How to Actually Change | The Surprising Path to Real Character

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- Welcome to Crossroads. I'm Jen and this is Andy.

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We're glad that you're here.

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If you're new here, it's a great time for you

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to continue with us on week four of the Run Journey.

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- Yeah. Over the last few weeks, we've been doing

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a deep dive into the unique calling and race

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that God has created each of us, and you included, to run.

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And we're looking at how suffering leads to perseverance.

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And now perseverance can lead to character,

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to growing us from the inside out.

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Before we get there, we're going to start with worship.

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- Yeah.

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- Wherever you are, we'd love for you to put your AirPods in,

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turn up your TV, whatever it is

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These songs we say are music,

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or they're the start of a conversation

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between you and God. Let's jump in right now.

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- We're glad you're here.

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- Hey. Come on.

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Here we go.

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His goodness and His faithfulness

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lead me to trust Him forever. We sing this.

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- Let me pray for us. Keep the prayer going,

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God, the conversation with You.

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Just take the melody out of it for a moment.

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Lord, I know in a room this large and online,

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this many people, we got people who can sing

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with like 100% conviction that that's our story.

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We've cried out to You and You've answered it.

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You've been so good in faith.

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We got other people in this space who go,

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"I cried out to You this week and I found silence,

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or I felt distant from You."

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But we all showed up today.

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I'm thankful that this space exists

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with differences like that.

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We all showed up today, and these footsteps in the room

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and online mean we're seeking after You.

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So, God, You have our attention.

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Thank You for showing up.

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Would You answer and lead us today?

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We love you, Lord. I pray all this

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because of You and Your goodness. Amen. Amen.

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Y'all sound great this morning.

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You got afternoon voices, not just your morning ones on.

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So that is great. I love singing together.

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I love being together. I love that you're online with us too.

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And in the room, why don't you turn to somebody

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at the top or the bottom and say, "Hey,

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just glad to be here with you,

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glad you made it," and you can have a seat.

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- Everyone wants hope,

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but hope sometimes arrives in a way we don't understand.

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It sits down at the table with us,

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pays the bill we can't afford,

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and it kicks down the door that death tried to close.

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Hope has a name.

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This Holy Week experience hope

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through events hosted in person and online.

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Find details at crossroads.net.

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- Yes, Easter is almost here,

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which means Holy Week is almost here.

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And maybe you didn't grow up around church

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and Holy Week sounds like one of those phrases

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that people say, and you're already

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supposed to know what it means.

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Like for me, it's like permanent press on my dryer.

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No idea what it means.

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- On your dryer. So tell us, what is Holy Week?

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Yes, it is the week where we remember

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the center of our faith.

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That is, that Jesus walks straight into the darkness,

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the pain, the death,

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and somehow brings life out of all of it.

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- Holy week reminds us that because of Jesus' sacrifice,

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we have hope.

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He still brings dead things back to life.

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And that's what we celebrate.

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And we've got a few ways that

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you can do that with us that week.

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- The first is Palm Sunday.

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Those are -- those palms are the symbol

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of what Palm Sunday is about.

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It's about laying things down.

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It's about surrender before Jesus.

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And for some of us, just to let you know,

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that might actually be surrendering

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and laying something down where we end up getting baptized.

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- Yeah. Baptized is when you have said yes to Jesus.

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Baptism is a public way of saying, "My old life is gone

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and Jesus is making me new."

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It's not about being perfect, it's about belonging to Him.

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So if that's something that you think that

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you might be ready for, even you're wondering

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potentially if that's your next step,

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you can text "next" to 301301

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and someone will be in touch with you.

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And also maybe you're curious about it.

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Andy and I are going to stick around after service today

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to talk a little bit more about that.

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And if you attend a site, they are doing info sessions

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next weekend at your site,

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so you can jump into one of those too.

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- Yeah. And because this is our online community,

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let me say something really clearly.

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We will do anything and everything that we can

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to help make this next step that's so beautiful

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and important possible for you.

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- And we have before. - We have.

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- Yeah, we'll come to you. We'll help host you here.

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We'll find a trusted, vetted member

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of the Crossroads community who can baptize you themselves.

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Man, as a part of our church, in this community,

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I've had a chance to baptize people

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in different time zones, in different states,

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even different continents.

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- What about your friends in Japan?

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- Okay, I actually was just FaceTiming

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with some of our community members in Kagoshima, Japan.

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Jack and Meg, you guys lead an incredible,

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incredible community over there.

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But they had a friend, or actually just

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a random person they met at their dentist office

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who they befriended and invested in and got to know

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and ended up introducing them to Jesus.

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So because they're like 40 hours ahead of us,

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one morning I wake up and I get a text message.

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It's just a video of their friend getting baptized

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in the East China Sea with their community.

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- So cool.

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It's so, so beautiful, and we want that for you.

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- Yeah. And we'll talk more about that later, too.

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After Palm Sunday, every day of the week

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we'll also have live worship, which I know we love.

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We're bringing back live worship every single day

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that will be led by our worship leaders.

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And it's a great way to prepare our hearts for Easter.

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- Yeah. Then on 7 p.m. Eastern on Thursday,

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we're actually adding a special Holy Week service

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that's focused on the final 24 hours of Jesus' life,

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like from the Last Supper through the crucifixion.

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- Every year, Easter is one of those moments

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when people are more likely to show up,

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click on the stream, or say yes to an invitation

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from a friend to attend a service.

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- Yeah. And that's why we want to help create

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an incredible experience and create space for people

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to have an incredible experience

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for every person who comes and shows up.

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So if you live near one of our physical locations,

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one of our sites, and we need you.

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One of the easiest ways that you can make

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a real difference is by setting up

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a one time serve for Easter weekend.

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There's a QR code on the screen and you can jump in

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to help our team serve and pull off

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an incredible experience where people can encounter God.

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It could be the difference between them getting

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their kid in Kids' Club,

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or them having a friendly face between them

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experiencing the truth and the joy of Easter in a new way.

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- Yes, and speaking of creating great spaces like Easter,

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we want to take a minute to celebrate what God is doing

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in the next generation of our church.

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If you've been a part of the 10X Push,

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we are saying, "I want to be a part of the things

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that God wants to expand."

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And it's one of the clearest ways that

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we are seeing this happen right now, today,

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not something that we're hoping for.

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It is an impact that we're seeing right now.

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- Yeah. Just last week, last Friday,

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we had what's called Big Night and over 3000

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middle and high school students were worshiping,

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dancing and experiencing and encountering God together.

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And I just got to tell you, like, I've got --

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This one hits like close to home literally for me,

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because this is my fifth grade daughter Ella's

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first experience with student ministry ever.

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And I was nervous, but like as a dad,

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I could not be more grateful for incredible students team

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and for what God is doing in young lives here at Crossroads.

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- Yeah, my family and I also attend Crossroads Mason,

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and so we got to see Crossroads Mason open up

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their brand new student section.

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They've had over 500 students on a regular basis

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on the weekend, and there's not room for them

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in the room that they were in.

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And so students are inviting their friends.

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It's students inviting students to get to know Jesus.

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And I've actually had four now of my nieces and nephews

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get baptized through Crossroads students as well.

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So it is home for me.

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- But the good stuff doesn't just end with like high school,

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like it's extending into our young adults ministry.

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We have what's called Collective Nights

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and there's been like 7-800 people at Collective Nights

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who are hungry for community purpose,

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and again, an encounter with God.

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Which makes sense because young adulthood,

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at least for me, was already difficult

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and confusing enough trying to figure out

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God, dating, purpose, rent, and my own emotional baggage.

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- Debt, parents, dating. - All at the same time.

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So this is a critical season of life

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and we love seeing God encounter --

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God meet people like right in the middle of that time.

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- Absolutely. To be clear, none of this is about us.

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None of us is about Crossroads.

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This is about how God is using the resources

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of the people in our communities

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to fuel the things in our cities.

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And this spring actually is super exciting.

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We're actually going to be in Indianapolis and Detroit

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for these live events that we're going to be having.

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- Live worship, live teaching in Detroit and Indianapolis.

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We'd love for you to come, bring some friends.

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- Invite your friends who live there.

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Yes, more to come. More to come on that.

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- Hey, if you've been a part of 10X,

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we just want to say be encouraged. There's real fruit.

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This is not for ten years from now. It's right now.

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Your generosity is helping something special happening.

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If you are a part of that, well done.

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If you want to update, you go to crossroads.net/10X.

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Or maybe you've got questions about

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what Crossroads believes about money or want to give.

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You can do all that at Crossroads.net/give.

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- That's right. And today we are in our week four

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of the Run Journey. So join us now.

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- Here we go. - Glad you're here.

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- Hey, and welcome to Real Encounters.

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Again we are in Turkey and Greece,

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and it's hard to believe, but this is week four.

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And this week we got something special.

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This week is all about character.

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And to talk about character, we're going to Corinth.

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What else is happening in there that kind of

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makes it a powerhouse or a place where

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we can even talk about character? What's going on?

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- Yeah, well, Corinth is, I think

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it's my favorite site from the life of Paul.

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I mean, it's just such an amazing setting.

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It was one of those three great cities of ancient Greece

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that I mentioned, Athens, Corinth, and Sparta.

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In the ancient world, Corinth had become notorious

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as a place of immorality.

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There was the notorious temple to Aphrodite,

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up on the top of the mountain that sits right behind

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the city of Corinth, called Acrocorinth.

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There were many temple prostitutes there,

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and so it was just kind of a notorious place of immorality.

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And so for us, it's a great place to talk about character

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because there's a lot of lacking in character there.

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And Paul, when he came there,

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he had this interesting connection to a couple,

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a Jewish couple named Priscilla and Aquila.

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And what they had in common was their vocation.

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They were leatherworkers, which means mainly

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making tents out of leather,

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also other leather goods and things like that.

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So we can call Paul a tent maker.

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And so when we go there today,

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it's been beautifully excavated

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and we're really seeing the city of Corinth

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that Paul saw, which is really amazing.

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It's an amazing place for us to see

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how Paul had to help these formerly pagan people

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who had become followers of Jesus,

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but they had to unlearn so many of their old habits

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and their old ways of life.

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And so, you know, when you read

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the first and second letter to the Corinthians,

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you see how many problems that church had.

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But when you understand Corinth,

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it's kind of understandable. You know?

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- So that's really interesting because, Narullah,

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you're living in a context, probably a little similar

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in that the stuff around you and the people around you

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are doing something completely different

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than what is the character of Jesus.

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If you want to speak to that from your local perspective.

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I'd love for you to kind of just guide us through

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what that's like for you.

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- I had anger issues with my dad

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and with the people around me.

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I used to be a person who thought that

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for a human being to change is,

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if not impossible, is too difficult.

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But I've seen the change and transformation

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in the lives of others around me,

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other Christians around me and in my own life.

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And not only that, even my, for example, Muslim father

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who is still very conservative and who used to be

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very radical as well, sees that.

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So that for me is a great testimony.

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- He sees your character changing.

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= Exactly. And for me, it is so valuable because

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maybe like I could have said some smart things to him

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and tried to convince him, but like to be able

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to live out the testimony that we are called to live.

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But even the word Christian means follower of Christ,

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so we are to follow Him, by how? By imitating Him, right?

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By imitating His character.

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And so to be able to, like, live this example

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and to show people how that actually affects

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the life of those around you in a really good way,

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I think is a great testimony.

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- That's exactly right. Well, Paul has a lot to teach us

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all the way in Corinth about what it means

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to have godly character.

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So we're going to go to Corinth right now.

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- Welcome to Corinth.

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Nowadays, it's a sleepy little town.

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But back in the days of Paul,

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and for nearly half a millennia before that,

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Corinth was one of the most important cities

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in the entire Greco-Roman world.

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The reason is because of its strategic location.

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Corinth sits on a tiny isthmus of land only four miles wide.

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Isthmus just means like land bridge.

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And it connects central Greece in the north

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to southern Greece, on the Peloponnese peninsula.

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Athens up there to Sparta down here.

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Now, the Peloponnese peninsula

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was very, very dangerous to sail around.

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You didn't want to do it if you didn't have to.

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And so what Corinth enabled was for ships

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to pull up to one of its two ports,

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Lechaion on one side and Centralia on the other.

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You would unload your cargo onto an ox cart.

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Then you'd pull the boat itself out of the water,

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put it on carts, and all that crap

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would get dragged to the other side.

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Nowadays, there's just a big canal. So much better.

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Why didn't they do that?

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I don't know, they did the ox cart thing.

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If you ever wondered why all the statues

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of old people from this time period are, like,

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totally jacked and ripped.

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It's because they did stuff like this.

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It's like CrossFit, but way better, apparently.

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I don't know. Now why that was happening,

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the soldiers had some time to kill.

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So to kill time, they came here.

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This right here is the ruins of the temple of Aphrodite,

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the goddess of love and fertility and pleasure.

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This place is full of temple prostitutes.

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And the sailors loved it.

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Have you ever heard that phrase curse like a sailor?

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It had nothing on the sailors of this place.

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This was like party like a sailor.

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And not just the sailors, but the locals too.

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Corinth had a reputation even in this time period

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even in the Roman world.

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Forget your modern Christian values.

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Back then they looked at Corinth and its citizens

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and what they did in places like this

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as being the lowest of character,

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in other words, the worst of all sinners.

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There's even a Greek verb to Corinthianize.

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It basically means to live immorally

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and to indulge in sexual excess.

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This is the city that Paul walks into,

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the low character city, which I think makes it

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the perfect place to talk about the next step on our race,

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the step of character.

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Here's what Paul says in Romans 5:

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We rejoice in our sufferings,

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knowing that suffering produces endurance,

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and endurance produces character,

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and character produces hope,

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and hope does not put us to shame.

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What do you get when you endure?

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You get an increased character.

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The word for character literally means proven as if by trial.

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So your character is not who you intend to be.

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It's not who you wish you were.

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It's not how you imagine yourself.

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It's not you on your best day.

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Your character is who you've proven to be day in, day out.

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And by this point in his race, Paul has proven

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to be a man of high character,

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a man of strength and wisdom and love.

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Paul came straight here from Athens

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and spent two years

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deeply investing in the people of the city.

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And not to spoil the end of the movie

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before we have a chance to watch it.

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But in many ways, what happens in Corinth

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is Paul's first major win, because he's not just effective

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with a tiny pocket of people, one particular group,

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he's effective with everyone:

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Jews, Gentiles, rich, poor, city officials, immigrants,

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even religious officials are coming to faith

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because of the work that Paul is doing in this town.

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Because Paul likes to shout out people in his letters,

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and Luke in the book of Acts mentions a lot of names,

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we know many of them by name.

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People like Phoebe, a powerhouse woman

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who Paul set up, appointed as a church leader

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and then in the future entrusted her to carry

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his most significant work to the most significant city of all,

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the book of Romans, written to Rome.

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Another one, Chloe, a local church leader

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who Paul set up as an official in the church here in Corinth.

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And he entrusted her to be his eyes and ears

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to watch over the Corinthians in the years to come.

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Another one is a man named Erastus, a city official

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who Paul tells us about in Romans 16.

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Now you can hear all these names and you can go,

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"How do we know that any of these people actually lived?

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How do we know that the Bible is reliable?"

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That's an excellent question, one that should be asked.

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And the answer is we should look for evidence.

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Back when they were digging Corinth up about 100 years ago,

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they uncovered this inscription right here,

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which has the name Erastus,

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says that he was a city official in charge of public works,

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and that he paid to pave this square

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in the entertainment district out of his own means

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and in appreciation for being elected to office.

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Back then, there would have been bronze letters here

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with his name and that inscription.

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Once again, what we find is when we go digging

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the Bible turns out to be very, very reliable.

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When Paul got to town, he pretty quickly made friends

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with another couple brand new to the area.

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Their names were Priscilla and Aquila.

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They had just come from Rome, r

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ight after the Roman Emperor Claudius kicked out

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all Jews from the city over a disturbance about Jesus.

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They were also tentmakers and leatherworkers like Paul.

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So they hit it off and actually decided

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to go into business together.

00:26:58

And that business most likely would have been right here.

00:27:02

This is the marketplace that we're in in general.

00:27:04

And this section of shops right here

00:27:06

was brand new in Paul's day.

00:27:09

Perfect if you're opening up a new business.

00:27:12

Where exactly on this line was the shop? We don't know.

00:27:16

But we do know that it would have looked exactly like this.

00:27:20

Maybe it was this one. Don't know.

00:27:22

But in the shop is most likely where Paul

00:27:27

started to have this idea of the race form in his mind.

00:27:30

Why? Well, because one of the main clients

00:27:32

of a tent maker in the city of Corinth

00:27:35

would have been sports fans who were ordering tents

00:27:38

so they could go watch the nearby Isthmian Games.

00:27:42

The Isthmian Games

00:27:43

were basically the Olympics of Corinth,

00:27:45

and back in the day they were just as big of a deal.

00:27:47

And so it's not hard to imagine Paul

00:27:49

working in a shop, talking to customers,

00:27:52

"Oh, what do you need the tent for?"

00:27:53

"Well, we're going to the Isthmian Games."

00:27:56

"What happens there?"

00:27:57

"Well, there's all these races

00:27:58

and there's actually only one winner in every race.

00:28:01

And the winner gets this crown put on their head."

00:28:04

You can imagine the light bulbs going off in Paul's mind.

00:28:07

He's like, "Wait a what?"

00:28:08

Maybe he even goes to watch the race himself.

00:28:10

And this picture forms in his imagination.

00:28:14

That's what it's like to follow Jesus, there's a race.

00:28:19

And from this moment on, that concept

00:28:21

becomes part of Paul's teaching and preaching.

00:28:25

It's not an accident that Paul wrote these words to this city.

00:28:28

1 Corinthians 9: Do you not know that in a race

00:28:33

all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?

00:28:36

Run in such a way as to get the prize.

00:28:39

Clearly, based on his long stay in this town

00:28:43

and the number of letters that Paul wrote here,

00:28:45

we know that Corinth had a special place in his heart.

00:28:48

By the way, he didn't write just the two letters.

00:28:50

Paul mentions four letters that he wrote to the Corinthians.

00:28:53

What we call 1 and 2 Corinthians are actually

00:28:56

second and fourth Corinthians.

00:28:58

He loves these people. Why?

00:29:01

Well, in this time they were known as

00:29:04

the worst of all sinners,

00:29:07

something Paul himself could identify with.

00:29:09

In fact, here's how Paul described himself in Timothy:

00:29:13

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance:

00:29:16

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners

00:29:18

of whom I am the worst.

00:29:21

But for that very reason I was shown mercy

00:29:24

so that in me the worst of sinners,

00:29:26

Christ Jesus might display

00:29:28

His immense patience as an example.

00:29:31

Paul says, "Look, I'm the worst."

00:29:34

And he wasn't being like dramatic about it.

00:29:37

In Paul's mind, he was the worst of all sinners.

00:29:40

He had persecuted the beginnings of the church.

00:29:44

He had hunted down and attacked Christians.

00:29:47

But Paul says, "God pursued me

00:29:50

and has changed my character

00:29:53

so that we'd have me as an example,"

00:29:55

so that all of us would look at Paul and go,

00:29:57

"Well, if God can change him, well, God can change me."

00:30:02

That process of change is the process of repentance.

00:30:04

It's the process he walked every single person

00:30:07

he preached to who responded to the good news through,

00:30:10

including Priscilla and Aquila.

00:30:12

They became not just believers, but church leaders

00:30:15

who Paul later sent off to Ephesus

00:30:18

to help oversee the church there.

00:30:20

This process of change is what we're focusing on today.

00:30:24

It's the process that leads to character.

00:30:26

Now, Paul started here in the synagogue

00:30:30

after he sets up his tent making business,

00:30:32

after he gets it going, he does what he usually does,

00:30:35

and he goes to synagogue to try to reason with the Jews.

00:30:37

But it goes awfully.

00:30:39

And this time Paul has no patience.

00:30:41

He shakes the dust of it off of his garments

00:30:44

and says, "I'm done with you people.

00:30:45

I'm going to go to Who will respond to me?"

00:30:48

Here's how the story goes in Acts 18:

00:30:50

And he left there and went to the house

00:30:52

of a man named Titus Justus, a worshiper of God.

00:30:57

His house was next door to the synagogue.

00:30:59

Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue,

00:31:01

believed in the Lord together with his entire household.

00:31:04

And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul

00:31:07

believed and were baptized.

00:31:10

Paul's having a massive impact.

00:31:12

People all over the city are being changed

00:31:14

by what he's saying.

00:31:16

And he's pushing against the tide here

00:31:18

because there was no concept of change.

00:31:20

Just like in our culture today I don't think

00:31:23

change is a super popular idea.

00:31:25

I think the more popular idea is, you know what?

00:31:28

This is who I am.

00:31:29

You know what? I just get angry.

00:31:32

You know what? I'm just a stressed out person.

00:31:35

You know what? Who I am? I'm just --

00:31:37

I just have fits of just anger. I can't, I have no,

00:31:40

that's just who I am.

00:31:42

Paul pushes against that tide and he says,

00:31:44

it doesn't have to be who you are.

00:31:46

There's another idea he comes up against

00:31:48

that fits right along with that.

00:31:49

And that's the idea of, well, it can't be that bad.

00:31:52

I mean, everybody is doing it.

00:31:55

And in this town, what that meant is

00:31:57

everybody's going up to the temple,

00:31:59

everybody's sleeping with prostitutes,

00:32:01

everybody's getting wasted all the time

00:32:02

and partying with all this, everybody's doing it,

00:32:05

how bad can it be?

00:32:07

In our time, I think it's more like,

00:32:08

"You know, everybody looks up porn. How bad can it be?

00:32:13

Everybody cuts corners on the truth

00:32:15

to kind of massage things and make ourselves

00:32:18

look a little bit better. How bad can that be?

00:32:22

I mean, everybody has these little holes

00:32:25

and outages in their life. How bad can it be?

00:32:28

Everybody's doing it."

00:32:30

Well, yeah, everybody's doing it and everybody's stuck.

00:32:35

Everybody's doing it and everybody's stressed out.

00:32:39

Everybody's doing it

00:32:40

and everybody's not finishing their race.

00:32:43

See, Paul offers a chance to change,

00:32:47

repentance and character growth and development,

00:32:51

it's not about behavior management.

00:32:54

Paul doesn't give them the Ten Commandments.

00:32:57

Paul doesn't walk them through an evaluation form

00:33:00

and see how high they score.

00:33:02

Paul invites them to be transformed

00:33:05

into the character of Christ.

00:33:08

Listen to how he puts it in 2 Corinthians:

00:33:11

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,

00:33:15

are being transformed into the same image

00:33:20

from one degree of glory to another.

00:33:26

After a year and a half of teaching and preaching,

00:33:29

Paul saw so many people experience

00:33:32

that exact kind of transformation,

00:33:34

and so did other people in the city,

00:33:36

and they did not like it.

00:33:37

In fact, the Jews came after Paul

00:33:39

upset over what was happening in their city.

00:33:42

Paul was dragged right here in front of the bema,

00:33:46

the judgment seat where Gallio, the local governor,

00:33:49

preceded over the trial.

00:33:51

If you're Paul, this moment is déja vu.

00:33:55

This feels like exactly what happened in Philippi

00:33:58

when you got beaten.

00:33:59

But what happened was not that.

00:34:01

What happened was something

00:34:03

that's never happened to Paul before.

00:34:05

Here's a story out of Acts 18:

00:34:07

But when Paul was about to open his mouth,

00:34:10

Gallio said to the Jews,

00:34:12

"If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime,

00:34:14

O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint.

00:34:18

But since it's a matter of questions about words

00:34:20

and names and your own law, see to it yourselves.

00:34:23

I refuse to be a judge of these things."

00:34:25

And he drove them from the tribunal.

00:34:27

And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue,

00:34:31

and beat him in front of the tribunal.

00:34:33

But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.

00:34:36

This has never happened to Paul.

00:34:38

Gallio basically says, "No,

00:34:39

I think these charges are ridiculous.

00:34:42

I refuse to hear the case." Why would he say that?

00:34:46

I think it's because Paul has already been on trial.

00:34:50

His character has already been tested and proven.

00:34:54

He's got a reputation about town, and Gallio knows it.

00:34:57

And so he throws out the charges.

00:34:59

He said, "This is ridiculous."

00:35:01

Now, what the Jews decide to do is to beat somebody up.

00:35:04

And so they pick poor Sosthenes,

00:35:07

their brand new synagogue ruler

00:35:09

and they utterly unleash on him.

00:35:13

Now, interestingly, there is a Sosthenes

00:35:17

that shows up later in the story connected to Corinth.

00:35:21

In fact, 1 Corinthians is coauthored by Sosthenes.

00:35:26

Here's the beginning of that letter:

00:35:28

Paul, called by the will of God

00:35:30

to be an apostle of Christ Jesus,

00:35:32

and our brother Sosthenes,

00:35:35

to the Church of God that's in Corinth.

00:35:38

Could this Sosthenes be the same guy? I think so.

00:35:43

We don't know it for sure, but think about this moment

00:35:46

and this scene as Sosthenes is getting beaten

00:35:49

and lying on the ground and the crowd disperses.

00:35:53

There would have been one man watching

00:35:55

who knew exactly what it felt like.

00:35:58

To think that you were in the right

00:36:00

by attacking Christians,

00:36:01

only to get knocked to the ground yourself.

00:36:04

There would have been one man watching

00:36:06

who knew exactly what it felt like

00:36:08

to have your own turn on you and beat you publicly.

00:36:12

And because of that, I think there was one man watching

00:36:16

who would have reached down his hand and said,

00:36:18

"Hey, Sosthenes, can I help you to your feet?

00:36:22

I think it's time to change."

00:36:24

See, if you and I are going to continue on our race

00:36:27

we have to get this thing of increasing our character,

00:36:32

of being transformed into the image of Christ,

00:36:35

just like Paul, just like Sosthenes

00:36:38

and so many others in this place.

00:36:41

And that means embracing repentance.

00:40:24

- Yeah. Let's pray.

00:40:27

God, thank You so much for the words of that song.

00:40:30

That's our prayer. God, would you empty us?

00:40:31

Would You drain us of all the character

00:40:34

that doesn't match the character of Christ

00:40:36

and would You conform us to the image of Your Son?

00:40:39

Would You make us people who love like You? Amen. Amen.

00:40:44

Well, hey, that song our band actually

00:40:47

wrote six months ago for this Journey,

00:40:50

and it comes out on Friday wherever you get your music.

00:40:53

So watch out for that.

00:40:55

It is a two word prayer of repentance: Empty me.

00:40:59

Now repentance is the key to character transformation,

00:41:01

which is what we're talking about today.

00:41:03

It's getting rid of my character

00:41:05

and replacing it with the character of Christ.

00:41:08

We talked about Paul and Corinth.

00:41:09

This is actually the temple of Aphrodite,

00:41:11

as it would have looked back in Paul's day,

00:41:13

where all kinds of crazy things happen.

00:41:16

And the most remarkable thing about Paul in Corinth,

00:41:18

though, is that while he lived in Sin City,

00:41:21

Paul focused on and was able to see the sin in himself.

00:41:27

See, you and I, if we want to conform and transform

00:41:30

to the character of Christ, we have to do the same thing.

00:41:32

We have to come to grips with the sin in our life,

00:41:35

with the character out in our life,

00:41:36

and we actually have to invite the judgment of God.

00:41:40

I'm actually excited to tell you that in 19.5 minutes,

00:41:43

that's exactly what we're all going to do together.

00:41:45

We're going to walk up to the judgment seat

00:41:47

of the throne of God and invite Him to cut and correct us.

00:41:52

No one's applauding. Uh. [sparce clapping]

00:41:55

That's -- of course not, right?

00:41:56

Because you're like, "That sounds like a terrible idea.

00:41:59

Why would we? Why would we do that?

00:42:00

Why would we do that?" Well relax, we'll get there.

00:42:03

It starts with this, we heard in that video

00:42:04

about being transformed.

00:42:06

Paul used the word conform to to communicate

00:42:08

the same idea, conformed to the character of Christ.

00:42:12

He wrote this in Romans 8:29:

00:42:14

For those whom He foreknew he also predestined

00:42:18

to be conformed to the image of His Son,

00:42:21

in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

00:42:24

Now people read the word predestined in the Bible,

00:42:26

they get all bent out of shape. "What does that mean?"

00:42:28

What it means right here is destiny beyond your control.

00:42:33

God says, "I will do it, whether you run,

00:42:36

whether you fight, whether you resist,

00:42:37

whether you get mad, whether you throw a fit about it,

00:42:39

doesn't matter.

00:42:40

I will conform you into the character of Christ,

00:42:43

not your best self."

00:42:46

Just what makes this so radically different

00:42:48

than the world's self-improvement journey.

00:42:50

"Become the best version of you," not God's goal.

00:42:53

God actually says, "I want less of you

00:42:56

and more of the character of Christ formed in you.

00:43:00

That's another way of talking about the character

00:43:03

is kind of look at all the teachings of Jesus

00:43:05

and say, "Okay, that's -- What does that mean, though?

00:43:07

You know what I mean? Like, what does it mean?"

00:43:09

If you were to summarize all of Jesus's teachings,

00:43:11

all of the writings of the New Testament,

00:43:13

all the letters that Paul wrote, you could summarize

00:43:15

the character of Christ in one word: love.

00:43:19

Jesus imHself said this in John 15:

00:43:23

This is my commandment, singular,

00:43:27

that you love one another as I have loved you.

00:43:30

Greater love has no one than this,

00:43:32

that someone lay down his life for his friends.

00:43:35

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

00:43:40

If. Jesus comes, He fulfills all the law,

00:43:43

all the Ten Commandments, all the lists in Leviticus

00:43:45

and all that stuff, He fulfills all of that.

00:43:47

And he replaces it with one single commandment:

00:43:51

Love like I love you. I lay down my life.

00:43:55

He went to the Cross and laid down His life.

00:43:57

And so you might be wondering, like,

00:43:58

what would I do if I wanted to model

00:44:00

the character of Christ called love, what would I do?

00:44:02

Easy. Go to Home Depot, buy some lumber,

00:44:05

something sturdy, 4x4 or 6x6.

00:44:07

Build a Cross and then nail --

00:44:09

Just kidding. That's not --

00:44:10

Some of you were like, "Is that really what?"

00:44:12

No, it's not what it means.

00:44:13

Relax. It's not what it means.

00:44:15

But what does it mean?

00:44:17

Well, Paul tells us exactly what that would look like

00:44:19

in a letter that he wrote to this city.

00:44:22

It's one of the most famous chapters in all of the Bible,

00:44:25

1 Corinthians 13. It's called the love chapter.

00:44:28

And he wrote it to this town.

00:44:31

For the very first time it was read right here.

00:44:33

Maybe if you've been to a wedding,

00:44:34

you've probably heard it read.

00:44:36

It includes the section that goes

00:44:37

love is patient, love is kind.

00:44:40

And people read it at weddings.

00:44:41

It's very, it's very sweet.

00:44:43

Talking to Eastside Community Pastor Lena Schuler

00:44:46

earlier this week, and she reminded me that

00:44:48

when she was only 14 years old, she actually

00:44:50

read 1 Corinthians 13 at my wedding.

00:44:54

As she said, she was like, "I didn't really read it.

00:44:56

I kind of cried was what I -- what I did."

00:44:59

And so you've heard it at a wedding.

00:45:01

And while it does apply to marriage, definitely, for sure.

00:45:04

Use it in your marriage. Absolutely.

00:45:05

That's not the context in the letter.

00:45:08

The context in the letter, when Paul writes these words,

00:45:10

is about how to embody the character of Christ.

00:45:15

It starts like this. I'm going to read you the whole chapter.

00:45:18

It starts like this. 1 Corinthians 13 Paul writes:

00:45:21

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels,

00:45:25

but do not have love,

00:45:27

I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

00:45:31

If I have the gift of prophecy

00:45:33

and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,

00:45:36

and if I have a faith that can move mountains,

00:45:39

but do not have love, I am nothing.

00:45:46

If I give all I possess to the poor

00:45:48

and give over my body to the hardship that I may boast,

00:45:50

but do not have love, I gain nothing. Nothing.

00:45:58

This is the plot twist of our race.

00:46:01

There is territory that God wants you to take,

00:46:04

but the territory He's most interested in taking

00:46:07

is inside of you. It's a character change.

00:46:11

And clearly Paul says in this letter,

00:46:13

"You can do all kinds of amazing stuff for Him.

00:46:15

You can fathom all mysteries.

00:46:17

You can move mountains with your faith.

00:46:18

You can give everything you have away to the poor.

00:46:21

But if you don't embody the character of Christ,

00:46:24

if you don't conform to the character of love,

00:46:26

it's for nothing. Nothing."

00:46:31

The call is to conform to the character of Christ.

00:46:35

It's not a test of your accomplishments.

00:46:37

It's a test of your character.

00:46:40

Many of you this week you've questioned my character

00:46:42

as a father, actually, because you noticed something,

00:46:45

which is that I talk about my youngest kid, Gracie,

00:46:49

and I talk about my oldest kid, Ben,

00:46:51

but I never mentioned my middle kid, Eli.

00:46:54

About a half a dozen people

00:46:55

pointed that out to me this week,

00:46:57

one of which was Eli and -- [laughter]

00:47:01

I don't want to pay for therapy, so. Eli.

00:47:06

Eli's a great kid.

00:47:07

Eli gave me the best gift I think I've ever been given

00:47:10

in my life for Christmas this year.

00:47:12

It's so sweet, so thoughtful.

00:47:14

He made it using his own Legos.

00:47:16

This is a photo of it.

00:47:18

It says, dad, you are smarter than Iron Man,

00:47:22

cooler than the Mandalorian, wiser than Gandalf,

00:47:25

more worthy than Thor, stronger than Black Panther.

00:47:29

So cool, right? So cool.

00:47:35

But -- But if God doesn't look at me

00:47:41

and say you love like Jesus, none of that matters.

00:47:45

None of it matters. Don't tell Eli.

00:47:46

He worked really hard on that.

00:47:49

Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter whatever,

00:47:52

whatever everybody else says about you,

00:47:54

doesn't matter what you accomplish.

00:47:55

The call of Christ is to embody the character of Christ.

00:47:58

That's the plot twist.

00:48:01

Well, how would you do it?

00:48:03

Paul gives us very clear instructions.

00:48:04

He continues in verse four, he says:

00:48:08

Love is patient, love is kind.

00:48:12

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

00:48:17

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,

00:48:21

it's not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

00:48:25

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

00:48:30

It always protects, always trusts,

00:48:34

always hopes, always perseveres.

00:48:37

[applause]

00:48:42

I know, there's a feeling in some of us,

00:48:45

maybe in most of us, when we hear the word lo,

00:48:49

even when we hear these words read from the Bible,

00:48:51

something in us is like, "Man, that's kind of like soft.

00:48:55

You know what I mean? Like, does God want me

00:48:57

to become a big softy, like a walking human Squishmallow?

00:49:01

Is that the goal God has for my life?"

00:49:05

No, no it's not. No it's not.

00:49:08

But I understand why you feel that way.

00:49:09

I get it, I totally get it.

00:49:10

I think we've all been sold a version of love that is soft.

00:49:14

The world's version of love.

00:49:16

A love so soft that when we meet it, we don't conform to it.

00:49:21

It's so soft, it conforms to us.

00:49:24

It's fluffy, it's feelings based.

00:49:26

If I'm feeling it, I do it.

00:49:28

And if I stop feeling it, we fall out of love.

00:49:31

It just kind of it's weak. It can fade. It can fail.

00:49:35

It doesn't require much.

00:49:36

There's no difficult conversations needed

00:49:38

because it's all about accepting and affirming you

00:49:40

as you, you do you and you tell me to me do me.

00:49:44

And that's kind of all that it requires. It's soft.

00:49:48

But God's love is not soft. God's love is hard.

00:49:52

Do you know it's hard to be patient?

00:49:55

Do you know what's hard to be kind?

00:49:58

Do you know that it's hard not to be easily angered?

00:50:01

It's hard to be humble?

00:50:02

It's hard to pray for your enemies?

00:50:04

It's hard to pray for those who persecute you?

00:50:06

It's hard. It's not soft. It's hard.

00:50:09

In fact, God says it's so hard nothing can break it.

00:50:13

He says it will never fail.

00:50:16

That's how Paul continues with the rest of 1 Corinthians 13.

00:50:20

Here's the rest of the chapter:

00:50:23

Love never fails.

00:50:25

But where there are prophecies, they will cease;

00:50:27

where there are tongues, they will be stilled;

00:50:31

where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

00:50:33

For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

00:50:36

but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

00:50:40

When I was a child, I talked like a child,

00:50:43

I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.

00:50:48

When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

00:50:53

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;

00:50:55

then we shall see face to face.

00:50:58

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully,

00:51:00

even as I am fully known.

00:51:02

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love.

00:51:06

But the greatest of these is love.

00:51:10

See love so hard that when you meet it,

00:51:13

it doesn't conform to you. You conform to it.

00:51:17

Martin Luther King in a speech in 1967, he said:

00:51:20

Love is the most durable power in the universe.

00:51:24

It's more durable than you.

00:51:26

It's more durable than me.

00:51:28

When we meet it, it will not bend. We must bend to it.

00:51:32

We must conform to it.

00:51:34

And the only way to do that is through

00:51:36

the process called repentance.

00:51:39

Conformed character requires repentance.

00:51:43

It requires allowing yourself to walk

00:51:47

before the judgment seat of God and invite Him

00:51:50

to cut in, correct you.

00:51:53

Four quick keys to repentance

00:51:55

before we do it in just a few minutes.

00:51:56

Number one, embrace humility.

00:51:59

1 Peter 5:5 says: Clothe yourselves, all of you,

00:52:02

with humility towards one another,

00:52:03

for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

00:52:08

Now why does God say you gotta have humility with one another?

00:52:12

It's because the places where your character

00:52:15

doesn't quite match up to the character of Christ,

00:52:17

that gap, that sin in you, it will most often

00:52:19

be pointed out by someone else in your life.

00:52:23

Our friends and our family is like sin detectors.

00:52:26

If you need one, get married. Works awesome.

00:52:31

It was not even in Sarah's vows and she's so generous

00:52:34

she points out my sin to me.

00:52:35

She -- that's -- It's kind of in there.

00:52:37

I don't know if anybody else has that.

00:52:38

That's in there.

00:52:40

By the way, you don't have to get married.

00:52:41

Paul wasn't married. Paul wasn't married.

00:52:43

Friends will do, good friends will absolutely do it.

00:52:46

And that in that tent shop, making tents

00:52:48

with Priscilla and Aquila, absolutely

00:52:49

they had conversations. "Paul, that bugs me. Stop it!"

00:52:52

"Priscilla, what are you doing?" Absolutely.

00:52:54

It will come from other people,

00:52:56

requires humility when they bring it to us.

00:52:58

Second key: Trust that it's for you, even if it hurts.

00:53:05

In fact, I should probably say when it hurts,

00:53:07

because true repentance, true correction,

00:53:11

will be painful in the moment.

00:53:14

It may even carry severe consequences.

00:53:17

But ultimately, correction is not about condemnation.

00:53:21

It's not to condemn you. It's to conform you.

00:53:24

It's not because God hates you and has given up on you.

00:53:27

It's because He loves you and He has more and better for you.

00:53:29

That's the entire point.

00:53:32

Hebrews 12 says this:

00:53:34

Have you forgotten the exhortation

00:53:36

that addresses you as sons, as daughters?

00:53:40

"My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

00:53:44

nor be weary when reproved by Him.

00:53:47

For the Lord disciplines the one He loves,

00:53:52

and chastises every son whom He receives.

00:53:56

It is for discipline that you have to endure.

00:53:59

God is treating you as sons.

00:54:01

For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

00:54:04

For the moment all discipline seems painful

00:54:07

rather than pleasant, but later it yields

00:54:11

the peaceful fruit of righteousness

00:54:13

to those who have been trained by it.

00:54:15

The writer says, all correction, all discipline,

00:54:19

all finding out, every, it's always painful in the moment.

00:54:23

Always. It's why you have to endure.

00:54:26

Endurance produces character.

00:54:30

Me, as we've been doing this Run Journey

00:54:31

and preparing for this message, twice in the last two weeks,

00:54:34

I've had conversations with friends

00:54:36

where I've had to repent.

00:54:37

I just felt this like almost like a knife in my chest,

00:54:40

just pointing something out and I had to apologize and repent.

00:54:43

Even got choked up. It's hard. It's painful.

00:54:46

It hurts, it hurts.

00:54:49

In fact, when God corrects you,

00:54:50

it will feel cutting on purpose.

00:54:54

It will feel cutting.

00:54:55

If you ever get to a moment in your life

00:54:57

where it feels like there's like a knife at your neck,

00:54:59

there's like a blade touching your skin?

00:55:02

A good idea before you jump to the conclusion,

00:55:04

"Oh, it's the enemy's attack in my life."

00:55:06

Well, whose hand is on the handle?

00:55:10

Is it the enemy of your life?

00:55:12

Or is it the God who loves you and wants to correct you,

00:55:15

who has something better for you?

00:55:18

That's a good question.

00:55:20

Hebrews 4 says: For the Word of God is living and active,

00:55:23

sharper than any two-edged sword,

00:55:26

piercing to the division of soul and of spirit,

00:55:30

of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts

00:55:34

and intentions of the heart.

00:55:36

And no creature is hidden from His sight,

00:55:39

but all are naked and exposed

00:55:42

to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

00:55:46

When the Word of God comes to you, it will feel like a sword.

00:55:52

In John 15, Jesus was describing the same exact thing.

00:55:54

He called it pruning shears.

00:55:56

He said, God will prune every single person who's fruitful.

00:56:01

He'll prune you.

00:56:02

And if you've ever pruned something,

00:56:04

you know, it's severe and it's cutting.

00:56:07

I'd be like, man, that's -- That's, uh, that's an option.

00:56:09

Kyle, is there any other option in scripture

00:56:12

for receiving the correction of God?

00:56:15

Any other metaphors used, anything like that?

00:56:17

Good news. There is actually.

00:56:19

There's another metaphor that God uses

00:56:21

to describe what his correction will feel like in our lives.

00:56:24

He uses it seven times throughout the Bible,

00:56:27

and it's not a sword. That's the good news.

00:56:29

Instead it's fire.

00:56:33

He says we're fighting fire.

00:56:34

The point being, if you want character to increase,

00:56:39

it will hurt.

00:56:40

And the best thing you can do is you can accept it,

00:56:42

even if it hurts.

00:56:45

Three, key to repentance: Accept the cost

00:56:49

because it's also worth it.

00:56:50

Reading the Bible in a year

00:56:52

and we were in Leviticus a little while ago.

00:56:53

I got stuck in Leviticus four and five because

00:56:56

it was giving instructions for what to do.

00:56:58

This is Old Testament, pre-Jesus,

00:56:59

what to do if you discover sin in your life

00:57:02

that you weren't aware of, how do you handle it?

00:57:05

And the basic instructions are, well, you take

00:57:07

one of your goats or one of your sheep

00:57:10

and you sacrifice them.

00:57:11

And if you don't have a goat or a sheep,

00:57:12

you can't afford one, that's okay.

00:57:14

Get a turtledove.

00:57:15

And if you can't afford a turtledove, that's okay.

00:57:17

Take fine flour and burn it.

00:57:21

I was thinking about that and I was like,

00:57:22

"Man, I don't know how much a turtledove costs.

00:57:26

You know, I've never seen those at PetSmart,

00:57:27

but it costs something."

00:57:31

Back in the day, it literally cost you something

00:57:35

to admit your sin.

00:57:37

It would be like today if God said,

00:57:38

"When you realize there's sin in your life,

00:57:40

when you see a gap in character between you

00:57:43

and the loving character of Christ,

00:57:45

go into your garage, get out a car and set it on fire."

00:57:50

That's like -- that's what it was. It's costly.

00:57:54

But thank goodness that's not what God says to do now.

00:57:56

But it will still cost you.

00:57:59

It might cost your pride.

00:58:01

It might cost your reputation.

00:58:03

It might cost your time.

00:58:05

It might cost a peaceful meal around the dinner table tonight.

00:58:08

It will be costly, but it's worth it.

00:58:12

It's worth it because He has a race for you

00:58:14

and a crown waiting in hope at the end of the run.

00:58:17

Your race is on the line.

00:58:20

Fourth key to repentance is do not run away.

00:58:23

Walk up to the judgment seat and let God correct you.

00:58:27

Go up and say, God, I am, like you just read.

00:58:30

I'm naked and exposed before you anyway.

00:58:32

Would you judge me? Would you correct me?

00:58:34

If there's anything in me you want to cut out,

00:58:36

would you cut it out?

00:58:38

Don't run. All of us have something.

00:58:40

All of us do. Me too. Of course, of course.

00:58:43

Me too, of course.

00:58:44

And the moment that we're going to have in a few minutes

00:58:47

I won't be up here faking it.

00:58:49

I'll be up here asking God if there's anything in me

00:58:52

that He wants to expose.

00:58:54

Anything in me He wants to put his knife on.

00:58:56

Anything in me He wants to cut out

00:58:58

and replace with a character of Christ.

00:59:00

All of us have something.

00:59:02

Some of us, from the moment we started talking

00:59:04

today about character, you knew what it was.

00:59:06

It's been in the back of your mind ever since.

00:59:09

Maybe you've been having this wrestling

00:59:11

inside of your own mind. "No, not that.

00:59:13

I don't want to deal with that today.

00:59:15

I'll deal with that tomorrow."

00:59:17

Well, friend, you've been wanting to deal with it

00:59:19

tomorrow for a long time.

00:59:22

Why don't you let God deal with it today?

00:59:25

Remember, He's not trying to condemn you.

00:59:27

He's trying to conform you.

00:59:31

All of us have something.

00:59:33

You're in the spot where you're like, "Ah, I think I'm

00:59:35

-- I think I'm good." Okay. Okay.

00:59:38

You can be good, just don't expect to finish your race.

00:59:41

Just don't expect that.

00:59:42

All of us have to be conformed to the character of Christ.

00:59:45

If you're part of the Crossroads family,

00:59:47

I'll just remind you that the thing that we're asking God for,

00:59:50

the thing that we've been praying for,

00:59:53

the thing we've been pushing for,

00:59:54

is to see an awakening in our land,

00:59:56

to see God do something we've never seen,

00:59:58

to see Him heal our land.

01:00:02

Well, this is what He says in 2 Chronicles 7:14:

01:00:05

If My people who are called by My Name humble themselves,

01:00:10

and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways,

01:00:16

then I will hear from heaven

01:00:19

and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

01:00:24

If. It's a choice, it's a choice.

01:00:29

Everything we've done on this Run Journey,

01:00:32

everything we do every week here at Crossroads,

01:00:34

it's not to entertain you,

01:00:37

it's to help you and me be conformed.

01:00:41

Maybe you've heard the phrase

01:00:42

information without transformation

01:00:45

is just entertainment.

01:00:46

A wise friend of mine this week,

01:00:48

she put the word spiritual on it.

01:00:49

She said, you know, spiritual information

01:00:52

without transformation is just spiritual entertainment.

01:00:55

That is not what we're going for here.

01:00:57

We're going for transformation in me and in you.

01:01:02

That's what the rest of our time is going to be about.

01:01:05

I'm going to stop talking in just a few minutes,

01:01:08

and instead, I'm just going to read the words of God

01:01:11

to you straight from Scripture.

01:01:14

Remember, it's a sword.

01:01:17

My encouragement is for you to let it pierce you.

01:01:20

Don't fight it. Uncross your arms.

01:01:23

If there are locked closets in your life

01:01:25

that you've not let God into, you don't want

01:01:27

to have him see the stuff in there.

01:01:29

Open the closet. Let Him in.

01:01:31

If there's a wall you've built, "God pass no further.

01:01:34

Talk to me about anything, but not what's behind the wall."

01:01:37

Tear down the wall.

01:01:39

Remember, it's not to condemn you.

01:01:41

It is to conform you.

01:01:44

It might hurt, but it's for your benefit.

01:01:48

I'll read a prayer from scripture

01:01:51

and then the description of love

01:01:52

straight from First Corinthians 13.

01:01:54

I will do that three times

01:01:56

using three different translations.

01:01:59

The prayer is from Psalm 139,

01:02:01

and it's an invitation for God to search us, to know us,

01:02:05

and to point out places where our character

01:02:07

doesn't match the character of Christ.

01:02:11

When you hear that prayer you can just respond with an amen.

01:02:15

Then I'm going to read the words of 1 Corinthians 13

01:02:18

that describe the character of Christ of love.

01:02:22

And when I read those words, I want you to pay attention

01:02:25

for the poke, for the knife in your chest.

01:02:29

Just one word, just one phrase is plenty. Here we go.

01:02:37

Psalm 139: Search me, O God, and know my heart. T

01:02:45

ry me and know my thoughts.

01:02:48

And see if there be any grievous way in me,

01:02:51

and lead me in the way everlasting.

01:02:58

1 Corinthians 13: Love is patient and kind;

01:03:05

Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.

01:03:12

It does not insist on its own way;

01:03:14

it is not irritable or resentful;

01:03:19

it does not rejoice at wrongdoing,

01:03:22

but rejoices with the truth.

01:03:25

Love bears all things, believes all things,

01:03:29

hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

01:04:08

- Psalm 139: Search me, God, and know my heart;

01:04:15

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

01:04:19

See if there is any offensive way in me,

01:04:22


01:04:27

1 Corinthians 13: Love is patient, love is kind.

01:04:36

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

01:04:43

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,

01:04:47

it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

01:04:54

Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

01:04:59

It always protects, always trusts,

01:05:03

always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

01:05:43

- Psalm 139: Search me, O God, and know my heart;

01:05:50

try me, and know my anxieties.

01:05:54

And see if there is any wicked way in me,

01:05:57


01:06:02

1 Corinthians 13: Love suffers long and is kind;

01:06:10

love does not envy; love does not parade itself,

01:06:14

is not puffed up; does not behave rudely,

01:06:19

does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

01:06:27

does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

01:06:32

bears all things, believes all things,

01:06:35

hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

01:07:38

- God, that's our prayer.

01:07:41

Would You empty us of all of the places

01:07:43

where we don't match You, would you drain it out of us?

01:07:47

And would You build in us the character of Christ of love?

01:07:53

God, it didn't take me long to feel Your prick,

01:07:57

Your poke of Your knife in my chest. Love is patient.

01:08:04

I thought about two nights ago,

01:08:05

picking up Ben from a friend's house,

01:08:07

and he came out 15 minutes later than I thought he would,

01:08:09

and I was not patient. I was easily angered.

01:08:14

I was provoked, and God, that's been

01:08:16

a pattern in my life for too long.

01:08:20

Would you conform me to look more like Your Son Jesus?

01:08:25

I repent of that. Change me.

01:08:28

God, I'm praying for everyone who's here,

01:08:30

everyone watching online who has the heart

01:08:34

and the courage to offer themselves to You.

01:08:38

God, would You accept our repentance?

01:08:40

We receive Your correction.

01:08:42

Would You change our character?

01:08:44

God, would You make us into a people

01:08:47

in a church who looks like You,

01:08:51

who can run and win the race You have for us?

01:08:55

God, thank You for being a good God

01:08:57

who loves us enough to change us. Amen. Amen. See ya.

01:09:05

- Hey, I know when that specifically

01:09:07

when the verse about searching your heart hits me.

01:09:10

And because I can be really prideful

01:09:12

and I tend to like shit all over everyone,

01:09:14

you should do this. You should have done that.

01:09:16

And it should have been my way and not your way.

01:09:18

And oftentimes I then jump to conclusions

01:09:20

on things that are not fair and are not right.

01:09:22

And so that's something I know personally I need to work on.

01:09:26

- Well, it's only you.

01:09:27

You're the only one who feels that way.

01:09:29

No, whatever it was, whatever it was for you,

01:09:31

whether it's the way I speak to my kids

01:09:33

or the way I acknowledge my wife

01:09:35

or the way I care for my family, whatever your thing is,

01:09:38

I don't know, I don't know.

01:09:39

Hey, we'd love to encourage you with that.

01:09:41

We'd love to pray for you around that thing.

01:09:43

As always, this is always on the table.

01:09:45

It might be Jen, it might be myself.

01:09:46

It might be one other of a handful of people on our team.

01:09:49

It won't be a chatbot.

01:09:50

It would be a real person who loves you.

01:09:52

We'd love to pray for you and with you.

01:09:54

You can hit the chat button on the website

01:09:55

or just shoot us an email at anywhere@crossroads.net.

01:09:59

- Yes. Well, we mentioned earlier,

01:10:01

if you are thinking about maybe baptism

01:10:03

is the next step for you.

01:10:04

We're going to talk a little bit more about that today.

01:10:07

We are backstage at Crossroads Oakley.

01:10:09

Over there Kyle just finished.

01:10:12

Justin just finished singing

01:10:13

and now we're back behind the Wonder Wall.

01:10:15

And there's some weird props back here.

01:10:17

We tried to shift around some mannequins and crazy stuff,

01:10:19

but this is actually a baptismal tub.

01:10:22

- That's right, that's right.

01:10:23

Around Crossroads, if you were to show up

01:10:25

at one of our buildings for Palm Sunday we are doing baptisms

01:10:27

it would be something that looks exactly like this.

01:10:29

Now, if you're not at one of our buildings,

01:10:31

you're part of our Anywhere Community

01:10:33

and you were to get baptized it could be anything.

01:10:35

It could be a bathtub. It could be a lake.

01:10:38

- Hot tub. - Hot tub.

01:10:39

- Any body of water.

01:10:40

- I haven't actually baptized anybody a hot tub yet,

01:10:42

but, like lakes, ponds. We had somebody message me.

01:10:47

I bumped into him and they said, "Hey,

01:10:49

we actually just baptized somebody

01:10:51

in the Chesapeake Bay in November, like so, so cold."

01:10:55

But I love their, I love their boldness

01:10:57

that they went forward and made it happen.

01:10:59

- Yes. And the big, if you're also going like,

01:11:00

hold on, wait, what's baptism?

01:11:02

It's like it's once you've decided that

01:11:04

Jesus is your Lord and Savior and you've declared that

01:11:07

in your heart, baptism is a physical public declaration

01:11:11

to say, "I'm going to die to myself and go underwater

01:11:13

and I'm going to be born again.

01:11:15

I'm going to rise up out of that water

01:11:17

as a new person in Jesus.

01:11:19

And I want my life to be a better reflection of Him.

01:11:21

I want to have the character of Him."

01:11:23

And it's that changing of who you are, and it's public.

01:11:26

So we actually have our friend Brooke here.

01:11:27

Brooke, come on over.

01:11:28

Brooke is one of the worship leaders here at Oakley.

01:11:31

Put you right here. Hi, Brooke.

01:11:32

- How are you doing?

01:11:34

- Thanks for jumping in here.

01:11:35

She's one of our worship leaders,

01:11:36

and we were just talking about her baptism story,

01:11:38

and I thought it would be a good one to hear

01:11:40

because you grew up in church.

01:11:41

It doesn't matter if you've grown up in church

01:11:43

or if people think that you've already been baptized

01:11:45

because you've been at church so long, but you haven't,

01:11:47

or you were baptized as a baby.

01:11:49

Everyone has their own story, and this one is Brooke's.

01:11:51

So what's yours?

01:11:53

- Yeah. So I was raised in church.

01:11:55

I grew up serving a lot in church.

01:11:57

Both of my parents made sure that my brother and I

01:11:59

were very active. So we did Sunday school.

01:12:02

We youth ushered. We were in children's choir.

01:12:04

- That's like next level. That's all the things.

01:12:06

- Yeah, it's a lot of things.

01:12:08

We spent a lot of time in church on the weekends,

01:12:10

but I think it really set a good foundation for me.

01:12:12

And I remember being eight years old

01:12:15

and hearing about Jesus and hearing about how He died

01:12:18

to save us and died for our salvation.

01:12:20

And I said, "Well, I want that.

01:12:22

I want a deeper relationship with God. I want to be saved."

01:12:24

And so I turned to my mom one day in church,

01:12:27

I think I was like eight years old and I said,

01:12:29

"I want to get baptized."

01:12:30

And so, you know, she made sure that I understood the concept,

01:12:34

that I knew that I was accepting Jesus Christ

01:12:36

as my Lord and Savior and what that meant for my life.

01:12:39

And I was all in. So, um, the next Sunday,

01:12:42

one of my friends and I, we went up in front

01:12:44

of the church and we asked to be baptized.

01:12:46

- I love that it's -- I was not eight, that's for sure,

01:12:50

when I made that decision.

01:12:51

But tell me, were you like perfect then

01:12:53

from eight on to your age now?

01:12:56

- Absolutely not. I think my journey in Christ

01:12:59

has really allowed me to grow.

01:13:01

And I think that's what He does for us.

01:13:03

He transforms us through relationship. Right?

01:13:05

So, when I got to college, I think, you know,

01:13:10

things shifted for me a little bit.

01:13:11

I kind of understood more so what it was

01:13:15

to really walk with Christ and knowing that

01:13:17

you have to have your own personal relationship with Him,

01:13:19

nobody else can do it for you.

01:13:20

- We were chatting about this earlier

01:13:22

when we almost made you late for the performance song.

01:13:24

Almost made you late to get on stage.

01:13:26

We were chatting about this and you had a great line

01:13:28

that's just sort of bouncing around in my head since.

01:13:30

But you said something to the effect of like,

01:13:32

"I just realized I couldn't have a surrogate faith."

01:13:34

- Right. - Talk about that.

01:13:36

- Yeah. I just realized that, you know,

01:13:38

in my walk with Christ, it has to be personal.

01:13:40

I have to put the effort in to get out what I want,

01:13:43

you know, which is a changed life, which is a better life.

01:13:46

So it just convicted me.

01:13:48

I remember my college roommate and I,

01:13:50

we were looking for churches.

01:13:52

We were going to school in New Orleans.

01:13:54

And so one day we stepped in a church

01:13:56

and we went to the service.

01:13:57

And I just remember being very, very moved by the sermon

01:14:00

because they were talking about

01:14:01

how you can be in church your whole life,

01:14:03

and you can serve and never really have an experience,

01:14:05

a personal experience with God

01:14:07

unless you pursue that relationship.

01:14:09

And so that's when I knew that He was calling me for more.

01:14:12

- That's awesome. - That's awesome.

01:14:13

Great. Well thank you.

01:14:14

- Yeah. Appreciate it. We'll let you get back.

01:14:16

- Did you think when you were in the children's choir

01:14:18

at church, that you would be singing

01:14:20

on stage at a church as an adult?

01:14:22

- Never would have thought that in a million years.

01:14:25

But I'm blessed to be here. - That's awesome. Thank you.

01:14:27

- I just want to call this out like Brooke,

01:14:29

Justin, Cash, Maurice, the whole band.

01:14:32

These are not just amazingly talented people.

01:14:34

These are amazing people who are following Jesus.

01:14:37

They're not just talented musicians,

01:14:39

talented performers, talented vocalists.

01:14:41

These are parts of our community who are saying,

01:14:43

"God, what do You have for me? What?"

01:14:44

Like Psalm 139 just said, Kyle read for us:

01:14:47

God, what do you what do you want to point at?

01:14:49

What do you want to sort of highlight in my own heart

01:14:51

or in my own life, or in my own habits

01:14:53

that needs to experience more of Your love

01:14:54

and more of Your life and more of Your joy?"

01:14:56

So we want you to hear from one of our worship leaders

01:14:59

just about what that looked like for her.

01:15:01

- Thank you for jumping in. Great. Yes.

01:15:05

So if you think maybe baptism is the next thing for you,

01:15:08

text "next" to 301301, and you'll be prompted

01:15:13

to fill out a form and then you'll hear back from someone.

01:15:15

So whether you go to a site and you're near a Crossroads

01:15:18

or you live across the country or the world,

01:15:20

we would love to help you with that.

01:15:21

Or maybe you're like, "I was baptized as a baby."

01:15:23

That's what happened to me.

01:15:24

I was Catholic, I was baptized as a baby.

01:15:26

And when I was about 20, I decided to get baptized

01:15:29

as an adult because it was my personal decision

01:15:32

to follow Jesus for myself.

01:15:34

So everyone has their own journey.

01:15:36

- Yeah. And you don't have to know exactly.

01:15:38

Like that's part of this is like

01:15:39

if you text "next" to 301301 and you're not saying,

01:15:42

"Hey, I'm ready. I know all the details."

01:15:43

You can say, "Hey, I want to have a conversation."

01:15:45

We'll connect with you.

01:15:47

We'll help sort of process it with you.

01:15:48

What's the best? Are you ready to get baptized?

01:15:50

What all does that mean?

01:15:51

And what's the best way to make that happen?

01:15:53

Is it for you to be here? Is it for us to come to you?

01:15:56

Is it to find somebody in the community?

01:15:59

We want to help make this happen for you

01:16:01

if it's the right next step and we can help figure that out.

01:16:04

- Yeah. Text us, "next" to 301301.

01:16:06

- See you guys next week. Thanks for joining.

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