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Born to Run | How to Run the Race God Has Given You

God didn’t call you to a life on the sidelines. There’s new ground God wants you to take — and it will stretch you beyond your comfort zone. That’s the point.

This week, we dive into what Paul really meant when he said “run in a way to get the prize”—by actually following his footsteps in Tarsus (modern-day Turkey). This week, Kyle Ranson helps us to see what he saw then, and feel what God is calling you to right now.

Recorded live at Crossroads Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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    - Welcome to week one of the Run Journey. Yes!
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    We are so glad you're here.
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    We're kicking off a five week experience to help you
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    discover the unique race that God called you to run.
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    Now, if you're new, this is the perfect weekend to jump in
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    because this five week Journey is all going
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    to be about uncovering your unique identity,
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    your distinct purpose, the reason God put you
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    where He put you, put you on this earth,
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    the life that you have to live
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    and the race that you have to run.
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    Now, God doesn't make you and He doesn't want you to run
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    somebody else's race or follow somebody else's blueprint.
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    He has something better than that
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    and more unique than that for you.
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    Now we're going to start off our time by singing some songs.
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    And this is about knowing the God
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    who actually runs towards us and runs after us.
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    And when we know that God more personally,
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    when we know His name, we experience more of
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    His power, more of His calling,
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    more of His identity in our own lives.
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    That's what we're going to experience today.
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    So we're going to start off with worship right now
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    as a way to root ourselves in what's true about God
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    and the race that He might have for us.
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    We'd love for you to sing with us right now.
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    - Let me pray for us. God, I don't know --
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    I don't know if there's any other places but Your church
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    where we'd be in a room together
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    and encourage one another and make each other stronger
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    by reminding us of who we are,
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    in truth, reminding us and setting our minds,
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    recalibrating our hearts and our minds back to the truth,
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    back to the one who made us.
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    A cup of coffee doesn't do that for me.
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    Five Hour Energy doesn't do that for me.
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    Being isolated doesn't do that for me.
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    But showing up together and setting
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    our collective eyes on you brings me back to center
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    each and every time. You are my anchor.
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    And You are the wind in my sails that sets me free
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    out on a wild adventure because I was made for more.
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    Exactly what You promised and what You do.
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    Thank you, Jesus, for who you are.
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    I pray all this because of You. Amen.
  • 00:17:13
    - Whew.
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    - Y'all sound amazing today. Don't they sound great?
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    Y'all are the choir of all choirs, man.
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    Hey, we're glad you're online with us.
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    And glad you're in the room with us.
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    Why don't you turn to somebody and say,
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    "You sounded great, I promise."
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    - Well, that song pretty much hit the nail on the head:
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    you were made for more.
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    There's a race for you to run.
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    Welcome to the Run Journey.
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    All the talk of races and stuff,
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    it makes me think of the Winter Olympics.
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    Anybody else just like binging Winter Olympics 24/7?
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    I love it. I keep trying to decide, you know,
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    like, if I could do any Winter Olympics sport,
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    which one would I do?
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    And I would have said the ski jump,
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    except I'm afraid of needles
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    and I'm just a little nervous about the injections
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    you apparently need now to win those things.
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    So -- if you don't understand that,
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    just pretend I said bobsled.
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    That's all, just bobsledding is what I'd love to do.
  • 00:18:27
    Welcome. By the way, my name is Kyle.
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    I'm our Lead Pastor here at Crossroads.
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    We're just pumped and honored that you're with us
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    today for the start of this Run Journey.
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    There are two things you need to make sure
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    you don't leave without. Number one, is this right here.
  • 00:18:40
    This is your personal guide for our experience.
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    It's got all kinds of things in here for you,
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    fun surprises in the back,
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    questions to help you turn what you learn
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    about on the weekend into actual progress in your life.
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    Completely free, by the way.
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    This whole thing is free, if you're brand new,
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    no cost for any of it. It's just our gift to you.
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    We'd love you to get one of these.
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    The second thing you need is a group.
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    It's okay if you don't have one right now.
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    No guilt trip. You're not behind. It's okay.
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    But before your head hits the pillow tonight,
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    make sure you've got a group.
  • 00:19:12
    Two ways to do that: one, you can online shop for one
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    at crossroads.net.
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    Just follow the links and you'll find a group that way.
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    Or, easy button, if you're already at a site,
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    all you have to do is just walk out to the atrium
  • 00:19:25
    and you have a group fair out there,
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    big signs that say find a group.
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    That's where you go to find a group.
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    So make sure you get those two things before you leave today.
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    For the next five weeks, we're following in the footsteps
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    of one of the most important and impactful people
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    in human history, the apostle Paul.
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    In fact, it's not hyperbole to say the only reason
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    you and I are here today is because of him.
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    If you were to trace the faith lines
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    backwards from you, you would get to Paul.
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    Like the person who told you about Jesus
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    and who told them and who told them,
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    and keep doing that for 2000 years,
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    most likely it would end at Paul.
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    He is the guy who took the message of Jesus
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    from Jerusalem to the rest of the world.
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    Last week, our Senior Pastor, Brian,
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    did a great job giving the background of his story.
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    If you missed it, if it's your first time here,
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    I highly encourage you to go back and watch it.
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    You can find it on Crossroads.net
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    or the Anywhere app.
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    And when you study Paul's life, one thing jumps out at you.
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    One thing that kind of makes him different
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    from anybody else that you might see or study.
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    It's his view that's wholly original and unique to him
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    about what his life is.
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    See, if you were to ask the Apostle Paul about his life,
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    he would tell you it was a race and he had one goal,
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    which is to not just run the race, but to win it.
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    Paul's call to arms for anyone who wants
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    to live a life of impact, live a life that shapes
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    and reshapes the world around you is to do the same:
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    consider your life the same way he considered his.
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    In the first letter he wrote to the city of Corinth,
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    he said: Do you not know that in a race
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    all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?
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    Run in such a way as to get the prize.
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    And for 2000 years since, there have been some people
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    who are crazy enough to try to do that,
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    some people who try to follow in his footsteps
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    and win their God given, God ordained, God designed race.
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    And it has totally reshaped the world.
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    There's all these things that exist around us
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    that I think we never pause to consider.
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    Like, hey, when did that start?
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    Who started that thing?
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    Things like hospitals, orphanages, public education,
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    the concept of universal human rights,
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    civil rights, women's rights.
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    You can go on and on and on.
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    All of those things were started by people
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    who were trying to follow God's design
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    and race for their life.
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    Not a single one of them was started by
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    an enlightened philosopher, or an eastern mystic or guru,
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    or a super disciplined stoic.
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    No, they're all people trying to follow
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    the God of the Bible and the race
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    that He has marked out for them.
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    See, the premise of this journey is very, very, very simple.
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    It's that God has a race for you.
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    And so in this Journey, we're going after
  • 00:22:21
    the answers to two critical questions.
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    Number one, what is my race?
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    And number two, how do I run it to win?
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    If you were to walk up to Paul on the street,
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    his advice to you be very, very simple.
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    He's the only one who ever said
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    something like this in the entire Bible.
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    This incredibly bold call to action.
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    In that letter to the Corinthians, he said:
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    Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
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    And so what we're doing in this Journey is literally
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    taking Paul at face value and following his actual race
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    that went all around the Roman world,
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    starting in Jerusalem.
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    Paul traveled 10,000 miles through the Roman Empire.
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    No planes, no cars, no trains, no cushy hokas,
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    no trail mix, no Apple Watch.
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    Like no Apple Watch? He couldn't even count his steps?
  • 00:23:18
    No, he didn't close his rings.
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    He just -- He just kept going.
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    He climbed mountains, he crossed oceans and ran his race.
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    The Bible records him going to 60 different
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    named regions, 30 major cities.
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    In this Journey we'll be going to five of those cities,
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    five of the most significant places in Paul's race.
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    So first we're going to start with today
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    is the city of Tarsus, which is both where Paul was born
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    and where I would argue he was remade.
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    In his experience, it'll look like
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    20 minutes of virtual pilgrimage.
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    We're going to take you via video on location
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    to these five cities so that we can see what Paul did there,
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    better understand what happened and also, as a faith reinforcer.
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    All of these stories, this life that he led,
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    all the things that happened, it's not fairy tale,
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    it's fact and the archeological record shows that.
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    So we're going to dig in and understand it's real people
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    in real places having real encounters with God.
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    After that video, we're going to follow that up
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    with live teaching inside of very painstakingly recreated,
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    historically accurate digital recreations
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    of those locations.
  • 00:24:29
    Again, to to sink into what did Paul feel
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    and experience in these places
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    so that we can follow his example.
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    You know, Paul's race, it not only reshaped the world,
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    it reshaped Paul.
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    And my guess is, no matter where you are in your life,
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    you're up for some reshaping.
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    Maybe you're in a place in your life
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    where you just feel stuck, like you can't get ahead.
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    Maybe you're up for God pushing you.
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    Maybe you're in a place where it feels like
  • 00:24:57
    all you do is run, just in circles though.
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    And what you're up for is being reshaped
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    and made into someone who can take progress.
  • 00:25:03
    Maybe in a place in your life where
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    by all the world's metrics, you are winning,
  • 00:25:07
    but none of it is deeply satisfying
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    in the way that you had imagined.
  • 00:25:11
    And you're going, "God, is there more for me?
  • 00:25:14
    Could there be more?"
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    My hope and my prayer is that over these next five weeks,
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    that you discover the race that God has for you,
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    and you start to experience the thrill of the run.
  • 00:25:25
    Let me pray for you before you go any further.
  • 00:25:27
    God, thank You so much for everyone who's here,
  • 00:25:29
    everyone watching online.
  • 00:25:30
    I'm asking that these next five weeks
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    You would grab hold of our attention.
  • 00:25:34
    God, that You would get our focus,
  • 00:25:36
    that You would speak loudly into our ears,
  • 00:25:38
    that we would hear the race that You have for us
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    in a brand new, fresh way.
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    That You give us the courage to follow You
  • 00:25:45
    and to run to win. Amen.
  • 00:25:50
    - Two of our most impactful experiences
  • 00:25:53
    filmed on location in two new countries.
  • 00:25:56
    Five weeks of live teaching as the Bible
  • 00:25:58
    is brought to life each week.
  • 00:26:00
    And one incredible opportunity to level up your life.
  • 00:26:04
    Join us as we follow the missionary journeys
  • 00:26:06
    of the Apostle Paul and learn from the radical race
  • 00:26:10
    he ran to change the world.
  • 00:26:12
    Wipe the sleep from your soul.
  • 00:26:13
    You have a race to run, and you can win.
  • 00:26:17
    Get off the sidelines of your life,
  • 00:26:18
    learn to turn suffering into endurance,
  • 00:26:21
    endurance into character, and character into hope.
  • 00:26:25
    It is time. Wake up! Run your race! Win!
  • 00:26:30
    Real Encounters with God; The Run Journey.
  • 00:26:38
    - These breathtaking and otherworldly landscapes
  • 00:26:40
    are found in what was called Asia minor in biblical times,
  • 00:26:44
    now modern day Turkey, a critical location
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    for the spread of early Christianity.
  • 00:26:49
    In fact, this now Muslim country was the birthplace
  • 00:26:52
    of the first church in Europe.
  • 00:26:54
    It is home to many of the sites
  • 00:26:56
    we read about in the New Testament,
  • 00:26:57
    including the seven churches of revelation,
  • 00:27:00
    and is where the Apostle Paul was born.
  • 00:27:03
    Paul wrote much of the New Testament
  • 00:27:04
    during his missionary journeys here,
  • 00:27:06
    and there is evidence still today of the profound impact
  • 00:27:09
    the spread of the gospel had in this region.
  • 00:27:12
    We begin our Run Journey in Cappadocia
  • 00:27:14
    because although Paul never traveled here specifically,
  • 00:27:17
    the good news of Jesus he shared did.
  • 00:27:20
    A thousand cave churches carved into volcanic rock
  • 00:27:22
    exist today as evidence of the community of faith
  • 00:27:25
    that lived and worshiped here.
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    - Hey everybody, and welcome to
  • 00:27:36
    Real Encounters season five.
  • 00:27:37
    We're here on location in Turkey and Greece,
  • 00:27:41
    taking the Bible beyond the borders of Israel
  • 00:27:44
    and following the gospel as it spread.
  • 00:27:46
    With me I have, for the very first time,
  • 00:27:49
    Nurullah, Turkish believer, local guide,
  • 00:27:53
    apologist and YouTube famous, by the way.
  • 00:27:56
    Bob is a Princeton trained scholar,
  • 00:27:58
    archeologist, historian, biblical expert.
  • 00:28:01
    He also studied at Hebrew University
  • 00:28:03
    and the French School
  • 00:28:05
    of Biblical Archeology in Jerusalem.
  • 00:28:08
    I think I got that right.
  • 00:28:09
    Tell us why we're here. We got to get right into it.
  • 00:28:11
    - Yeah, I mean, well, look at this.
  • 00:28:13
    We're in this incredible thousand year old cave church
  • 00:28:16
    here in Cappadocia, just surrounded by
  • 00:28:19
    the physical evidence of what came from Paul
  • 00:28:24
    and the Apostle's ministry in this land.
  • 00:28:26
    And it's a reminder, as we're going to see
  • 00:28:28
    in this whole series, as Paul and his disciples
  • 00:28:31
    began to travel from Israel into this area
  • 00:28:34
    and even beyond into Greece,
  • 00:28:36
    they went into these Roman cities
  • 00:28:38
    facing incredible opposition, incredible wealth
  • 00:28:42
    and culture, almost like impossible obstacles.
  • 00:28:45
    And yet, by the power of the Holy Spirit
  • 00:28:48
    and the authority of Jesus, the gospel overcame.
  • 00:28:51
    And this movement of Jesus not only spread,
  • 00:28:54
    but it took root.
  • 00:28:56
    And ultimately, over the centuries,
  • 00:28:58
    it started to just flourish and bear fruit.
  • 00:29:01
    And sitting in this beautiful cave church
  • 00:29:04
    is evidence of the outcome of all of that.
  • 00:29:07
    And, you know, these cave churches,
  • 00:29:09
    we've been here in Cappadocia and we've seen that
  • 00:29:11
    there's many, many hundreds of them in this area.
  • 00:29:14
    The early Christians literally dug these out
  • 00:29:17
    of the unique kind of geology here,
  • 00:29:20
    and kind of painted these beautiful images.
  • 00:29:23
    I mean, we literally have 30 different scenes
  • 00:29:25
    from the life of Jesus surrounding us.
  • 00:29:28
    And so it's like we're enveloped in this
  • 00:29:31
    worship of the early Christians.
  • 00:29:34
    And that's what happened in this land.
  • 00:29:36
    That's the flourishing of the gospel.
  • 00:29:38
    - Yeah. And that's so exciting.
  • 00:29:40
    I mean, you literally can see it laid out on the walls.
  • 00:29:43
    This area of Turkey is 99% Muslim.
  • 00:29:48
    You being a Christian here in this space, kind of,
  • 00:29:51
    what does that mean to you?
  • 00:29:52
    And how have you seen that uniqueness
  • 00:29:54
    of the early church show up here?
  • 00:29:56
    - I'm always fascinated by these places
  • 00:29:59
    and kind of saddened because most of our people
  • 00:30:02
    actually are not aware of the rich Christian history here.
  • 00:30:07
    And especially when I say I became a Christian
  • 00:30:10
    or I'm a Christian and a Turk, they think
  • 00:30:13
    and sometimes tell me that I became a Westerner.
  • 00:30:17
    I adopted a Western culture in a way, because they think
  • 00:30:23
    that Christianity came from the West.
  • 00:30:27
    But it's actually like, you know, trips like this are,
  • 00:30:30
    I think, great examples to be able to share with them
  • 00:30:34
    that, hey, look, the Westerners are coming here
  • 00:30:36
    to experience the, you know, the Christian history
  • 00:30:40
    in these biblical lands that we have in our country.
  • 00:30:43
    - And that it was here and actually then spread
  • 00:30:46
    to the West and not the other way around. Right?
  • 00:30:49
    Exactly. And like also to be able to experience all this,
  • 00:30:52
    I think for me personally, as well as a local Christian,
  • 00:30:57
    strengthens my faith both intellectually
  • 00:31:00
    but also on a personal level, right?
  • 00:31:02
    As I'm walking around these churches and these like,
  • 00:31:06
    you know, biblical routes, I'm just experiencing
  • 00:31:10
    kind of and encountering like the history of our faith.
  • 00:31:16
    - And it does take it to the next level.
  • 00:31:18
    It doesn't just make it something that
  • 00:31:20
    you look at, read over. And you know what?
  • 00:31:22
    Many people might not ever take a trip to Cappadocia
  • 00:31:26
    or as you say, Cappadocia. Did I do that right?
  • 00:31:28
    - The Turkish way, yeah.
  • 00:31:30
    - They might not ever get here themselves.
  • 00:31:33
    Luckily they have us with Real Encounters.
  • 00:31:35
    But also to explain the significance, Bob, if you will,
  • 00:31:38
    of coming to the space and kind of what that means and why.
  • 00:31:42
    - Well, it's amazing to be able to visit
  • 00:31:45
    these ancient sites, these huge Roman cities,
  • 00:31:48
    because archeologists have uncovered for us
  • 00:31:51
    the concrete evidence that the scriptures that we read
  • 00:31:55
    are accurate, that really the story we read
  • 00:31:58
    in the Bible is actually historically, factually true.
  • 00:32:03
    And that's a powerful source of assurance for us in our faith.
  • 00:32:07
    This isn't just a myth or a story,
  • 00:32:09
    but this is real events, real people, real place.
  • 00:32:13
    But there's more. There's more than that even,
  • 00:32:16
    not just coming for kind of an intellectual reason,
  • 00:32:19
    but for 2000 years, ever since
  • 00:32:21
    the women disciples of Jesus first went to the tomb
  • 00:32:24
    in Jerusalem to see like, what's happened there,
  • 00:32:27
    Christians have been coming to these places
  • 00:32:29
    in these holy lands, specifically as a act of
  • 00:32:33
    spiritual devotion, and we call it pilgrimage.
  • 00:32:36
    Pilgrimage is a spiritual discipline in which
  • 00:32:39
    we visit the places where God has moved powerfully
  • 00:32:42
    in the past so that we can encounter Him,
  • 00:32:45
    experience Him in a new way here in the present.
  • 00:32:48
    And it's such a privilege to be able to do that.
  • 00:32:51
    I've been coming to these places for 40 years,
  • 00:32:54
    bringing people here for that reason.
  • 00:32:56
    And it never gets old because you're encountering
  • 00:32:59
    the real Jesus in these places.
  • 00:33:02
    - And it is exciting that
  • 00:33:03
    you don't have to be in this physical place.
  • 00:33:05
    We're going to do the leg work for them, right?
  • 00:33:07
    You guys are going to experience and see
  • 00:33:09
    what this place has to offer and how it's come to life.
  • 00:33:12
    I know I think about when I'm reading the Bible sometimes,
  • 00:33:15
    Bob, you can easily just glaze over a place,
  • 00:33:17
    like if I say, oh, and he went to Asia minor.
  • 00:33:19
    And now here we are in modern day Turkey
  • 00:33:21
    and it means something.
  • 00:33:23
    And so as we follow the life of Paul,
  • 00:33:25
    as we follow how the good news of Jesus
  • 00:33:28
    spread all across the world, we have to start with
  • 00:33:32
    the guy who really started a lot of that call.
  • 00:33:34
    And so we're going to start in his hometown of Tarsus.
  • 00:33:39
    - 12 miles from the Mediterranean Sea,
  • 00:33:42
    on the edge of the great Taurus Mountains,
  • 00:33:44
    tucked in the southwestern corner of Turkey.
  • 00:33:47
    This is Tarsus.
  • 00:33:56
    Not just an old city, but an ancient one,
  • 00:34:00
    a city that dates back 6000 years.
  • 00:34:03
    In fact, as far as they've dug down,
  • 00:34:05
    they've found layer upon, layer upon layer of world.
  • 00:34:09
    This road that I'm walking on right now is 2000 years old.
  • 00:34:14
    That means Tarsus had been here
  • 00:34:15
    for at least 4000 years before the Romans built it.
  • 00:34:19
    This is a city that reshaped the world,
  • 00:34:22
    a city that was, at the time of Paul,
  • 00:34:25
    a leader in the world, known for its academics,
  • 00:34:28
    schools of philosophies.
  • 00:34:30
    There was a library here with 200,000 books,
  • 00:34:33
    lots of scientific works.
  • 00:34:35
    In fact, the tutor for the very first Roman emperor,
  • 00:34:38
    Augustus, was born here.
  • 00:34:41
    The ideas that came out of this place
  • 00:34:43
    have literally shaped the world.
  • 00:34:46
    It's also a place that shows that the Bible is reliable.
  • 00:34:49
    When the apostle Paul described his hometown of Tarsus,
  • 00:34:52
    he said he came from no mean city,
  • 00:34:55
    meaning no ordinary place.
  • 00:34:56
    And this road shows that.
  • 00:34:59
    The dark stone down the middle is basalt,
  • 00:35:02
    and on the edges are this white stone.
  • 00:35:04
    This is limestone that in the moonlight
  • 00:35:07
    would have been reflective, meaning that the crowds
  • 00:35:10
    could walk up and down the streets
  • 00:35:11
    and find their way even at night.
  • 00:35:13
    You'll see the remnants of pipes,
  • 00:35:16
    meaning there was indoor plumbing in this place.
  • 00:35:18
    There's holes in the road that go down
  • 00:35:20
    and show sewage underneath.
  • 00:35:22
    This was a major city that had wealth and prosperity.
  • 00:35:26
    It's the place where the apostle Paul was born,
  • 00:35:29
    and it's also the place where he was reborn.
  • 00:35:32
    Born here to a family of Pharisees,
  • 00:35:34
    Paul described himself once as a Pharisee of Pharisees.
  • 00:35:39
    The Pharisees were the group who was the hardliners
  • 00:35:42
    in the Jewish religion.
  • 00:35:44
    They were so committed to the ways of the Bible
  • 00:35:48
    that they had this black and white view of the world.
  • 00:35:50
    In their minds, the reason that there were issues,
  • 00:35:53
    the reason that the Romans were here in the first place
  • 00:35:55
    and dominating them is because they had abandoned God's law,
  • 00:36:00
    because there were rebels in the camp.
  • 00:36:02
    And so they decided that the way to get God
  • 00:36:05
    to bring His kingdom here on earth and set up shop
  • 00:36:09
    was to have every single person
  • 00:36:11
    in the entire Jewish nation strictly following
  • 00:36:14
    every tiny detail of the entire law.
  • 00:36:17
    There are even factions within the Pharisees
  • 00:36:19
    who are so committed to returning Israel
  • 00:36:21
    to this pure, perfect state that they were willing
  • 00:36:24
    to use violence to force people to fall in line.
  • 00:36:28
    Paul was born into a family that believed
  • 00:36:32
    in those types of things.
  • 00:36:34
    He was a boy wonder, a genius, born to a wealthy family.
  • 00:36:38
    He was accepted into basically the Harvard
  • 00:36:40
    of rabbinical schools at the age of 18.
  • 00:36:42
    He went off to Jerusalem to study.
  • 00:36:44
    He was there for 12 years, but the first time
  • 00:36:48
    we have recorded that he came back here,
  • 00:36:50
    he returned as a failure. But what happened?
  • 00:36:54
    To imagine what it must have felt like for Paul
  • 00:36:56
    to return to his hometown, not as a respected
  • 00:36:59
    and powerful Pharisee who hunted and killed Christians,
  • 00:37:02
    but instead as a believer in Jesus,
  • 00:37:05
    we go to walk the very same Roman road
  • 00:37:08
    that still exists on the outskirts of Tarsus,
  • 00:37:11
    where we know Paul walked home.
  • 00:37:14
    Well, you may feel like you know Paul's story.
  • 00:37:16
    You know, he goes to Damascus on the road
  • 00:37:20
    because he signed up to squash this little band of rebels,
  • 00:37:23
    followers of this crucified Messiah, Jesus.
  • 00:37:26
    And he goes out to squash them,
  • 00:37:28
    and this blinding light comes out of heaven,
  • 00:37:31
    knocks him off of his donkey, and his life changes.
  • 00:37:34
    And from there, what we think is that his life
  • 00:37:36
    is all up and to the right, just miracles
  • 00:37:39
    and victories and wins.
  • 00:37:41
    And he walks into town and he shares the gospel,
  • 00:37:43
    and everyone high fives him and says thanks.
  • 00:37:45
    And it's just -- It's just awesome.
  • 00:37:47
    Well, that's not at all what happens in Paul's life.
  • 00:37:50
    In fact, when he goes out, he meets resistance.
  • 00:37:53
    When Paul walks into a town, no one says thank you.
  • 00:37:56
    No one's excited he's there.
  • 00:37:57
    And Paul's wake is just division.
  • 00:38:01
    Listen to how Acts talks about the beginning of Paul's race.
  • 00:38:05
    And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists,
  • 00:38:08
    but they were seeking to kill him.
  • 00:38:10
    And when the brothers learned this,
  • 00:38:12
    they brought him down to Caesarea
  • 00:38:13
    and sent him off to Tarsus.
  • 00:38:15
    So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee
  • 00:38:18
    and Samaria had peace and was being built up,
  • 00:38:21
    and walking in the fear of the Lord
  • 00:38:23
    and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
  • 00:38:26
    Basically that says that wherever Paul went,
  • 00:38:30
    division followed.
  • 00:38:31
    And so as soon as they send Paul home off to Tarsus,
  • 00:38:34
    the church multiplies and there's peace.
  • 00:38:36
    The divider is gone. Multiplication happens. Yes.
  • 00:38:40
    Imagine being Paul.
  • 00:38:41
    You walk back down the road to home
  • 00:38:45
    with your tail tucked between your legs.
  • 00:38:47
    And when you get there, with your newfound beliefs,
  • 00:38:51
    your family, the Pharisees, they're not excited to see you.
  • 00:38:54
    Your synagogue, your family who knows you,
  • 00:38:57
    the people you grew up around in your hometown,
  • 00:39:00
    they're not thankful you're back.
  • 00:39:01
    They're not embracing your new ideas.
  • 00:39:04
    Many people would say that Paul was likely married
  • 00:39:06
    as a Pharisee at the age of 30.
  • 00:39:08
    It would have been very strange if he wasn't.
  • 00:39:10
    Well, when Paul returned home,
  • 00:39:12
    his wife would have rejected him.
  • 00:39:13
    We know from Paul's own writings later on,
  • 00:39:15
    Paul clearly wasn't married.
  • 00:39:18
    Maybe his wife left.
  • 00:39:19
    There's actually an ancient source
  • 00:39:22
    that seems pretty credible that says that
  • 00:39:25
    in this period of his life,
  • 00:39:26
    when Paul comes back to Tarsus,
  • 00:39:28
    he's so utterly rejected that he ends up living
  • 00:39:31
    alone in a cave for a decade.
  • 00:39:35
    He goes back to tentmaking and he just hangs his head.
  • 00:39:40
    I mean, how would you feel in this moment?
  • 00:39:42
    Frustrated? Yeah.
  • 00:39:45
    Uh, depressed? I would. I would, absolutely.
  • 00:39:51
    And that's where our story, I think,
  • 00:39:52
    connects into Paul's story.
  • 00:39:54
    And I know that you and I didn't go off to Jerusalem
  • 00:39:58
    and become a Pharisee, and there was no blinding light.
  • 00:40:02
    There's no -- the details of our stories don't match Paul's,
  • 00:40:05
    but I think the moment that many of us are in
  • 00:40:08
    is exactly the moment that he was in.
  • 00:40:11
    I think many of us set out from home,
  • 00:40:13
    and we had dreams and ambitions of doing something big
  • 00:40:16
    and doing something important with our life,
  • 00:40:18
    running a race that mattered, crossing the finish line well.
  • 00:40:21
    And then we went out and instead of early wins,
  • 00:40:24
    all we experienced were losses.
  • 00:40:27
    Instead of victories, all we have
  • 00:40:28
    are a pile of disappointments.
  • 00:40:30
    He said no, she left, they gave the promotion to somebody else.
  • 00:40:34
    And at some point, at some point we stopped aiming to win.
  • 00:40:40
    We stopped running with vigor,
  • 00:40:42
    and instead we just started settling for okay.
  • 00:40:47
    If I could just have an okay day,
  • 00:40:51
    that would be good enough.
  • 00:40:52
    If I could just have a okay week and an okay life
  • 00:40:55
    and someday an okay retirement.
  • 00:40:58
    Yeah, that's -- that's good enough.
  • 00:41:01
    Well, the problem with that is that nowhere in Scripture
  • 00:41:05
    does God ever say He wants His people
  • 00:41:07
    to aim for good enough.
  • 00:41:09
    Nowhere in Scripture did God say
  • 00:41:11
    I've created you and purposed you for okay. No.
  • 00:41:17
    God says he has a race, a unique race
  • 00:41:20
    marked out for each one of us
  • 00:41:22
    that's specific and personal,
  • 00:41:23
    that fits in His grand design of His Kingdom coming
  • 00:41:26
    more here and right now.
  • 00:41:27
    But many of us have decided to just settle for fine.
  • 00:41:34
    And that's where our story meets Paul's.
  • 00:41:36
    The most remarkable thing I find about Paul
  • 00:41:39
    is that in this moment of his life,
  • 00:41:42
    when I know he was tempted to stop, he didn't.
  • 00:41:46
    I'm sure he had days where he wanted to give up.
  • 00:41:50
    But more than those days, there was a spark in Paul.
  • 00:41:54
    There was this little ember,
  • 00:41:57
    this little nagging thought in his head and in his heart
  • 00:42:00
    that just said, "There's more than this."
  • 00:42:03
    And so rather than just stop and give up,
  • 00:42:06
    Paul leaned in.
  • 00:42:08
    And in this decade of his life,
  • 00:42:09
    he started asking the harder questions.
  • 00:42:12
    Who is this God who's called me to run?
  • 00:42:16
    What is the race He has marked out for me?
  • 00:42:19
    And how does He want me to run it?
  • 00:42:23
    See, in this time period, the old Paul was put to death
  • 00:42:29
    and a new Paul rose, a new man to run the new race
  • 00:42:34
    that God called him to.
  • 00:42:35
    A man who understood that the sufferings
  • 00:42:39
    that came from his biggest disappointments
  • 00:42:41
    could produce something he needed called endurance.
  • 00:42:45
    A man who understood that if he were to endure,
  • 00:42:48
    God would shape in him character,
  • 00:42:50
    and a man who understood that his character
  • 00:42:52
    was changing from somebody who lacked hope,
  • 00:42:56
    who was vengeful, who was angry, who came in fiery,
  • 00:42:59
    instead became a man filled with hope and grace,
  • 00:43:02
    so much so that it overflowed from him
  • 00:43:05
    and changed the entire world.
  • 00:43:08
    That's the story of Paul.
  • 00:43:09
    And in this ten years of silence,
  • 00:43:12
    in this ten years of being alone,
  • 00:43:15
    Paul learned the secret to running and winning the race.
  • 00:43:21
    The secret that he passed on to us in Romans 5.
  • 00:43:25
    We rejoice in our sufferings,
  • 00:43:27
    knowing that suffering produces endurance,
  • 00:43:30
    and endurance produces character,
  • 00:43:33
    and character produces hope,
  • 00:43:35
    and hope does not put us to shame.
  • 00:43:40
    In one day, after ten long years,
  • 00:43:45
    Barnabas shows up. Paul's friend.
  • 00:43:48
    He comes all the way down the road from Jerusalem.
  • 00:43:52
    He says, "Paul, it's time to run again."
  • 00:43:54
    And Paul, the one time failure, who showed up here
  • 00:43:58
    with his tail tucked between his legs,
  • 00:44:00
    would walk down these same roads,
  • 00:44:02
    would climb mountains, cross oceans,
  • 00:44:05
    flip cities on their heads.
  • 00:44:07
    That same man would walk into
  • 00:44:08
    the most powerful city in world history, Rome,
  • 00:44:12
    and bend it to his will.
  • 00:44:14
    He was a man who shaped the world, not just then,
  • 00:44:17
    but a man who so strongly imprinted
  • 00:44:20
    who God had made him to be.
  • 00:44:22
    A man who so strongly ran the race
  • 00:44:24
    that he had on the world that today
  • 00:44:26
    you and I still stand on his foundation.
  • 00:44:30
    You have a race. Do you know what it is?
  • 00:44:33
    God's called you to be a new man, a new woman,
  • 00:44:36
    to run the new race that He's called you to.
  • 00:44:39
    Do you know how to run it?
  • 00:44:41
    In this Journey together as we walk the road
  • 00:44:44
    we're going to uncover what that race is,
  • 00:44:46
    and together we're going to start to run.
  • 00:45:27
    24 years after Paul left Tarsus to restart his race,
  • 00:45:33
    after Barnabas came and got him,
  • 00:45:35
    he sat in a Roman jail cell, knowing that
  • 00:45:39
    the end of his race was near, and reflecting on
  • 00:45:41
    all of the roads that he had traveled down,
  • 00:45:44
    all of the legs of his race,
  • 00:45:45
    all of the miles that were behind him.
  • 00:45:49
    He knew he had time to write one last letter,
  • 00:45:51
    and he thought about all the different people
  • 00:45:53
    and places he could write it to.
  • 00:45:55
    He thought about the kings and the rulers,
  • 00:45:57
    the important people of the world that he had met.
  • 00:45:59
    But he decided not to write the letter to them.
  • 00:46:03
    He thought about all the important cities he had been to,
  • 00:46:05
    all the seats of power,
  • 00:46:07
    but he decided not to send the letter there.
  • 00:46:11
    Instead, Paul penned his final words to a young man
  • 00:46:16
    who was at the beginning of his own race,
  • 00:46:18
    a man named Timothy.
  • 00:46:20
    These are among Paul's final words written to Timothy
  • 00:46:24
    in the Book of 2 Timothy. It says:
  • 00:46:26
    As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering,
  • 00:46:32
    do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
  • 00:46:37
    It says:
  • 00:46:38
    For I am already being poured out as a drink offering,
  • 00:46:40
    and the time of my departure has come.
  • 00:46:43
    I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race,
  • 00:46:46
    I have kept the faith.
  • 00:46:49
    His last moments, the thing that Paul was just burning to do
  • 00:46:54
    was to look to the next generation and say,
  • 00:46:56
    "Your race is coming.
  • 00:46:57
    I finished mine, I have completed everything.
  • 00:47:00
    And from this point, Timothy, I want you
  • 00:47:01
    to set your mind on fulfilling your ministry."
  • 00:47:05
    That's the same as finish your race, and win.
  • 00:47:10
    If you look at the writings of Paul,
  • 00:47:12
    30 times he uses the wording of ministry,
  • 00:47:15
    15 times the metaphor of athletics,
  • 00:47:17
    primarily race or run,
  • 00:47:19
    but it means the same exact thing.
  • 00:47:22
    Well, what is your ministry? What is a race?
  • 00:47:27
    Well said simply, your race is the ground
  • 00:47:30
    that God wants you to take. It's the whole point of it.
  • 00:47:34
    The race is not about spinning in circles.
  • 00:47:36
    It's not about just going around and around.
  • 00:47:37
    I mean, that's how life feels. Good news.
  • 00:47:39
    God did not make you to ride the merry go round.
  • 00:47:42
    God made you to take new ground.
  • 00:47:45
    That's what He's going for in your life.
  • 00:47:48
    Paul put it this way in a letter to the Ephesians.
  • 00:47:51
    He says: For we are His workmanship,
  • 00:47:54
    created in Christ Jesus for good works.
  • 00:47:57
    Paul says, the reason you exist,
  • 00:47:59
    the reason you were created, is for good works.
  • 00:48:04
    Work, by the way, is about taking new ground.
  • 00:48:06
    It's about progress.
  • 00:48:08
    Some of you are like I did not know that.
  • 00:48:10
    Yes. Apply that at your job, you might get promoted.
  • 00:48:12
    That's the point: Taking new ground in your life.
  • 00:48:17
    Do you think God has a contribution goal for us?
  • 00:48:20
    But by default, you and I start with
  • 00:48:22
    a consumption goal for our life.
  • 00:48:24
    Makes us kind of like my dog Rooster.
  • 00:48:26
    He has a consumption goal for his life for sure.
  • 00:48:28
    I took this video of him yesterday morning
  • 00:48:31
    doing what he always does, which is chewing on stuff.
  • 00:48:33
    Probably something he's not supposed to have.
  • 00:48:36
    About a month ago, Sarah and I got to go on a marriage retreat.
  • 00:48:41
    Super, super cool, amazing opportunity.
  • 00:48:43
    We got a 6 a.m. flight, and the night before,
  • 00:48:47
    we had to get our dogs to the kennel by 7 p.m.
  • 00:48:50
    The kennel was 30 minutes from our house.
  • 00:48:53
    At 6:29 p.m., Rooster went into the bathroom,
  • 00:48:58
    found a pair of Sarah's underwear on the floor
  • 00:49:00
    and swallowed them whole. Like, this is bad.
  • 00:49:05
    We got we got a flight. It is bad.
  • 00:49:07
    So I called my neighbor, who is also our vet.
  • 00:49:09
    I was like, what do I do? He's like, "Get over here.
  • 00:49:11
    I got hydrogen peroxide.
  • 00:49:13
    You got to get it down his throat
  • 00:49:15
    and that should make him throw up."
  • 00:49:16
    So like, great, get the hydrogen peroxide.
  • 00:49:18
    I found a syringe in my workshop.
  • 00:49:20
    And so I get the hydrogen peroxide,
  • 00:49:21
    start trying to inject it down his throat.
  • 00:49:24
    It was like trying to spoon feed a raptor. Did not go.
  • 00:49:28
    It's getting everywhere. It's getting on me.
  • 00:49:30
    It's horrible.
  • 00:49:32
    So I move on to plan B.
  • 00:49:33
    Plan B is Rooster has motion sickness.
  • 00:49:36
    He's actually thrown up on every car ride his entire life.
  • 00:49:39
    So I'm like, great.
  • 00:49:40
    We're already late to get to the kennel.
  • 00:49:42
    And so I just chuck him in the back of
  • 00:49:44
    our piece of crap 16 year old minivan,
  • 00:49:46
    and I drive like Dale Earnhardt to this kennel.
  • 00:49:49
    It's like, out in the country, so I'm taking
  • 00:49:51
    these country road 25 mile an hour corners
  • 00:49:53
    like 55 miles an hour.
  • 00:49:54
    I mean, everyone's bouncing around the van.
  • 00:49:56
    You know, hanging on. Does not work.
  • 00:49:58
    The dog does not throw up.
  • 00:50:01
    We get to the kennel.
  • 00:50:02
    He's foaming at the mouth from the hydrogen peroxide.
  • 00:50:05
    Looks like he has rabies.
  • 00:50:06
    And we're like, "Well, here's our dog. We gotta go. Bye."
  • 00:50:11
    And I know you want to know how the story ends.
  • 00:50:13
    Good, good. Good news.
  • 00:50:15
    Rooster pooped out the underwear three days later.
  • 00:50:18
    And so all is well that ends well.
  • 00:50:21
    We just rinsed those suckers out.
  • 00:50:23
    Now they're back in the rotation. So... [laughter]
  • 00:50:29
    Part of my race is probably sleeping on the couch tonight
  • 00:50:31
    because I told you guys that story, but it's worth it.
  • 00:50:36
    Point is, God doesn't want you and I
  • 00:50:41
    to have the same goal for our life
  • 00:50:43
    that Rooster has for his. He doesn't, but many of us do.
  • 00:50:47
    Many of us think that the goal of our life is consumption.
  • 00:50:51
    I just consume information and I consume news headlines
  • 00:50:54
    and have the hot take political opinions.
  • 00:50:57
    I just gobble up every update that comes out.
  • 00:51:00
    A new phone comes. I get the new phone.
  • 00:51:02
    The new thing, Oh, I need the new thing.
  • 00:51:03
    Upgrade my house and upgrade my car.
  • 00:51:05
    Maybe upgrade my spouse someday. Who knows?
  • 00:51:08
    Gobble up upgrades. No. No no.
  • 00:51:11
    God doesn't have a consumption goal for your life.
  • 00:51:13
    He has a contribution goal.
  • 00:51:15
    His goal for you is progress, not participation.
  • 00:51:20
    All of us do participate, by the way.
  • 00:51:22
    Some of you are like, "Yeah, I heard that thing earlier.
  • 00:51:24
    He said, all the runners run is what Paul said."
  • 00:51:26
    Yes, everyone runs.
  • 00:51:28
    That's why you might feel tired
  • 00:51:29
    even though you're making progress.
  • 00:51:31
    All the runners run, but not everybody gets the prize.
  • 00:51:34
    Not everybody makes progress.
  • 00:51:36
    And there is no participation trophy for life.
  • 00:51:38
    That's not God's goal.
  • 00:51:39
    He's like, "Man, I want to get you to the end
  • 00:51:41
    and then just thank you for being here."
  • 00:51:44
    It's not what He's after.
  • 00:51:45
    He says there's a prize, and the prize is
  • 00:51:47
    as a result of you taking the ground
  • 00:51:51
    that God has specifically intentionally set aside
  • 00:51:54
    for you to take in this world and in your life.
  • 00:51:59
    In order to do that, you and I have to grow.
  • 00:52:02
    We can't accomplish it inside of our current capacities.
  • 00:52:05
    Your race demands continual growth.
  • 00:52:10
    I don't know what you might think your race is right now,
  • 00:52:12
    but I'm just telling you if it can be accomplished in,
  • 00:52:15
    one, inside of your current character,
  • 00:52:18
    in your current capacities, you're either delusional
  • 00:52:21
    or it's not your race. It's not.
  • 00:52:24
    Paul had to learn this lesson.
  • 00:52:26
    It's what we watched in the video.
  • 00:52:28
    Paul set out trying to make things happen,
  • 00:52:31
    and he ended up in a cave for a decade.
  • 00:52:37
    Like, how does that happen?
  • 00:52:40
    How does a guy go from a blinding light to a cave?
  • 00:52:46
    Well, it's because Paul tried to set off
  • 00:52:48
    and accomplish his race inside of his old capacities,
  • 00:52:52
    inside of his old character.
  • 00:52:54
    And so he goes out and he runs his new race
  • 00:52:57
    the way he lived his old life.
  • 00:52:58
    In his old life he had gone around
  • 00:53:00
    and tried to jam religion down people's throats,
  • 00:53:03
    just like me, trying to squirt hydrogen peroxide
  • 00:53:05
    into Rooster. Same thing. Doesn't work. Doesn't work.
  • 00:53:09
    And in his new race, Acts 9 says
  • 00:53:11
    he sets out immediately after the blinding light
  • 00:53:14
    immediately, but it doesn't work.
  • 00:53:15
    People reject it and they get angry.
  • 00:53:17
    They try to kill him. Divisions everywhere.
  • 00:53:19
    And so he's sent home for a decade in a cave as a failure.
  • 00:53:23
    And it was in this moment, in this place
  • 00:53:25
    where Paul had to learn the secret, that he had to grow.
  • 00:53:30
    How do you do it? How do you grow?
  • 00:53:32
    We don't grow without intentionality.
  • 00:53:34
    You don't grow without a training plan.
  • 00:53:36
    In that letter to the Corinthians
  • 00:53:38
    you've been looking at,
  • 00:53:39
    where Paul says all the runners run and aim for the prize.
  • 00:53:42
    He also says this: Everyone who competes in the games
  • 00:53:46
    goes into strict training.
  • 00:53:49
    Now there's lots of training plans in the world
  • 00:53:51
    that promise that they'll lead you to
  • 00:53:53
    growth that you want, and the life that you want.
  • 00:53:56
    There's one popular in the world right now,
  • 00:53:58
    the Hustle Plan.
  • 00:54:00
    It says if I'll just hustle, that'll lead to advancement,
  • 00:54:04
    that'll lead to prestige and wealth
  • 00:54:07
    and that'll lead to happiness.
  • 00:54:09
    That's the Hustle method for getting ahead
  • 00:54:11
    and changing your life.
  • 00:54:13
    There's a prosperity gospel message,
  • 00:54:16
    one that I would say twists and turns
  • 00:54:18
    the word of the Bible.
  • 00:54:19
    That one sounds something like
  • 00:54:21
    if I'll just have the right beliefs,
  • 00:54:23
    God will give blessing in my life.
  • 00:54:26
    I'll avoid suffering. That'll be pretty awesome.
  • 00:54:29
    And then I'll have a little bit of position
  • 00:54:31
    and some prestige, and ultimately,
  • 00:54:33
    prosperity in my life is what God has.
  • 00:54:35
    It'll be a glorious way.
  • 00:54:37
    There's an old school religion version
  • 00:54:40
    of a training plan that leads to a better life.
  • 00:54:42
    It's kind of the one that Paul was using back in the day.
  • 00:54:45
    But there's versions of this that are out there right now.
  • 00:54:48
    It says, if I can just manage my behavior really well,
  • 00:54:51
    do all the right stuff, don't do all the bad stuff,
  • 00:54:53
    that'll lead to purity. God will notice my purity.
  • 00:54:57
    That'll give me status.
  • 00:54:59
    That status will give me power
  • 00:55:01
    over all the idiots who aren't as good as me.
  • 00:55:03
    That's the religious plan for getting ahead.
  • 00:55:06
    But it turns out there's actually only one path,
  • 00:55:09
    only one path that leads to you growing
  • 00:55:12
    and becoming the man or the woman
  • 00:55:14
    that can win the race that God has for you.
  • 00:55:17
    It's the one that Paul discovered, I think,
  • 00:55:20
    inside of this cave. The one he details in Romans 5.
  • 00:55:24
    We rejoice in our sufferings,
  • 00:55:26
    knowing that suffering produces endurance,
  • 00:55:28
    and endurance produces character,
  • 00:55:30
    and character produces hope,
  • 00:55:32
    and hope does not put us to shame.
  • 00:55:36
    Suffering, endurance, character, hope.
  • 00:55:40
    And I think it was here that Paul learned that lesson.
  • 00:55:44
    Why do I think that?
  • 00:55:45
    Because a different Paul walked out of this cave, that's why.
  • 00:55:49
    A Paul, who for sure had suffered,
  • 00:55:51
    a Paul who had endured in this decade,
  • 00:55:54
    and his character, was changed into a hopeful person
  • 00:55:56
    who went on to change the world.
  • 00:56:00
    It starts in suffering.
  • 00:56:02
    Is that hard? Yeah, it's very hard.
  • 00:56:04
    I'm like, man, it'd be better, Kyle,
  • 00:56:06
    you could sell me on this Journey more if it was like,
  • 00:56:08
    ease leads to peace, leads to prosperity
  • 00:56:13
    leads to awesomeness. That'd be awesome.
  • 00:56:15
    I would love if that was the path.
  • 00:56:17
    It's not, it's not.
  • 00:56:19
    And I'm not helping you, we're not helping you
  • 00:56:22
    if we don't wrestle with the reality of what God said
  • 00:56:25
    leads to us running and winning our race.
  • 00:56:27
    And it begins with difficulty.
  • 00:56:29
    Yes, it's hard, but it's worth it.
  • 00:56:32
    Jesus called this path the narrow path.
  • 00:56:36
    He said that few people are willing to take it,
  • 00:56:39
    but He promised that everyone who does,
  • 00:56:42
    everyone who will walk out of their comfortable cave
  • 00:56:45
    that they're in, where they just know everything.
  • 00:56:48
    Everyone who walk out will find true life.
  • 00:56:51
    Paul put it this way in his letter to Ephesus, he said:
  • 00:56:55
    Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,
  • 00:56:58
    and Christ will shine on you.
  • 00:57:01
    See, God goes if you'll -- if you'll trust Me.
  • 00:57:04
    If you'll -- If you'll be up for something new.
  • 00:57:06
    If you'll be up from leaving your comfortable place
  • 00:57:09
    of wherever you've been stuck for the past decade
  • 00:57:11
    or longer, if you're up for it,
  • 00:57:12
    there's a better thing waiting for you.
  • 00:57:15
    It's the promise of this Journey.
  • 00:57:17
    There's more and there's better.
  • 00:57:19
    God wants to empower you and equip you and change you
  • 00:57:21
    and reshape you to take the specific ground
  • 00:57:24
    He has set aside from you.
  • 00:57:26
    And I do mean specific, because your race is unique.
  • 00:57:30
    Your race is not my race and vice versa.
  • 00:57:33
    We heard from Nearula earlier, Turkish believer,
  • 00:57:36
    and Bob, Bob is a different race than me, Narula does.
  • 00:57:39
    Hannah has a different race from me. Brian.
  • 00:57:41
    Everybody's got a unique race, that is by design.
  • 00:57:45
    In this week, the main goal is that we start to define it.
  • 00:57:50
    Every week in your group experience,
  • 00:57:51
    there is a golden question that your group leader
  • 00:57:54
    knows everyone needs to answer.
  • 00:57:56
    In this week's golden question is basically
  • 00:57:58
    what do you think your race is?
  • 00:58:00
    And I know you might be like, "I don't know how to define that."
  • 00:58:03
    But really we're going to start there and say, "God,
  • 00:58:06
    what is the road that You have mapped out for me?
  • 00:58:10
    What's the path You want me to take on my life?"
  • 00:58:15
    And if that seems too early to you, you're like,
  • 00:58:18
    "How would I? How would I know what God has for me?"
  • 00:58:22
    If it seems too early, relax.
  • 00:58:23
    All we're looking for is just a rough draft.
  • 00:58:26
    It can change later. We can refine it later.
  • 00:58:28
    That's totally fine.
  • 00:58:29
    We're just looking for a rough draft to get going on.
  • 00:58:31
    What is that race?
  • 00:58:33
    So before you head out the door, I've got five
  • 00:58:35
    just quick pro tips on helping you define what your race is.
  • 00:58:38
    Number one: Don't dismiss your race.
  • 00:58:40
    As you start to think about this and chew about this
  • 00:58:42
    and and pray about this, which by the way,
  • 00:58:44
    the individual materials will help you do that.
  • 00:58:46
    They'll help you process this,
  • 00:58:48
    help you have a conversation with God.
  • 00:58:49
    As you do that, you might be tempted
  • 00:58:51
    to dismiss your race as insignificant.
  • 00:58:53
    Maybe something pops in your mind.
  • 00:58:55
    You're like, man, that's not big and world changing.
  • 00:58:57
    That doesn't -- That doesn't fit.
  • 00:58:59
    Do not dismiss it.
  • 00:59:01
    I think about my grandfather, my mom's dad, my grandpa Ball.
  • 00:59:06
    He was born to a 14 year old mother.
  • 00:59:09
    He never knew his father.
  • 00:59:11
    His mom had horrible mental health issues
  • 00:59:14
    and she died super young.
  • 00:59:15
    And so my grandfather was raised by her parents,
  • 00:59:18
    who owned and ran a bar.
  • 00:59:19
    And so quite literally, he didn't know his father
  • 00:59:23
    and was raised in the floor of a bar.
  • 00:59:26
    That same man went on to find faith
  • 00:59:28
    and to father nine kids, 35 grandkids,
  • 00:59:32
    and dozens and dozens of great grandkids.
  • 00:59:34
    And not just his family, but anybody who was lonely
  • 00:59:37
    and lost in his life, he knew that his race was to father,
  • 00:59:42
    like a verb.
  • 00:59:43
    I just imagine it would have been tempting for him
  • 00:59:45
    to dismiss that as insignificant.
  • 00:59:47
    But don't do that.
  • 00:59:48
    You don't know the ripple effects
  • 00:59:50
    and the generational impact.
  • 00:59:51
    My life would not be the same.
  • 00:59:53
    I would not be the father I am to my family
  • 00:59:55
    or this church without him.
  • 00:59:57
    You don't know what God might do in you.
  • 00:59:59
    Your race might be something similar.
  • 01:00:01
    It might be to redeem what it means to father,
  • 01:00:03
    or redeem what it means to mother.
  • 01:00:05
    It might mean in your family of origin
  • 01:00:07
    to break the cycle of addiction or abuse,
  • 01:00:09
    or to stop the pattern of bitterness
  • 01:00:11
    that has kept you stuck.
  • 01:00:13
    I don't know what it is, but do not dismiss it
  • 01:00:15
    as insignificant. It's not.
  • 01:00:17
    It's the ground that God wants you to take.
  • 01:00:20
    It's critical to His Kingdom.
  • 01:00:22
    Now, on the other side, tip two:
  • 01:00:24
    don't assume it's impossible.
  • 01:00:26
    God might give you something and you're like,
  • 01:00:27
    "Man, that is way outside my capacity."
  • 01:00:29
    Yeah, that's what happened to me.
  • 01:00:31
    I was 23 years old and asking God what to do with my life.
  • 01:00:34
    And at this point, I was off course.
  • 01:00:36
    I was somewhere over here, I was heading my own direction.
  • 01:00:38
    I had a corporate career path, and this is what I was doing.
  • 01:00:40
    And God made it very clear to me that
  • 01:00:42
    there was a different path.
  • 01:00:43
    And so I spent time asking Him, "Well, what is it, God?
  • 01:00:45
    And where do You want me to go?"
  • 01:00:47
    And one night, as I was praying
  • 01:00:49
    these four words came into my head
  • 01:00:51
    and so I wrote them down:
  • 01:00:52
    Evangelizing a new church.
  • 01:00:55
    You're like, that's what that says?
  • 01:00:58
    I promise that's what that says.
  • 01:01:00
    I'm qualified to be a doctor
  • 01:01:01
    because you can't read my writing.
  • 01:01:02
    And that was -- That was invigorating,
  • 01:01:05
    but it's also intimidating.
  • 01:01:06
    And by the way, new church doesn't mean like new theology,
  • 01:01:09
    new brand new stuff. It's not that.
  • 01:01:11
    People are often a surprise at Crossroads,
  • 01:01:13
    the longer you stay around here, the more you realize
  • 01:01:15
    we're pretty orthodox and conservative,
  • 01:01:17
    traditional in our beliefs.
  • 01:01:19
    New just means a new way to reach people for today.
  • 01:01:23
    Paul put it this way in his letter
  • 01:01:25
    to the Corinthians, he said:
  • 01:01:26
    To the Jews, I became as a Jew,
  • 01:01:29
    in order to win the Jews.
  • 01:01:31
    To those outside the law I become as one outside the law,
  • 01:01:33
    that I might win those outside the law.
  • 01:01:35
    To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.
  • 01:01:38
    I have become all things to all people,
  • 01:01:41
    that by all means I might save some.
  • 01:01:46
    That's basically been my race ever since,
  • 01:01:48
    its to a 21st century American be a 21st century American.
  • 01:01:52
    That's why we have videos and lights and all,
  • 01:01:55
    because that's what us Americans understand.
  • 01:01:57
    That's the tools that the rest of the world
  • 01:01:59
    is using to to woo us and to convince us
  • 01:02:01
    of the story and the path to follow.
  • 01:02:03
    And so we go, "Great. Well, that's what people understand,
  • 01:02:05
    that's what we'll use. Awesome."
  • 01:02:08
    And since it's been my race, but back then,
  • 01:02:10
    I'll tell you it was invigorating.
  • 01:02:12
    But more than that, it was intimidating
  • 01:02:13
    because I'm like, "God, I don't know.
  • 01:02:15
    I don't know how to do that path."
  • 01:02:17
    I was 23 on a corporate career path.
  • 01:02:19
    My only ministry experience is I was volunteering,
  • 01:02:21
    helping lead a middle school youth group
  • 01:02:23
    at a super old school, super traditional
  • 01:02:26
    Methodist church that I did not even go to.
  • 01:02:29
    It was impossible.
  • 01:02:31
    You might have a race like that, that as you
  • 01:02:33
    start to think about it, you're like,
  • 01:02:34
    "God, that is impossible."
  • 01:02:36
    I just want you to know, no matter what your race is,
  • 01:02:38
    no matter how big or how small, it is impossible for you.
  • 01:02:41
    It's utterly impossible. You can't do it.
  • 01:02:43
    But luckily, you follow a God who can.
  • 01:02:46
    Jesus said in Matthew 19.
  • 01:02:49
    Yeah, you can clap for that. [applause]
  • 01:02:52
    He said: With man this is impossible,
  • 01:02:54
    but with God all things are possible.
  • 01:02:59
    Because it's not about your strength, it's about His.
  • 01:03:04
    Paul understood this in his race.
  • 01:03:07
    It's why he actually would boast about his weaknesses
  • 01:03:10
    and his outages, and his inability to do what God said.
  • 01:03:13
    In his second letter to Corinth, he said:
  • 01:03:15
    But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you,
  • 01:03:17
    for my power is made perfect in weakness."
  • 01:03:20
    Therefore I will boast all the more gladly
  • 01:03:23
    of my weaknesses, so the power of Christ may rest on me.
  • 01:03:26
    Guess what? God does not trade power for pride.
  • 01:03:32
    God doesn't trade power for accomplishments.
  • 01:03:35
    God doesn't trade power for straight A's
  • 01:03:37
    in your spiritual report card.
  • 01:03:38
    God trades power to people who know they're weak
  • 01:03:42
    and they don't have what it takes.
  • 01:03:44
    Whatever your race is, I'm telling you,
  • 01:03:45
    it is not impossible for God.
  • 01:03:48
    Number three: Don't compare your race to others.
  • 01:03:51
    You're going to be in your group
  • 01:03:53
    and you'll be sharing your race
  • 01:03:55
    and there'll be this little thing in you
  • 01:03:57
    that always is there, just wanting to compare
  • 01:03:59
    and just kind of measure, you know, you, me, you, me.
  • 01:04:01
    How important is my race?
  • 01:04:04
    And maybe someone shares something and yours feels here
  • 01:04:06
    and you're like, "Okay, I'm rounded up to here
  • 01:04:08
    when I share it."
  • 01:04:11
    So don't compare. You don't have that kind of ruler.
  • 01:04:14
    You don't know the ripple effects.
  • 01:04:16
    You don't know what your race is.
  • 01:04:17
    You don't know what the end result is.
  • 01:04:19
    None of us do. None of us do.
  • 01:04:21
    Do not measure or compare.
  • 01:04:23
    Maybe your race is to start something new
  • 01:04:26
    to bless and build into people.
  • 01:04:28
    A friend of mine, part of her race, was starting
  • 01:04:30
    a nonprofit to help clothe kids in Cincinnati.
  • 01:04:34
    That, by the way, that seemed impossible to her.
  • 01:04:35
    She's a nurse, still is, never led anything,
  • 01:04:38
    never done anything, but she's done it
  • 01:04:40
    and she's doing it and it's having a big effect.
  • 01:04:42
    Maybe your race includes expanding your family.
  • 01:04:45
    One of the most impressive people I've ever met
  • 01:04:49
    is a young father whose race centers on adoption.
  • 01:04:53
    He's adopted special needs kids that are difficult.
  • 01:04:57
    I don't know what your race is, but it's yours.
  • 01:04:59
    Don't compare it to anybody else's.
  • 01:05:03
    Next is: don't focus on your past.
  • 01:05:08
    One of the temptations as the thoughts come to you
  • 01:05:11
    and as God starts telling you about your race,
  • 01:05:13
    is you're looking this way, but your head keeps
  • 01:05:16
    kind of turning around over your shoulder,
  • 01:05:18
    thinking about the things that have happened
  • 01:05:20
    over and behind you.
  • 01:05:22
    You know, Paul has advice.
  • 01:05:24
    Remember, this whole Journey is follow me as I follow Christ.
  • 01:05:26
    You know what Paul would say to thinking and fixating
  • 01:05:28
    on your past and your mistakes and whatever has happened?
  • 01:05:31
    He would say, forget about it.
  • 01:05:33
    Literally, that's what he says
  • 01:05:35
    in his letter to the Philippians.
  • 01:05:37
    He says: I press on to take hold of that
  • 01:05:39
    for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
  • 01:05:41
    Brothers and sisters, I don't consider myself
  • 01:05:43
    yet to have taken hold of it.
  • 01:05:45
    But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind
  • 01:05:49
    and straining towards what is ahead,
  • 01:05:52
    I press on to the goal to win the prize
  • 01:05:55
    for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
  • 01:05:58
    Paul's advice? Forget what's behind you.
  • 01:06:00
    This is the guy who murdered Christians.
  • 01:06:02
    This is the guy who spent ten years failure in a cave.
  • 01:06:04
    He says, forget about it
  • 01:06:05
    and march towards what God has for you.
  • 01:06:09
    Have you been running for a long time in your race?
  • 01:06:13
    Maybe you're at your inflection point in your life
  • 01:06:15
    where it seemed like you knew what your race was.
  • 01:06:17
    Maybe it was centered around raising kids
  • 01:06:19
    or being a business leader, but you've recently retired,
  • 01:06:21
    or now you're an empty nester.
  • 01:06:23
    Well, friend, good news.
  • 01:06:24
    That was just a leg of your race, not the whole thing.
  • 01:06:26
    You can ask God, what is the race that that was one leg of
  • 01:06:30
    and what is this leg that He has for you to run?
  • 01:06:35
    Last and maybe most important is:
  • 01:06:36
    Fix your eyes on the prize.
  • 01:06:39
    Fix your eyes on the horizon.
  • 01:06:41
    See, there's a prize that is here and now for you.
  • 01:06:45
    There's a prize as you run your race
  • 01:06:47
    that looks like peace that passes understanding,
  • 01:06:50
    that looks like purpose in your everyday,
  • 01:06:51
    that looks like being filled up with grace
  • 01:06:54
    and hope that overflow and change the people around you.
  • 01:06:57
    And, and there's a prize that is later.
  • 01:07:01
    And then there's a prize that looks like being like Paul
  • 01:07:05
    when you get to the end of your life and you know
  • 01:07:07
    the finish line is coming to not be scared,
  • 01:07:11
    to not feel weak, but to feel a power in you
  • 01:07:14
    that enables you to cross through
  • 01:07:16
    the finish line tape of life, knowing you have
  • 01:07:19
    done everything and be handed the prize.
  • 01:07:22
    Friends, that's what we want for you.
  • 01:07:24
    That's the goal for every single one of us,
  • 01:07:26
    because that's God's goal for you.
  • 01:07:29
    Let me pray for you as you start this race.
  • 01:07:31
    God, thank You for the fact that You did not design us
  • 01:07:35
    or build us to be spectators. You could have.
  • 01:07:38
    You could have just made us watchers of Your work,
  • 01:07:41
    and instead You've invited us into it.
  • 01:07:43
    God, would you give us ears to hear You?
  • 01:07:46
    Holy spirit, I'm asking You would speak to each
  • 01:07:48
    and every one of us this week, in the next seven days,
  • 01:07:51
    would we hear Your voice.
  • 01:07:52
    Maybe it's a a whisper in the back of our minds.
  • 01:07:55
    Maybe it's a small nudge.
  • 01:07:56
    Or maybe it's loud and booming to get our attention,
  • 01:07:58
    I don't care. Would you speak to us
  • 01:08:00
    and begin to define the race,
  • 01:08:02
    the ground you want us to take in our lives?
  • 01:08:05
    And may we have the courage to follow You. Amen.
  • 01:08:10
    - That's what we want for you, to experience
  • 01:08:12
    more of the race that God has for you.
  • 01:08:14
    It's going to be an incredible, incredible Journey,
  • 01:08:16
    and we want you to get the most that you have out of it.
  • 01:08:19
    God has a specific race that He wants you to run.
  • 01:08:22
    So two things you got to do, one, get your individual guide,
  • 01:08:25
    if you don't have one already.
  • 01:08:27
    We've been mailing them out all over the world.
  • 01:08:29
    If you haven't gotten it yet, hey, you can get it
  • 01:08:31
    from Crossroads.net/run.
  • 01:08:32
    And second, we've said it once or twice. Get in a group.
  • 01:08:35
    Come on, get in a group. This is your time.
  • 01:08:37
    - Yeah, we've said get in a group.
  • 01:08:38
    And we are still mailing out folders this week.
  • 01:08:41
    So you can go at /Journey, put in your information
  • 01:08:44
    and we will mail it out at no cost to you.
  • 01:08:46
    We do not want you to miss it,
  • 01:08:47
    and we have a PDF as well online.
  • 01:08:49
    Find a group. At every single site there's actually
  • 01:08:51
    expos happening in the atriums.
  • 01:08:54
    And so we're actually going to walk out there.
  • 01:08:56
    Stay with us. We are not off yet.
  • 01:08:59
    We are live and we are going to meet some of the people
  • 01:09:02
    who are also doing groups, which Andy,
  • 01:09:04
    you and I have talked about. We are doing online groups.
  • 01:09:07
    - Yes, we've got online groups that are --
  • 01:09:10
    There's over 300 groups in our online tool.
  • 01:09:12
    We'd love to have you join us in one of them.
  • 01:09:15
    I'm leading a group for men along with Kyle Ranson
  • 01:09:19
    who preached today. - Keep going.
  • 01:09:22
    We're learning how to walk backwards
  • 01:09:23
    and talk at the same time. - And not fall over.
  • 01:09:25
    - And look into the camera.
  • 01:09:26
    - Also, Justin Mosteller, who led worship for us today,
  • 01:09:29
    Eric Cash, it's going to be a great, great, great crew.
  • 01:09:32
    We've got all kinds of groups.
  • 01:09:33
    We'd love for you to join us. Sorry, guys. Excuse us.
  • 01:09:36
    - Yeah, we're just running into people as we walk out.
  • 01:09:38
    - Running into folks.
  • 01:09:39
    - All right.
  • 01:09:40
    - Stand here for just a second. - So our expo is starting here.
  • 01:09:44
    Hello. Are you in a group?
  • 01:09:48
    She's getting ready to go check it out. Perfect.
  • 01:09:50
    - She's gonna check out a group.
  • 01:09:51
    - She's here for it. We're excited.
  • 01:09:54
    We have a couple people I actually do want you to meet
  • 01:09:56
    who are doing different groups, but I feel like we're in,
  • 01:09:59
    like, one of those telethons from, like, the 70s.
  • 01:10:01
    - I sure hope not. I sure hope not. Fill the thermometer.
  • 01:10:04
    - Call in, pay the money. - That's right.
  • 01:10:05
    - Because we're like, get in a group.
  • 01:10:07
    Are you in a group yet? Stay. Get in a group.
  • 01:10:09
    - Yeah, but we promise that's not this.
  • 01:10:11
    Like, the reality of this is like, hey, [indiscernible]
  • 01:10:20
    - Oh, sorry. Thank you. Love Kyle's teaching.
  • 01:10:22
    Love the music. But the reality is, the best thing
  • 01:10:25
    about Crossroads isn't the experience.
  • 01:10:27
    It's not the content. It's actually the people.
  • 01:10:29
    The best thing about this place,
  • 01:10:31
    the most impactful thing to me personally, has been the people.
  • 01:10:33
    - Which is wild because
  • 01:10:35
    I feel like our content is pretty awesome.
  • 01:10:36
    - Pretty awesome.
  • 01:10:38
    - Okay, this is my friend Aaliyah. Hi.
  • 01:10:40
    - Hi. How are you? - Good.
  • 01:10:41
    Aaliyah is super glad to be here.
  • 01:10:42
    I kind of forced her into it, but I was talking to you
  • 01:10:45
    just a little bit earlier, and I was like,
  • 01:10:47
    "Are you doing a group?" And you said?
  • 01:10:48
    - I'm actually doing two groups.
  • 01:10:50
    - Two groups? - Why on earth would you do two?
  • 01:10:52
    Tell us about your two groups.
  • 01:10:53
    - My first group is I'm doing it with Jesus and Justice.
  • 01:10:56
    I really think it's important to find
  • 01:11:02
    where is Jesus in the injustices of the world?
  • 01:11:04
    Right now immigration is a hot topic issue right now with us.
  • 01:11:09
    - That is a group that is on site
  • 01:11:11
    at both Oakley and Mason ongoing.
  • 01:11:14
    So the Journey is just five weeks and that group
  • 01:11:16
    is doing the Journey together through that lens,
  • 01:11:19
    which you can do. But also, that group is ongoing.
  • 01:11:22
    If that interests you, you can go on our website
  • 01:11:24
    and find that Jesus and Justice.
  • 01:11:27
    And that is so that's available to sign up now
  • 01:11:29
    at Oakley and Mason, but then you're doing another group.
  • 01:11:32
    - I'm doing an online group on Wednesdays with,
  • 01:11:36
    it's called Paul's Letters. It's a small group.
  • 01:11:39
    It's a private group.
  • 01:11:40
    But we've been meeting for a little over a year.
  • 01:11:44
    It's a small group of women,
  • 01:11:45
    and I wanted to have both experiences.
  • 01:11:48
    I wanted to have an in-person experience
  • 01:11:50
    and an online experience
  • 01:11:51
    so I can, you know, see the difference.
  • 01:11:53
    - Well, I would call you an overachiever,
  • 01:11:55
    and not everyone has to have two groups.
  • 01:11:57
    But here's what I love about that.
  • 01:11:58
    Your Paul's Letters groups was a previous group
  • 01:12:01
    that you were in already that happened to be doing
  • 01:12:03
    Paul's letters, and the Journey is all about Paul's Journey.
  • 01:12:06
    And so your group was like,
  • 01:12:07
    "Okay, we're going to do it then."
  • 01:12:08
    And you used to meet in person,
  • 01:12:10
    but because of everyone's schedules,
  • 01:12:12
    you have decided to do it online. I love that.
  • 01:12:15
    - Yes. - Yes.
  • 01:12:17
    - So there's not like a secret.
  • 01:12:19
    What I think is really cool too is
  • 01:12:20
    you can go to your previous groups or different groups
  • 01:12:23
    of your relationships and go,
  • 01:12:25
    do you want to try this thing? It's just for five weeks.
  • 01:12:27
    And it kind of takes like the box of,
  • 01:12:29
    well, I have to meet in person
  • 01:12:30
    and I have to be sitting on a couch
  • 01:12:32
    and I have to do this thing to being like,
  • 01:12:33
    oh no, I can actually do this creatively.
  • 01:12:37
    - The Monday is so great because it's different people.
  • 01:12:41
    It's not like the same people every week.
  • 01:12:43
    - That's the Jesus and Justice group.
  • 01:12:44
    - Yes. It's not the same people every week.
  • 01:12:46
    So you're getting different perspectives.
  • 01:12:48
    But my online group, it's closed so we have
  • 01:12:51
    a great close knit. - Relational depth.
  • 01:12:54
    - Yeah. So I'm getting different perspectives
  • 01:12:57
    from different people which I think is important.
  • 01:12:59
    - Yeah. - So good.
  • 01:13:01
    - Aaliyah, thank you so much. - Thank you so much.
  • 01:13:03
    - Thanks for letting me pull you over here.
  • 01:13:05
    All right. You're awesome.
  • 01:13:06
    Now she's going to welcome people at the door.
  • 01:13:08
    She's like, that's fine, and then I'll go welcome people.
  • 01:13:10
    So that's awesome. - Yeah. So some of our groups,
  • 01:13:12
    there's groups that are based on demographic
  • 01:13:14
    or life stage or specific things they want to learn about
  • 01:13:17
    or study or topics.
  • 01:13:18
    And then there's groups that are, hey,
  • 01:13:21
    we're going to dive in specifically for the Journey.
  • 01:13:23
    And a lot of our groups, even if they're on
  • 01:13:25
    specific content or specific demographic,
  • 01:13:27
    they are pausing that to sort of focus on the Run Journey.
  • 01:13:31
    Because whatever the age group,
  • 01:13:33
    whatever the specific content, the reality is
  • 01:13:35
    we all need to understand more of
  • 01:13:37
    what God put us on this earth to do,
  • 01:13:39
    the unique race that He has for us.
  • 01:13:41
    And I'm just honestly, after Kyle's talk,
  • 01:13:43
    I'm so freaking excited. -
  • 01:13:45
    - Yes. Like this is not just a for other people.
  • 01:13:48
    This is like for me.
  • 01:13:49
    This hit me straight between the eyes.
  • 01:13:51
    It's like, "God, You've got more for me."
  • 01:13:53
    I think in some ways I've sort of like, I don't know,
  • 01:13:56
    just not been looking up to the horizon and saying,
  • 01:13:58
    "God, what do You have?"
  • 01:14:00
    I've been more focused on what am I doing?
  • 01:14:01
    - That's you personally. - That's me personally.
  • 01:14:03
    Yeah. Yeah. Right. I hope I'm not alone in that.
  • 01:14:05
    I don't know if I'm oversharing, but.
  • 01:14:07
    - No, no. That's great. Okay.
  • 01:14:08
    I've got someone else I want you to meet.
  • 01:14:10
    If we can, like, sneak the camera this way.
  • 01:14:13
    We have got young adults groups meeting all over.
  • 01:14:17
    Online, we've got a young adults group online,
  • 01:14:20
    and then we also have them meeting at different sites.
  • 01:14:23
    And so I was going to introduce you to some of our young adults.
  • 01:14:26
    Guys, this is Seth. Hey, Seth. - Hi. How's it going?
  • 01:14:29
    - I'll come over here. - Here we go.
  • 01:14:31
    - Seth, you helped lead young adults in Oakley,
  • 01:14:33
    which is where we are right now. - Yes.
  • 01:14:35
    - When do you guys meet and what's the age group?
  • 01:14:37
    Tell me a little more. - Yeah.
  • 01:14:38
    Young adults meets here on Wednesdays in Oakley.
  • 01:14:41
    There's also a West Side and East Side of Dayton
  • 01:14:44
    and an Anywhere site. We're 18 to 29 ish, so really.
  • 01:14:49
    - I appreciate the ish. - So do I.
  • 01:14:51
    - It's a group for people that are, you know,
  • 01:14:53
    getting into that first stage of life.
  • 01:14:55
    And what does it mean to become an adult?
  • 01:14:57
    So we get into community and, you know,
  • 01:14:58
    dive deeper on that subject.
  • 01:15:00
    - I love it. So that meets on going throughout the year.
  • 01:15:02
    But anyone can jump in right now just for the five week Journey.
  • 01:15:07
    - Yeah, yeah. We have a handful of groups here locally.
  • 01:15:10
    I know we have a lot of uptown groups
  • 01:15:12
    that are connected through the CYA link on the site as well.
  • 01:15:16
    And yeah, they're getting ready to jump
  • 01:15:17
    into the Journey for the next five weeks.
  • 01:15:19
    - Real quick, tell me what that looks like,
  • 01:15:21
    because part of me goes like, "Okay,
  • 01:15:22
    if I've never been in this group, but I maybe
  • 01:15:24
    I want to dabble and try out this young adults group.
  • 01:15:26
    I'm going to walk into a building and I'm going
  • 01:15:28
    to walk into like a quiet room with like ten people
  • 01:15:31
    that it's going to feel like, you know,
  • 01:15:32
    like grade school lunch. Where am I going to sit, you know."
  • 01:15:35
    - Oh, no. We have we have some people standing outside
  • 01:15:38
    waiting for you to come in and join us.
  • 01:15:39
    We have over 100 people that show up
  • 01:15:41
    here on Wednesday nights.
  • 01:15:42
    And, you know, we get together and we find a place for you.
  • 01:15:45
    So we have six groups and we're ready to join
  • 01:15:47
    and make some more,
  • 01:15:49
    really excited to just, you know, connect people together.
  • 01:15:52
    - I love it, and we have free coffee and soda here
  • 01:15:54
    as well on those nights, so come get that.
  • 01:15:56
    One last question for you, Seth. Thank you.
  • 01:15:57
    Because I know you got to go get people into groups.
  • 01:15:59
    What are you personally excited about with the Journey?
  • 01:16:03
    - I'm ready to see some people, you know,
  • 01:16:04
    take off and start running, honestly.
  • 01:16:06
    You know, I've found that I've had a race that I'm on
  • 01:16:08
    as part of this group, and I really want to, you know,
  • 01:16:11
    initiate people to find that
  • 01:16:12
    and then really step into it and start running after it.
  • 01:16:15
    - I love that. Thank you.
  • 01:16:16
    - Seth. Thanks, brother. - Thank you.
  • 01:16:18
    - That's awesome. - Yeah, I think, I mean,
  • 01:16:21
    young adults like it's a little bit more straight ahead
  • 01:16:23
    to say like, man, that's a season of life
  • 01:16:25
    where people are discovering, hey,
  • 01:16:27
    what is the next decade of my life
  • 01:16:29
    or even beyond that can look like?
  • 01:16:30
    But the reality is, we are all in a place,
  • 01:16:33
    no matter how young or old.
  • 01:16:35
    And that's why we're doing this from literally
  • 01:16:37
    like Kids' Club, like elementary school age kids
  • 01:16:40
    all the way up through Senior Connect
  • 01:16:42
    and everyone in between.
  • 01:16:44
    And I'm squarely in the middle of those two things.
  • 01:16:46
    Everyone is going through the same content,
  • 01:16:49
    like, contextualized for their age group, absolutely.
  • 01:16:51
    - In a voice you can understand.
  • 01:16:53
    - Yeah. We're all trying to figure it out, man,
  • 01:16:55
    what is it? God, what might you have for me to run after?
  • 01:16:57
    What might be the more as Kyle talked about?
  • 01:17:00
    - Yeah, absolutely. Well, our final things I would say
  • 01:17:03
    pushing to if you're like, "Well, I don't know
  • 01:17:05
    if I can meet somewhere. My schedule is crazy."
  • 01:17:07
    Check out the online hosted groups that we keep mentioning.
  • 01:17:10
    For example, I'm hosting the moms group
  • 01:17:12
    with my friend Petra and Carrie.
  • 01:17:14
    Between the three of us moms, we have 13 kids
  • 01:17:17
    between the ages of high school and like six months.
  • 01:17:19
    - So many kids! - Which is wild.
  • 01:17:20
    We've got special needs kids in that mix and all.
  • 01:17:23
    So we're excited to have different moms.
  • 01:17:24
    But what's really cool is
  • 01:17:26
    I'm looking through the list of moms,
  • 01:17:28
    which is over 100 moms all over the country,
  • 01:17:31
    some who attend Crossroads on a regular basis
  • 01:17:33
    at different sites or online regularly,
  • 01:17:35
    and others who've never heard of us,
  • 01:17:36
    but maybe saw through an ad or through through a friend
  • 01:17:39
    who are not a part of Crossroads at all.
  • 01:17:41
    So it's great to also invite the online.
  • 01:17:44
    You can invite a friend from anywhere in the world
  • 01:17:46
    and be in the same group with them virtually,
  • 01:17:48
    which I think is very rare to be able to do
  • 01:17:51
    with friends who don't actually live in your city.
  • 01:17:53
    - Yeah, so like, I don't know your buddy from college
  • 01:17:56
    that you only interact with on the text thread,
  • 01:17:59
    like this could be something substantive,
  • 01:18:01
    something like meaningful that you could connect over
  • 01:18:04
    besides, just like fantasy football scores or whatever.
  • 01:18:07
    I'm doing the online hosted men's group.
  • 01:18:11
    And so as I mentioned before, Kyle Ranson
  • 01:18:13
    who preached today is going to be with us,
  • 01:18:15
    Justin Mosteller, who led worship,
  • 01:18:17
    Sean Boyce, who leads our Batesville community.
  • 01:18:19
    Awesome, awesome folks are all going to be online,
  • 01:18:21
    but we're going to break out into smaller groups as well.
  • 01:18:24
    So you'll get kind of the bigger experience,
  • 01:18:26
    but then also get to know, I don't know,
  • 01:18:28
    6 or 7 people in the community,
  • 01:18:31
    and you could invite other people into that.
  • 01:18:33
    But the reality is like, the reality is
  • 01:18:38
    we just don't grow as much as we could if we're on our own.
  • 01:18:41
    Like I think we'd all like to think we're more,
  • 01:18:43
    we're independent and we can do it.
  • 01:18:45
    - We're all busy, everybody's busy.
  • 01:18:47
    And so to carve out five weeks of intentionality
  • 01:18:50
    is a big deal. - Yeah, it's a big deal.
  • 01:18:54
    And in the scheme of like -- I gotta put my coffee down.
  • 01:18:57
    In the scheme of, like -- - You need to use your hands.
  • 01:18:59
    - I need my hands for this.
  • 01:19:00
    It is five weeks for, like, I don't know,
  • 01:19:03
    90 minutes or something like that.
  • 01:19:05
    That is a big commitment.
  • 01:19:08
    And in the scheme of your life, of sort of
  • 01:19:11
    the fork in the road of will, I understand
  • 01:19:13
    what God put me on this earth to do?
  • 01:19:15
    Will I be able to wrap my head and imagination
  • 01:19:19
    and my heart around the things that
  • 01:19:20
    God might have uniquely wired you, your personality,
  • 01:19:23
    your quirks, your life experience, your family,
  • 01:19:26
    your relationships, your profession.
  • 01:19:29
    If the fork in the road is between just sort of
  • 01:19:31
    staying where you're at or running after something new
  • 01:19:35
    and getting clear on what that thing is,
  • 01:19:36
    I just can't imagine a better potential
  • 01:19:40
    return on investment to, like, understand more
  • 01:19:42
    of what you were put on this earth to do
  • 01:19:44
    and the cost of that being five weeks,
  • 01:19:46
    and the mild discomfort of getting
  • 01:19:48
    into a group with some strangers.
  • 01:19:50
    Man, I think it's well worth the risk.
  • 01:19:52
    And I can't guarantee you it's going to change your life.
  • 01:19:55
    But it did for me 15 years ago.
  • 01:19:56
    I was brand new at Crossroads, and the first thing
  • 01:19:59
    that I jumped into was it was called the Free Journey.
  • 01:20:01
    It was the same thing
  • 01:20:02
    where there was an individual component.
  • 01:20:04
    There was the weekly teaching and a group thing.
  • 01:20:07
    And it changed the way I saw God,
  • 01:20:10
    changed the way I see the church,
  • 01:20:12
    changed the way that I see myself.
  • 01:20:14
    That's what I want for you guys. So yes, it's five weeks.
  • 01:20:16
    Yes, it's a big ask, but it could be powerful for you.
  • 01:20:18
    - Yeah. Everything you need to know
  • 01:20:20
    is at Crossroads.net/Journey.
  • 01:20:21
    So we hope to be on this Journey with you.
  • 01:20:23
    - That's right. Thanks so much for watching.
  • 01:20:25
    We'll see you guys next week.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up!

This content reflects the Weekend message and how it can apply to your life. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. What stood out to you most from the message?

  2. Why do you think that stood out to you? What do you think God might be trying to say?

    (It’s ok if you’re just guessing. This will give you some space to process what it might be.)

  3. What did the message tell you about God?

  4. What did the message tell you about people?

  5. What is one way you can respond to what God might be saying to you this week?

More from the Weekend

That’s it for this week - see you next time!


Feb 22, 2026 • 1 hr 20 mins 22 sec

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