What If You Don't Have What It Takes?

[music: Crossroads Music, Count Me In] - If you've ever wondered about your purpose in life, what God has for you and what he might be calling you to, I think today might be one of the most helpful things that you could experience, and one of the most useful things that you could watch to see what it would look like for God to do something in your life in a fresh way. Hey, welcome to Crossroads. We are a community of people all over the world daily who are looking to see God do those things, to not just learn about God, to experience him in our own lives. And I hope and I pray that by the end of our time today, that you have a better picture what it could look like to experience more of God's power in your life, in your family and your school and your work, and what it would look like for God to show up through you. Right now, there are 3000 dudes doing that in another place that's not here. That is at Man Camp. You know, we've got camp men, for women, for couples, for veterans, for families to experience God and they are so good.

I got to go out there and be with them at Man Camp yesterday. It was so good. Here's some footage that actually I took with my phone. And my name is Andy Reider, Community Pastor of Crossroads Anywhere. And again, welcome to Crossroads. We are one church that meets in person and online and sometimes at camps where people are trying to connect with God, no matter where they live and no matter who you are, no matter where you are, I believe that God's got something special for you today. We're going to be taking communion a little bit later. So this is your heads up to grab something to do that with, some bread, crackers, some juice. But we're actually going to kick off our time as followers of Jesus have done for thousands of years using music. We'd love for you to sing with us and think about how these words can be a prayer with just a great soundtrack. So as we jump in, man, I just want you to consider these not just words on a screen or words to sing, but words that God wants to have a conversation with you about right now. - In this place, would you meet me right now? Let's worship together.

- Can you guys hear me? Perfect. Hey, would you guys pray with me real quick? Father, we are so thankful that those aren't just words that we sing or words that go on a screen, but they are the reality that we get to experience and live into every day. God, for whatever is going on in our weeks that brought us here, God, there is living hope available to us. God, for all the good things, for all the bad things, for all the prayers that have been answered and all the prayers that have yet to be answered, God, we have a living hope that doesn't rely on us getting our act together, that doesn't rely on us behaving all the right way or doing all the right things, but relies on your love for us and your sacrifice for us. God, I pray that today we would experience more and live into more the reality that you offer us a living hope. I pray these things in your name. Amen. Amen.

Hey, can we say thank you to the band one more time? I didn't have this plan, but I just feel like it's worth calling out. These are people who don't just sing these words because they're on a screen. This is not Christian karaoke. These are people who live these words out every day in the way they treat each other and the way they talk to their spouse, and the way they raise their kids, and the way they sacrifice their own lives for what Jesus wants to do in and through them. I'm so thankful for their humility and their faithfulness. Hey. I want to introduce myself real quick. Real quick. My name is Andy Reider. I'm community pastor of Crossroads Anywhere. No, I am not Greg, even if all 40 year old white guys look the same to you. I have hair, so I'm not Greg McElfresh, the Oakley Community Pastor. I lead our online community. So shout out to my friends in Orlando, my folks in Batesville, Indiana, Kagoshima, Japan, Bolivia, all over the globe. So thankful to be with you guys online.

And I've actually got a buddy, Matt, who's in here from Orlando joining us. We have a community all over the globe of people running after Jesus together. I've made friends on four continents as a result of this place, and I want to give you guys a little easy way to maybe make some friends here at Crossroads Oakley or online. Turn around, say, hey, introduce yourself to a couple people around you, and then grab a seat. If you're tuning in online, it's a good way, a good chance for you to grab your communion elements and maybe text your mom, say hello to somebody and grab a seat. - Yeah. So I grew up Orthodox Christian. When I was like 21 ish, 22 kind of fell away from the church, um, and started exploring other religions after that. And in doing so, kind of found out that everybody wants a piece of Jesus, no matter what religion you turn to. I started researching more and more. I kind of came to the belief that he is who he says he is.

And I started getting more back into the church, and I just couldn't sink my teeth into orthodoxy. And my sister in law invited me and my wife to Crossroads. And the first time that we came here, I was -- It's vastly different from an Orthodox Christian service. And so I walked out and I was like, I don't know what that was, but that was not church that I don't know. And then like two weeks later, the sermon that was given was still like racking my brain. And I told my wife, I was like, "I know I said I didn't like it, but I think I liked that and I want to go back." And so we started going to Crossroads Mason. That was a really big step in my, like, getting back in touch with God. We'd been going Mason a couple months and Tim was up on stage talking about groups and he mentioned father's group, and my wife was six months pregnant at the time. I was like, "I feel like I should go to that because I have a lot to learn." And so I started going to father's group before I was even a dad.

And I mean, those guys really just like, like I stepped in the door. Darryl introduced himself. Sam invited me to come sit down at his table. They really just embraced me, and they understood the fear of being a dad for the first time and all of the questions and all the concerns. And you want to do a good job and you want to raise this kid up right, but you have no clue what you're doing. And since joining father's group, those guys in encouraged me and my wife to go through Real Marriage. They encouraged me to go to Man Camp, I got baptized last weekend for the first time as an adult. It can be so easy to just fall into the tediousness of day to day life and the things that can drag you down and try to pull you away from Christ. But when you have a group of guys meeting with you every week to try to talk about how to strive towards him while we try to be dads, and we try to guide our families in that direction as well, it keeps you really centered and based. Whereas before I was like a weekender Christian, you know, like show up on Sunday and then by Monday you've kind of completely forgotten about it, to Bible study on Tuesdays and practicing with the worship team on Wednesdays, going to Fathers on Fridays.

I'm at church more days than I'm not, and I'm like, totally all in now. - Man, don't you love his story? I gotta say, is there something that resonates with you about Brayden's story? You have two options. Yes, or I'm a heartless robot. That's about it. That's about it. Because I think on some level, all of us can resonate with that, of the like, man growing up in church, but like, not sure that it feels real to you or the trying to follow God, but you just feel stuck or stale to the, man, now, like I'm a different person because of this guy Jesus, and because of being connected to a community of people who are running after Jesus together. That is the whole reason our church exists, to help people experience what Braden experienced. That's my story. That's the story of many people in our community. I showed up here, uh, 17 years ago grieving the loss of my mom and my sister, alone, angry at God. And here I found a church family that challenged me, encouraged me, and pointed me towards Jesus and towards that living hope.

We want more people to experience that all over the place, and we believe as part of that, God has called us to be in ten cities in ten years, and we are working towards that goal and trying to see, God, where would you have us go next through these Crossroads Live events. We got the next one coming up in Louisville, Kentucky, not Louisville. I've been corrected many times. Yes, Louisville, Kentucky, on October 17th. It's going to be an amazing time. Chuck Mingo will be there, going to be, uh, it's going to be great live worship. It's going to be incredible. And we're going to see, God, what do you have? What do you have for us in that part of the country? And if you have friends or family in Louisville, Kentucky, hey, go ahead, just tune me out for the next two minutes. Just text them and invite them, even drive there and go with them because we believe there are Bradens in places like Louisville who need Jesus and need this place. Now there's a prayer that I heard that's just sort of been ringing in my head lately, and the prayer is really simple. It just says this: God, would you change the world, but would you start with me? We talk a lot about wanting to see revival sort of sweep our nation and our world, and more people come to know Jesus and the way Braden just described.

But it's not an event. It's not a moment. But we do have a thing that we're doing to just lean into this idea of, God, would you revive us? Would you wake something up in us and bring something that is dead back to life? And that is coming up October 23rd and 24th at Base Camp, our land just east of here. We'd love for you to join us. There's optional camping out on Friday night and then an incredible time on Saturday. And then we're bringing that energy back to all of our sites on Sunday morning. So mark your calendars. If you're wondering, hey, I know, Andy, you're the announcement guy. Do I really want to do that? Let me just tell you, yes you do. I'm gonna look all y'all in the eye and say it's going to be amazing. I don't want you to miss it. Now, we exist to serve people like Braden. And for those of us who want God to move in our lives and to experience more of his power, and that only happens because people are faithful and generous. People teed things up so that I could experience God through this place, and I'm forever changed as a result. If you're one of our faithful givers around here, I just want to say thank you. Well done, well done. If you got questions about what Crossroads believes or you're like, man, maybe I want to begin to trust God with my finances.

I just want to encourage you, hey, take that step. It is risky, but it is well worth it. You can tap the sticker on the seatback in front of you or go to Crossroads.net/give for more info. Now I want to give you, not just me talking about it, I want to give you a glimpse into what revival looks like. - What is revival? Well, I can tell you what it isn't. Revival isn't a moment. It can't be scheduled or manufactured. It's something we receive. It's not an emotion or event. You can't buy tickets to it and you can't stir it up. It isn't a reward and it can't be earned. Revival is the answer to the prayer. Revive us that we might never settle for knowing about God without knowing God. That we might sing about freedom and not remain bound. That we might receive God's hope and be hope to our neighbors. That we might no longer work for what God has freely given.

That we might know God's delight in us. Revive us so dead hearts feel again. Revive us so it has been asleep wakes up. Revive us so what has been hidden comes into the light. Revive us so what has been divided becomes one. Revive us. [music] - Revival is happening. Revival is happening. We'd love for you to be there. More than even you being there, we'd love for you to bring a friend with you. We know that it can be intimidating to bring your friend. It can feel like it's never going to work if I invite them. And so myself and our staff would actually like to partner with you in prayer that when you invite your friend to Revival either out of Base Camp or Sunday morning, we're planning a really awesome experience. I'm very excited about for that, we love to partner with you and pray that when you extend that invitation, your friend actually says yes.

So if you'd like prayer over the invitation you're going to extend, just text the word "pray" to 301301 and myself and our staff will pray that your friend says yes and that God sparks revival in their life. It'd be great. By the way, my name is Kyle. If you missed last week, you might have missed the fact that Brian is taking a new position and I will be our new Senior Pastor, which I'm very, very excited about. So thank you. Very, very excited about that. Today is going to be raw. It's kind of a raw look at where I am, what I'm processing, what I'm thinking about, what I'm praying about, what God has on my heart and mind as I step into this new role. And when I say raw, today is raw raw. I teach at our our staff trainings on Wednesday. We have them every other Wednesday, I teach a lot of those. And when I teach there, I do it differently than when I do it here on the weekend. On the weekend we have like time we got to be tight on. We have somebody who's in the back running our slides. So we got to be coordinated.

You got to kind of write things out. When I teach on Wednesdays, it's just slides I make and no notes. And I taught on Wednesday at staff training and gave kind of where I am, what I'm thinking about. And so many people came up to me like, Kyle, you should do that same thing, but on the weekend. The first one was Andy Reider, our Community Pastor for Crossroads Anywhere. He's like, you should just do that. I was like that that? He's like, yeah. So anyway, today is me, my laptop, slides I make that I'm going to run myself, and no notes. Some of you are like, can you have notes though? Like we vote -- we vote that you have notes. No, no notes. Not doing that. I want to give it to you raw. Welcome to Staff Training. Talk to you about what God has on my heart. The picture I'd give you to start is this from my favorite TV show ever, Friday Night Lights. Amazing. Treat yourself if you haven't seen it and watch it someday. Featuring, by the way, a Hall of Fame Kyle, Kyle Chandler plays a football coach on this show.

And the coach to motivate his team, he always says, "Clear eyes, full hearts can't lose." I'm like, that's exactly how I feel, I feel clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. Full heart and I am humbled, I am honored, I am overjoyed and excited that God would invite me in to this position. Unbelievable to me. Crazy to me. And clear eyes. You know when you sign up for something new, it's a good idea to understand what you're committing to. What are you promising to follow through on? Good idea to know what you're getting yourself into before you jump into it. Before I got married, I had a mentor who was coaching me on what it meant to be a husband, and he said this thing to me that kind of made me sit back down. He was like, "Hey, if you don't have a moment before your wedding day where you are deeply sad and mourning, you don't understand marriage." I was like, "Wow, I like Sarah." And the point he was making, he goes, you know, the call of a husband, especially in Scripture, is to literally lay down your life for your wife.

It says it everywhere. Ephesians 5:25: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. It's like you're signing up to die. It's like, okay. Now if you pick the right spouse, uh, it's worth it. Actually, it's worth it. Which speaking of which, Sarah and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary last week. So I want to publicly say happy anniversary, beautiful, I love you. You are so strong. You're a source of wisdom in my life. I literally don't know if I'd be here without you. I just love you so, so much. She's amazing. Now, one of the things that I didn't realize I was signing up for when I got married is I married a runner. When you marry a runner, they make you run. Warning. We're signed up to do a turkey trot as a family on Thanksgiving. Your morning will start in luxury and smelling nice things and cooking pie. Mine will be suffering and running. She runs the Queen Bee Half marathon every year, 13th year.

She ran it yesterday. She did great. By the way, half marathons, I think we should rebrand them. Half marathon is misleading. It sounds easy. Oh, it's just a half a marathon. It's 13.1 miles. When you have to drive 13 miles, you're like, I don't know, I'm too tired. I might just DoorDash, you know. She run it. She's so tough. When she ran this race, she got cramps in her feet in the last mile. And so she's like, hobbling along. And then she flipped around backwards. She's like, oh, actually, I can go faster if I go backwards. So this is her finishing backwards in the race. That's how tough my wife is. Marriage, when you get married, you should know what you're getting yourself into. Same with any kind of new thing going on in your life. What is this going to require of me? What is it going to take for me? How do I get the power that I need? And again, that's the moment that I find myself in stepping into this new role. God, what is it I'm signing up for? So many people have encouraged me over the last few weeks and days and said, you know, Kyle, hey, you're going to be like Joshua.

There's lots of leadership transitions in the Bible. One of the most famous is Joshua, from Moses to Joshua. And if you go to the book of Joshua, you'll see God over and over and over again saying the same thing to Joshua, the same words: Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Now, why would God say that to Joshua? It's because Joshua was afraid, that's why. God's not wasting his breath. He sees something in him as he comes to a moment of change where Joshua is hesitating, where Joshua is unsure, where he's doubting, where he's the opposite of strong and courageous. Where he's fearing. You see, all of us, we come to these moments of change in our lives. The human natural temptation is to go to a place of fear, to be afraid about what might happen. I don't know what change you find yourself on the edge of, or considering maybe it's one that's coming your way, whether you want it or not. Maybe it's one that you have the option of stepping into. Maybe you're brand new in high school, freshman in high school. Maybe you're brand new in college, you're a freshman in college, or something new on the horizon.

Maybe you're considering a career change, stepping into something new or switching schools or getting married, asking the question. And there's just this thing in you that hesitates, this fear. I think if we're honest, though, our greatest fear is not not having enough. That's not our greatest fear. It's not not being in control. It's not the boogeyman. It's not enemies far away or whatever. If we're honest, when we come to these moments of change in our lives, the thing that we're most afraid of, our greatest fear is our own weakness. It's not not having enough. It's not being enough. See, in our lives, nothing highlights our weakness like moments of change. Nothing does. It forces questions on us. What if I'm not enough? What if I don't have what it takes? What if I fail in some big public, spectacular way, the people I care about, the people who are counting on me, what if they all see that I'm not enough?

How in the world would I ever get the power that I need? Those are the questions that we wrestle with and the questions that we ask. Today we're going to talk about what it means to ask God for power. Power made perfect. And my hope and my prayer is for every single one of us that today we get the promise that God gave Joshua: courage, strength, and a complete and total lack of fear as we step into the new thing God has for us. Let's pray together before we go any further. God, thank you so much for your presence. I'm asking that Your word would speak powerfully to each and every one of us today, that we hear your voice and we would have the courage to follow. Amen. So I'm talking about my job here. You know, what is my what is my job? And has this conversation with Brian about, um, my job and a commission that we're going to do, which by the way, we're going to do a commissioning of me, uh, more small gathering kind of family, friends and a few other people around on November 5th.

That's going to happen. We decided not to do that on a weekend, mainly because it's a spiritually weighty moment. And Brian and I are both like, we don't want to do this many times. See, when you come to church on a weekend, you come one time. We don't come one time. We come lots of times over and over and over, lots of services. And it was like, I don't want to do this moment and then have to like photocopy it a bunch of times over the course of a weekend. So we'll do that in November 5th. And we're talking about this moment. And Brian used this word, he said, have you thought about vows? It's like no. Vows. What are you vowing? What are you committing? And that word, I think is the appropriate word. It harkens back to marriage, right? What are you actually committing to? What are you signing up for? So many marriages fail because we failed to realize what it would require of us. So I've been asking this question, God, you know, what am I vowing? Which takes me back to what have you called me to? Ephesians 4:1-3 says: I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

You know, the Bible says that all of us have a calling. And a calling, by the way, the reason God uses the word calling, he has to call us to it, is generally because part of us does not want to go. So he's like, come here, I'm calling you in this direction. So I've been going back to what is the call on my life? I'm speaking of a call. I had a moment last week. It was Wednesday. We're going to do a family meeting, which is where we're going to tell kind of givers and servers around here our news first. And we knew as soon as that meeting was over, we were going to send an email to the entire church, 92,000 people, announcing our transition news. And I had to be in the atrium at 6:00. I wanted to shake hands and meet as many people as possible. And about 5:30 I had this clear thought drop into my head, which is I should call my mom and let her know. Now she knew. She knew a transition was happening. My parents knew this, but didn't know this was going to happen. And I thought, you know, she might get some calls and emails tonight.

Should probably give her a heads up. And so I called her. And as we're having a conversation, I remembered this moment, this was the first time anybody ever told me I was called into ministry and it was my mom. I remember exactly where I was in our house. I was sitting down, hanging out, and my mom comes running into the room. She'd ripped a page out of her Bible and underlined a verse about being a minister and handed it to me. She's like, God says, you're called to ministry. I was like, okay. Now I actually had that page of the Bible with me at Crossroads. It hung on my desk for for years and years. But during COVID, we boxed stuff up because we weren't in the office for a while, and the box that got put in got thrown away. And I was like, man, I really, I wish I had that, you know? I would love to remember what the verse was and what it said. That seems important in this moment. What have you called me to? So on the phone last week I said, "Hey mom, do you remember this moment?" And she goes, "Oh yeah, oh, I remember exactly." And then she told me a part of the story that I either didn't know or I forgot, which is more likely if you know me.

And she said, "I remember exactly where I was when I heard it," she goes, "You remember that church we went to with the terrible music and the preaching that went on way too long?" I was like, "Yeah." "She's like this little church plant. It was a one man show. This guy would play the guitar by himself, sing terribly, put the guitar down, pick up a Bible, and not just go verse by verse, but I mean word by word through scripture. No matter what it was about." And she's like, "I was zoned out and I heard what sounded like an audible voice say these words: I'm giving Kyle a stewardship." She said she looked around like, "What? Where did that voice come from and had a moment of going, I think this is God speaking to me." And she went home, she opened her Bible, she looked up verses on stewardship. Now she was telling this to me. She goes, "Oh, and by the way, I photocopied that page from the Bible and taped it back in. So hang on a second, I'm sending you a picture." This is the picture of my mom's Bible.

You can see on the side it says my name 6/12/99, June 12th, 1999 my mom heard this and she underlined this verse and gave it to me. I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you. It's from Colossians 1:25. Given a stewardship from God which was given to me for you. She goes, "Hang on, this has been my study Bible. Let's see what -- Let's see what the study Bible says a steward is supposed to do." Then she sent me the pictures of what a steward is supposed to do. So here it is: stewardship. A steward was a slave who managed his master's household, supervising the other servants, dispensing resources and handling business and financial affairs. Paul viewed his ministry as a stewardship from the Lord. The church is God's household. 1 Timothy 3:16: And Paul was given the task of caring for, feeding, and leading the churches for which he was accountable to God.

Hebrews 13:17: And then it says, all believers are responsible for managing the abilities and resources God gives them to fulfill the Word of God. She read that to me and she goes, "Kyle, I think that's your job description." I was like, "Yeah, I think that's my job description. I think that's what I'm signing up for." God's called me to be a steward. And so what am I vowing? What am I committing to? Well, I'm committing to the job of stewardship of this house. And he quotes that verse in there, 1 Timothy 3, it actually says this: I'm writing you these instructions so that if I'm delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. And so one of the sober minded things I'm doing, clear eyes, full heart. The clear eyes part. What am I signing up for? What am I getting myself into? What am I committing to? What am I vowing? One of them is this: I am a steward, not the owner.

Why? Well, because the owner of the house is the one who paid the price for it, that's why. And that wasn't me. Jesus bought this house. It is his house. And it was an expensive price. Acts 20:28. It says, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. That's another word for stewards, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. He bought the house. He paid the price. He's the head of the family. I am a steward. I am not the owner. Which means something very, very important. It means one day I will be held to account for how I managed the master's household. See biblical leadership, this applies not just to overseers, not just to church leadership, but any biblical leadership. If you want to lead like Jesus led, if you want Jesus shaped leadership in your life, it is always, always, always not autonomous authority. It's not I do whatever I want, I'm in charge.

I have the power stick, my way or the highway. It's not. It's accountable authority, accountable to the church, accountable to a board of overseers, yes, but more than that, accountable to God himself. Those footnotes quoted this verse too, Hebrews 13:17: Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority. Why? Because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Not optional. It's a must. The Bible is clear that all of us get into heaven with the same general admission ticket. There's only one kind. There was only one price: The blood of Jesus. That's it. I don't have a better one than you. I don't have a different one than you. It's not the blood of Jesus, plus all the cool stuff I do as a church leader. No. Not that. Just the blood of Jesus gets you in. And. And the Bible also puts these clues in there that there's some kind of accountability session when you get into heaven. There's some kind of review that God wants to do over the idle words that you speak, over the choices that you make, and it has some kind of effect into eternity.

And especially that's true for leaders. Must give an account. Another thing I'm vowing and committing to is to lead like Jesus. That means I must be, I am committing to and vowing to be the the last, the least and the lowest, which is not typically how you think about leadership, right? Everyone's always like, "Congratulations on your promotion, you know, climbing the ladder and you're the guy on top and all, all, all the things. Well, no, actually, that's not how Jesus viewed leadership. One of the most common conversations Jesus had with his disciples was about how to get promoted in his kingdom. Literally, if you think the disciples are like these spiritual superheroes asking God, how do we. How do we pray healing prayers more? How do we you know, how do we get more in touch with your spirit? They never asked that crap. They're like, how do we get promoted, over and over and over again. And Jesus tells them over and over and over again. A couple places where this happens. Mark 9:35: Sitting down, Jesus called the 12 disciples and said, "Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all."

And they're like, uh, okay, but how would we get in charge? You know? So one chapter later, they have the conversation again. Jesus says, "But whoever will be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all." Even this one they don't get. They keep following him into Jerusalem. They think he's going to take over the government, and there's going to be all these new jobs in there. And instead what he does is he marches to the Cross. And the night before the Cross, they have the Last Supper. They're sitting down to have a meal. And again at the Last Supper, the disciples again go, "Jesus, but just one more time. Like, how do we become upwardly mobile in this kind of operation you have? How do we get promoted up?" And what Jesus does in that moment is he goes, "You still don't get it. Great. I'm going to do something that burns a memory in your minds." And so the the one who came from on high, lowers himself, takes off his outer garments, gets a towel, wraps it around his waist and gets down on his knees, takes the lowest of lowest position and washes his disciples feet.

He goes, "This is what it means to be a leader in my kingdom. You are the last, you are the least, and you are the lowest." It's not typical or chart stuff. Typical or church stuff is if you get the top job, you go to the top of the org chart. You climb the ladder. Congratulations. Biblical leadership is an upside down org chart. You're signing up to be on the bottom and the servant of all. That's what's required of me in this job. Another thing is required of me is that I must be above reproach. Says this in many different places in the Bible. Here in Titus 17, Titus 1:7, sorry: As an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick tempered, or a drunkard, or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine, and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

Must, must, must. This probably sounds like your job description too, right, at work? Is that what it? No. Doesn't say that. This is what is required of me. It's required. Beyond that, by the way, is I'm required to be found faithful. And I do mean required. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians 4:1: This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards, required of stewards, that they be found faithful. I could go on and on and on. We could be here for two more hours telling you about all the things that are required of an overseer, required of a steward in the Bible. But I think you get the picture. And so let's just pause and have a raw moment. Let me just be honest for a second. I don't have what it takes. I cannot do that. Hospitable, lover of good, all like, oh my gosh, all this stuff. I do not have what it takes. And I know when someone says that to us, we have two responses that our culture has shoved down our throats that we want to barf back out.

One is, yes, you do, little buddy. You got what it takes. We believe in you. We're for you. You can do it. No, look, I'm a millennial. I'm the first generation we sold that bill of goods to. It does not work. You told me I could be whatever I want when I grow up, but I wanted to play in the NBA. It did not happen. They are not looking for slow, short point guards. Can't. Doesn't work. The second thing that we say to each other is, you know, fake it till you make it. Hey, you might feel that way. You might feel like you can't. But man, do not be an idiot. Like, don't tell anybody. Don't show your weaknesses. Hide it. Fake it until you make it. Now, neither one of those strategies ever come from the mouth of Jesus. None. Instead, he has a completely different radical approach and a promise of how you and I can get power in our lives to do the new things that God has called us to.

The thing that we're hesitating about in our lives. It shows up most clearly in the life of Paul. Paul was, I think, the second most influential person in human history. Jesus is number one. He comes and he teaches and he preaches for three years, and then he dies on the Cross. He raises from the grave. He spends 40 days walking around. Then he goes off into heaven, entrusting the spread of his gospel and the building of the church to a handful of people, one of which is Paul. And Paul takes the gospel and builds churches all over the known Roman world at that time, crazy, crazy, influential leader. And Paul's strategy was not, yes you can and it was not fake it till you make it. Instead, his strategy was boast about weakness. In a letter to the Corinthians, Paul said: If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, he knows I'm not lying.

He goes, I'll boast about the weakness. I'm not lying. And then he goes, I'll prove it. Here's an example. At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me. But I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands. I'd be like, well, how is that an example of weakness? You escaped. Doesn't that mean you're like a super spy, James Bond or something? No, this shows his weakness because those baskets, we know this through archeological evidence, could hold about 80 to 90 pounds. Paul saying, I'm very tiny. I am not a large, impressive physical specimen. I also wanted to play in the NBA, did not work. He's showing his weakness. Now why in the world would Paul boast about his weakness? Like if you are a consultant hired to help Paul, you would not do this. By the way, Corinth was a place where you boasted about your strengths. It was a society built on upward mobility, where you gained influence and economic advantage through boasts of strengths.

Why would you boast about his weakness? Well, Paul says it's because of what Jesus said to him. If you open a Bible, especially modern Bibles, oftentimes the words that Jesus says, his direct quotes are in red letters. Most of those appear in the four biographies of Jesus: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Because then again, Jesus dies, resurrected, goes off to heaven. And most of what he does is communicating through the spirit. But there are a few examples past that in the book of acts and in a couple of Paul's letters where Jesus has direct red letter quotes. And Paul shows one of those in his letter to the Corinthians. But he said to me, Jesus said, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Think how crazy that is. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. I think that we think Jesus's power will be made perfect when we finally get it together, when we kick that habit, when we know enough Bible verses, when we can do the thing, when we acquire more knowledge.

That's when Jesus's power will be made perfect in us. No. No. Perfect means whole and complete, not waiting for anything else. And Jesus says that happens in weakness. Paul says, therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses. Why? So that the power of Christ may rest on me for the sake of Christ then I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then and only then, am I strong. See you and I have to understand this. We have to understand this. Embracing weakness is the key to power. There is no other. There is no other. In your life, if you're stuck, you're at a point of decision. Okay, we've been dating for a long time, I think. I think the marriage is the next logical step. But I'm afraid because I don't know if I have what it takes. I've never seen a marriage that's gone the distance in my family, I don't know.

And so if you're hesitating, I know that the major that I'm in is not the right major. There's another one that I want, but I'm afraid I don't have what it takes. I'm hesitating. I know there's another job that I want. I'm afraid to apply because I'm just, I'm just hesitating. I know that God's calling me to do more and to serve more and to take a leadership role around here. But I'm I'm I'm hesitating. I'm hesitating. If you're waiting to the point where you think you have the power to do it, that will never happen. It will never happen. Embracing your weakness is the key to gaining God's power. That's it. What's fascinating to me is God's strategic, strange prep for me for this job. I'm very thankful that the past seven, eight months as a church have been great. God's done amazing things. We've seen record number of baptisms, we've seen all kinds of cool stories like Braden's happened play out. We got 3000 guys at Man Camp right now. I mean, crazy stuff. It's great, it's great.

And, and being raw, it has been terrible. It has been awful. It's been hard for me. Seven months of crap. Not just crap, a crap sandwich, triple decker: manage a crisis, manage a transition, manage a new job all at the same exact time. And the most common prayer I've prayed over the last seven months is Lord, I can't. I can't. Early on, as everything was kind of blowing up, way, way back when, February, March. And you know, everyone's getting mad. We're getting getting people throwing rocks at us from inside the church, people throwing rocks at us from outside the church. And I felt like one of the things God was calling me to was to be a peacemaker. And I went to the Bible, looked up peacemaker, and found in the sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, where Jesus talks about peacemaker. This is the section where he goes, blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. And he says, blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God.

And I was like, awesome, awesome. I want to be like Jesus. No you don't. No you don't. You know how Jesus made peace? He went and he got beat up. He got bloodied, he got bruised. He got cut. He got killed. See, when you jump into the middle of what feels like a war and everyone's throwing punches and you're the peacemaker, sometimes you get hit from all sides. It's like, Lord, I can't, I can't, I can't do this, I can't, I can't. There are moments where I thought, I don't know what's going to happen here. Is half the church going to leave? Is this going to explode? Am I going to have to lay off half of our staff? Lord, I can't. Moments where I thought, I don't know where we go. Is Brian coming back? I've never imagined this church continuing not doing ministry with him. Lord, I can't, I don't want to, I can't, I can't. And the craziest thing, I can say this now in hindsight, I didn't know it in the moment, but in hindsight, looking backwards over this period of my life, I can say this.

I think the thing that God needed to hear from me the most before he would entrust me with his stewardship is that prayer? Lord, I can't. I can't. Because when you pray that prayer, you open yourself up to hear his response, right? But I can, I can. And so for me, I step into this new role full of confidence, full of hope about the future, full of giant expectations of what God will do in and through me, in and through this church. Not because I can, because God can. It's the same in your life. Have you prayed, Lord, I can't? Have you thought about it as a holy prayer? Many of us were embarrassed to say that to God. Like, I don't want tell him I can't. I mean, he's counting on me. No he's not. You're counting on him. What he wants you to do is figure that part out and then tell other people, boast about it.

So here's some of my boast. Just a short list, by the way. You can you can email Sarah later and she will continue this conversation. I have ADHD, I'm terrible with time, never know what time it is. This morning I did not take a shower. Why? Well, I woke up when I was supposed to, but I lost track of time and I had to jump in my car and drive here. Don't smell me. I'm super forgetful. Never remember what's going on. Never remember where I'm supposed to be. Never at all. I didn't go to Bible college. It's recommended for pastors and teachers to go. Didn't do that. Didn't go to business school. I went to design school. If you would like a better looking toaster, I can help, I am qualified. Also, I tried to run from the calling God gave me. My mom ripped that page out of her Bible and handed it to me, "You're called into ministry," summer before my senior year when I should be picking where am I going to go to school so I can follow through on the calling. And instead I went, no thanks, I'm going to be a designer and went to Georgia Tech. My mom told me, by the way, she's like, "I wasn't worried. I knew you you'd come around.

I knew you'd come around." See, when you're willing to boast about your weaknesses you open yourself up to pray the most powerful prayer you can possibly pray. I would call it a prayer of salvation. Lord, I can't, but I believe you can. Have you prayed that prayer? Lord, I can't, but I believe you can. And do you know that it's okay to say about the belief part, Lord, help me, I believe, but help me with my unbelief. That happens in the Gospels. God walks up to Jesus, goes, "Lord, I believe, but help me with my unbelief." And Jesus hears that and he rewards that faith. Lord, I can't, but I believe that you can. See, it is essential, essential, essential to believe that I must be vulnerable about my weaknesses, it is the only path to power. And I'm telling you, it's the secret behind 30 years of success at Crossroads. It's why God has moved through this church. Not because we're smart, not because we have the best strategies and the best ideas and the best anything. No. Maybe the best coffee. We might have the best coffee.

But besides that, it's because we've been willing to show our weaknesses. A lot of people I know are wondering what will change and what won't change about Crossroads. You know, even if you're like, like me. Oh, I like Kyle. I'm excited about this. Or maybe you're, like, mildly tolerate. I can kind of tolerate that guy. I'll stick around and see what happens. Still, no matter where you are, everybody, everybody I know is wondering what's going to change and what won't. You know? Will this be a church that I recognize in six months? Will this be a place I want to be in in a year? A place I'm proud to be part of three years from now? What would change and what won't? I'll tell you a couple things that will not change and I would even say cannot change. One is our mission: connecting seekers to a community, growing Christ followers who are changing the world, reaching lost people, connecting them to the family of God, mobilizing them on mission to change the world. That will not change. Our vision, our vision. We laid that out a couple years ago.

10x in ten years, push for an awakening. Guess what? We're in year two. You want to know what the next eight years is about? I can tell you: push for an awakening, that's the vision. And our values: being a real place for real people, dying on the hill of authenticity, even when it's costly, even when it's embarrassing, even and especially when it shows our weaknesses. See, as you mature, there's this temptation to stop showing your weaknesses because you think that's what's supposed to happen when you mature. That cannot happen as a church, and it cannot happen in your life. It can't. Why? Well, because the math doesn't work this way. It's not weakness minus weakness equals power. Don't confuse that in this message. This is not a message of if you give God your weakness, he will take it away and make you strong. No, the context for Paul saying my grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness is when Paul begs God to take away the thorn in his side, the weakness, and God goes, not going to do it.

It's not weakness minus weakness equals power because the math also isn't my power p lus God's grace equals power. It's not that. God's not like, gosh, I've got 90% of the power needed to move through your life. I've got 90%. I'm only asking you for ten. It's not, it's not. That's not the math. He goes, I've got 100%. I'm asking you to recognize that you've got zero. Because when you recognize that, then you get the math equation right. My weakness plus God's grace is what leads to power. Period. Period. And so the question I throw back to you is this: Are you willing to be seen as unimpressive? There are people you have authority over, could be your kids, could be people at work, could be a social circle that you're in and you have social influence. That's a type of authority on them. Are you willing to be seen as unimpressive? If you're not, by the way, it's holding you back, holding you back as a leader.

One of the most famous and respected leadership groups in the country is a group called Table Group, founded by an author named Patrick Lencioni. And he said this in an article in The Wall Street Journal: Whether we're talking about leadership, teamwork, or client service, there's no more powerful attribute than the ability to be genuinely honest about one's weaknesses, mistakes, and needs for help. Nothing inspires trust in another human being like vulnerability. And yet, few business people actively strive to grow in vulnerability, wanting instead to project strength and confidence to the people they lead, work with and serve. Ironically, ironically, they're limiting their potential for success. When is the last time you let people see you as unimpressive? When is the last time you stepped into something new that you knew you would be bad at? Us adults, we stopped doing this. As kids we jump in and we're unafraid and we're the worst, but we don't really care. As adults, we start to care and so we stop stepping into new things because we don't want to be seen as bad.

We don't want to be seen as unimpressive and it is limiting our lives. If you want power in your life, I want you to be like my hero from the past year, my son Ben. Ben is a sophomore in high school. Ben is a natural born thinker. He's hilarious. He's creative. Brilliant kid. Not an athlete. Not an athlete. Stopped playing organized sports when he's about 7 years old. And this year as a sophomore decided he wanted to run cross country. Problem. He broke his foot around May and so he couldn't train all summer. Bad athlete. No training. Starts cross country. Did not go well to start with. He finished dead last in five out of his first seven races. And these aren't races of like ten kids. There's like 150 kids. There are some races where everybody else would finish. Everyone finishes, the second to last kid runs by, Sarah and I sit and we wait. A minute goes by, two minutes. We're like, where is Ben? Did he go to Wendy's for a frosty? Like, where did he -- Some of the races he was last by four minutes.

And the first time this happened, I thought, "Oh man, he's going to want to quit. Because of course, because of course he's going to want to quit." But after the race, I said, "Hey buddy, how you feeling?" He's like, "Well, I mean, I wish I was faster. Um, but I really like it and so I'm going to keep going." And he just kept going. The wild part is in his last race he set a personal record by four minutes. Not only was he not last in the race, he was like almost beating some of his friends on the team. It was crazy. Crazy. He was coming down the home stretch of this race. He's running and I can see he's in front of one of his best friends. The kid's like a 15ft behind him or something, but gaining on him, like, "Ben, sprint. You're like 100 feet, like go, everything." And he didn't have any more gas in the tank. His friend passed him. I talked to him after the race. And Ben goes, "Well, dad," he's like, "I didn't have anything left." He's like, "I puked twice in the race." Which, when in the Ranson House, if you puke in cross country, that gets you a $20 bonus because we know you were pushing.

So 20 bucks for Ben. 40 bucks, he puked twice, actually. Very, very good, very good. Are you willing to be bad? Are you willing to be unimpressive? If you are, if you are, you'll see breakthrough in your life. God will do things in and through you you could have never imagined. The most powerful prayer you can ever pray: Lord, I can't, but I believe you can. It is the prayer of salvation that unleashes power in your life at the beginning, and it's the prayer you need to pray every day if you want to continue in Christ. It traces all the way back to the thing he did that changes everything. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 13:4: For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we are also weak in him. The inivation of Christ is to come to him, weak with nothing, and to let the sacrifice that he gave for us unleash power in our life. He did that sacrifice on the Cross, it looked like defeat, shame, failure, weakness.

But it was none of those things. It was victory, glory, salvation and power and it's available to you. Maybe you've never prayed before, Lord, I can't, but I believe you can. I just want to invite you right now. That can be your prayer of salvation. You say, Jesus, I can't, but I believe you can. You just start there with him. Commit your life to him. Say thank you for saving me on the Cross. Thank you for taking my weaknesses and paying the penalty for each and every one of my failures and mistakes. Unleash power in my life. His answer to every single one of those prayers throughout all time has always been yes. Yes. If you just prayed that prayer, I want to invite you to do what we're going to do to close the service today, which is take communion together. At that last supper, after Jesus washed the disciples feet, he gave them one more tactile image to burn in their brains and then told believers who would come after them to do this in remembrance of him.

There's a piece of bread on the table, and he took that bread, which you can peel off the top little thing there and get out that piece of bread. Hold it between your fingers. He took the bread and he broke it. I want you to snap that in half. And he said, this is my body, broken, made weak for you. Friends, this is the body of Christ, broken for you. Let's eat it in remembrance of him. After that, there was a cup of wine on the table. This is actually juice that you're holding in your hand. And peel off the top of that. And he held up the cup of wine and he said, this is my blood shed for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Friends, this is the blood of Christ, the only power you need in your life, that you can only get when you come up to him and you say, I have nothing to offer.

I'm empty of myself. I am weak. And he says, come, drink of my power. Friends, this is the blood of Christ shed for you. Let's drink it in remembrance of him. Let's pray. God, thank you that you meet us as we are, that you do call us to more, but you call us in our capacity. God, I'm asking that you would give us the blessing of Joshua, each and every one of us. Lord, I know that there are so many of us, we're in all over the place on these new beginnings, on new things you're calling us into, on places where we're afraid, places where we're hesitating, places where maybe we're puffed up with pride, believing that we needed to fake it until we make it. God, would you call us the way you called Joshua? Would you give us that blessing to be strong and courageous and unafraid? Not, not because we believe we can, but because we believe you can. You make us a people of power, people of weakness, a people of grace. Amen.

- Amen. Man, I hope you heard today that there is something good for you on the other side of your I can't. Whatever that thing is, whatever the thing is that feels too big, it feels too difficult, it feels too far off, it feels hopeless. God has something good for you on the other side of that. God's power is made perfect in our weakness. If there's anything we can do to encourage you towards that end, put some gas in your tank so that you can keep going in your race, we'd love to do that. If there's anything practically, like we can pray for you, or we can encourage you in or help you find connection within the community or a mentor or a class or whatever it is. That's literally what we're here for. It's our favorite part of the job. If there's anything along those lines you need, you can just text the word "more" to 301301. It'll send you back a link. There's a little connect card. It's just a form. It's super easy and it comes to me and I will help follow up on that, help you get pointed in the right direction or answer any questions that I can. If you're watching on YouTube, the link is right there in the description box.

Just click that and we will follow up as quick as we can. Hey, our prayer is that you experience more of God's power in your life. Whoever you are, wherever you are, that's what's on offer. Reminder, Revival is coming up. It's right around the corner. There will be incredible night optional camping on Friday night. We'd actually love to have you camp with us, especially if you're part of our Anywhere Community and coming in from out of town. And come stay with us. Come camp out. We've got a special area. There's a map. You get to see where we'll be. Come hang out. We'll have a great time. And time on Saturday with live worship, live teaching. It's gonna be really special. And we'll be back here online and all of our sites on Sunday morning. So thanks so much for watching. We'll see you next week on Crossroads.