What Does it Mean to Be Sifted? | How The Biggest Tests Can Shape Your Identity

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- Well hey everybody, welcome to Crossroads.

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We are so glad that you are here.

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- Here's the truth we're leaning into today:

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The future you is being built right now,

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one decision at a time.

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Not someday, not when life slows down, but right now.

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- Yeah. But before we get to our teaching,

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I want to celebrate what happened yesterday

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when more than 4500 people from Crossroads

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jumped in for Go Day, building a better future

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by serving their cities and neighborhoods

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where we repaired, landscape, cleaned, served,

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and generally showed up for others.

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- And across Anywhere, hundreds of you

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around the globe, in over 11 states,

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five different countries served your neighbors

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and became the church right where you live.

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- Yeah. Because when we serve,

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we're not just doing a good thing.

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It's actually allowing God to form us

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into a different kind of person,

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the kind of person who doesn't just say that we care,

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but who actually goes, sometimes with rake and mulch.

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- Yeah. And to anyone who gave your time,

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your energy, your muscles, your sweat, your prayers.

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- That part of your back that you didn't know

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that can hurt and now does. Yes.

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- Thank you.

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- Hey, as we begin this series, Future You,

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let's start with one decision that shapes us daily:

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it's worship. So turn up your volume.

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Let's devote our full attention to God

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as we worship and sing together right now

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using these songs to connect with God.

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- Come on, let's worship together.

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- Some big words to say, to say count me in, God,

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for what You have planned.

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It's a big statement, and I don't take it lightly.

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In fact, it's words that encourage me, that help me,

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that push me along in this faith walk

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and in this journey, because that's what it is.

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It's an adventure with You. It's a daily walk.

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It's a daily stepping toward You.

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And every time I say, count me in, God,

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it's a meaning behind it.

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Every time I say count me in, it's me saying,

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God, show me Your way so that I can walk in it.

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Would You help us to do that today?

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

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I love worshiping the Lord in this room together.

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Hey, we're one big family, y'all.

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Why don't you find a couple people around you,

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maybe 2 or 3. If you don't know them,

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give them a high five, tell them your name,

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and then you can have a seat. Yeah.

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Hey, if you're new around here,

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one thing you'll quickly start to know is that

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this is a real place with real people.

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And we're in a series where we're talking all about

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how what we do today is important

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for the future version of us.

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And we get a little bit of a glimpse into that

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when we hear stories, stories like Ty's.

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- This was my escape, man.

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This was I mean, the casino was where I lived

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just two blocks away and was able to, you know,

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come here as I wanted to and from work sometimes.

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I'd leave work early, a few hours, come here

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and then easily just jaunt home afterwards.

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But you don't really realize that you have a problem

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or that it's -- That it's that bad,

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until somebody points it out to you.

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I've always been compulsive, even from a young age,

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I had a -- I struggled with pornography like very young.

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And I would just compulsively like eat.

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I knew it was wrong and it was actually something

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probably really destroying me, but I couldn't stop.

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And that led so much to like so much self-hatred.

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I had major example of rejection in my life

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of people that really cared for me.

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And I was scared of that for most of my life after that,

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that I didn't want to be vulnerable.

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Gambling was kind of a culture thing within my family.

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Like aunts and uncles would go to the casino

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and have fun. We would play, have poker nights.

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I ended up moving close to the casino in Cincinnati,

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eventually became a place that I went to a lot

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and I didn't tell anyone.

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I wanted to skirt away from a responsibility

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and put everything on the turn of a card.

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I, like, was basically playing in a way

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that I was well over my means.

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I did that for a long time before getting caught.

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It's really hard to look back and think

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like what was real and what wasn't,

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because I was lying to everyone and myself.

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But from what I can kind of gather at the ATM

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at the casino, when I ran out of money

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and I went to go get more, I fat fingered it

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and I hit checking instead of savings.

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It was a couple days later that, um, my wife said,

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"Hey, what, what's this withdrawal in the bank account?"

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And I, in the moment, I felt so panicked.

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So I came up with this lie of like,

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"Oh, I bought a new golf club."

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And she, she just kind of said,

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"I think maybe you need to look at

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what you're trying to accomplish

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through something like that."

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And ultimately, she was kind of saying,

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"You're compulsive."

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My therapist kind of shared with me,

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"You need to figure out what is compelling you

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to do these things, what are you feeling in the moment?

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What are you going to do about it?"

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And I was able to abstain from gambling

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for almost a year and a half.

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And that was like daily check ins with people.

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And it was really important that I asked them

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and show them my whole self.

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I remember saying to all of them,

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for the first time in my life,

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I feel fully known and like I don't have anything hidden.

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And it felt amazing.

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Ultimately, I relapsed.

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I got found out again by my wife.

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It was devastating..

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My wife ultimately gave me an ultimatum.

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There were a few things, but one of them was

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you have to go to a Gamblers Anonymous meeting.

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It's easy to look back and think God was silent.

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I know He wasn't. I just ignored.

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I ignored Him a lot.

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I know the road that I was on was leading to destruction,

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and it almost did.

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Because when I relapsed, 100%,

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there was no other alternative.

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I thought for sure, the best thing for your family

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right now is life insurance.

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The worst thing I could have done for my kids

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is hurt myself or take any -- take their dad.

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But at the time, I'm so steeped in shame and self-loathing.

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I have hope now because I am making

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the character changes that have come from

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my suffering and perseverance.

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One of the things for Gamblers Anonymous

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is the paying back of our debts.

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I'm driving rideshare on the weekends,

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and I'm doing this now so that in 5-7 years from now

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I can look back and say

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I don't have anything attached to my previous life.

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Previously, I don't think I actually believed

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that God would accept me for who I am.

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Now I believe the thing God's God says:

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I'm chosen, worthy, accepted, worth dying for.

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You know what I don't have is a date

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for when I stopped my self-hatred.

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And I really wish I did, in a way.

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But maybe that's a -- I don't know,

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maybe that's a beautiful thing that

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I can just sit confidently now and know like, I like me.

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- Man, I love that video.

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Ty is a good friend of mine, and I love how

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God wants all of us to be moving towards

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more health and more healing.

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It actually reminds me of a conversation I had

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a few weeks ago with people literally

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on a different continent, through a translator

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and different language people in our Anywhere Community.

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I just asked them why Crossroads

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and their answer was so simple.

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They said because here I don't have to pretend

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that I'm perfect, that I can be myself.

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And then they said, secondly,

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and because Crossroads doesn't just talk

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about helping people, they actually go and serve.

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- And if you're new around here,

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that's what we hope you see today.

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We hope Ty's story helps you believe we can bring --

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You can bring your real self here,

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not the I'm totally fine version, but the real you.

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And we hope that Go Day helps you to see that

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we take Jesus seriously too when He tells us

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to love and to serve people.

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We're trying to be a church that doesn't just talk

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about faith, but we actually live it.

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- Yeah, that's actually exactly why

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we're pursuing something we call 10X.

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10x is our pursuit of a God sized vision

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to help spark spiritual awakening in our world.

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It started with a bold financial commitment in 2024,

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and it's still growing today.

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- 10x is a massive vision with work that will take a decade.

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And it'll take us all over the world.

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But one of the goals within it is to have

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a Crossroads site in ten cities in ten years.

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And why? Because there's stories like Ty's

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and other people who need a place

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where they can come and be real and get freedom.

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- Yeah, we actually just took a big step forward

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through Crossroads Church Live.

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These were one night events designed to bring

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Crossroads into new cities.

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And we launched the first two in Indianapolis

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and Detroit, and honestly, it was incredible.

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- These people didn't show up for a one time event.

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They're actually getting a community.

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They're joining groups, and they're praying for

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what God has for them and for their cities.

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- Yeah. And all of this is possible

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because of generosity.

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Now we are about halfway through

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this three year commitment that many, many

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in our community made above and beyond

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their normal tithe as a part of the 10X commitment.

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And if you've already jumped in,

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we just want to say thank you.

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You are helping build the kind of church

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that reaches people we may never meet

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in cities that we may never live in.

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- Yeah. And if you haven't jumped in yet,

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there's still room for you.

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You can learn more and give at Crossroads.net/give.

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But before we move on, we want to talk about

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one more really practical way that

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you can stay connected all summer long.

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- Yeah. That's right.

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Because summer, it changes your schedule. Right?

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It explodes your routines.

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Vacations happen. Random holidays.

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And suddenly dinner's at 9:30 p.m.

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everyone is damp and nobody knows where their swimsuits are.

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And everything's just chaos.

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But some are changing your schedule

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doesn't have to mean losing your spiritual rhythms.

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Check out the Crossroads Anywhere app.

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You can download it anywhere.

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Take it with you everywhere you go.

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And we want to jump in with today.

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Brian Tome, our Senior Pastor, is going to be speaking today.

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Our spiritual board of directors asked him,

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as he continues on his extended leave of absence,

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to come and share with us

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some of what God is showing him right now.

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- Thank you, but not necessary. Thank you very much.

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All right. So are you ready? All right, I'm ready.

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I'm going to talk in a little bit

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about my journey over the last ten weeks,

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what's been happening.

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But know I'm only going to do that because

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I think these are transferable principles

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to what God is doing in our church, in you.

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And if you're a first day today, hey,

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for one day anyway, you're part of our church.

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So welcome to Crossroads.

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So let's pray before I get into stuff

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I think God has for us today.

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God, I'm thankful to be with these great people,

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great friends, great brothers, great sisters,

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great ministry partners, great all the above.

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I'm asking that You would visit us by Your Spirit

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in a special and profound way today,

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You would give me the right words

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to meet these right people at the right time.

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And You would bring us to a new place

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as individuals and as a church.

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And I pray these things according to the character

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and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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Well, arguably the most respected pastor,

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at least of my lifetime, is a guy

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who is an author of many, many books

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and founded a great church in New York City.

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His name is Tim Keller. Fantastic guy.

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He died a few years ago.

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I had the opportunity to spend time with Tim

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on a couple different occasions.

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He and his wife, Cathy are just really, really brilliant.

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Tim believed, and he was working on a book

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that he never got finished. I'm hoping

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his wife picks it up and finishes it.

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That he believed that the modern day apologetic

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was identity.

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Now let me explain what that is.

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Apologetic means a way that you engage people

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with something you believe.

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That's what apologetic is.

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And the way you engage people with the gospel

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through the ages has been different.

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The gospel never changes,

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that God's identity becomes your identity,

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that Jesus's perfect life becomes your perfect life

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when God looks at you,

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that Jesus's empowerment becomes your empowerment

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because you possess the Holy Spirit.

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That's the gospel. That is good news.

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At any point you can say, yes, I like that.

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At any point today you can do that.

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But the way that certain cultures receive the gospel

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changes based on cultural conditions.

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So when I first came to know Christ, uh, way back when,

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it was about facts and figures,

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it was the belief that the Christian faith

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was grounded by something.

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You could trust the Bible,

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you could trust that Jesus rose from the dead.

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There were books like Evidence that Demands a Verdict

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that was kind of down that pipe.

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And then it transitioned into,

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oh, somewhere in the 2000, uh,

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it turns to compassion ministries

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that when people see how much we love,

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they will be able to receive what we say.

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That's when we, as a church,

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started getting really serious about blessing our communities.

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It wasn't just because the Bible says

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we should love our neighbors as ourselves.

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We were just driven towards that.

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We also recognize at the same time

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by doing that and all of our communities,

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which is why all the thousands of people

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served at your locations this weekend.

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That's fantastic. Way to go. Just fantastic.

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It's the people go, oh, wow, you people love.

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It's the modern day apologetic.

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Okay, okay.

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I have a friend of mine. His name is Chris.

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He's a, yeah, he agrees, he's a gay activist.

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And Chris doesn't come to Crossroads,

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but he loves our church.

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He loves our church.

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Except we talk about sex and he hates it.

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But I talked to him about it.

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I said, "Well, what is it? What do you like?"

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He said, "99% of Crossroads I love."

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And what he's talking about is your people

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that's about loving people, your people,

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it's about blessing people.

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And it makes him open to the gospel

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because that's something to him.

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Now those things are still true for all of us, maybe.

00:28:09

I like the facts and figures, the stability of the faith.

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I like the love and compassion.

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But Tim believed that the modern language was identity.

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Who are you?

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And discovering who you are in Christ.

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Identity is everything today.

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That's why we talk about my truth, my truth, my identity.

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We have identity politics that's all about

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saying who I am and me being --

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A Crossroads this is we knew that the Run Journey

00:28:39

was going to be a massive hit, because it was a way

00:28:42

for you to understand your identity.

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We didn't use those words, but you're loving that.

00:28:46

Oh my race. What's my race? What's my race?

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It's about me. What am I doing? I race.

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We would do things like in the past,

00:28:52

the thrive line to map out your life.

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And people get so fixated about that.

00:28:56

You're like, yeah, Bible. Bible. Bible.

00:28:58

Let me think about me.

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Let me think about all who I am and all that stuff.

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And so Tim believed that speaking the language

00:29:05

of identity was the modern day,

00:29:09

most efficient, apologetic.

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2 Corinthians 5:17 says this:

00:29:13

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

00:29:18

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

00:29:23

I don't believe that Jesus believes in identity politics,

00:29:25

but I do know he believes in identity spirituality.

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And what that means is we come to Jesus,

00:29:32

the gospel, the good news is this:

00:29:34

we come to Jesus, not to get a little extra power

00:29:37

to be more moral.

00:29:39

We don't come to Jesus so that we can overcome

00:29:44

and make up for our problems on Saturday night.

00:29:47

We come to Jesus because we want a new identity.

00:29:50

The old self, the old problems, the old hangups,

00:29:56

the old pains, the old things that define us,

00:30:00

they're dying, they're dead and we become a new creation.

00:30:05

We become Jesus.

00:30:06

God looks at us and He sees Jesus.

00:30:09

That's identity spirituality. Isn't that attractive?

00:30:11

Isn't that good that you could be a new person?

00:30:14

That's amazing. And God sees you that way.

00:30:18

I got a new identity at birth.

00:30:22

I am -- I was born at a very early age

00:30:24

and then I was adopted.

00:30:29

My birth mother gave me up for adoption

00:30:31

and I became a Tome at birth.

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I had that old identity for a moment,

00:30:36

and then I had the new identity Tome.

00:30:37

I struggled, I got to tell you, I really struggle.

00:30:39

I'm glad that I was not adopted in 2026

00:30:43

because the new cool thing to do now with adoption

00:30:46

is you get adopted, a new family keep tabs on

00:30:49

and keep in communication with the birth mother.

00:30:53

That would have been horrible for me,

00:30:54

just horrible for me.

00:30:56

Because when my parents disciplined me,

00:30:58

or I was having a hard time if I was able to say,

00:31:01

"Well, yeah, but if Mother Susan was with me,

00:31:06

I would get this.

00:31:08

Yeah, but my parents are saying that,

00:31:11

but if I was over here..."

00:31:12

If I would be having two identities and split

00:31:15

where it would have been too much for me.

00:31:17

I could not have handled it.

00:31:18

I am a Tome.

00:31:20

I got adopted into the Tome family.

00:31:23

That's my identity, period.

00:31:26

Which is why Jesus says that

00:31:28

we get adopted into the family of God.

00:31:31

Romans 8:15 says this:

00:31:32

For you do not receive the spirit of slavery

00:31:35

to fall back into fear, but you received

00:31:37

the spirit of adoption as sons and daughters.

00:31:41

Meaning spiritually you get adopted into the family of God.

00:31:47

And there's a new love, there's a new acceptance for you,

00:31:49

a higher level of love, a higher,

00:31:51

a higher level empowerment.

00:31:52

You get a new identity.

00:31:55

And the problem is many of us want the old identity.

00:32:00

We want the old thing because we understand it.

00:32:02

We realize what it is.

00:32:06

Our names tell us something about our identity.

00:32:09

I'm a Tome. My identity.

00:32:10

I like nicknames, I give nicknames out a lot.

00:32:13

Nicknames are very important to me,

00:32:14

partially because I just like to laugh and chuckle,

00:32:16

and that's why I give nicknames.

00:32:17

And also it helps me remember names, all that stuff.

00:32:20

So community pastors of Crossroads

00:32:21

are really important to me.

00:32:22

Let me run down through nicknames really, really fast.

00:32:25

Let's go farthest north. We got Vicky Diller.

00:32:27

She is out early. I can't give you --

00:32:29

I can't tell you all these why these nicknames are.

00:32:31

But I like them. Early.

00:32:33

Come a little further south, we go Dayton.

00:32:35

We have Matt Castleman.

00:32:36

If you know him, he's Captain Enthusiasm.

00:32:37

He's always enthusiastic.

00:32:39

Keep coming down, we got Tim at Mason,

00:32:41

Tiny Tim or teeny. He loves that one.

00:32:43

He just -- he just -- he eats it up.

00:32:46

Keep coming in towards the center city.

00:32:47

We got we got Brody at uptown, Brody bunch,

00:32:50

of course he's Brody bunch.

00:32:52

You go out west and you got Steve Tilling,

00:32:54

who's got the most perfect hair. He's Brylcreem.

00:32:56

Go out east, go out east and you've got my daughter

00:32:59

I've known forever and she's had her nickname

00:33:00

I gave her when she was a little girl

00:33:02

with a little bum, Bumble, that's who she is.

00:33:05

And then you got myself or we got, uh, right here

00:33:07

we have we have Greg Mcelfresh, who I know as cheese.

00:33:10

You go down to Florence and we got Vicky Diller.

00:33:13

She's not Vicky Diller -- Caroline Draper,

00:33:15

who is sweet Caroline, if you know,

00:33:17

she's just sweet Caroline.

00:33:18

And then you go down to Lexington, we got my friend

00:33:21

John Gillespie, also previously known as Johnny G.

00:33:23

And now he got a new nickname a while ago

00:33:25

because I went on a motorcycle trip with him.

00:33:27

And it was so frustrating because he rode that bike

00:33:32

like it was a perpetual school zone.

00:33:34

It was so slow. It was it was horrible.

00:33:38

So he is Johnny G. Elementary. That's what he is.

00:33:41

Now --Oh. Uh oh. Uh oh.

00:33:45

Of course, can't forget Andy Reider,

00:33:47

who's our online community pastor

00:33:48

who's just Candy Schneider.

00:33:50

But all of these things, they don't mean anything.

00:33:53

It's just fun for me. It's fun for me.

00:33:56

But Jesus gave nicknames all the time,

00:33:59

and his nicknames were tied to identity.

00:34:02

James and John are known as the Sons of Thunder.

00:34:05

He called them Sons of Thunder.

00:34:07

He saw them like you're blustery people, Sons of Thunder.

00:34:11

His closest friend, or at least

00:34:12

one of his three closest friends, was Peter.

00:34:16

And Peter was -- Peter was known actually

00:34:19

initially as Simon.

00:34:21

His old identity was Simon.

00:34:23

And one day Jesus asked a question,

00:34:25

"Who do people say that I am?"

00:34:26

And everyone's going, "Well,"

00:34:27

no one wants to put their neck out there.

00:34:29

"Well, some people say this, some people say that."

00:34:32

But then He says, "Forget about other people.

00:34:34

How about you, who do you say I am?"

00:34:36

And Peter's the only one who says something.

00:34:38

He says, "I say you're the Christ."

00:34:41

And Jesus says, "Bam! That's exactly right.

00:34:43

In fact, that's a foundational statement you've made

00:34:46

and so from now on, your name

00:34:48

is going to be Petra, which is rock.

00:34:50

You are rock because you just made

00:34:52

a foundational statement and you're going to be

00:34:54

a foundation stone for the future of what I'm going to do."

00:34:56

It's a pretty awesome name, right?

00:34:58

Jesus calls you Rock. It's phenomenal.

00:35:00

Jesus is giving him a new identity,

00:35:05

and now He's going to call Him by his old identity.

00:35:08

And something I'm going to let you know

00:35:09

just about right now. Right now.

00:35:11

See, the problem with my identity or my nicknames

00:35:14

is they're lighthearted and fun,

00:35:17

but Jesus's identities go to the core. They do.

00:35:21

Luke 22:31, and we're going to get into

00:35:23

the meat of what we're looking at today.

00:35:25

Luke 22. This is at the Last Supper,

00:35:28

which is the Last Supper Jesus has with disciples

00:35:30

before He's arrested, tried and crucified.

00:35:33

And they're kind of, disciples are positioning,

00:35:36

trying to get close to Jesus.

00:35:37

They're saying big things.

00:35:38

And Peter's saying stuff like, "Oh, no, I'll never,

00:35:40

I'll never deny You," saying that kind of stuff.

00:35:42

And Peter getssome words from Jesus.

00:35:46

Here's what Jesus says. Verse 31:

00:35:49

"Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you,

00:35:56

that he might have you and sift you like wheat,

00:35:58

but I have prayed that you will have faith and not fail.

00:36:04

And when you have turned,

00:36:07

you will strengthen the brothers."

00:36:13

I met God profoundly in the last ten days.

00:36:16

I want to share with you the story of the most --

00:36:18

The most significant and clear thing God has ever told me.

00:36:23

It's based on this. It's based on this passage.

00:36:25

And it's about the identity, what that is.

00:36:32

Jesus calls Peter by his old name, his old identity.

00:36:38

Let's look at it right here.

00:36:40

Here's the name: Simon, Simon."

00:36:45

This is the old name, the old identity.

00:36:49

When Jesus gives him the name Peter,

00:36:51

"I will call you Peter

00:36:52

and upon this rock I will build my church,"

00:36:55

He never calls him Simon again,

00:36:57

until this moment right here, at least it's never recorded.

00:37:01

That's significant. We'll get to in a moment.

00:37:02

The second name that's a very significant name,

00:37:06

which is actually not a name,

00:37:07

but you may think it's a name is Satan.

00:37:13

Satan is not a name.

00:37:15

We think it's -- It's become a name.

00:37:18

But the evil one goes by a lot of monikers:

00:37:21

evil one, Lucifer, devil, Satan,

00:37:25

Angel of light, all these things.

00:37:27

This is the dominant one, Satan, like you say,

00:37:29

Satan like it's -- It's kind of oogie boogie, right?

00:37:32

Satan. But it's really not. This is not a name.

00:37:35

It's not like Fred or Jose.

00:37:37

In the Hebrew this is three letters

00:37:38

and they construct the word accuser or adversary,

00:37:46

accuser or adversary.

00:37:49

This is what the evil one does, he accuses you and I.

00:37:54

He comes against us.

00:37:56

And what is the most potent thing that he can do

00:37:59

to accuse us? Tap into our old identity.

00:38:03

That's why Jesus says, I believe, "Simon, Simon,"

00:38:07

He's tapping into his old identity.

00:38:10

Now, I mentioned all my nicknames I had for folks.

00:38:12

If I went to somebody, one of them, I said,

00:38:15

"Hey, hey, hey, Vicky." She would go.

00:38:20

If I said, "Tim, can we talk?" He'd go --

00:38:24

Ooh, it turns my relationship like, that's the old identity.

00:38:28

Your parents call you Susie,

00:38:30

and someday they call you Susan, you go.

00:38:36

You know, if my parents would say to me,

00:38:38

Brian Douglas Tome, you know, like, they're like,

00:38:40

now they're talking identity, right?

00:38:42

It's something different than we have.

00:38:44

It's when Jesus says to Peter, "Simon, Simon,"

00:38:50

which is always high intensity, industrial strength

00:38:53

repeating the name twice.

00:38:55

Other times we'll say, "Martha, Martha."

00:38:58

Old school, old school Bible translation

00:39:00

will say things like, verily, verily, I say to you.

00:39:02

Like this is serious.

00:39:06

Simon, Simon, Satan demands to have you

00:39:12

and sift you like wheat.

00:39:15

But I have prayed that you will be faithful.

00:39:22

Last ten weeks have been the hardest ten weeks of my life.

00:39:25

There's never been a harder ten weeks

00:39:26

than I've been through in the last ten weeks.

00:39:29

I'm going to share this because I think

00:39:32

a piece of my story is what God wants you to know

00:39:35

what's happening maybe in your life.

00:39:37

It may not even happen for a long time.

00:39:39

It's been a hard ten weeks now.

00:39:41

It's also, I'm not saying, you know, cry me a river

00:39:45

because it hasn't been that bad.

00:39:46

A lot of you have way, way bigger problems

00:39:48

than I've had the last ten weeks than in your life.

00:39:50

In fact, maybe the reason why it's been

00:39:52

such a hard ten weeks is I've had

00:39:54

a relatively charmed life relatively

00:39:55

the last ten weeks, I don't know.

00:39:57

All I know is it's been horrible, excruciating, pain

00:40:00

and I did it to myself. Okay?

00:40:03

And if you put all my problems out on the table

00:40:05

and everybody else's problems on the table,

00:40:07

I'll take my problems.

00:40:08

I'm not saying my life is worse than anybody's.

00:40:11

But I'm only talking about as far as

00:40:13

it might be able to actually help you.

00:40:16

When you're in pain, when you're suffering,

00:40:21

what happens is we go inward

00:40:25

and we start thinking about ourselves more.

00:40:27

We start thinking about our condition.

00:40:29

And the more you think about yourself,

00:40:31

the more depressed you get,

00:40:33

the more you just start spiraling internally.

00:40:36

And so I know the Bible says pray without ceasing,

00:40:40

but I'm just not going to be on my knees praying

00:40:42

for 24 hours a day.

00:40:45

It says, be in a constant awareness

00:40:47

of God's presence and talking with Him.

00:40:49

So while I am interacting with God a lot

00:40:51

over that, over the last many weeks,

00:40:54

I'm trying to find ways to just distract myself.

00:40:56

Like I got to think of things other than my life.

00:40:58

I can think of things other than what's going off the rails.

00:41:01

One of the things I would do is

00:41:02

I have a project vehicle I've had for a while.

00:41:05

I've kind of taken into overdrive.

00:41:06

It's a 1952 Dodge Power Wagon.

00:41:11

And this thing was really in disrepair,

00:41:13

hadn't driven for decades.

00:41:15

So I'm putting it back together.

00:41:16

And so I've been spending time with it

00:41:18

because I can think about that instead of other things.

00:41:20

And I got a friend of mine who's come over

00:41:22

and helped me a lot. His name is Jeffy.

00:41:24

I know it's a very unimaginative nickname.

00:41:26

I got another one for him,

00:41:27

but I really can't talk about it right now.

00:41:31

So Jeffy would come over

00:41:34

and he knew exactly what he's doing.

00:41:36

He's with a good friend of his,

00:41:37

and he's just trying to be with me so I'm not alone.

00:41:41

So good, so good.

00:41:42

He's just, you know, he's just trying to help out.

00:41:45

And we're over and one time, one day

00:41:46

we're talking about something and I'm --

00:41:48

And I'm laughing about this thing.

00:41:50

We're both laughing as I'm laughing it occurs to me

00:41:53

I know exactly what I'm doing.

00:41:54

I'm trying to distract myself from the pain,

00:41:56

working on a stupid truck.

00:41:58

And now I'm laughing and I'm telling myself,

00:42:00

keep laughing longer because laughter feels better than --

00:42:03

Keep laughing and to distract my mind, I'm laughing.

00:42:06

I go, [laughs then cries]

00:42:09

I start crying. It's ridiculous.

00:42:13

So it's not ridiculous, but it's just where I was.

00:42:15

That day was a very, very hard day.

00:42:18

Later on in that day, I got another piece of hard news.

00:42:23

There's just a lot of things

00:42:24

that had to be taken away for a season

00:42:27

or forever appropriately.

00:42:28

Like there was a -- We had a celebration.

00:42:30

I don't know if you recognize it or not,

00:42:32

but March 24th came and went.

00:42:34

On March 24th Crossroads was 30 years old.

00:42:38

Yeah, it's pretty awesome. 30 years old.

00:42:42

One of the things that we're going to do

00:42:44

I was looking forward to is we said,

00:42:46

let's find out who was a part of Crossroads in 1996

00:42:54

and who is in 2026.

00:42:56

And the easiest way to figure that out

00:42:58

is on the Giving Records, who gave in 1996

00:43:01

and who gave in 2026.

00:43:03

It was 240 people have been part of our church for 30 years.

00:43:08

Seriously, give them give them a hand.

00:43:10

That's unbelievable. Talk about faithfulness.

00:43:13

So I was excited about it.

00:43:15

We're going to take those 240 people,

00:43:17

and then we're going to get a bunch of youngsters,

00:43:19

240 people in the first 30 years,

00:43:21

and a bunch of youngsters

00:43:22

who are going to envision the next 30 years. Right?

00:43:24

I was looking forward to it because I,

00:43:26

during my 60th birthday party,

00:43:27

when I was going to have a 60th birthday party,

00:43:29

but it got canceled because Lib was in chemo

00:43:31

and things just wasn't right to make those decisions.

00:43:33

So that got canceled. It's going to be fine,

00:43:35

but I was going to have people come,

00:43:36

big party just to encourage me

00:43:39

to be faithful my final 10 years.

00:43:41

The 30th birthday celebration wasn't going to be about me,

00:43:46

but I was going to still sort of get some of

00:43:48

that same, like, let's get ready, let's get fired up.

00:43:51

I was surprised that it had been postponed, got postponed.

00:43:55

It was the right decision, when I look back at it.

00:43:57

But in the moment, it really, really,

00:44:00

it really threw me for a loop, I was like,

00:44:02

"Oh man, oh, another, another, another hit here."

00:44:06

When I'm restoring a vehicle,

00:44:08

I got greasy, grimy, sweaty, hot stuff.

00:44:09

So I went up to take a shower and I'm in the shower

00:44:12

and I am just, I'm just lower than a footprint.

00:44:16

And I say to God in the shower, I go,

00:44:18

"God, I feel like I'm Job."

00:44:24

And as soon as I said it, I immediately retracted it.

00:44:27

I said, "I'm sorry, God, I'm sorry. I'm not Job.

00:44:30

My wife hasn't died. My kids haven't died.

00:44:32

I haven't lost all my money.

00:44:34

I don't have boils and zits,

00:44:35

and I'm scraping them off with shards of pottery.

00:44:37

No, I'm sorry, I'm not Job."

00:44:39

And then I heard it, the clearest thing

00:44:41

I've ever heard from God in 45 years,

00:44:43

cut through everything.

00:44:44

He said to me, He said, "You're being sifted."

00:44:49

When He said that, it was

00:44:52

an immediate light change moment for me,

00:44:54

unlike any I had ever experienced before.

00:44:57

Simultaneously, a screen dropped away from my face

00:45:01

and binoculars came up to my face.

00:45:03

Crystal clarity like there was bright colors

00:45:05

I hadn't even noticed before.

00:45:07

I'm noticing moisture on the ceramic tile I'd never --

00:45:11

I hadn't noticed before.

00:45:12

It was like I had X-ray vision. It was crazy.

00:45:15

I knew God spoke to me,

00:45:17

but I didn't really know what was going on.

00:45:19

Because that word you're being -- I'm being sifted,

00:45:22

I knew exactly where it was coming from,

00:45:23

it was coming from this passage we're looking at today,

00:45:27

but I'd never done a deep dive on it.

00:45:28

I had read it in my normal Bible reading plan

00:45:30

for many, many, many times,

00:45:31

but I'd never done a real deep dive on it.

00:45:33

I'd never preached on it.

00:45:34

This is the first time I wasn't planning

00:45:36

on giving a sermon about it,

00:45:37

but after I heard God say that in the shower,

00:45:40

after Lib and I ate, I spent that night going,

00:45:43

"What? What does this mean?

00:45:44

What does this mean I'm being sifted?"

00:45:48

And so this passage here, when Jesus says,

00:45:51

"Simon, Simon,

00:45:52

Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat."

00:45:55

He's talking about his old identity.

00:45:58

When Satan comes at you, his most effective play

00:46:01

is your old identity.

00:46:04

That's how your buttons get pushed.

00:46:06

The person you've always thought yourself to be,

00:46:09

the person that you are proud of being,

00:46:11

the person you were in the first half of your life,

00:46:14

the person that you're comfortable with,

00:46:16

the person that is your truth that you defend,

00:46:18

the person, the old creation, the old creation.

00:46:22

That's his most effective,

00:46:24

that's his most effective thing to do

00:46:27

is come against that.

00:46:28

And so Jesus is saying, "Simon, Simon, your old identity,

00:46:34

he's coming. He's assaulting you."

00:46:35

Here's another one that's really strange to me in this verse.

00:46:38

I don't understand this, but it is what it is.

00:46:41

He's demanded to have you, demanded to have you.

00:46:43

I still don't understand, there's

00:46:45

a lot of things in the Bible I don't understand.

00:46:47

What do you mean demanded?

00:46:49

Like demanded and God said, "Oh, okay.

00:46:51

You demanded, here you go"?

00:46:53

Demanded just got intense. Demanded and God agrees,

00:46:57

"Fine. You can go mess with the guy."

00:46:58

I don't, I don't know, all I know is

00:47:00

Satan is adamant here, "I want this person."

00:47:04

You know Satan wants you.

00:47:08

I mean, he doesn't really want you

00:47:09

because he wants to be in relationship.

00:47:11

He wants you so God can't have you.

00:47:14

He wants you so that the love God has gets trampled,

00:47:17

or at least people think it's gotten trampled.

00:47:21

He wants you on his team, not on God's team.

00:47:24

And he knows the easiest way to do that

00:47:25

is go to your base level team, which is your old identity.

00:47:30

My old identity is that I am an orphan.

00:47:38

And orphans feel like we're alone and we are abandoned.

00:47:43

Orphans feel like we are in an orphanage

00:47:47

and we have got to fight for our porridge.

00:47:50

Orphans feel like they are forgotten.

00:47:52

Orphans feel like they're not worthy.

00:47:54

Orphans feel like they only go forward

00:47:57

if they're successful or if they keep doing better.

00:48:00

And when I read this, I said, "Oh my goodness,

00:48:04

Satan is running the perfect play against me. Perfect."

00:48:07

I, my base identity, my old identity is I am an orphan.

00:48:11

I'm not an orphan because I'm adopted in the family of God.

00:48:15

But I've got that old identity

00:48:17

and this is perfect for him, that's perfect,

00:48:19

perfect play for him.

00:48:22

Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat.

00:48:24

Here's how this works.

00:48:25

Back when human beings used to grow things,

00:48:30

we would grow and that was the core

00:48:32

fundamental staple was wheat.

00:48:34

I know I've really bummed some of you out,

00:48:35

you're glucose -- Glucose intolerant?

00:48:39

Gluten, gluten. Gluten intolerant. Sorry. Gluten.

00:48:41

Yeah, you would have died in the first century.

00:48:43

You're dead. Sorry. You're dead.

00:48:45

You're like, you're weak. You're done. You're dead.

00:48:48

Actually, no, not true.

00:48:49

We have weird, scientifically enhanced wheat here,

00:48:53

and it messes many people up.

00:48:54

And actually, if you ever go over to Germany,

00:48:56

they don't have that, you would love bread.

00:48:58

And you're missing a lot, it's fantastic.

00:49:00

But anyway, back in the old days, back in the old days,

00:49:03

before we had hormones and everything else

00:49:06

jacking up our food supply, they would go out

00:49:08

and they'd bring in all the wheat,

00:49:10

which is the core fundamental food staple

00:49:13

for all humans, for all of history it's been this.

00:49:15

They bring it in and the wheat,

00:49:17

all you're looking is get a little kernel of wheat.

00:49:19

But around it there's a casing that's known as the chaff.

00:49:22

And so they bring it in basically like this.

00:49:24

They put it on what's known as a threshing table,

00:49:26

and they take a pitchfork was one thing they do.

00:49:29

They take it and they beat it.

00:49:31

They beat it and they stick it and they throw it in the air.

00:49:33

And then the wind comes and blows the lighter chaff away,

00:49:37

and the heavier wheat comes down.

00:49:39

And then beats it and sticks and throws it up

00:49:42

and over and over again.

00:49:44

I said, "God, that's exactly what's happening to me.

00:49:47

I'm just getting stuck and beat on

00:49:50

and thrown up in the air and stuck.

00:49:51

And I feel I feel that way."

00:49:53

People aren't intentionally doing that to me,

00:49:55

but this is the way I feel.

00:49:57

It's the perfect, perfect play.

00:50:02

When we don't understand that there is

00:50:04

an evil entity is doing that to you,

00:50:07

you're going to have -- you're going to not --

00:50:09

You're not going to make sense of your life.

00:50:12

Andrew Delbanco, a number of years ago wrote,

00:50:15

he's a professor at Columbia University.

00:50:17

Definitely not a believer.

00:50:18

I don't think he even believes in God.

00:50:20

But he wrote a book called The Death of Satan,

00:50:22

where he was lamenting that as our culture

00:50:25

has become more enlightened, he's lamenting this,

00:50:27

we've become more enlightened, ideas like Satan

00:50:31

just aren't tasteful to us anymore.

00:50:33

They sound ridiculous.

00:50:34

We've kind of gotten rid of Satan.

00:50:36

It's the death of Satan.

00:50:38

And his thing is, therefore we've lost

00:50:41

an understanding of evil.

00:50:44

We don't understand how to categorize evil

00:50:46

because we've killed evil as a concept.

00:50:48

If we just educate everybody,

00:50:49

everyone will be nice and happy.

00:50:51

So when there's a mass school shooting,

00:50:53

when someone has put Satan to death,

00:50:55

they think they have, it doesn't exist.

00:50:57

"Oh my gosh, what happened?

00:50:58

Oh, is this horrible? How could this happen?"

00:51:01

The rest of us go, "What do you mean how could this happen?"

00:51:03

John 10:10 says the thief, Satan, this is Jesus,

00:51:06

comes to steal, kill and destroy.

00:51:08

What? Why do we keep being surprised by this?

00:51:10

Why are you surprised by this? That's weird.

00:51:12

You fight against it, work against it.

00:51:14

But like, I know exactly why evil exists.

00:51:15

I know exactly why pain exists.

00:51:17

His name is Satan. He's the destroyer.

00:51:20

It's what he does.

00:51:21

And Daniel Delbanco was saying

00:51:22

we can't cope with the problems in our culture

00:51:24

because we've stamped out

00:51:25

this foundational bedrock concept that's been

00:51:28

really a part of all civilizations,

00:51:30

or darn near close to all of them.

00:51:34

You have got to know, friends, I'm telling you right now,

00:51:36

you have got to know there is a personal force

00:51:39

who is trying to push your buttons.

00:51:42

And he knows the most effective means

00:51:44

is to play into your old identity,

00:51:47

whatever that old identity is,

00:51:50

to assault that identity.

00:51:53

Check this out: Simon. Simon, behold,

00:51:55

Satan has demanded to have you that he might sift you.

00:51:59

You. I don't know why my stuff keeps -- you.

00:52:03

You like wheat. This is in the plural.

00:52:06

This is the plural.

00:52:08

In other words, all the disciples are getting sifted.

00:52:12

All of them.

00:52:14

When I hear this word from God, you're being sifted,

00:52:17

He ain't talking only about me.

00:52:19

All of y'all, I think that's how the Bible puts it, all y'all.

00:52:26

See all disciples getting sifted.

00:52:27

All of them are being sifted

00:52:29

and all according to their old identity.

00:52:35

Simon's being sifted his old identity.

00:52:38

Thomas. Thomas, you know, we know is Doubting Thomas.

00:52:43

He's the guy who said, you know,

00:52:44

unless I put my fingers in Jesus's wounds,

00:52:47

I don't believe He rose from the dead.

00:52:48

That's his whole identity is doubting.

00:52:50

And what do you know? What do you know?

00:52:52

He eventually recaptures his new identity, Thomas does.

00:52:55

And he writes a book about saying, I think I can,

00:52:58

I think I can.

00:53:00

And Thomas goes up the hill because he has faith.

00:53:03

He has faith.

00:53:05

All of them are being sifted in different ways.

00:53:07

Judas. Judas was being sifted. Judas failed.

00:53:10

When I grew up in a sort of a a liberal mainline church.

00:53:15

Judas was everyone gave Judas pity.

00:53:18

They said, "Well, Judas. Judas was a really good guy."

00:53:20

Judas, he just was really disheartened

00:53:24

that Rome was enslaving the Jews.

00:53:27

And he thought Jesus could right that wrong.

00:53:30

So he was just kind of pushing His hand

00:53:32

that Jesus would call down fire and free His people.

00:53:35

And he just was misled.

00:53:37

Uh, sorry. No, that's not what the Bible teaches.

00:53:39

Jesus calls him a son of perdition, meaning,

00:53:41

and he said it'd be better if he wasn't actually born

00:53:43

for his future, his future history.

00:53:45

And the Bible is very clear as to why he did it.

00:53:48

He had an old identity.

00:53:49

You know, his old identity was? It was money.

00:53:52

It was money and greed.

00:53:54

How he gets to run the treasury box is beyond me.

00:53:59

I hate to say Jesus made a mistake on that one

00:54:00

because he doesn't make any mistakes,

00:54:02

but there's something else going on there.

00:54:05

So why did Judas, why did Judas betray Jesus with a kiss?

00:54:08

Because his old identity was all about money,

00:54:11

and he found he could sell Him out for pieces of silver.

00:54:13

It's that simple.

00:54:15

Your biggest vulnerability with Satan

00:54:20

and getting away from God

00:54:22

is him knowing what your old identity.

00:54:24

And you have one, it is there,

00:54:26

and it's always talking all the time.

00:54:29

Sometimes there's an identity assault

00:54:31

where the evil one comes at us.

00:54:32

Sometimes there's an identity drift where we know,

00:54:35

we know, we know I'm not an orphan,

00:54:38

but over time we just kind of drift away from it, right?

00:54:41

In business, there's what we know as vision drift.

00:54:43

This is what our core business is.

00:54:45

But then over time, well, we make some --

00:54:47

We make some accommodations, we do some mergers.

00:54:50

We forget what the thing is.

00:54:52

In churches, there's vision drift.

00:54:54

Church starts saying, "Man, we were here about,

00:54:56

about, uh, blessing the world.

00:54:58

We're here about the Great Commission.

00:55:00

We want to change the world."

00:55:01

And then and then there's vision drift and it becomes,

00:55:03

"Well, we just want 5% more than we had last year,

00:55:06

and we want to pay our bills and have good music."

00:55:11

No one starts a church for that reason,

00:55:13

but it's vision drift.

00:55:15

And the vision for your life, you will always,

00:55:18

unless you're aware of this fight,

00:55:19

you will always drift to your old identity

00:55:21

instead of walking in the newness

00:55:24

of the new identity God has given you.

00:55:26

This is the gospel.

00:55:27

He doesn't define you by what you were.

00:55:30

He doesn't want an improved version of you.

00:55:33

You know, He he wants a new you, that is the new creation.

00:55:37

He gives you a new name.

00:55:39

Friends, this is good news.

00:55:40

And you don't seem very happy about this.

00:55:42

You're like --

00:55:43

[applause]

00:55:47

[mumbling] Oh, I hadn't thought about that before.

00:55:55

To illustrate this more, there was an article

00:55:57

in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago

00:55:59

where they talked about the GLP-1 drugs,

00:56:01

the weight loss drugs, the Olympic

00:56:03

and what are the other ones called,

00:56:05

uh, Wagyu and Jumanji. Whatever.

00:56:09

Whatever all those things were.

00:56:10

And I have a friend, actually his wife

00:56:13

ran the rollout for one of those weight loss drugs.

00:56:16

And he said the key to theirs was that

00:56:18

they found a lizard on a remote island

00:56:21

that only ate once a month,

00:56:23

and there was an enzyme that they were able to discover.

00:56:26

And they incorporated that enzyme into the drug,

00:56:29

which actually suppresses desire.

00:56:31

So you don't think about eating as much as you do

00:56:34

if you have a problem with food.

00:56:36

And here's the way that The New York Times put it,

00:56:38

for those of us who maybe that's our old identity is food,

00:56:41

and I can't think about it, anything else.

00:56:43

Maybe that's it. They put it this way. They said:

00:56:45

It's like a relentless auctioneer,

00:56:47

"You know there's cake in the kitchen.

00:56:49

Hey, hey, there's cake in the kitchen.

00:56:51

Hey, don't you want the cake in the kitchen?"

00:56:53

It's just constantly, just talk about it.

00:56:55

It's there, it's there, it's there, it's there.

00:56:57

And your old identity is going to do this

00:56:59

on multiple different ways.

00:57:01

If it's money,

00:57:02

everything's going to be a financial decision.

00:57:04

It's money. Mo money, mo money, mo money.

00:57:06

It's going to be everything is going to be filtered with money.

00:57:09

If it's body beautiful and people thinking I'm beautiful,

00:57:11

every decision is based on how this make me look?

00:57:13

Even when I walk in front of the mirror,

00:57:15

if I'm feeling good about myself,

00:57:16

I'm going to look in front of me. Woo-hoo.

00:57:18

If I'm feeling bad about myself,

00:57:19

I'm not looking in the mirror.

00:57:21

I'm not looking in the mirror because my old identity

00:57:23

is constantly, I got to have more clothes.

00:57:25

I gotta have, I got to have the things.

00:57:26

I got to do the lotions, I got to do all this stuff

00:57:29

because that's the identity.

00:57:31

If the identity is an orphan,

00:57:33

I'm always competing with people.

00:57:34

If the identity is, well, whatever it is,

00:57:37

you know what yours is.

00:57:38

Hopefully I'm just giving you examples.

00:57:40

It goes through that all the time.

00:57:42

And that is part of why,

00:57:44

if you've been around Crossroads for any length of time,

00:57:46

you've been here for the last ten weeks,

00:57:49

you're reacting to my situation and our situation

00:57:53

as a church different based on your old identity.

00:57:57

So if you've got an old identity that's like,

00:57:59

"Man, megachurch pastors, they've got --

00:58:01

They've got some secret sexual sin.

00:58:03

I know they do. I know they do."

00:58:04

Man, I played right into that, like, a-ha!

00:58:07

And then others of you, you're like, you need --

00:58:10

You've always needed a celebrity.

00:58:12

You've always needed a role model in your life.

00:58:14

And for some of you, I'm that celebrity role model for you.

00:58:17

And now, first of all, sorry,

00:58:20

I never wanted to be your celebrity role model.

00:58:22

His name is Jesus. I'm not taking over His job.

00:58:24

But for some of you, this has been like rocking,

00:58:27

like, "Whoa, whoa, what am I going to do now?

00:58:29

What am I going to do?"

00:58:30

Because the old identity had that, needed that.

00:58:32

For some of you, the old identity is anti-authority,

00:58:34

"Authority is wrong. It's always wrong. It's wrong.

00:58:36

And so the board a-ha, the board sucks.

00:58:39

They don't know what they're doing. They don't know."

00:58:41

Because if that's your old identity, for some of you,

00:58:43

your old identity of money is going,

00:58:45

"How in the world is this place

00:58:47

going to survive financially without the founder?

00:58:49

How is that?" It's all, it's all about money.

00:58:52

If your if your identity is Dudley Do-Right

00:58:54

and Pollyanna pure heart,

00:58:56

and you've never watched anything beyond a rated G movie,

00:58:59

amazing you're here at Crossroads, amazing.

00:59:02

But if that's you, if that's you, you're like,

00:59:05

"Wait, the guy did what with the riding crop?"

00:59:08

Like boom, like, you know, gone.

00:59:10

There's not probably much grace there

00:59:12

because the old identity would have none for that.

00:59:15

Now again, Satan here, this is not --

00:59:19

This is not a name. It's a job description.

00:59:23

It's what he does. It's what he does.

00:59:26

And he says to Peter, and when you turn,

00:59:29

when you turn, when you turned,

00:59:32

when you repent, when you repent.

00:59:34

By the way, the first you is plural,

00:59:37

the second one, the second one is singular.

00:59:42

The disciples are getting sifted.

00:59:44

But Peter, "I'm making it real personal for you.

00:59:46

I need you to be faithful."

00:59:47

All of Crossroads is being sifted to one degree or another,

00:59:51

but you got to take this as personal.

00:59:53

Everything in your life, you got to take it personal.

00:59:55

You got to stop being upset about

00:59:58

the unfaithfulness of somebody who you might know

01:00:00

and start being more upset about your own faithfulness.

01:00:02

You can't control somebody else's faithfulness.

01:00:04

You can control your faithfulness.

01:00:06

And this is why Jesus says to them,

01:00:07

"I'm praying for you, you,"

01:00:10

and He is praying for you right now.

01:00:12

He's interceding before the Father for you right now

01:00:15

that you will be faithful.

01:00:18

And what does that mean? When we turn,

01:00:20

when we turn away from the old identity, we turn away,

01:00:27

He'll use us in a new and powerful way.

01:00:32

Here's the amazing thing about this thing.

01:00:36

Peter, Oh gosh, he's never called Simon again

01:00:40

once he gets his new identity until now.

01:00:43

He's called Simon again the next time

01:00:46

he interacts with Jesus, which is on the beach.

01:00:48

It's kind of like Jesus is redeeming that.

01:00:51

And he gives him a charter, asks him three times,

01:00:53

"Do you love me? Feed my lambs,

01:00:54

feed my sheep, feed my sheep?" Does this thing.

01:00:56

I could make this a whole series.

01:00:58

I don't have time for that.

01:01:00

Then check this out, this is unbelievable.

01:01:02

Unbelievable, unbelievable.

01:01:06

Next time He shows up is in Acts 2.

01:01:08

It's when the Holy Spirit gets dumped on the church,

01:01:12

on people who proclaim Jesus as Savior.

01:01:14

It's when the Holy Spirit no longer

01:01:15

externally empowers some people,

01:01:17

but it's when the Holy Spirit

01:01:19

comes inside of all people in the family of God.

01:01:22

So when God looks at you, if you have the new identity,

01:01:25

He doesn't even see the old you.

01:01:26

He sees Jesus. He sees that identity.

01:01:29

He sees that holiness.

01:01:31

He doesn't even see the garbage you did last night.

01:01:33

He's aware of it, but He doesn't see it.

01:01:34

He sees Jesus. That's the gospel.

01:01:36

You're going that sounds so weird.

01:01:38

I know it sounds weird to you because

01:01:40

your old identity doesn't want you to understand it.

01:01:42

It's the way it is.

01:01:44

You make the turn. Make the turn.

01:01:46

When I made the turn, you got to hear me,

01:01:48

I've heard people say it was really horrible

01:01:49

the board made you do that repentance publicly last week,

01:01:52

or a couple, that was horrible.

01:01:53

Hear me, hear me, hear me.

01:01:55

The other thing God said to me very clearly on week two

01:01:57

was I was to publicly repent.

01:01:59

He told me that, I said, "God?"

01:02:00

Yes. He said, "Yes, I want to give you all the details."

01:02:03

He told me yes.

01:02:04

That was my idea and those were all my words,

01:02:08

unedited by anybody else.

01:02:10

And a lot of people had a problem with it.

01:02:12

You know, people have a problem with me repenting?

01:02:16

People who don't repent. [applause]

01:02:21

You can you can you identify

01:02:24

the last thing you've repented for?

01:02:26

Can you identify the last thing you turn from?

01:02:29

Old identity people never turn for anything.

01:02:31

They just justify where they are.

01:02:32

They just explain where they are.

01:02:34

They never turn from anything.

01:02:37

It's a powerful thing when someone makes a turn.

01:02:39

It's a powerful thing when someone does that.

01:02:41

So Peter has made a turn from this situation.

01:02:45

Jesus has said, check this out.

01:02:48

Jesus has said, and he's heard Him say

01:02:49

on more than one occasion, He says,

01:02:51

"If you deny me before men, I will deny you before God."

01:02:55

Peter is following Jesus,

01:02:57

who's being led away to be tried.

01:03:01

He's following Him and on three different occasions,

01:03:04

last occasion is just bone chilling.

01:03:06

Someone says to him, said, "You.

01:03:08

You're one of His followers. You knew Him."

01:03:10

And Judas goes, "No, I don't. I don't even know the guy."

01:03:15

Jesus hears and he turns, He looks at him.

01:03:18

I just think about that.

01:03:20

One if Jesus closest friends in His worst times,

01:03:24

He hears His friend say, "No, I don't even know Him.

01:03:26

I don't even know the guy."

01:03:28

And simultaneously, you got Peter, when he does that

01:03:30

and he notices what's happened, he goes,

01:03:32

"Oh my goodness, what have I done?"

01:03:34

The level of shame that he would have

01:03:38

falling prey to his old identity.

01:03:43

And then 50 days later, and he knows that Jesus said,

01:03:48

"Deny me before men. I'll deny you before my Father."

01:03:51

And 50 days later, when the Holy Spirit comes down

01:03:53

and dumps on a group of people who become the church,

01:03:56

and people get empowered supernaturally,

01:03:58

and people start speaking languages

01:04:00

they've never learned before,

01:04:01

not to have a cool experience

01:04:03

because God's giving them a new language.

01:04:04

So they can share the good news

01:04:06

with other people of that tongue.

01:04:08

It says there Peter was standing with the 11,

01:04:11

so the all 12 were standing there going.

01:04:14

And they commissioned Peter to speak

01:04:16

and explain what's happening,

01:04:18

because they've heard Jesus talk about the helper coming.

01:04:20

Think about this, 50 days earlier, he's marked to hell.

01:04:26

At least that seemed what Jesus would say.

01:04:29

Man, shoot, man, if someone committed

01:04:31

an adulterous affair,

01:04:32

we wouldn't let them say anything for years.

01:04:34

50 days later, he's denied Jesus publicly,

01:04:38

and now he's the guy who's anointed

01:04:40

to talk about the Holy Spirit.

01:04:42

Why? Because this is the gospel.

01:04:45

[applause]

01:04:47

You or I may need a period of being set down

01:04:52

for healing and stuff, but man, you are not done.

01:04:54

You are only done if your old identity

01:04:56

allows you to say that you are done.

01:04:58

God needs all of His children to be in the game.

01:05:01

He needs all of His children to be used.

01:05:02

He needs all of His children

01:05:04

to be very secure in their identity.

01:05:14

I've just had a heart for the hurting

01:05:19

more than I have in my life because,

01:05:21

you know, I've had some hurting.

01:05:24

And I've wanted to get outside of myself,

01:05:26

like, stop thinking about your stuff, stuff, stuff.

01:05:28

So I'm doing like stuff I hadn't done before.

01:05:30

Like find on Facebook someone who follows me

01:05:33

on Facebook is in the hospital and I'm like,

01:05:36

I haven't made a hospital call for a while.

01:05:37

I have no idea who this person is.

01:05:39

Guy goes to Man Camp I know.

01:05:42

I'm like, I'll make a hospital call.

01:05:43

So I go do a hospital call.

01:05:45

I walk in and they're like.

01:05:48

Because, you know, I've said before,

01:05:50

you don't want me visiting you in hospital

01:05:52

because I'm coming to visit you in the hospital,

01:05:54

you're going to die.

01:05:55

Things are really -- things are really --

01:05:57

Things are really, really bad.

01:05:59

But that's not this situation.

01:06:01

It's kind of minor thing. They're like, woo.

01:06:05

Done marital counseling on the phone with people.

01:06:07

I generally have not liked doing that.

01:06:09

I'm generally not good at that,

01:06:11

but I'm just trying to get outside of myself

01:06:12

because he says to Peter, when you turn,

01:06:15

you'll minister to the brothers.

01:06:18

Once you get secure back in your identity,

01:06:20

God uses you to minister to and bless others.

01:06:23

That's what He wants.

01:06:26

I had a friend who was here at the first service.

01:06:29

His name is Jim.

01:06:31

Met him, played basketball a long time ago

01:06:34

and his son died this last week.

01:06:37

He called me up and he calls me preach.

01:06:40

That's his nickname for me.

01:06:41

And he just cried on the phone, just cried.

01:06:45

And we were talking and crying.

01:06:46

And I said to him, "You know, man,

01:06:48

the crazy thing is, I've never been able

01:06:50

to cry and talk before because

01:06:52

I've never cried enough to learn that skill.

01:06:54

But, you know, the last ten weeks

01:06:56

I've cried enough that I can now figure it."

01:06:57

So we're kind of laughing at that.

01:06:59

And, you know, just just having a heart for him

01:07:02

to minister to him.

01:07:04

That's what happens when you get secure

01:07:06

in your identity and you make the turn.

01:07:08

I tell you what, we all want an awakening.

01:07:10

We want God to do something on our region

01:07:13

that's beyond what you can manufacture by your own power.

01:07:17

We want an awakening.

01:07:18

Prayer alone will not bring an awakening. It won't.

01:07:21

Reading your Bible alone

01:07:22

is not going to bring awakening. It won't.

01:07:24

You fulfilling your 10X commitment alone

01:07:26

will not bring an awakening.

01:07:27

What will bring an awakening is if all of us make a turn,

01:07:32

all of us turn and the people were around, we go,

01:07:36

"I want to minister to you. I want to bless you.

01:07:40

Not this big 501C3 your organization do it only,

01:07:43

but me."

01:07:44

I want to be engaged with my neighbors, my workers.

01:07:47

That's what God wants from you,

01:07:50

and that's what God wants for you.

01:07:54

We all do that and grow in that identity.

01:07:56

Whoo, jeeze.

01:08:00

All right, that's enough before I start crying.

01:08:02

God, thank you for today. Thank you for today.

01:08:05

Thank you for these just great people,

01:08:07

great people, great friends, great brothers,

01:08:09

great sisters, great, great co-laborers,

01:08:12

great all that stuff.

01:08:14

We want to turn from that old way

01:08:16

and we want to come to the new creation.

01:08:19

Thank you for being patient

01:08:20

and empowering for that to happen.

01:08:23

We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

01:08:26

- Amen. Man, I love Brian's reminder for us

01:08:30

that you are not done, that God has a turn in your life

01:08:33

that He wants you to make,

01:08:35

where you can be a blessing to others.

01:08:36

Where your lived experience,

01:08:38

where your actual real life can improve

01:08:42

the lives of the people around, can bless people.

01:08:44

Man, it is such a beautiful picture of the gospel,

01:08:47

of the Kingdom and of what God wants for you,

01:08:49

for your lived life, your actual real life to be a blessing.

01:08:53

And man, that's the whole reason our church exists,

01:08:55

to help you grow and go to a new place with God.

01:08:57

We got a couple of different ways that's happening right now.

01:08:59

- One is we're starting a parenting cohort

01:09:01

at the end of this month.

01:09:02

It's for parents who have kids 0-4,

01:09:05

which that is my category.

01:09:06

And who is our host for that cohort.

01:09:08

My wife Rachel and I actually host it.

01:09:10

We are just out of that phase,

01:09:12

although I guess we might be bringing

01:09:13

a foster baby home tomorrow,

01:09:14

so we'll be back in that phase. - Amazing.

01:09:16

- My wife Rachel and I lead this cohort

01:09:18

and it's a lot of painful learnings,

01:09:21

but a lot of beautiful moments in that space

01:09:23

that we just love meeting with other couples and investing.

01:09:27

Would love for you to join us in the parenting cohort.

01:09:29

- Yeah, great. You can sign up

01:09:30

and learn more at crossroads.net/cohorts.

01:09:32

- That's right.

01:09:33

- And then I am currently on Zoom right now.

01:09:36

I'm on Zoom right now and we are about to do

01:09:40

a live meet up for anyone,

01:09:42

anyone who's watching and streaming right now.

01:09:44

You can go to crossroads.net/watch

01:09:47

and there's a link you can click

01:09:48

that will get you connected to the Zoom

01:09:50

that we are on right now. - That's right.

01:09:51

- Yeah. We're going to do some behind the scenes stuff.

01:09:54

We have some surprise guests, some free giveaways.

01:09:56

Why do we do it?

01:09:57

- The best thing about Crossroads

01:09:59

isn't the stuff that you watch. It's not content.

01:10:01

The best thing about Crossroads is the community.

01:10:03

It's the people you see milling around behind me,

01:10:05

the people you see in Zoom calls.

01:10:07

There's incredible, incredible people around here.

01:10:09

And if you're just watching stuff, I'm sorry,

01:10:11

you're just missing out on some of

01:10:12

the best that this place has to offer.

01:10:14

And the spiritual life isn't one that's meant

01:10:16

to be walked through alone, as Brian shared with us.

01:10:19

This is a chance for you to get to make

01:10:21

a big place a little smaller.

01:10:22

No matter where you live. We'll have people

01:10:23

from different states, different countries,

01:10:25

different continents. What's up guys?

01:10:27

So good to see you.

01:10:28

Some friends from Florida just stopped by.

01:10:30

Love our community.

01:10:31

We'd love for you to join us on Zoom,

01:10:32

like right now; we gotta finish. - Yeah. Right now.

01:10:34

- Hey, thanks for joining us.

01:10:36

We'll see you next week at Crossroads.

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