

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and go ahead and take off the little white top

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to get the cracker and the piece of bread beneath.

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Jesus took that bread and he said,

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"This is my body broken for you. Take and eat."

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Let's do that now.

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And then flip the cup over to get to the grape juice

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or whatever you have prepared at home.

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And Jesus knowing, knowing that his death

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was right around the corner,

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knowing that he was about to sacrifice

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his life for our freedom,

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the yoke of sin and slavery

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for the yoke of joy and freedom,

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He said, "This is my blood shed for you.

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Take and drink and remember how much I love you."

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Let's do that right now.

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Father, we just ask that this act of taking communion,

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of not just knowing something with our minds,

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but doing something physically

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to get that truth out of our heads and into our hearts.

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God, we pray that you would help us to understand

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that you love us, that you gave your life for us,

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and that you are a firm foundation.

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Let us remember just how much you love each of us.

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- God, we thank you that you're always, always,

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always on time, even when it doesn't feel like it,

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even when things are insanely hard.

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I was just talking to a friend, um,

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going through unimaginable circumstances,

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and he said he's grateful that he's going through it

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because it brought him closer to you.

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God, may we all be grateful

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for anything we have to walk through,

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because you're going to be right there, so close to us.

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I know that's when I felt you the closest,

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and I -- and I almost felt grateful too.

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God, grow our gratefulness and our faith and our trust in you.

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You are so, so good.

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I thank you for who you are and how you've saved me

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and how you've saved my friends. Amen.

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Guys, thanks for singing with us.

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Find somebody next to you that you do not know,

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ask them how they like their coffee. You can have a seat.

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- Before this group, I was disconnected.

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- I was kind of lost and alone.

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- I was new in town and I was pretty lonely.

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- We felt like little fish in a big pond.

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We didn't know anybody. We didn't have a community.

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- I was basically navigating life on my own with my family.

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- [speaking Spanish]

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- I would say today our lives are filled

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with people that we can actually trust.

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- I am a lot more confident

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and a lot more involved than I was before.

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- I have been a great role model for my kids.

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- Now I have a group of women who help me with things

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that I never knew I would deal with.

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- My group is a family.

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- [speaking Spanish]

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- I feel seen, welcomed, and cared for.

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- I keep coming back to Fathers because

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I'm genuinely a better man when Fathers is in session.

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- Yes, life is better together.

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Don't we all just sort of know that intuitively?

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Like none of us are really killing it

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when we're on our own.

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There's something about being with other people

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that is just in line with how God made us

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to thrive and flourish.

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Hey, if I haven't met you, my name is Andy again.

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But I wanted to just call something out.

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Can I just say the older we get,

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the harder it is to make friends?

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Is that just me? I don't think so. Right?

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Like, let's let's compare and contrast.

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You start out in elementary school and you're like,

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locked in a room with 25 other people the same age

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who are also into snacks and dinosaurs.

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It's just not that hard to connect with other people.

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Then you graduate high school or you graduate college

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and it all becomes real DIY real quick.

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Hey, for me personally, that is where Crossroads groups

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have been most helpful.

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I've gotten to know people who have known me

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and seen me at my best and my worst

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and everywhere in between over decades.

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Erica, who is standing here singing,

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I've known her and her husband Chris for like 15 years

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through this place.

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I think of Anisa and Jason and Rachel and Kyle,

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people that I've known deeply

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that I met through a Crossroads group.

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And I can't guarantee you that on your first group

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you're going to make all your best friends.

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But I can tell you, if you just stay put,

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you're not going to make any new ones, okay?

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You're just going to stay where you are.

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I would love for you to check out a Crossroads group.

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You just tap the sticker on the seat back in front of you

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or head out to the atrium after service

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if you're here with me at Oakley.

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Or if you're online, hey,

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just text the word "more" to 301301.

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We'd love for you to join a group

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and get to know some amazing people around Crossroads.

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I have a second thing I want to chat with you guys about.

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And this is like it's a holiday weekend.

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Like there might be just a couple spots open in the room

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that wouldn't be here otherwise

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because people got long weekends.

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But can we just acknowledge that Labor Day, like,

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let's celebrate people who are working really hard.

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Let's celebrate work by refusing to do any.

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That's kind of a weird branding situation.

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But hey, I want to celebrate some folks

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who are working really hard even on a holiday weekend.

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So let me do this, by round of applause,

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give a little round of applause

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if you drove into the parking lot over here

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and were escorted in by somebody in like a fluorescent vest

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when you hadn't had your coffee yet,

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which is not like just a service issue,

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it's like a faith, like living on the edge safety issue.

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Can we just say thank you to parking volunteers?

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[applause] Yes.

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How about the folks that gave you

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that cup of coffee or tea or whatever?

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Hey. Thank you. [applause]

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How about for the folks that maybe working in Kids' Club

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that you handed your kid off to

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so they could hear about Jesus

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in a language they can understand? Yes.

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An online folks, the people running the cameras

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that I'm talking to right now are also volunteers.

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So good.

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I'm grateful that we have a community

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that loves to go outside of itself

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and makes this place happen.

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We're so thankful for you guys.

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Now, I want to give you a heads up about something

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really special that's happening starting next Sunday.

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I mentioned I've been around here a while,

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15 years, and over those 15 years,

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I do not remember every message that Brian or Chuck

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or Kyle or Alli have spoken.

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Don't tell Chuck. Don't tell him.

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I do not remember every one.

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But over 15 years, there are a handful that

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have changed my life that I really do remember.

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They've changed the way that I see myself,

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they've changed the way that I see God.

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And we're going to be revisiting one of those topics

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next week in a way that I think could really

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change your life in a powerful, powerful way.

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Looking at identity and what God has to say to us.

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You don't want to miss it.

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I don't want you to miss it.

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Make sure you're here and invite a friend, okay.

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I could talk for like 20 minutes,

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but I'm not going to about all the amazing things

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that are happening around Crossroads,

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that happen because people are faithful and generous.

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If that's you, I just want to say thank you.

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Thank you that you're saying with your money

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and with your resources, "God, I trust you.

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I think you can do more with 10% of what I have

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than I can do with 100."

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If you're new around here,

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not sure what you think about church and money,

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hey, no worries, no worries.

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Whether you want to join the team of faithful givers,

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you've got questions, you can go to

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Crossroads.net/give for all that and more.

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All right, let's continue and wrap up our series

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as we look at what it means

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to live a life that's well played.

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Every day we roll the dice,

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another decision, another responsibility,

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another space to move.

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We keep chasing the next thing,

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hoping we'll finally arrive.

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But Jesus offers something different.

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He doesn't promise to take away the hard stuff in life,

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but he does show us a different way to play the game.

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In Matthew 11, Jesus says, "Come to me,

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all who labor and are heavy laden,

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00:28:19


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for I am gentle and lowly in heart,

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and you will find rest for your souls.

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00:28:31

- How are we doing Crossroads family?

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Oh so good to be with you.

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If you're new around here and haven't met yet,

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my name is Chuck. I'm one of the teaching pastors here.

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And we're going to wrap up this Well Played series,

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which has been so, so good.

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And before we do that, I want to invite you

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to one of those groups that you heard.

00:28:48

We talked about being better together.

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And there's something that God has wrecked my heart for

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and given us a vision for as a church,

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and that is to have a church

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that literally looks like heaven.

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What do I mean when I say that?

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At the end of the Bible in Revelation 7,

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we see a picture and it is people

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from every language, tribe, and tongue,

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every ethnicity is together as one collective family,

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joyful before God.

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We might speak different languages,

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we might look different ways,

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but we sing the same song.

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And that is a part of the thing that God

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has put on me and is part of my ministry around here.

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And that's why I want to invite you into a group

00:29:21

called How to Heal Our Racial Divide.

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This is a group that we've done a couple times already,

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and it's been an incredible experience of belonging.

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See, here's the thing, you're being formed

00:29:32

on how to think about race and ethnicity,

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whether you know it or not.

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The question is, are you being formed to the heart of Jesus?

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And this is a group where we don't want to be misinformed,

00:29:42

and we don't want you to be malformed.

00:29:44

We want to be conformed to the heart of Jesus on this topic.

00:29:46

We've had over 500 people do this group already.

00:29:49

We had 100 person waiting list.

00:29:52

But because of so many leaders at all of our sites,

00:29:54

we've got room for everybody to join this thing

00:29:57

that wants to at sites and either online.

00:30:00

Man, it's amazing, aAnd it's already a group

00:30:02

where marriages have been transformed,

00:30:04

new friendships have been formed

00:30:06

and people are growing closer to Jesus.

00:30:07

Somebody put it way better than I could.

00:30:09

They said: Healing our Racial Divide

00:30:11

has changed this from something I believe

00:30:13

into something I'm responsible for living out.

00:30:16

I'm learning to look for Jesus

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and expect to find him in everyone, in everyone.

00:30:21

And I just love that for us as a church,

00:30:23

and so would love for you to be a part of that.

00:30:25

You can find out more, click on that QR code and join us,

00:30:28

be a part of this incredible experience

00:30:30

on how to heal our racial divide.

00:30:32

All right, so it's week four of Well Played.

00:30:34

We're looking at this soul satisfying promise of Jesus.

00:30:38

And every time I teach,

00:30:39

I want you to get to know me a little bit too.

00:30:41

And so I want to take you guys back.

00:30:42

Is that all right? I'm gonna take you back.

00:30:44

The year is 1990. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

00:30:49

This is me with a high top fade.

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Mine was never that high top. I wish it was.

00:30:56

I probably had a decent fade,

00:30:57

but it was never that high top.

00:30:59

But I was an insecure, acne laced high schooler,

00:31:03

freshman, nervous about making friends.

00:31:05

And in the midst of that, I experienced

00:31:08

a lot of peace through a particular group

00:31:11

and a particular song.

00:31:12

The group is Take 6, six part harmony,

00:31:17

think gospel, R&B, amazing.

00:31:19

And they had this song that's based on Matthew 11:28,

00:31:22

the scripture we've been looking at.

00:31:24

And actually, I want to play a little bit of it for you

00:31:26

because it just takes me back.

00:31:27

Let's play a little bit of that right now. Yes.

00:31:31

[Music: Come Unto Me, Take 6]

00:31:38

- If they were looking for a seventh member, I was down.

00:31:41

I love this song.

00:31:45

[music continues]

00:31:51

All right, that's enough. That's enough.

00:31:53

Just wanted to give you a little taste of that, man.

00:31:55

That song, I'm telling you, that song got me

00:31:57

through a lot of really insecure days in high school.

00:32:00

And I thought about it.

00:32:02

I'm like, what if we have some fun with that?

00:32:04

You guys up for doing something fun?

00:32:05

All right, we're going to do something fun.

00:32:07

We're going to make some music together

00:32:09

based on that song by Take 6.

00:32:11

I need a little help for this, though.

00:32:13

So would you join me in welcoming to the stage

00:32:15

my friend Regis Jones, AKA K-Drama,

00:32:21

Grammy nominated hip-hop artist from our very own 513.

00:32:26

Christian hip-hop artist.

00:32:28

And while he's setting up, I'm going to tell you

00:32:30

that we've actually had a secret mission in this series.

00:32:33

I don't know if you've caught it or not.

00:32:34

But we keep showing that verse, right? Matthew 11:28-30.

00:32:39

That's because secretly, we hope that

00:32:42

you would accidentally or maybe purposefully

00:32:44

memorize these words of Jesus when he says:

00:32:47

Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden,

00:32:50


00:32:52

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me,

00:32:54

for I am gentle and lowly in heart.

00:32:57

And Jesus says you will find rest.

00:32:59

Everybody say, rest, for your souls.

00:33:02

He says for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

00:33:05

So we're going to have some fun with this.

00:33:07

First of all, Regis, tell people a little bit about yourself.

00:33:09

All right, so I go by K-Drama.

00:33:11

I've been doing Christian rap since I was in high school.

00:33:14

I was one of those acne filled kids as well,

00:33:16

you know what I'm saying?

00:33:17

Ninth grade is when I started and, um, since then

00:33:21

I've also been doing music production.

00:33:22

I produced a lot of my songs, um,

00:33:25

and full circle moment, now I teach music production

00:33:29

as an elective at Aiken High School.

00:33:32

So I've been doing that for a few years. Yeah.

00:33:35

- I know when I was in high school,

00:33:36

none of my teachers were this cool dressed.

00:33:38

So I'm just saying.

00:33:40

Just a blessing that you are investing

00:33:42

in the next generation in that way.

00:33:44

And speaking of investment, this is quite an investment.

00:33:46

You got quite the machine here.

00:33:48

In fact, we got a camera.

00:33:49

I want you guys to get a look at this.

00:33:51

What is this thing? What is this?

00:33:52

- Okay. So this is called the MPC

00:33:54

which stands for Music Production Center.

00:33:57

- Okay. Okay.

00:33:58

- It looks like your traditional drum machine,

00:34:00

but you could do more with this.

00:34:02

You can hook up keyboards and play loops in here,

00:34:06

or you could sample your very own sound.

00:34:09

So like I got sounds, traditional sounds

00:34:11

that everyone's probably heard like this,

00:34:13

like, you know, your standard DJ sound.

00:34:15

I even went back on YouTube,

00:34:17

got one of your classic sermons and, um,

00:34:19

I sampled that in here

00:34:21

where you say something like this, like:

00:34:22

Can I get an amen, somebody?

00:34:23


00:34:25

- I like that. Yeah.

00:34:27

No, give me that Barry White voice, I like that.

00:34:29

- Let's see if we could do that.

00:34:31

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

00:34:32

- Can I, can I, can I get an amen somebody?

00:34:34

Can I get an amen, somesomebody? Can I get an amen, somebody?

00:34:36

- You can get lower but, yeah. Yeah.

00:34:38

- I like that. Okay.

00:34:39

So but you were saying like, man, great production,

00:34:42

Dr. Dre, Kanye, Lil Jon.

00:34:46

- Usher. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:34:47

That was produced all on this thing. Yeah, for sure.

00:34:49

- All right. So we got the right guy.

00:34:51

Can you agree? We got the right guy.

00:34:52

We got the right guy. All right.

00:34:54

So we want to just like, you know, I was telling you,

00:34:56

this came back to me because I was listening

00:34:58

to some lo fi and lo fi is like

00:35:01

old school hip-hop kind of smoothed out.

00:35:03

You know, great study music.

00:35:04

And so I kind of love listening to that.

00:35:06

I read to that, all that kind of thing.

00:35:07

So, if you were going to do

00:35:09

a lo fi scripture memorization tool

00:35:11

for our church based on Take 6 and Matthew 11:28-30,

00:35:16

where would you start us out?

00:35:17

Wow. Okay. All right. So, so we're gonna remix it.

00:35:21

- Gotta remix it.

00:35:22

- We're gonna remix.

00:35:24

Let me get my my fingers straight first.

00:35:28

All right, let's see. Let's see what we're working.

00:35:30

So there's 16 pads and they each have something different.

00:35:33

So let me, okay. [music]

00:35:38

- Okay. Okay.

00:35:40

- [music] Come on to me. Come up to me.

00:35:47

- Yeah. Put your hands together, y'all.

00:35:58

Oh, I love it, I love it.

00:36:01

- Okay, wait a minute, wait a minute.

00:36:02

Okay. That's not Lo-Fi.

00:36:04

- That's not Lo-Fi. That's actually club fi.

00:36:06

- Yeah, that's like club Fi.

00:36:07

You know, that's like, if you like that kind of music,

00:36:09

you can, you can look me up on Spotify.

00:36:11

You'll hear stuff like that. You know what I'm saying?

00:36:13

Shameless plug. You know what I mean?

00:36:15

Okay, let's lo-fi. Let's focus. Focus. All right.

00:36:19

[music]

00:36:33

Can I get an Amen, somebody.

00:36:34

- Oh, here we go. - Yeah, that's Lo-Fi.

00:36:39

- That's Lo-Fi. I can study to that.

00:36:41

I can study to that. Yep.

00:36:45

[music]

00:36:55

- Now where would you take it from here?

00:36:57

Where did you take it from here?

00:36:58

Oh yes. Yes.

00:37:09

Keep that going. We're gonna join you.

00:37:10

Sing this with me, y'all.

00:37:12

[music]

00:37:14

- Come on, sing it with me.

00:37:23

- You gotta be a part of the band. Come on.

00:37:25

I can't hear you burn.

00:37:31

[music continues]

00:37:40

- Can I get an amen, somebody?

00:37:49


00:37:52

- Come on, let's give it up for Regis Jones, K-drama.

00:37:57

That was so fun. That was so fun.

00:38:01

And if you want a fully mixed version of that,

00:38:04

you produced that for us just as a blessing to everybody.

00:38:06

You can tap that sticker on the front of your seat

00:38:08

and you can get access to that.

00:38:10

So if you want to study that, read to that,

00:38:11

use that to memorize this verse,

00:38:13

you can thank Regis Jones for that.

00:38:15

Thank you man. Thank you.

00:38:21

Was that fun? That was fun. Right? That was fun.

00:38:25

Ask all your other Christian friends if they

00:38:27

got to hear a NPC make music in church today.

00:38:29

I promise you, I know the answer to that question.

00:38:32

Awesome. But this is -- I wanted to do that

00:38:35

because all we're trying to do in this series,

00:38:37

all we've been trying to do, is just sit

00:38:40

in this soul satisfying promise of Jesus.

00:38:42

Just sit and let these words sink deep,

00:38:44

deep, deep into our spirit.

00:38:45

We're going to do more of that today.

00:38:47

That's all we're doing today.

00:38:49

So the first week of this series, Kyle talked about

00:38:51

the fact that one of the things

00:38:52

that gets revealed here is the heart of Jesus,

00:38:56

that if Jesus were going to define his heart,

00:38:57

he would say it's gentle and lowly.

00:39:00

And he talked about what does it mean to receive that?

00:39:02

And then we went into the next week where Alli said

00:39:04

we've got two operating systems working

00:39:07

in our minds and in our lives,

00:39:09

the operating system of control.

00:39:11

But we can shift to the operating system of trust.

00:39:14

And when we do, there's something good for us.

00:39:16

And then last weekend, Brian Tome was back.

00:39:18

Our senior pastor was back, had that backpack on.

00:39:23

And he said, the issue is not

00:39:24

that we don't have any load to carry,

00:39:26

but what Jesus wants to do is give us a custom fitted load,

00:39:30

a load that is easy and light.

00:39:32

And today I just want to build on that with this big idea,

00:39:35

which is you can reduce anxiety in your life

00:39:37

and who doesn't have a little anxiety in their life?

00:39:40

You can reduce anxiety in your life

00:39:42

when you find rest for your souls in Jesus.

00:39:44

That's where we're going today.

00:39:45

Let me pray as we get started.

00:39:47

God, thank you for the truth of your promise.

00:39:50

Thank you, Jesus, that these aren't just aspirational words,

00:39:54

but they're invitational words.

00:39:55

You invite us into a relationship with you

00:39:58

where we find rest for our souls,

00:40:00

in the midst of our real lives,

00:40:01

in the midst of our crazy lives,

00:40:03

in the midst of hard things,

00:40:04

we can still have rest for our souls.

00:40:05

I pray today that you would do

00:40:07

what only Your Holy Spirit does,

00:40:09

which is take my simple words

00:40:11

and through them, translate them to life.

00:40:14

May they, as imperfect as they're going to be,

00:40:18

may you make them perfect for

00:40:19

what every person in here needs to hear today.

00:40:22

And I believe that you'll do that.

00:40:23

And I pray that in your name, Amen.

00:40:27

So last week we talked about this idea again of a yoke.

00:40:31

And I don't always title my messages,

00:40:32

but this one has a title and it is A Better Yoke.

00:40:35

I want you guys to say this, say a better yoke.

00:40:39

This idea of a yoke is something that

00:40:41

first century listeners to Jesus

00:40:43

completely understood immediately,

00:40:45

because they were used to seeing this image

00:40:47

of two oxen, in this case, yoked together

00:40:50

as a farming equipment that would help

00:40:52

two animals kind of walk at the same pace.

00:40:54

And what they would often do as farmers

00:40:56

is they would take a younger,

00:40:57

maybe a more anxious animal,

00:40:59

and they would yoke them together

00:41:01

with a more seasoned, a more calm, a more mature animal.

00:41:05

And so what Jesus is saying in this invitation

00:41:07

in Matthew 11:28 is, if you would link your life to me,

00:41:12

you will find rest for your souls.

00:41:14

That's the idea that he's going to.

00:41:16

And it has everything to do with how our anxiety can lower.

00:41:21

Am I the only person who has these moments

00:41:23

when you're talking to someone you care about,

00:41:25

maybe a loved one, maybe a roommate,

00:41:27

maybe a friend, maybe a parent,

00:41:29

and you're like doing the thing.

00:41:30

You're like, uh-huh, uh-huh as they're talking to you,

00:41:33

but your mind and your body is somewhere else.

00:41:36

My wife, my dear wife, Maria is a victim of this regularly.

00:41:40

When I come home from work, she's got words,

00:41:44

she's got sometimes a lot of words.

00:41:46

And so we're talking and she's kind of

00:41:48

maybe telling me about her day,

00:41:49

or she's telling me about something with the kids

00:41:51

or something she's thinking about.

00:41:53

And I'm like, doing the thing, uh-huh. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

00:41:55

But I am thinking about the email

00:41:57

that I didn't finish at work.

00:41:59

I'm thinking about the conflict conversation

00:42:01

that's coming up tomorrow.

00:42:02

I'm thinking about the fact

00:42:03

that I gotta preach this weekend,

00:42:05

and I need more time to get this message finalized.

00:42:07

Right? And so I'm looking and nodding,

00:42:08

but I'm not really there.

00:42:10

And it's easy for me to say, oh,

00:42:12

it's because I'm so distracted.

00:42:15

Yeah. But I wonder if sometimes our distraction

00:42:19

is really anxiety in disguise.

00:42:23

That underneath the distraction,

00:42:24

underneath the busyness, there's actually anxiety

00:42:28

that the data would bear out, that we have anxious hearts.

00:42:32

I want to share with you some information that as I share it,

00:42:34

I just want to have empathy for people who,

00:42:37

like me, have realized like, man,

00:42:38

there's a level of this anxiety that is medical

00:42:41

and I need to be on medicine for it.

00:42:43

So please don't hear me saying today,

00:42:45

if you just have enough faith,

00:42:46

you won't have to take anxiety and depression medications.

00:42:49

That is not what I'm saying.

00:42:50

What I am saying is my own experience has been

00:42:53

there is an invitation to more.

00:42:55

There is something about my anxiety

00:42:56

that isn't about the medical reality,

00:42:58

and it's about a spiritual reality.

00:42:59

That's what I want to get into today.

00:43:01

So hear my heart on that

00:43:02

as we look at information like this.

00:43:04

So Pew did a study and they looked at

00:43:06

millennials and Gen Z's and asked them

00:43:08

to rate their mental health.

00:43:09

And I want you to see this because

00:43:11

this is the most recent, 47% of Gen Z

00:43:14

and 41% of millennials rate their mental health as poor.

00:43:18

That's a lot of people.

00:43:19

It's a lot of our young people,

00:43:21

a lot of people in some of our sites,

00:43:23

a lot of our students would be in this category

00:43:25

of rating their mental health as poor,

00:43:29

even if they're showing up at church smiling.

00:43:32

And it's not just young people,

00:43:33

lest we think it's just a young person's problem.

00:43:35

This is another data point, and I like this one

00:43:37

because it's longitudinal.

00:43:38

They asked the same question of all Americans,

00:43:41

old, young, and what they found is

00:43:43

from 2001 to 2019, the number was exactly the same,

00:43:46

43% rated their mental health as excellent.

00:43:49

The number never changed.

00:43:50

We had a lot of stuff that happened in those years, right?

00:43:53

We had wars in those years.

00:43:54

We had challenges as a country in those years.

00:43:56

So you could say, oh, it's the situation.

00:43:57

No, no, no, it might not be just the situation.

00:43:59

Now in 2020, it drops, understandably so,

00:44:02

there was a little thing you might remember called COVID.

00:44:05

That makes sense.

00:44:06

But what I want you to see is, post COVID,

00:44:08

we are not recovering back to 43%,

00:44:11

but in fact, the percentage of Americans

00:44:13

who rate their mental health as excellent

00:44:14

is going down, down, down.

00:44:18

We have anxious hearts. We have anxious hearts.

00:44:22

And if we're honest, many of us in here,

00:44:25

even if we identify as followers of Jesus,

00:44:28

have anxious hearts.

00:44:29

There's an old saying that says

00:44:30

anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow.,

00:44:33

it just empties today of its strength.

00:44:36

And maybe you feel that sapping of strength

00:44:38

because of anxiety. Now I'm using that word.

00:44:40

I need to define it.

00:44:41

And here's the definition I'm working with today.

00:44:43

Anxiety is persistent worry about things we can't control.

00:44:49

Can anybody identify with that definition of anxiety?

00:44:52

That's what I'm talking about today.

00:44:54

And there's good news if you do,

00:44:56

which is that Jesus offers you and I a rescue.

00:45:00

What is his rescue? It's a better yoke.

00:45:03

But we gotta deal with the reality of our anxiety.

00:45:06

See, I used to think my anxiety was a speed problem.

00:45:10

If I would just slow down, you know,

00:45:12

if I would just take time on a Saturday

00:45:13

to go and sit in a field with my journal

00:45:15

and my Bible and pray that I would solve all my problems.

00:45:20

And guess what? It's really good to do that.

00:45:23

And I connect with God that way powerfully.

00:45:25

And yet, there's a deeper question we've got to ask,

00:45:29

which is: why am I hurrying in the first place?

00:45:33

Because let's be clear, there's some things in life

00:45:36

you and I do not hurry around.

00:45:39

No one hurries to get back to the DMV.

00:45:44

You don't have a thing ticking down the days

00:45:46

for when you gotta go back to the DMV.

00:45:47

None of us are hurrying around that.

00:45:49

How about this one?

00:45:50

None of us are hurrying to pay our taxes.

00:45:54

Now, hopefully you pay them on time or file an extension,

00:46:00

but you ain't hurrying to pay somebody else some more funds.

00:46:04

We're just not doing that. We're not hurrying.

00:46:06

Nobody hurries when you get an email from HR

00:46:09

that says, "Can we have a quick chat?"

00:46:12

No, you pray first, then you respond to that text.

00:46:16

I mean, it's just true.

00:46:17

There's some things we don't hurry toward.

00:46:19

And here's the reality, you rush

00:46:21

toward the things you're most afraid of losing.

00:46:25

That's what our hurry reveals.

00:46:26

And so the question to ask is,

00:46:28

what am I trying to run towards?

00:46:31

Or what am I trying to run away from in my hurry?

00:46:34

You know, if you're average Cincinnatian,

00:46:37

average Lexingtonians, that's what they call themselves,

00:46:39

Lexingtonians, average Columbian,

00:46:41

wherever you're watching from.

00:46:42

It's probably similar things.

00:46:44

A lot of us, we hurry

00:46:46

when it comes to our career progression

00:46:48

because we feel like, man,

00:46:49

I just got to get to the next thing.

00:46:51

And that's a place where we hurry.

00:46:52

A lot of us have our identity

00:46:53

and our worth tied up in our work.

00:46:55

And so we, can get hurried and anxious around work.

00:46:59

For a lot of us, maybe our hurry is around

00:47:01

a relational status that we haven't yet attained.

00:47:04

You're single and you want to be married,

00:47:06

or you want to be dating.

00:47:07

You want to be in a relationship.

00:47:09

And there's a sense of anxiety.

00:47:11

The biological clock is ticking.

00:47:13

There are things that make us feel anxious about those things.

00:47:16

For maybe a lot of us, it's financial security.

00:47:19

And we just feel like, man, I just,

00:47:21

I need a little bit more to not be as anxious.

00:47:23

And then what you'll realize is

00:47:24

when you get a little bit more,

00:47:25

you know what you'll say?

00:47:27

I need a little bit more to not be anxious.

00:47:29

Like it's an ongoing process and cycle.

00:47:32

And I actually want to give you a hot take,

00:47:34

which is when it comes to your anxiety,

00:47:37

I don't think your primary problem is your busy calendar.

00:47:41

Here's a hot take: I don't think

00:47:43

your primary problem is your cell phone

00:47:44

or your social media usage.

00:47:47

I'm not saying those things don't play a factor,

00:47:49

but underneath all of that, our anxiety

00:47:52

is the fact that we have given someone

00:47:54

or something else the power to determine our worth

00:47:58

or our wellness in life.

00:48:00

That's the thing underneath the thing

00:48:02

that drives so much of our anxiety.

00:48:04

I'll put it to you this way.

00:48:05

Hurry is what it feels like or looks like on the outside

00:48:09

when something other than Jesus is reigning on the inside.

00:48:13

And I know that from my own experience.

00:48:15

Because guess what? You can fix your schedule.

00:48:18

You can give yourself more margin.

00:48:19

You can regulate down your cell phone usage

00:48:21

and your social media usage, and maybe you should,

00:48:24

but you'll just find something else to worry about.

00:48:26

You'll just find something else to be anxious about.

00:48:28

I had a theology professor put it this way.

00:48:30

He says Satan doesn't have to make you bad

00:48:32

if he can keep you busy.

00:48:34

He's really good at keeping us busy

00:48:35

about a lot of things, you know?

00:48:38

And here's the lie. The lie is, well,

00:48:39

if I just get to the next thing,

00:48:41

if I'm a student, once I graduate;

00:48:43

if I'm at a job, once I get this promotion;

00:48:46

if I want a house, once I buy the house;

00:48:48

if I want a relationship, once I get in the relationship;

00:48:51

well then I'll smooth out.

00:48:52

Then I'll be able to be less anxious, and it is a lie.

00:48:57

It's a lie. I know it's a lie

00:48:59

because I bought into the lie hook, line and sinker.

00:49:02

I'll never forget the day that all changed for me.

00:49:05

You know, when I was call it from 18 to 30,

00:49:08

man, I was doing the thing.

00:49:11

Graduated, you know, toward the top of my class in college.

00:49:14

Like I was crushing it, got a great job.

00:49:16

I was on the promotion track with Proctor and Gamble,

00:49:19

taking more and more responsibilities.

00:49:21

When I was 30, I had the company car,

00:49:22

I had more money than I thought I would,

00:49:24

I had the wife, I was living downtown Cincinnati.

00:49:27

I was leading a sales team across three states.

00:49:29

Like I was doing the thing

00:49:31

and it was working, until it wasn't.

00:49:34

Here's the day it all changed for me.

00:49:36

I was actually leaving one of my sales reps in Akron, Ohio,

00:49:39

driving back to Cincinnati.

00:49:40

It was on 71 South.

00:49:41

And if you're familiar with 71 in the Columbus area

00:49:44

from my Crossroads Columbus folks,

00:49:46

I was at the Polaris Parkway exit.

00:49:48

And I'll never forget being at that exit,

00:49:51

driving, of course, in the fast lane and I blacked out.

00:49:57

Thankfully, for only a second or two,

00:49:58

I don't even know how long,

00:50:00

but when I came to, I was drenched in sweat.

00:50:02

My heart was beating outside of my chest.

00:50:04

I was afraid. I didn't know what happened.

00:50:06

I finally got to a point where I could pull over

00:50:08

and I went into a restaurant.

00:50:10

I'm like, "Well, maybe I didn't eat enough this morning."

00:50:12

My blood sugar might have gotten low.

00:50:13

And so I eat, and as I'm eating, I'm like,

00:50:15

what in the world happened?

00:50:16

And I remember calling my wife.

00:50:18

And this was one of many moments when I'm like,

00:50:20

I married the right woman because I called her

00:50:22

and I'm like, "Babe, I don't know what happened.

00:50:24

I almost blacked out in the car.

00:50:25

My heart's beat. I don't know what's wrong."

00:50:27

And she's like, "Why are you calling me?

00:50:29

Call the doctor."

00:50:33

"Yes, yes, I should call the doctor."

00:50:36

Got myself together, got settled. Called my doctor.

00:50:39

They said come in right away.

00:50:40

I literally went from Polaris Parkway to my doctor's office.

00:50:43

He looks at me, African American profile,

00:50:45

and he's like, "Man, I'm just concerned,

00:50:46

maybe something happened with your heart."

00:50:49

And so they gave me a halter monitor for three days,

00:50:51

came back. Heart was fine.

00:50:53

Maybe you had vertigo.

00:50:55

And so then he got me tested for vertigo.

00:50:57

I didn't have vertigo.

00:50:58

So test after test after test after test.

00:51:00

And so after all these tests, nothing showing anything.

00:51:03

And I come back to the office.

00:51:04

And have you ever had a meeting with your doctor

00:51:06

where they're extra nice

00:51:08

because they got bad news for you?

00:51:10

It was one of those.

00:51:11

He always had a good bedside manner.

00:51:13

He was like extra nice.

00:51:14

And so in his extra nice tone, he's like,

00:51:16

"Man, all these tests came back negative.

00:51:18

I think you're struggling

00:51:19

with generalized anxiety disorder."

00:51:23

And he gave me some medication.

00:51:25

He gave me some other things to do.

00:51:27

But for like the next year, I could --

00:51:30

I continued to have escalated anxiety attacks,

00:51:33

literally waking up thinking I was about to die,

00:51:35

heart beating out of my chest.

00:51:37

I had more of those blackout moments, like it was scary.

00:51:40

And when I was at my lowest,

00:51:42

my lowest point with my anxiety journey,

00:51:46

what I realized is that there's an invitation

00:51:49

God has for me here if I'm willing to accept it.

00:51:52

If I'm willing to not stop the medication

00:51:55

and have more faith. That wasn't what happened.

00:51:57

But if I'm willing to just examine

00:51:58

why am I anxious in the first place,

00:52:01

there was something that God wanted to teach me.

00:52:03

And the first thing God did was he said,

00:52:05

"You've got to be clear about what this is."

00:52:08

See, it's PC to say I struggle with anxiety.

00:52:12

It's not PC to say I'm a fearful person.

00:52:14

But my name is Chuck and I'm a fearful person.

00:52:19

This is fear.

00:52:20

This is what I was dealing with.

00:52:22

And in that, I think about the New Testament.

00:52:25

The word for anxious in the New Testament,

00:52:27

the word for fear is actually a word that means

00:52:30

to be torn into pieces.

00:52:32

And isn't that what it feels like

00:52:34

when fear is gripping your life?

00:52:36

Because it's not just one fear.

00:52:37

You got 12 fears underneath that fear, right?

00:52:40

And I want to just stop and pastor

00:52:42

those of us who follow Jesus

00:52:43

and who struggle with anxiety.

00:52:45

Because I think there's another layer to this

00:52:47

for many of us, which is this:

00:52:48

not only do we feel the fear,

00:52:51

but we feel ashamed for feeling the fear

00:52:54

because we're like, "I'm a Christian, I pray.

00:52:57

I've asked God to take this away,

00:52:59

and I'm still struggling with this fear."

00:53:02

And I just want you to give yourself grace.

00:53:04

And I want you to know that God gives you grace.

00:53:08

He knows our real lives.

00:53:10

He knows what it's like to live in this world.

00:53:14

And actually, Jesus does have a promise for you,

00:53:16

he has a promise for me

00:53:17

when it comes to how to deal with this world.

00:53:21

Here's his promise in John 16:33, Jesus says:

00:53:24

In this world you will have tribulation.

00:53:29

Thanks, Jesus, that's not exactly what I was hoping for.

00:53:35

But Jesus says, hey, expectations are everything.

00:53:37

And if you buy into the lie that just because

00:53:39

you follow Jesus, it's going to be

00:53:41

all up into the right all the time

00:53:42

and happy clappy all the time. That is not true.

00:53:44

And can I just be honest and just tease a little bit?

00:53:47

Church folks, we make it worse.

00:53:49

We make it worse because you can come in here

00:53:50

and you talk to a good Christian.

00:53:52

How are you doing?

00:53:53

Oh, I'm blessed and highly favored.

00:53:54

Okay. Okay. Wonderful, wonderful.

00:53:59

And it's okay that you had a bad week.

00:54:03

Too blessed to be stressed. Lucky you, lucky you.

00:54:08

Amen. I got an amen on that one. Right?

00:54:10

We make it worse. We make it worse.

00:54:13

Jesus says: In this world you will have tribulation.

00:54:16

But I'm so glad that's only part A of this verse.

00:54:19

He goes on to say right after that:

00:54:21

But take heart, for I have overcome the world.

00:54:23

See, when you follow Jesus,

00:54:25

it isn't that you will have a trouble free life.

00:54:27

It's that trouble doesn't get the last word.

00:54:30

Fear doesn't get the last word.

00:54:32

Grief doesn't get the last word.

00:54:33

Difficulty doesn't get the last word.

00:54:35

But it doesn't mean you won't have challenges.

00:54:40

And so Jesus is inviting us to a different way

00:54:42

to be yoked differently to him.

00:54:45

And if I were to summarize it, I would say it this way.

00:54:47

What Jesus says is we find peace,

00:54:49

we find peace when we let Jesus reset our pace.

00:54:53

That's what Jesus wants to do.

00:54:55

He wants to reset your pace.

00:54:57

I'm so glad he doesn't want to just fix your calendar.

00:55:00

I'm so glad he doesn't want to

00:55:02

just deal with your social media uses.

00:55:04

No, he wants your whole life.

00:55:07

He wants to give you rest for your souls.

00:55:10

So hear again these words of Jesus is an invitation.

00:55:13

Again, we just dwelling on these same beautiful words

00:55:16

over and over again.

00:55:17

Jesus says: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,

00:55:21


00:55:24

Notice he doesn't say you'll work for it.

00:55:26

He says, I will give you rest.

00:55:29


00:55:31

for I am gentle and lowly in heart --

00:55:33

And you will conjure up rest for your souls?

00:55:37

You will engineer rest for your souls?

00:55:40

You will muscle your way to rest for your souls?

00:55:42

No, you will find rest for your souls.

00:55:46


00:55:50

I love Jesus and I love his heart for us.

00:55:54

Jesus isn't shaming you for being anxious.

00:55:57

He's not somewhere with his arms folded in disappointment

00:56:00

because you just don't have enough faith to figure it out.

00:56:03

No, you know what? His arms are open.

00:56:05

And his invitation is actually practically begging,

00:56:07

"Would you just link up with me?

00:56:11

Would you bring all the fullness of all your life

00:56:13

and all the things that are out of control,

00:56:15

would you bring all of that to me?

00:56:17

Because my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

00:56:21

See, there was a second definition

00:56:22

of that word yoke in Jesus's day.

00:56:25

Not only did it apply to the animals that we saw earlier,

00:56:27

the oxen, but spiritual guides in Jesus's day

00:56:32

would say my way of following God is my yoke.

00:56:36

So there was this group of people called the Pharisees,

00:56:38

who thought the way to follow God was to try

00:56:40

to keep all the rules and judge all the people who don't.

00:56:43

And they had what was called the yoke of the Pharisees.

00:56:46

Hey, you want to follow God? Do it my way.

00:56:48

Read the Torah the way that I interpret it.

00:56:51

Do the spiritual practices the way that I do.

00:56:53

And if you read chapter 11,

00:56:55

this is the end of chapter 11 when Jesus says these words,

00:56:57

he's been railing against the yoke of the Pharisees

00:57:00

for the whole chapter.

00:57:01

He's saying their yoke is a broken yoke.

00:57:03

It's not a good yoke. You need a better yoke.

00:57:08

"So come to me," he says,

00:57:10

"because my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

00:57:15

I think it's why I love this translation,

00:57:16

actually, a paraphrase of Jesus's words

00:57:20

from the Message version of the Bible

00:57:21

was written by a pastor, Eugene Peterson,

00:57:23

who puts it this way. He says:

00:57:24

Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion?

00:57:29

Come to me, Jesus says, get away with me

00:57:32

and you'll recover your life.

00:57:34

I'll show you how to take a real rest.

00:57:37

Walk with me and work with me.

00:57:39

Watch how I do it.

00:57:41

It's probably my favorite line.

00:57:42

Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

00:57:45

I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you.

00:57:48

Keep company with me

00:57:49

and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

00:57:53

This is what Jesus is offering a free and light life

00:57:57

in the midst of your real life.

00:57:59

This isn't pie in the sky,

00:58:00

you're ignoring the reality of difficult things,

00:58:03

it's that you've got something that transcends that

00:58:05

because you're yoked to Jesus.

00:58:07

I had a unique experience a couple of weeks ago,

00:58:09

unique for me. Hadn't done it before.

00:58:11

I got to do iron forging.

00:58:13

Has anybody ever done that, iron forging,

00:58:16

like blacksmith stuff? It was cool.

00:58:18

It was hot, actually, but it was really cool.

00:58:21

And, um, man, when I'm in an environment like that,

00:58:24

I'm always trying to learn, like,

00:58:26

what does this have to do with life principles

00:58:29

or even spiritual principles?

00:58:31

And I got some powerful connections

00:58:33

as I had this experience.

00:58:34

I think we have a picture of me at that experience.

00:58:37

[laughter]

00:58:41

Well, it's not exactly what I look like,

00:58:44

but that's what I felt like working with metal.

00:58:46

That's what I felt like.

00:58:47

This is what I actually looked like.

00:58:49

But I remember being there.

00:58:52

I remember being there and, the guy

00:58:54

gave us some instruction before we started.

00:58:56

He was like, "Hey, you're going to have hot metal.

00:58:58

You're going to be banging on the anvil."

00:59:00

He said, "Let me tell you something,

00:59:01

when you hold that hammer, do not grip it tightly.

00:59:04

Do not grip it tightly,

00:59:05

because metal against metal has a rebound effect.

00:59:08

And I've had a lot of people

00:59:09

get that hammer right in their forehead.

00:59:12

So you want to hold it loosely when you're hammering."

00:59:16

And I thought about that and I'm like, man,

00:59:18

anything I've ever learned in the physical realm,

00:59:21

that principle always applies.

00:59:24

I went rappelling for the first time,

00:59:26

kind of going down ropes down a mountain,

00:59:27

did that at Red River Gorge some years ago.

00:59:29

And I'll never forget, they give you

00:59:31

these thick gloves because, you know,

00:59:32

you can get rope burns.

00:59:33

And they said, "Hey, but here's the way

00:59:35

to not get rope burns.

00:59:36

Resist the temptation to grip the rope tightly

00:59:39

while you're going down a rope,

00:59:41

or else it's going to burn your hands."

00:59:43

And they're right.

00:59:45

You might want to ask how I know that.

00:59:48

I'll let you figure that out.

00:59:50

What I had to learn in rappelling was

00:59:52

the best way to repel is you're using the rope as a guide.

00:59:56

Great, but you really want to sit back

00:59:58

and trust the belayer down at the bottom

01:00:00

who is supporting your weight.

01:00:02

That's really the way to do that.

01:00:03

When I learned how to ride a motorcycle,

01:00:05

you do not want a death grip your handlebars.

01:00:09

You actually want to have a little bit of give.

01:00:11

No matter what in the physical realm,

01:00:13

it never is right to grip tightly.

01:00:16

There's no instruction that ever says

01:00:18

grip this thing as tightly as you can.

01:00:20

That never works.

01:00:21

In the physical realm the best way

01:00:23

to approach these things is to release your grip.

01:00:25

And guess what? In the spiritual realm,

01:00:27

the best way to approach your anxiety

01:00:29

is to release your grip.

01:00:31

That's what Jesus is saying in these words to all of us.

01:00:35

Maybe that's why when the Bible

01:00:38

describes Jesus's role in the cosmos,

01:00:40

the whole universe, it says this, it says:

01:00:43

And he is before all things,

01:00:45

and in him all things hold together.

01:00:48

How can we release our grip?

01:00:50

We can release our grip because

01:00:52

there is a God who's gripping everything.

01:00:55

The person yoked to us has a grip on the entire world,

01:00:58

so you don't have to figure out

01:00:59

how to have a grip on your family.

01:01:01

You don't have to figure out

01:01:02

how to have a grip on your finances.

01:01:03

No, you can release your grip

01:01:05

to the one in whom all things hold together.

01:01:09

Maybe that's why when Jesus died on the Cross,

01:01:13

one of his final words in John 19 is it is finished.

01:01:19

Which is actually a financial term.

01:01:22

And what Jesus was saying is the debt has been paid.

01:01:27

So if you think you've got to work your way to God,

01:01:29

friend, it is finished.

01:01:32

If you think you got to be the way to figure out

01:01:34

how your family comes back together,

01:01:36

Jesus would say it is finished.

01:01:39

If you think you gotta be the one to secure your identity

01:01:42

and your worth and how you matter in this world,

01:01:44

Jesus would say it is finished.

01:01:46

Because of his finished work

01:01:48

you and I can release our grip.

01:01:50

We can release our grip.

01:01:55

And it's in releasing our grip that we learn

01:01:57

to live freely and lightly.

01:01:58

So we're going to finish today with a song.

01:02:00

We're going to play this at all of our locations.

01:02:02

And this song is really an opportunity

01:02:04

for you to do business with God.

01:02:06

As you listen to these words,

01:02:07

I want to give you an invitation.

01:02:09

And here's the invitation.

01:02:11

What is the thing you're gripping most tightly right now?

01:02:15

What is the thing in your life

01:02:16

that you are holding on to for dear life?

01:02:20

If during this song you want to say to Jesus,

01:02:23

"Jesus, I want to release my grip,"

01:02:25

I'm going to ask you to just do that.

01:02:26

I'm not going to prompt you when,

01:02:28

I'm not going to tell you how,

01:02:29

but if at some point you want to communicate to Jesus,

01:02:31

"Jesus, I want to release this to you,"

01:02:34

just want to ask you to open your hands.

01:02:36

For some of us, maybe we're releasing something

01:02:39

that we've released many times before,

01:02:41

but we need to release it again.

01:02:44

Maybe for some of you,

01:02:45

this is a first act of surrender to Jesus.

01:02:49

Maybe today you've heard something that's like, huh?

01:02:51

I hadn't thought about

01:02:52

a relationship with Jesus in this way.

01:02:54

I thought it was just about religious rules.

01:02:56

But what you're saying, Chuck, is it's about relationship.

01:02:58

It's about him actually helping me to make sense of my life.

01:03:01

And I can give that to him

01:03:03

and I can experience something through him

01:03:05

in that relationship. Yes.

01:03:06

That's what Jesus's invitation is.

01:03:08

And so maybe today, as you open your hands,

01:03:09

it's a first act of surrender to Jesus,

01:03:12

and man, if that's you,

01:03:13

if this is your first act of surrender,

01:03:15

can I encourage you, wherever you are,

01:03:18

to connect with a prayer volunteer before you leave

01:03:20

so that they can just walk you through that choice

01:03:23

and how to continue to follow that.

01:03:24

I want to encourage you to keep coming around here

01:03:26

and keep being a part of this community,

01:03:28

because we're all on the journey of learning

01:03:30

how to release our grip

01:03:32

to the one who holds everything

01:03:35

and promises that when we link up to him,

01:03:38

he will bring rest to our souls.

01:07:12

- I want to leave you with one tool to take in your pocket.

01:07:15

And actually, you can literally have it in your pocket

01:07:17

if you want this prayer that we're about to finish with,

01:07:20

you can tap the sticker in front of you

01:07:22

and you'll also get access to that.

01:07:24

It's a prayer from Saint Patrick.

01:07:27

Yes, the, the patron saint of Ireland and green beer.

01:07:30

He was actually a deeply faithful man, follower of Jesus.

01:07:34

And he has a prayer that's been known

01:07:35

as Saint Patrick's Breastplate.

01:07:37

Think of it as a protective prayer

01:07:39

that you can take with you

01:07:40

in the times when life starts lifing again.

01:07:43

Because I know once you leave here,

01:07:44

life's going to start lifing again.

01:07:46

But this is a prayer that I found strength in

01:07:48

and for many centuries so have many others.

01:07:50

I invite you to stand and we're going to finish

01:07:53

by praying this prayer together.

01:07:57

Pray these words with me.

01:08:00

Jesus with me.

01:08:02

Jesus before me.

01:08:05

Jesus behind me.

01:08:07

Jesus in me.

01:08:10

Jesus beneath me.

01:08:12

Jesus above me.

01:08:14

Jesus on my right.

01:08:17

Jesus on my left.

01:08:19

Jesus when I lie down.

01:08:22

Jesus when I sit down.

01:08:25

Jesus when I arise.

01:08:28

Simple. Powerful.

01:08:30

Take it with you and find rest for your souls.

01:08:33

Bless you guys. We will see you next weekend.

01:08:37

- Man, I love that call out

01:08:38

when life starts lifing again

01:08:40

we want to be reminded that God is there,

01:08:42

that he's faithful,

01:08:43

and that he's got peace to bring in place of anxiety.

01:08:47

That that's a trade and an exchange he's looking to make.

01:08:49

Man, I'm thankful for Chuck's vulnerability,

01:08:52

his authenticity, and that he sort of paves the way

01:08:56

for us to not stay stuck in anxiety,

01:08:58

but move into greater levels of peace.

01:09:00

That's the goal, and if we can help with that in any way,

01:09:03

I mean, like we personally, but also we Crossroads,

01:09:06

we'd love to do that.

01:09:07

If you go to Crossroads.net,

01:09:08

you can hit the prayer button.

01:09:10

Myself or a member of my small team

01:09:12

would love to connect with you and pray for you

01:09:14

about whatever you're going through.

01:09:15

- Yeah, yeah. And if you've enjoyed this series

01:09:18

and you want some tools to just help you slow down

01:09:22

or just keep you coming to Jesus,

01:09:23

or even just handing over the burdens

01:09:26

and the anxieties that, you know, Chuck was talking about.

01:09:30

You can text the word "more" to 301301.

01:09:35

And what you'll find, there'll be a page

01:09:37

called the be still page.

01:09:39

And there's a prayer experience that you can go through.

01:09:42

You can listen to that prayer

01:09:44

that we just prayed with Saint Patrick.

01:09:46

And so it's available to you online.

01:09:49

- Yeah. And as I mentioned earlier,

01:09:50

we have all kinds of groups starting next week.

01:09:53

And I specifically want to call out online host groups.

01:09:55

If you're watching this online, this is for you.

01:09:58

You might have looked at the groups tool,

01:09:59

all the different offerings and made a little overwhelmed.

01:10:02

You're like, man, I don't know

01:10:03

if these people are cool or not.

01:10:04

Well, we have kind of solved that for you.

01:10:07

We've got online host groups.

01:10:08

These are people that, you know,

01:10:10

that you've seen on this broadcast

01:10:12

that are a part of the Crossroads Anywhere staff team

01:10:14

who are leading these things, like Jen Meade,

01:10:16

who you often see. I'm not leading one this semester,

01:10:18

but I did the previous. These are great groups.

01:10:21

And if you're like, man, I don't got time

01:10:22

to drive someplace and do it.

01:10:24

Hey, it's all online, so you can do it

01:10:26

whether you're traveling,

01:10:27

no matter where you live around the country.

01:10:29

Now, we talked about next weekend,

01:10:31

and I don't want to spoil the surprise

01:10:34

or make it like reveal too much.

01:10:36

But next weekend is like, just, it's going to be amazing.

01:10:40

God's done something cool through Crossroads

01:10:42

where we are just able to articulate things

01:10:44

in a way that, at least for me and I know many others,

01:10:47

has changed the way we experience our faith.

01:10:49

And I want that for you too, particularly around identity,

01:10:52

because so much, so much of how we experience life

01:10:55

stems and flows out of how we experience our identity

01:11:00

given by God or not.

01:11:01

So join next week. It's going to be awesome.

01:11:04

Talk about Crossroads live coming up.

01:11:05

- Yes, we're on a mission, the church is on a mission,

01:11:08

and you've probably heard ten cities in ten years.

01:11:12

And so the next big mission for Crossroads

01:11:15

is seeing what God has in store in Cleveland.

01:11:18

So there's going to be a Crossroads live event

01:11:21

in Cleveland September 12th.

01:11:24

- Live worship, live teaching.

01:11:26

- Yes, an exact similar service as what you see online,

01:11:30

but in person in Cleveland.

01:11:32

And so make sure you, if you know someone

01:11:35

that lives in Cleveland or you know someone that's close,

01:11:38

let them know, let them know to pull up and show up.

01:11:41

Also September 12th, Woman Camp is coming up

01:11:45

this upcoming weekend.

01:11:47

And so this is the last chance to register.

01:11:50

And so if you are someone who's just searching,

01:11:54

searching for connection or community

01:11:56

or just a way to grow with Jesus,

01:11:59

and you're just a woman that is looking to follow God.

01:12:05

Woman Camp is for you.

01:12:07

And so register this upcoming weekend before it happens.

01:12:11

- Yep. Head to camps.us for that.

01:12:12

Guys, thank you so much for joining us.

01:12:14

We will see you next week on Crossroads.

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