Todo Para Todos | Superando Las Divisiones Políticas Por EL Bien Del Evangelio

00:00:00

- Well, it's great to be with everybody today.

00:00:03

Hey, let's just talk about the obvious.

00:00:04

You know what I like more than anything?

00:00:06

Maybe you do too. Myself.

00:00:09

I just -- I'm really into myself.

00:00:13

Are you into yourself?

00:00:14

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

00:00:16

there's a cottage industry that exists

00:00:19

purely for you, purely for me.

00:00:22

It's called self-help, which is all about what?

00:00:25

Myself. Myself. Right.

00:00:26

You can have best selling books on this.

00:00:29

One that's been on the best selling list for 300 weeks

00:00:32

is the subtle art of not giving a something or other.

00:00:36

There's also books on fawning,

00:00:38

which are all about taking care of yourself,

00:00:40

taking care of number one, being about yourself.

00:00:43

And there's certainly a place for this kind of material.

00:00:47

But suddenly what starts to happen for us

00:00:50

is we don't go outside of ourselves,

00:00:53

we don't reach outside of ourselves,

00:00:54

we don't talk to people outside of ourselves.

00:00:56

We don't inconvenience ourselves for other people.

00:00:59

And today, that's what I'm going to talk about.

00:01:01

And that is good news, giving people the Good News.

00:01:05

Today I'm going to step on your toes.

00:01:08

I can just about guarantee you

00:01:10

everybody is going to have your toes stepped on.

00:01:12

It's not because I'm trying to step on your toes.

00:01:15

I'm just going to say some things

00:01:17

that are basic Bible things that for some reason

00:01:19

have been covered up and forgotten.

00:01:22

And I'm really excited about this.

00:01:24

It's going to be good, I think.

00:01:25

So let's pray before we go any further.

00:01:27

God, You are so gracious and so kind and so patient with us.

00:01:33

I ask that You would help me to talk about

00:01:37

Your transcendent truth.

00:01:38

And I'm thankful that You're entrusting this to me.

00:01:42

I really am, God. I don't take that lightly.

00:01:44

And I ask that You would use all this truth

00:01:47

that comes from Your Word to build your church,

00:01:49

to build your people, and to woo people into Your family.

00:01:52

And I pray these things according to

00:01:54

the character and identity of Jesus. Amen. Amen.

00:01:59

We're going to talk today about the gospel.

00:02:01

New series next few weeks talking about the gospel.

00:02:03

What is the gospel and what does it mean

00:02:06

to talk about the gospel?

00:02:09

The gospel means good news and someone who talks about it

00:02:12

is called an evangelist.

00:02:14

Gospel. Good News. This was an ancient word.

00:02:17

This isn't well, it's in the Bible,

00:02:18

but it was preceding the New Testament.

00:02:21

This would be the same word to announce

00:02:23

anything that was joyful.

00:02:25

Like, a new king that was coming in power

00:02:27

who's going to be good for everybody.

00:02:28

This is good news. That was the gospel.

00:02:31

And you'd have a guy go out,

00:02:32

which you've probably seen in some movies.

00:02:34

Guy goes out and someone's got the long, long trumpet

00:02:36

and [mimics horn]. Right?

00:02:38

And he opens up the scroll, "Hear ye, hear ye,

00:02:41

now is the day!" He's announcing good news.

00:02:44

And that person who's doing that was an evangelist.

00:02:50

It was a word, a thing before there ever was a New Testament.

00:02:54

Somebody who announces good news.

00:02:57

I want to be that kind of person.

00:02:59

I hope you want to be that kind of person.

00:03:01

The thing is, we've got to reacquaint ourselves

00:03:05

with what the good news is.

00:03:06

So for some of us, this is going to be review.

00:03:10

For some of us, this is going to be,

00:03:11

"I've never even thought of that.

00:03:13

I've never even heard that."

00:03:14

Yeah, it's possible for you to go to a church for years

00:03:19

and get fuzzy on this and not hear it

00:03:20

the way I want to give it to you right now.

00:03:23

Let's look at this passage.

00:03:24

It comes from the book of 1 Corinthians 15:1-4,

00:03:30

and I'm going to break it down.

00:03:31

Now, I remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you.

00:03:36

There it is right there, the gospel I preach to you,

00:03:40

which you received.

00:03:41

In which you stand, and by which you are being saved.

00:03:47

If you hold fast to the word I preach to you,

00:03:51

unless you believe in vain.

00:03:53

I get asked all the time, or we get

00:03:57

wondered and accused all the time.

00:03:59

"You going to take a stand?

00:04:00

Is Crossroads going to take a stand?"

00:04:02

People always want me to take a stand.

00:04:04

And the truth is, you don't really want me to take a stand.

00:04:07

You want me to take your stand. You know?

00:04:10

You want me to affirm what you believe.

00:04:12

You want me to affirm what you think.

00:04:14

And this passage talks about taking a stand,

00:04:17

but it has nothing to do with the things

00:04:18

that we think we should be taking a stand in.

00:04:20

Let's look at this here.

00:04:22

By which you stand, you stand and you hold fast.

00:04:27

Well, what are you standing on

00:04:30

and what are you holding fast?

00:04:32

The word I preach to you. That's what it is.

00:04:35

You take a stand on the word that's being preached,

00:04:38

and you hold fast. Hold fast to that.

00:04:41

Well, what is that? What is that word that's preached?

00:04:43

Well, it is the gospel.

00:04:45

Let's break it down here. What is it?

00:04:47

For I deliver to you as of first importance.

00:04:50

Again, here I'm talking about, here we go.

00:04:52

Look, these are important things, first importance.

00:04:57

There is not another thing

00:04:59

that's close to being as important as this.

00:05:01

Now, very few of us get fired up about the gospel.

00:05:04

We'll get fired up about all kinds of things

00:05:06

on our social media feeds, all kinds of things in the media.

00:05:09

But this is a first importance, first,

00:05:12

first, top of the list. Not even close.

00:05:14

Someone in the first row is with me.

00:05:17

You know, I gave people the first row

00:05:19

crap a few weeks ago, and for the most part,

00:05:21

you haven't raised your game.

00:05:22

For the most part, most of you still suck. You know?

00:05:25

You're not helping me.

00:05:26

Russell, you're in education.

00:05:28

You've been very good, Russell.

00:05:30

Good job, good job, good job.

00:05:31

Some of you are like, hey,

00:05:32

if you're gonna sit up front here,

00:05:33

you got to give me something. All right?

00:05:35

All right. Where was I? Preaching they said.

00:05:41

First importance. So what is first,

00:05:43

not even a close second, first.

00:05:45

This is the first importance.

00:05:47

This is the thing to take a stand on. Let's read it.

00:05:50

What I also -- that Christ died for our sins.

00:05:54

Christ died for our sins.

00:05:58

You know what that means? It means --

00:06:00

Yeah, someone's excited about that good news.

00:06:03

It means that there is forgiveness.

00:06:09

Forgiveness, that's good news, man.

00:06:11

It doesn't matter what you did last night,

00:06:13

God can forgive you right now. Doesn't matter.

00:06:16

Doesn't matter what's in your past.

00:06:17

Your past is not relevant to Him as far as

00:06:20

His love for you and Him being for you.

00:06:22

It doesn't matter. You are forgiven,

00:06:26

utterly forgiven by what Jesus has done.

00:06:30

Well, what? What has He done?

00:06:31

Let's take a look at what He does, what it say?

00:06:33

He died for our sins in accordance with the Scripture

00:06:36

and He was buried.

00:06:38

He died for our sins and was buried.

00:06:41

It's His work. It's not my work.

00:06:44

I was -- I'm in a restoration project right now.

00:06:48

I'm restoring a 1952 pickup truck.

00:06:52

It's obviously old, in horrible shape

00:06:54

and rusted out and everything.

00:06:55

And so the job was getting the rust

00:06:58

off the outside was pretty big.

00:06:59

So I hired some guy to come in and sandblast the outside.

00:07:03

This guy, the kind of guy who drives an old truck

00:07:06

and drags around a diesel engine

00:07:09

with a pallet of coal slag.

00:07:12

That's not a job most of us would want, right?

00:07:14

He's got him and his friend, his coworker

00:07:17

who just got out of prison. So he's a felon.

00:07:19

And they're salt of the earth dudes,

00:07:21

just no one wants to be a 95 degree heat

00:07:25

with a hood on themselves,

00:07:26

blasting coal slag on something, but they are.

00:07:28

And they find out what I do for a living,

00:07:30

which always makes things very interesting

00:07:32

when someone finds out what I do for a living.

00:07:33

And often times what happens.

00:07:35

They either do or do one of two things.

00:07:36

They rewind their mind all the bad words they've said

00:07:40

and they start feeling bad about that,

00:07:43

or, and what else can happen is they can start

00:07:45

trying to show me that they're spiritual too

00:07:47

and how they are spiritual.

00:07:49

So he starts going on talking about the things he's doing

00:07:51

and how he does this and how he does that.

00:07:53

And I'm listening to that, and I let 'em talk

00:07:55

and all came from a good heart.

00:07:57

And I said, "You know what?

00:07:58

You know what the good news is?

00:08:00

The good news is it's not what you do,

00:08:02

it's what Jesus did. That's the Good News."

00:08:06

It's what He did. And He takes all of our sin,

00:08:12

all of our sin, all of our improprieties,

00:08:15

all of our stuff and puts it on His back.

00:08:18

So when He says on the Cross, "It is finished,"

00:08:20

He means payment for sin is over. It's finished.

00:08:23

No one's working out their sin anymore. No.

00:08:25

No one's trying to impress God with my works anymore.

00:08:27

It's over.

00:08:29

And here's where it gets really weird and great

00:08:31

and into the second idea of what the gospel is.

00:08:34

Jesus simultaneously,

00:08:36

He transfers His righteousness to us.

00:08:39

Do you understand that if you give your life to Christ,

00:08:42

you are known in the Bible as a saint?

00:08:45

You're not elected to be a saint

00:08:47

by some ecclesiastical court.

00:08:49

The Bible says to the saints in Rome,

00:08:53

to the saints in Corinth. It's hagios.

00:08:55

You are a holy one because you have Christ's holiness in you.

00:08:59

And God looks at you, He's forgiven you so much

00:09:01

He doesn't even see your sin

00:09:03

and He sees the presence of His Son.

00:09:06

He sees a Holy one. You get a new identity.

00:09:11

This is the next thing. You get a new identity.

00:09:15

This verse says: I would remind you, brothers,

00:09:19

or sisters, this isn't the way you and I use brother.

00:09:22

Like, "Hey brother, how are you doing? Hey, sister?"

00:09:24

No matter what you believe about spirituality,

00:09:27

this is an identity.

00:09:28

When you give your life to Christ,

00:09:30

the good news is you get a new identity.

00:09:32

You actually get into the family of God.

00:09:35

Not everyone's a child of God.

00:09:38

John 1:12 says, For whoever -- he who received Jesus

00:09:43

receives the Son of God and has become a child of God.

00:09:48

You become a child of God.

00:09:49

God loves all people. God loves all people.

00:09:52

God cares for all people,

00:09:54

but not all people are children of God.

00:09:56

Children of God are people who get an identity of God.

00:09:59

They come into the family.

00:10:00

They get the identity of Jesus,

00:10:02

when you receive Him and you have that as identity.

00:10:05

Dudes, you understand how this is, how amazing this is?

00:10:07

I mean, everyone's trying to identify as something, right?

00:10:10

Everyone's trying to figure out who they are

00:10:12

and prove who they are.

00:10:13

You get an identity.

00:10:15

By the way, all of you parents of little kids,

00:10:18

little, little tip for you in your parenting

00:10:20

and your kid's future success.

00:10:22

Do not wait for your children to find out who they are.

00:10:25

Tell your kids who they are. Tell them who they are.

00:10:30

Tell them who they are.

00:10:32

You might not believe this, but it's true,

00:10:34

you know more than your kid does. You know more.

00:10:38

And you love your kid,

00:10:39

actually more than they even love themselves,

00:10:42

and so you tell them who they are.

00:10:44

This is what God does, He gives us a name.

00:10:46

He gives us a new identity, a treasured child of God.

00:10:50

It's only that, there's other aspects to it.

00:10:52

Like, you could be an apostle, a teacher,

00:10:54

a shepherd, an evangelist, a whatever.

00:10:57

There's all these different things

00:10:58

that God gives you and says who you are.

00:11:00

One of the things He said that I am is I'm a builder.

00:11:02

It's part of my -- I build things.

00:11:04

It's just whatever, restore trucks,

00:11:08

I build ministries, I build churches.

00:11:09

I'm a builder. It's part of my identity.

00:11:12

It's great when God gives you an identity,

00:11:14

it's a cool, cool, beautiful thing.

00:11:16

And here it is: And raised on the third day.

00:11:20

Raised on the third day. This is the resurrection.

00:11:25

The literal, physical

00:11:27

and historical resurrection of Christ.

00:11:30

You know, if Jesus actually came back from the dead

00:11:33

and the Bible is true when it says,

00:11:35

"The same spirit who brought Him from the dead

00:11:37

gives life to your body," that's what it says.

00:11:41

That means that there is a power

00:11:43

that you have as a follower of Christ

00:11:46

that should give you a peace that passes understanding.

00:11:49

That's the other thing I think the gospel gives us is peace.

00:11:54

Peace, like, "Hey, hey, no matter how bad it is,

00:11:57

God has me. He's got it, because He has power.

00:11:59

He's got me. It's gonna be fine.

00:12:00

I've got a peace that passes understanding.

00:12:02

And if it's not fine, and if I die,

00:12:05

I go to heaven and then it's really fine.

00:12:07

It's really fine then."

00:12:08

A peace that passes understanding.

00:12:10

Is it really any surprise that

00:12:13

anxiety is at epic proportions as we've forgotten

00:12:15

or not embraced the gospel?

00:12:18

If there isn't somebody who cares about you

00:12:21

and has power and is for you,

00:12:23

you should be very anxious, very freaked out.

00:12:28

I think about so many things in the Bible

00:12:30

and how it relates to things I've experienced in life.

00:12:32

And I'll tell you a story that

00:12:34

my family and I talk about a lot.

00:12:35

I've never gone public with this one.

00:12:37

It's kind of an interesting one.

00:12:39

One of the most important person who's ever lived

00:12:41

in Cincinnati history is Carl Lindner.

00:12:44

I don't mean the Carl Lindner

00:12:46

that's chairman and alive right now.

00:12:48

I mean, his dad, who had I think he was CEO

00:12:51

of three corporations in Cincinnati,

00:12:54

owned the Cincinnati Reds.

00:12:56

And Carl liked to be involved in the community.

00:12:59

And when somebody was doing something,

00:13:00

he wanted to get to know that person.

00:13:02

So Carl got to know me.

00:13:03

He was a very interesting guy.

00:13:05

And he would just call me at random times

00:13:08

to talk to me about random things.

00:13:10

I'd be at dinner, my kids tell you, phone rings at dinner.

00:13:13

Back in those days, phone rang at dinner,

00:13:14

you know what you have to do?

00:13:15

You have to do you have to get off the seat

00:13:18

and walk, walk to a wall because a phone was on the wall

00:13:24

and you'd pull it off the wall.

00:13:26

And I would hear, "Hello, Mr. Tome, this is so-and-so.

00:13:29

Carl Lindner's assistant.

00:13:30

Mr. Lindner, would like to speak with you. Is that okay?"

00:13:33

Um, yeah. Yeah. I remember the first time,

00:13:35

"Yeah, yeah. That's fine, that's fine."

00:13:38

I wait about a minute and he'd come on and say,

00:13:40

"Hi, Brian. How are you doing?"

00:13:45

"Fine, fine."

00:13:46

"Just calling to see how things are with the church."

00:13:50

And when he would call me and call me,

00:13:54

I always would think, "Is this the day he gives me money?

00:14:01

Or is this the day he gives us money?"

00:14:03

Like, is he calling to say, "Hi, Brian.

00:14:05

Calling to wipe out Crossroads' mortgage."

00:14:08

You know, I was hoping.

00:14:09

Not -- none of -- That never happened.

00:14:11

He never, never gave me, us, any, any resources like that,

00:14:15

but he was very generous in other ways.

00:14:17

He would let me use his house, my family,

00:14:20

the house he had in the keys for extended periods of time.

00:14:23

It was really, really, really thoughtful.

00:14:25

And then cue to the story this all hinges on,

00:14:29

he, when he owned the Redis, he invited us

00:14:32

one time to go sit with him in his seats,

00:14:34

which were right behind the Reds dugout.

00:14:36

He said, "Just go down and I'll be down there when I get there."

00:14:39

Okay, great. Great. Fine.

00:14:40

So we got down, of course, I'm not going to be late

00:14:42

for this, my gosh, first row Reds game.

00:14:44

We're down there. We're hanging out.

00:14:45

My kids, Lena and Jake.

00:14:48

Moriah was being held at that point.

00:14:49

Lena and Jake were, I don't know what they were,

00:14:51

seven and nine, five and seven, something like that.

00:14:54

Yeah. They're standing like at the,

00:14:57

behind the dugout having a great time.

00:14:59

And this usher, this old cranky usher comes down

00:15:03

and says, "Hey, hey, hey, hey.

00:15:05

Those kids, they can't be standing there."

00:15:07

I said, "Really? They're short.

00:15:08

I mean, no one. They're not blocking the view."

00:15:12

"No, they gotta be sitting down."

00:15:13

I said, "Okay, all right." I got them sitting down.

00:15:15

Now you try to get a seven year old to stay seated

00:15:18

in a seat in the front row at a Reds game.

00:15:21

So again, of course, it doesn't take long,

00:15:23

they're up and they're having fun and they're there.

00:15:25

Ad sure enough guy comes up, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

00:15:29

Kids can't be standing." "Sorry, sorry. I'm sorry."

00:15:32

Put them down. It's like this for innings. Right?

00:15:35

Around the fifth inning, Carl shows up

00:15:38

and comes up and we're sitting in the second row.

00:15:40

My kids are in the first row,

00:15:41

and we're sitting there talking,

00:15:43

and I see the usher coming down.

00:15:45

And I know exactly how this is going to play out.

00:15:49

Usher's coming down.

00:15:51

I'm looking at Carl. I'm looking at usher.

00:15:53

Comes right down.

00:15:54

I see the kids are standing up. Kids are standing up.

00:15:56

I see the usher ready to go to his cue.

00:15:58

While he sees the kids standing up

00:15:59

he also sees his owner. The owner is there.

00:16:03

And so as he comes down, he notices this.

00:16:07

And here's what I do, I see him coming down

00:16:09

and I just look and I go.

00:16:13

And I go --

00:16:18

He turned and walked away.

00:16:22

Now that is the gospel.

00:16:28

I was under the identity

00:16:31

of the most powerful entity in the place.

00:16:36

I was under his authority and there was,

00:16:40

in fact, kids -- people are giving my kids,

00:16:43

Reds players are giving my kids baseballs.

00:16:44

I'm going, "Kids, this is not the way a normal Reds game goes"

00:16:47

They don't. They don't know.

00:16:49

I was under the identity of that

00:16:52

and that changed everything. It was good news.

00:16:55

While Carl never wrote us a check,

00:16:56

I always felt like I was covered.

00:17:00

And in fact, I felt like if the fit hit the sham,

00:17:03

he'd be -- he would be there.

00:17:05

He would have been there.

00:17:06

And that's what it's like with God.

00:17:08

You feel like His peace, "I'm covered.

00:17:10

I'm going to be fine here. I have His identity."

00:17:13

This is the gospel, and this is what I take my stand on.

00:17:17

This is what you hold firmly to.

00:17:20

This is the source and everything else,

00:17:22

everything else in the Bible is important, maybe,

00:17:26

but it's not of first importance.

00:17:28

Now people want me to take a stand on,

00:17:31

take a stand on six literal days or God creating the world

00:17:34

and epics and long periods of time.

00:17:36

I have my beliefs on that, convictions,

00:17:38

but it doesn't matter. Not a first importance.

00:17:43

Now you want to talk about,

00:17:45

you want to talk about the resurrection.

00:17:46

I will die on that hill.

00:17:48

Yes, Jesus literally physically historic.

00:17:50

And we can have our convictions and it's important,

00:17:52

but it's not a first importance.

00:17:54

All kind of other things, like,

00:17:55

what do you believe about Noah?

00:17:57

Flood over the entire world or regional flood

00:18:01

that was all of Noah's world that he knew?

00:18:04

I got my opinions on that,

00:18:06

and I'll give those opinions if I'm preaching on that.

00:18:08

But someone has a different opinion of me.

00:18:11

Fine. Okay. Interesting. Interesting.

00:18:14

It's not a first importance. It's not the gospel.

00:18:17

Those things that we use as litmus test questions

00:18:20

are never used as litmus test questions by Jesus

00:18:23

or in the Bible, never are.

00:18:25

This is what it is. This is the gospel.

00:18:27

This is the Good News.

00:18:29

And when somebody adheres this and holds on to it,

00:18:33

it is an unbelievably beautiful thing,

00:18:35

which is why when you understand the Good News,

00:18:38

you want as many people to have the Good News as possible.

00:18:42

And when you see it happen,

00:18:44

it changes your life spiritually.

00:18:46

You change. You change.

00:18:47

When you see God use you to bring somebody

00:18:50

into Good News, that's powerful.

00:18:52

Here's one way that happened in our midst not too long ago.

00:18:59

- I've been in church for a long time.

00:19:02

I was raised in church.

00:19:03

But I had some real difficult times back in 2009.

00:19:06

I went through a divorce, which was really challenging.

00:19:08

I got invited to an Awaited show at Crossroads.

00:19:11

And so I went to Awaited and I was like, "Wow, this is cool."

00:19:14

And then someone told me about the Super Bowl of Preaching.

00:19:16

And so I went to that and I was like,

00:19:18

"This is fun. This is church?"

00:19:21

And I needed healing.

00:19:22

I needed some time to just kind of step bac

00:19:24

k and not be Tony that people could see,

00:19:27

but just to have the Lord deal with my heart

00:19:30

because I was really broken.

00:19:32

It was a great place to go to kind of get healed.

00:19:37

- I joined the military.

00:19:38

Got shipped off to boot camp a month later.

00:19:40

I went to a few church services

00:19:41

while I was in boot camp because

00:19:43

that was like the only relief that we got.

00:19:46

It was towards the end of my tenure, my brother,

00:19:50

he had just joined, was going through boot camp

00:19:52

and all that stuff.

00:19:53

He had a totally different experience than I did,

00:19:55

and that caused him to come back home early

00:19:58

and, um, he commits suicide.

00:20:05

I don't want to speak for everyone

00:20:07

in the Catholic religion, but we're born and raised

00:20:09

to believe that if somebody were to,

00:20:11

you know, were to commit suicide, they go to hell.

00:20:14

We don't -- we don't see them again.

00:20:18

That's where my, uh, my -- my -- my battle

00:20:21

and my struggle with God and religion and faith

00:20:25

and all of that kind of took off.

00:20:29

- Church had this idea about giving away

00:20:33

a six pack of beer with a card

00:20:37

that just kind of invites you to church.

00:20:39

I said, "You know, a lot of my neighbors love beer.

00:20:42

So I said, 'Well, give me six six packs.'"

00:20:44

The next day I put them in a wagon

00:20:46

and I started going to six of my neighbors houses.

00:20:49

When I got to Kyle's house and I handed him the six pack

00:20:52

and I said, "Hey, yeah, man, we're just inviting people,

00:20:55

you know, Crossroads does church differently.

00:20:58

It's just a church for people who really,

00:21:00

you know, they may not like church a lot,

00:21:03

but they still love God

00:21:05

or are interested in knowing who God is."

00:21:07

He took a six pack and said, "Hey, thanks a lot."

00:21:10

- You know. And it wasn't even then,

00:21:11

it wasn't, you know, right then and there

00:21:13

that we were like, "Okay, yeah, finally, let's do it."

00:21:15

My, my wife and I, we were, you know, struggling,

00:21:20

you know, um, my -- my faith journey

00:21:23

wasn't really progressing really at all.

00:21:25

My heart was still guarded.

00:21:26

It was still weary of getting into pursuing God again.

00:21:32

Just something in the back of my mind.

00:21:33

I had one beer left sitting in the fridge

00:21:36

in the garage there, I had one beer left.

00:21:38

I was like, you know what? Let's just --

00:21:39

I'm gonna. I'm gonna suggest this to Kayla.

00:21:42

Let's try this.

00:21:45

We came to the Dayton location there at the mall.

00:21:48

We didn't know anybody from Adam at that point.

00:21:50

Like, we walked in there the first time,

00:21:52

and it didn't feel like that.

00:21:53

It felt like we knew people already.

00:21:55

It just felt like the community that we had been looking for.

00:21:59

It felt like the place that we were searching for

00:22:01

for the longest time.

00:22:02

And just kind of looked at each other and were like,

00:22:04

"Oh my gosh, this is this is awesome."

00:22:08

We got 2 or 3 weeks in and I was like,

00:22:10

"Okay, I kind of want some more."

00:22:12

So I joined two groups.

00:22:15

Walking into those groups,

00:22:16

I didn't know what I was going to find.

00:22:18

I walked into that room.

00:22:19

I'll give you two guesses who walked in that door.

00:22:22

- I show up for group, and he's sitting in there.

00:22:25

And I see him like, and he sees me and he's like,

00:22:28

"Wow, he came to group." I didn't know he was coming.

00:22:31

And I was so excited to see him

00:22:32

and so excited to introduce him to my friends.

00:22:35

And he just went all in.

00:22:39

- Those men in those small groups changed my life,

00:22:44

changed my marriage,

00:22:46

changed, um, the way that I'm raising my kids

00:22:50

just by already being there.

00:22:53

They were already there. They were already meeting.

00:22:55

I just decided to show up.

00:22:57

- God met him there and the story gets even better.

00:23:00

I mean, he and he's all in, and he's receiving

00:23:03

and he's sharing, and then he lets me know

00:23:07

that he's going to get baptized.

00:23:10

- I made the choice to give my life to Jesus.

00:23:15

- To see him and Kayla and their kids there at the pool,

00:23:19

I got to stand there with them and it was awesome.

00:23:25

But when you see someone give their heart to Jesus,

00:23:27

they changed their life, that's forever.

00:23:30

And every time you see them, you're reminded,

00:23:33

"Man, I got to be a part of that, that thing.

00:23:36

And the Lord, He chose me to get to be a part of that."

00:23:40

- I have come to know Tony in such a way

00:23:45

that I would know a brother.

00:23:48

I didn't know Kyle at all, other than

00:23:52

you know how you, hi, neighbor kind of thing.

00:23:55

But what I do know, now he's my brother today.

00:23:59

You know, we make evangelism so hard

00:24:03

or we think we have to have certain skills, but we don't.

00:24:07

We just have to be willing and available to do it.

00:24:10

And it's such an easy invitation,

00:24:13

so I don't have to, like, preach.

00:24:16

I don't have to, like, pull out a Bible.

00:24:18

I don't have to do any of those things,

00:24:19

I just gotta invite them to something

00:24:21

that'll be a lot of fun

00:24:22

and they hear some great teaching.

00:24:26

- It's led us to this new walk with God,

00:24:28

a new walk with my brothers and her sisters in Christ.

00:24:33

And it's been a complete 180 shift.

00:24:41

- Wow. [applause]

00:24:47

When you see God use you in that way

00:24:49

and you step out on that adventure, you know,

00:24:52

it marks you, you get to a new place,

00:24:55

and it's, uh, it's amazing.

00:25:00

That was what the early church lived for.

00:25:02

That's what the writers of the New Testament were about.

00:25:05

That's what they wrote about.

00:25:06

They weren't about theology, unless it was theology

00:25:10

that was about equating to the Good News.

00:25:13

It was about the teachings. It was about the Good News.

00:25:16

They certainly weren't about politics.

00:25:19

They don't address anything, anything

00:25:21

of whatever was happening in that day

00:25:24

when there is a Roman oppressor

00:25:27

who's oppressing the Jews and in their country land.

00:25:30

And yet the New Testament is utterly silent about that.

00:25:34

It's not because they didn't have feelings

00:25:36

or convictions about it.

00:25:37

It's because it wasn't a first importance.

00:25:41

The things they were standing on was the gospel.

00:25:45

Now I'm gonna spend the rest of my time talking about

00:25:47

this peek into the New Testament church

00:25:51

is where it's going to get a little dicey here today.

00:25:54

Okay. Today we don't have the divisions they had back then.

00:25:58

The division that this passage is writing about

00:26:00

was the division of Jew and Gentile.

00:26:04

What are we going to do with these Gentiles

00:26:06

who don't think of us, think about things like us Jews?

00:26:09

What are we going to do with these Gentiles

00:26:10

who come into the church, who received Jesus

00:26:13

as the Messiah, but they don't have our Jewish customs.

00:26:17

They don't haven't been circumcised.

00:26:19

They don't have all the knowledge we have.

00:26:20

They don't have, they don't have.

00:26:22

What do we do about that?

00:26:23

This is a tension that the church had, or some did,

00:26:27

who weren't about what was of first importance.

00:26:31

They didn't take a stand in the gospel.

00:26:32

They were doing these other things

00:26:34

of these battles of their preferences.

00:26:36

So here's what it says:

00:26:37

To those outside the law. That's to say the Gentiles,

00:26:40

as the Apostle Paul speaking,

00:26:41

who's penned more of the New Testament than anybody else

00:26:44

and used more by anybody else to take the Good News

00:26:46

to people all around the world in his day.

00:26:49

To those outside the law I became as one outside the law.

00:26:54

I became Gentile basically, is what he says.

00:26:56

Not being outside the law of God,

00:26:58

but under the law of Christ,

00:27:00

that I might win those outside the law.

00:27:04

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.

00:27:08

I have become all things to all people,

00:27:12

that by all means I might save some.

00:27:16

I do it all for the sake of the gospel,

00:27:19

that I might share with them in its blessings.

00:27:21

What blessings? We just talked about some of them, right?

00:27:23

Let's go through them.

00:27:24

What are some of the blessings of the gospel? What?

00:27:27

Forgiveness, identity, peace.

00:27:29

I want people to share in these blessings.

00:27:33

I'll tell you what, today, if you said

00:27:36

what he just said here,

00:27:37

"I become all things to all people,"

00:27:39

you would be crucified.

00:27:40

You're like, "You are weak. You're -- you're --

00:27:43

You're not. You're too afraid to take a stand.

00:27:46

You're too mamby pamby."

00:27:49

Uh, no. No. Just know where to take a stand.

00:27:52

Take a stand for the gospel.

00:27:54

Today, this verse, this section of the Bible

00:27:58

could be used in our political environment.

00:28:01

Paul would say, "I'm not Republican. I'm not Democrat.

00:28:04

I'm not right. I'm not left.

00:28:07

I'm not woke. I'm not conservative.

00:28:10

I become all things to all people."

00:28:13

What he's saying there

00:28:14

is not that he doesn't have convictions.

00:28:17

What he's saying is

00:28:18

of first importance is sharing the gospel.

00:28:21

Whatever convictions you may have

00:28:23

about any things I'm going to talk about right now,

00:28:26

because I'm going to tell you how this would relate to me,

00:28:28

how I deal with this in my personal evangelism.

00:28:31

I'm not trying to take a stance on things.

00:28:32

I'm just going to give you examples of this, right?

00:28:34

But before you have any conversation

00:28:38

or any debate with anybody on any hot topic issue,

00:28:42

you never do that unless you've had this conversation first,

00:28:47

because this conversation is the of first importance.

00:28:52

And if you do talk to somebody about Jesus,

00:28:54

it sensitizes you about how you'll talk about

00:28:57

the rest of those things.

00:28:58

But I want to be -- I want to be liked and received,

00:29:03

and I want to be, have as potent of a life as possible.

00:29:07

And you can't have that

00:29:10

if your identity is Republican or Democrat.

00:29:14

You can't have that if your identity,

00:29:16

if your identity is right or left.

00:29:19

Those are identities that are foreign to the Bible.

00:29:22

The Bible doesn't know.

00:29:24

Billy Graham said this. He said:

00:29:25

Evangelists cannot be closely identified

00:29:28

with any particular party or person.

00:29:31

We have to stand in the middle

00:29:33

in order to preach to all people, right and left.

00:29:37

I haven't been faithful to my own advice in the past.

00:29:40

I will be in the future.

00:29:43

Billy Graham is talking about with President Nixon,

00:29:47

Richard Nixon, when he supported him through Watergate,

00:29:49

Billy Graham got played.

00:29:51

He was -- he was drawn to the power.

00:29:55

And this is very well documented with various preachers

00:29:58

and stuff who get into the white House

00:30:00

or getting on Air Force One.

00:30:02

It's just -- it's a power elixir that sucks a lot of folks.

00:30:05

It doesn't mean you shouldn't visit the White House

00:30:07

if you get an invitation or something like that.

00:30:09

It's just got to be real careful.

00:30:10

And and Billy Graham got sucked into that

00:30:12

and he became too right, too Republican.

00:30:14

And he said, "This is ridiculous. I'm not doing that.

00:30:16

I want to be -- I want to reach all people, all people."

00:30:19

Which is why every president afterward

00:30:20

thought Billy Graham was their friend.

00:30:22

Republican, Democrat,

00:30:23

they thought Billy Graham was their friend.

00:30:25

And he wanted to have as big of an impact as possible.

00:30:27

I'll tell you what, if you want to cut

00:30:29

your impact in half, just identify as right or left.

00:30:33

Why would you do that, if a primary importance

00:30:36

is the Good News, giving people hope,

00:30:37

why would you want to cut your impact in half?

00:30:41

It doesn't -- It doesn't make a lot of sense

00:30:43

if what's of first importance is the gospel.

00:30:46

So I have my convictions.

00:30:48

I'll give you a number of them, just as examples

00:30:50

of how I apply this verse to interacting with people

00:30:55

who are not receivers of the Good News.

00:30:57

Because I can I can identify, if you will,

00:31:00

or make somebody comfortable who's on the right

00:31:03

or who's on the left, because I have aspects

00:31:06

of my life that's that way, and so did the Paul.

00:31:08

That's the apostle Paul, that's what he's talking about.

00:31:10

So example, if I'm going to hang out

00:31:12

with someone on the right, these are my examples

00:31:15

for me as I talk about it.

00:31:16

You don't agree with them? Fine, fine.

00:31:18

Because they're not of primary importance. Right?

00:31:20

Well somebody on the right.

00:31:22

And we start talking about the unborn

00:31:25

and I identify with you. I'm, "Yeah, I'm adopted.

00:31:28

And I'm so glad that my mother didn't choose an abortion."

00:31:33

And it happened before even the possibility

00:31:35

with Roe v Wade, so I can hang with that.

00:31:37

I can hang with someone on the right on tha.

00:31:39

When I'm with someone on the left

00:31:40

and the objections are stuff like

00:31:42

we have so many unwanted children.

00:31:44

Children are in poverty. "Yeah, I'm with you.

00:31:47

I'm with you, we got to do something

00:31:48

for the kids that we have right now.

00:31:50

We've got to have some safety net

00:31:52

for mothers who can't afford the things

00:31:55

that they need to afford and kids who are hungry. Yes."

00:31:58

That sounds very left, and that's where I am, right?

00:32:01

We have a discussion around immigration

00:32:04

and someone on the right who isn't a believer

00:32:06

and I want to build a bridge.

00:32:07

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we need to lock those borders down.

00:32:10

Yes. We got too many people coming in.

00:32:12

We can't accommodate all of them.

00:32:14

I don't know how that makes the balanced budget.

00:32:16

Yeah, we got to do something about our borders."

00:32:18

And someone on the left, we're like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:32:21

We're doing a horrible disservice to people

00:32:23

who are here outside of our country."

00:32:25

The Bible talks again and again and again

00:32:28

about honoring, honoring the alien in your midst.

00:32:32

Again, it's a regular theme,

00:32:34

and we can't treat these people like dirt.

00:32:36

And not only that, people I know who have businesses

00:32:39

need those people because they're the only ones

00:32:41

who are in America who actually like

00:32:43

to work with their hands anymore. You know?

00:32:45

So I can identify with folks who are over there.

00:32:48

When I'm with people on the right who are on the right

00:32:51

and they like to have guns.

00:32:52

They're all about the First Amendment right.

00:32:54

The First Amendment? The Second, Second.

00:32:56

See, it's not that important.

00:32:57

I'm not even sure which amendment it is.

00:33:01

Now, that being said, I like guns. I have guns.

00:33:05

Might have one on me right now, actually.

00:33:09

So, you know, those of you in the right, you're like,

00:33:11

"I like that guy. I like that guy."

00:33:15

Some of you are like, "Does he? Is that? Is that?"

00:33:19

Like, you're really -- You're not going to hear

00:33:21

anything I say the rest of the time.

00:33:22

So no, I don't have anything right now. All right.

00:33:27

I know you didn't necessarily want to see

00:33:28

my treasure trail,

00:33:30

but I wanted to calm you down for a little bit.

00:33:36

When I'm around people on the left

00:33:40

and who obviously are not into that, I can,

00:33:44

"Yeah, yeah, man, there are too many guns here.

00:33:47

Yes, there are people who have guns

00:33:49

who should not have guns.

00:33:50

Yes, we have a problem with violence with guns.

00:33:54

That doesn't happen in other countries.

00:33:56

We have to have our mind open to different measures

00:33:58

that we wouldn't have done before."

00:33:59

I can have that conversation, and when I do that,

00:34:02

they can sort of be -- they can go, "Okay,

00:34:05

maybe I'll listen to what you have to say."

00:34:06

I just keep going, going down the list.

00:34:08

I can -- somebody on the right, I could say, uh, no --

00:34:15

Well, all right, just one more, just one more, one more.

00:34:20

I could say someone on the left, like,

00:34:22

"Yeah, yeah, I'm white, and I definitely had it easier

00:34:27

growing up being white than being darker skinned."

00:34:30

I am identifying with and, like,

00:34:32

I'm with you on the left. Yeah.

00:34:34

If I'm on the right, I'm with folks there,

00:34:38

I might emphasize, "Yeah, and the police are awesome.

00:34:44

And I am pro-police. We shouldn't defund the police.

00:34:46

We should increase the funding of the police.

00:34:48

We give them all salaries because they have

00:34:50

a difficult, hyper difficult job."

00:34:52

Now, I said all this stuff, let me tell you,

00:34:54

my name is Brian. I'm your friend, okay?

00:34:56

My name is Brian.

00:34:57

You might disagree with me on any of those things.

00:35:00

I'm just saying those are examples of

00:35:02

how I don't fit on one side or the other.

00:35:05

And if I did fit on one side or the other,

00:35:08

I sure as heck wouldn't broadcast it

00:35:10

because the Apostle Paul didn't broadcast it

00:35:13

because of first importance, of first importance,

00:35:16

first importance is being an ambassador

00:35:18

of the Good News of Jesus Christ,

00:35:20

that there is forgiveness for you there.

00:35:23

There's forgiveness for you.

00:35:25

If you disagree with everything I believe

00:35:27

there is forgiveness for you.

00:35:29

There's forgiveness for you,

00:35:30

forgiveness available for you.

00:35:31

There is an identity for you.

00:35:33

I want you to have that identity, and I want you

00:35:35

to have a peace that passes all understanding.

00:35:38

And if all that other stuff gets in the way,

00:35:41

I don't want any of that stuff to get in the way.

00:35:44

Jesus didn't. He didn't.

00:35:47

How is it that He's oppressed by Rome Himself as a Jew?

00:35:52

The Romans are occupying Jerusalem, Israel.

00:35:55

They're an oppressed people. It's occupied territory.

00:35:58

And yet he's got people who come to Him

00:36:00

of the occupying force because they assume

00:36:03

that Jesus is going to be their friend.

00:36:06

Just my quiet time last week, Roman centurion

00:36:09

who oversees a bunch of military guys.

00:36:11

Military guys why in Rome?

00:36:13

To keep them, to squash them

00:36:15

and to keep them from doing what they want to do.

00:36:18

And he feels welcome enough to come to Jesus says,

00:36:21

"Hey, I got this servant really sick.

00:36:23

His important to me. Could you could you come heal him?"

00:36:25

And Jesus goes, "Yeah, I'll come right now.

00:36:27

I'll come right now."

00:36:28

And he goes, "No, no, no need, no need.

00:36:30

Because I'm a man under authority.

00:36:32

I am a man under authority, so I understand that.

00:36:35

So you're, I know if you just say it, it's going to be fine."

00:36:39

Healing happens, and he feels welcome to come to Jesus.

00:36:46

Jesus is around Pilate who sends him to death.

00:36:49

And there's nothing how he carries himself with Pilate

00:36:52

that would make Pilate assume it's us, you.

00:36:55

He's not antagonistic to him.

00:36:57

He challenges him, but Pilate actually tries

00:36:59

to get him off, I think, and that backfires.

00:37:01

That's another sermon for another day.

00:37:03

All I'm saying here is of all the things

00:37:05

Jesus could have talked about politically,

00:37:07

none of it is talked about.

00:37:09

If he ever said anything about today's

00:37:12

political hot issue, Bible doesn't record it at all,

00:37:16

and nowhere of any follower in the New Testament.

00:37:20

And yet, why is it that some of us feel like

00:37:24

we have to be heard on whatever the political thing is?

00:37:27

Maybe you do, but have you first been heard

00:37:30

on whether or not you believe in the Good News?

00:37:32

Let me just tell you, let me just say this.

00:37:38

You as a church have to get a lot better than this.

00:37:44

I mean, it's so weird, man.

00:37:46

Something happens, "What's Crossroads going to say?'

00:37:49

And you think, like, peppering me with emails

00:37:52

and building some consortium

00:37:53

is going to move me off the Bible.

00:37:58

It's really it's heart --

00:37:59

Hey, by the way, my name is Brian. I'm your friend.

00:38:01

Just remind you of that, okay?

00:38:03

My name is Brian. I'm your friend.

00:38:04

"Well, you know, you said this about George Floyd,

00:38:07

and you say it's about Charlie Kirk, and you did this."

00:38:09

And, oh, my gosh, I don't know what we're going to say,

00:38:13

when we say it, if we're going to say anything,

00:38:15

but we're sure as heck when we say something,

00:38:18

not saying something to placate people.

00:38:21

We'll say something if we feel like it's the right thing.

00:38:23

And we've said things that we shouldn't have said

00:38:25

and we're wrong, you know?

00:38:28

In fact, whenever we get into those waters,

00:38:30

we have the opportunity of being wrong.

00:38:32

When I talk about the life, death,

00:38:34

and resurrection of Jesus, I'm never wrong.

00:38:37

When I talk about the Good News,

00:38:39

the Good News of Jesus Christ, it's life giving,

00:38:43

it's mesmerizing.

00:38:47

This is what God doesn't just want from you,

00:38:53

He wants it for you.

00:38:55

He wants you to understand the gospel,

00:38:58

the Good News of the gospel,

00:39:00

and to walk in forgiveness and freedom

00:39:03

and have your identity and have

00:39:05

a peace that passes understanding

00:39:07

because you know you're good.

00:39:08

You're better than if anybody else of power was around you.

00:39:12

You're going to be good and to order

00:39:14

and organize your life accordingly.

00:39:18

That is the gospel.

00:39:20

That is what you should stand on.

00:39:22

That is what we hold firm on.

00:39:24

And that is a first importance.

00:39:26

He is good. I'm telling you.

00:39:27

He is the King and He is good.

00:39:31

God, we want to be more like You.

00:39:35

We want to give our lives as You've given Your life.

00:39:39

And we want to give Your truth,

00:39:41

which is a life giving truth

00:39:43

to a higher and greater degree.

00:39:47

God, we're sorry for getting fuzzy on the plot.

00:39:51

And for others of us in here

00:39:52

we heard the gospel for the first time, like,

00:39:54

"Oh, that's it. You mean it's not this agenda

00:39:57

or that agenda, like that, like that's it?"

00:39:59

Yeah, that's it, that's it.

00:40:02

And maybe someone here you want to receive Christ right now.

00:40:04

You want to not just know about the Good News,

00:40:07

you want to receive the Good News.

00:40:10

You just do this, just mumble in a prayer to God this,

00:40:12

Jesus, I want You in my life.

00:40:16

I ask that You forgive me.

00:40:19

I ask that You give me Your identity,

00:40:22

fill me with Your Spirit and fill me with Your peace

00:40:31

as I seek to follow You the rest of my life. Amen.

00:40:35

Welcome to the family, everybody.

00:40:38

All right. This is a bonus round.

00:40:41

Things are officially over, but we have

00:40:44

someone who just came in the house,

00:40:46

a special person all the way from Nepal.

00:40:50

One of our partners that we're building into

00:40:52

to help girls who brought out the sex slavery industry

00:40:55

and her school.

00:40:57

She's a huge part of our prayers and of our finances.

00:41:00

I was told she's here. Anjali. Where is Anjali?

00:41:02

Get up here. Anjali, where are you?

00:41:04

Where are you? Chop, chop.

00:41:11

Yeah. Come on up. Come on, sweetie. [applause]

00:41:33

- It's on. You're good right there, I think.

00:41:35

Put it up your mouth. Right? You're good?

00:41:37

Can you talk? Well, say something so we know it works.

00:41:40

- Hello.

00:41:42

- Ah, there it is. So how --

00:41:45

Come on up here closer. Come on up here.

00:41:48

There you go. So, how are things going at the school?

00:41:53

- Everything is going so well.

00:41:55

I just want to thank everyone

00:41:59

for always praying and supporting us.

00:42:04

And really, what you have given to God,

00:42:08

God has used it to spread a lot of love

00:42:13

and freedom to many sisters through my life.

00:42:17

And I'm really always grateful to Crossroads.

00:42:20

I just came this time, second time.

00:42:22

But I feel like this is my home

00:42:25

and you're part of my life, and I'm really grateful.

00:42:30

- Yeah. [applause]

00:42:33

Well, you know, it's good news for you

00:42:38

to be a good news bearer, to come from that industry

00:42:41

as a person who was enslaved yourself

00:42:44

to now feeling the Good News

00:42:46

and bring the Good News to those girls.

00:42:48

And for us to partner with you in some way,

00:42:50

it's really, it's really our pleasure. It really is.

00:42:53

Thank you for letting us be with you.

00:42:54

- Thank you for standing behind me.

00:42:57

That really encourages me too.

00:42:59

Sometimes there are struggles that I need to face,

00:43:02

sometimes traffickers I need to face,

00:43:04

sometimes lots of situations.

00:43:07

But when I know, like, so many people

00:43:09

are standing with me,

00:43:11

that really helps me to stand on my feet.

00:43:14

And thank you. Thank you.

00:43:16

- Yeah. Well, hey,

00:43:18

why don't you put your hands out at all of our sites?

00:43:20

Let's just pray for Anjali right now.

00:43:22

Lord, thank You for this woman of grace,

00:43:24

this woman of Anjali, this woman of power,

00:43:27

this woman of resiliency.

00:43:29

We ask You to give her more, more of Your Spirit,

00:43:32

more of Your grace, more of Your resources.

00:43:35

And we thank You, God, for giving her as a model to us,

00:43:39

a model of endurance and a model of love.

00:43:42

Bless her. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

00:43:47

- Good to see you. I'm glad you came.

Recent Series