God Stories

- Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads. My name is Andy.

And today we're talking about all things celebration.

All things celebration.

You might remember this one on July 4th, 1776,

the signers of the Declaration of Independence

named three Inalienable Rights

that they believed came from God.

And what were they?

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Do you remember those?

Well, if that's literally part of

what our nation was built on,

then why do so few of us seem happy?

Please hear me, this isn't a political thing at all.

It's just meant to be an honest recognition that

we're missing out on some of the ideals and values

that I think we most desire.

And that's true not just of our country,

but I believe, of our faith.

Did you know that Jesus wants you to be happy?

He really, really does.

And today I want to help you step into a practice,

the practice of celebration that can help you

experience more of the happiness

that Jesus has and wants for you.

- In 1996, in the suburbs of Cincinnati,

a handful of regular people who followed Jesus

had a crazy idea to start a new church

to reach their friends who had given up

on church as they knew it, but were still seeking God.

- We were so tired of church being a place

where everybody that was really good at faking it

got together to compare notes, you know?

And just the idea of being a real place that

that was through everything.

We're not -- we're not getting together to fake this.

We're not getting together

to pretend that we have it all together.

That, for me, was a huge breath of fresh air.

- God has used a scrappy group of people

willing to say yes to whatever He asked,

no matter how bold the division,

no matter how impossible.

He took our yes, it exploded it

way beyond our expectations every single time.

Today, we celebrate more stories than we can possibly tell.

This isn't us. This is God.

- You've met this Jesus.

There are so many things wrong with

this picture of Jesus, I don't even know where to start.

Well, here we go. Jesus wasn't white.

He wasn't this, like, well groomed,

pretty dainty looking guy.

He was a construction worker who was accused

by the religious of being a glutton and a drunkard.

He just looks so freaking sad.

He looks like He's overcome by the weight of the world.

That's not the Jesus of the Bible.

Do you know what?

Jesus is described in the Bible as being anointed

with the oil of gladness more than all his companions.

There's even a translation of that line that

articulates this as saying

Jesus was the happiest person alive.

And I love that.

I love that Jesus was the happiest person alive,

and that He invites you and me

to follow His lead and example.

So, think about it.

What was Jesus's first miracle?

It was a wedding, okay?

And the party had run out of wine and there was

still two days left in the celebration.

So what did Jesus do?

He turned that water into wine,

and not just boxed wine,

not even Barefoot or Yellowtail.

He turned it into the most amazing, vibrant,

flavorful drink that people had ever had.

I don't if you guys have heard of the show The Chosen,

it's like a show that tells the life of Jesus.

I just immediately thought it was going to be terrible.

A buddy of mine was on me for months

telling me I should watch it.

Man, I could not have been more wrong.

This scene in particular is an incredible depiction

of a guy you'd like to hang out with,

a guy who was the life of the party,

who served and cared for people and joked and laughed

and was just a joy to be around.

He was the happiest person alive,

and He's apparently also the guy

who's willing to make a supernatural beer run

so that the celebration can keep going.

So, Jesus was one of the guys

that was invited to the party, right?

I know we've all met some Christians that you

wouldn't really like want at a party of any kind.

Hey, that's not the kind of guy that Jesus was.

He's also the kind of guy who helped

keep the party going by celebrating.

That whole water into wine thing.

Jesus took jars, big, like, vats, big jars of water,

and told the servants to fill the jars to the brim.

Then He proceeds to turn that to the brim water

into the biggest chef's kiss.

Wine, like, best tasting wine anybody had ever had.

Now Jesus uses really similar language in John 15

to you and me when He says, "I've told you this

so that my joy may be in you

and that your joy may be complete."

That word complete means to the brim and then some.

It means overflowing.

Now, Jesus didn't come to make your life easy

and all your troubles go away.

I'm sorry, but He did make a way for you to be filled

to the brim with happiness in the midst of life,

no matter what comes your way.

Today, as promised, I'm going to give you one habit,

one habit you can lean into, you can step into

to experience more happiness.

And I'm not just going to tell you about it.

We're actually going to practice it together today.

Those vases, if you imagine

Jesus filling them up to the brim,

they're a lot like yours and my spiritual

and emotional gas tank.

There are lots of things that want to drain you.

Maybe it's your phone,

maybe it's social media in general.

Maybe it's your work, your family.

I don't know, it could be all kinds of things.

But there's also things that want to fill you up,

and that's what we're going to be looking at today.

I want you to experience more of that

to the brim happiness so that you and I can be filled up.

And one of our best tools to fill us up is to celebrate,

to intentionally take time away, to acknowledge

that while your life may not be perfect,

there good things in it that you didn't put there.

Right?

To spend some time recounting the good things in your life.

Maybe they're small day to day stuff, like your kids,

maybe that cup of delicious coffee from this morning,

maybe it's your home,

that you have a home or your community.

Or maybe it's bigger, like,

part of your life story stuff,

the moments you shouldn't have survived, those --

the challenging seasons of your life

that you came through stronger.

The times in your life when God showed up

celebrating the stories of how God has moved

increases your and my spiritual and emotional bandwidth.

It resets our equilibrium in a way that, man,

the near-constant tide of bad news from our phones

just -- just can't most of the time.

Celebrating really is simple. It's telling stories.

Revelation 12:11 says that we overcome

Revelation 12:11

by the Blood of the Lamb.

That's the stuff that Jesus did.

And by the power of our testimony.

There's stuff that Jesus does, the Blood of the Lamb,

and then there's stuff that you and I do,

which is just the recognition of the stories

that God has done in our lives.

This is something we do every Wednesday as a staff team

when our whole 300 plus staff members are together,

we always spend 30 to 60 minutes,

not just looking at spreadsheets

or PowerPoint presentations, but just telling stories,

celebrating the good things that God has done

since we were last together.

So that's what we're going to do right now,

to hear stories of how God has shown up

and showed off in the lives of people

just like you and me.

Let's hear our first story right now.

- Hi, my name is Chris Mester, and I'm

the Crossroads East Side Student Ministry director,

and I have a story to share with you today.

In our high school ministry,

I have a leader named Chelsea,

and Chelsea leads a group of high school girls.

And in her group she has a student.

And that student in parts of her life

has been deemed the bad kid.

But here's the thing, Chelsea didn't believe

that about her, and neither did I.

I don't believe there's such thing as bad kids.

There's bad behaviors.

If we're being honest,

this student did have a lot of bad behaviors.

She was making a lot of poor choices

that were affecting her life and her relationships.

She was also using drugs and abusing alcohol.

And she was also struggling with a lot of things

like depression, things that a lot of high schoolers

deal with today.

And with all of that, Chelsea makes a choice.

See, Chelsea decides to not give up on the student,

but to run after her.

And Chelsea ran after her like I've never seen

somebody run after somebody else before.

See, Chelsea brings her into our life.

She consistently spends time with her.

She communicates with her just to let her know

that somebody cares about her,

to let her know that she is loved.

And Chelsea ends up having a significant impact

on this student's life.

And this student this last summer goes to camp

and has this life changing experience at camp.

And I believe she had an encounter with God.

And she opens up with Chelsea for the first time

and she tells Chelsea that earlier this year

she attempted to commit suicide.

But even more so, she tells Chelsea,

"That it's because of you chasing after me

that I kept going on."

Because of Chelsea running after her,

this student kept going on.

And this student comes out of camp

and is now thriving

and passionately running after Jesus.

And now she's even serving in our middle school ministry

because she wants to have an impact because

somebody had an impact on her life.

God is doing something extremely drastic

in this student's life.

And my friends, that is just one of many stories

of what God is doing in Crossroads' students.

- What's up, Crossroads?

I'm Craig. This is Judd from Man Camp.

What? Do you want to say your name?

- I'm Judd, apparently, from Man Camp.

- Well, we were here.

We were asked to tell Man Camp story.

So, you have a pretty great one.

- Yeah. Gosh, we're the ones --

There's hundreds, literally hundreds of them.

One of them that just jumps out to me is

a guy came to one of the early Man Camps.

I think it might be the first or second one on base camp.

Didn't know anybody.

Not even sure he went to Crossroads.

Somehow heard about it, found out about it and came.

And he tells a story that, like,

the Monday before Man Camp,

he finds out his wife's cheating on him.

He's devastated. He's rocked.

He almost doesn't come to camp, somehow decides to come.

He said, "I'm walking in with these guys I never met

and I don't know, ready to end my marriage,

convinced it was done."

Over the course of the weekend through solitude time

and all the stuff that happens at Man Camp

and discussions with these guys

and just God working with this guy's heart,

he left, he said, "With a band of brothers

and a firm, resolute decision to fight for my marriage

and to save it."

And that's pretty astounding.

I think that's a pretty great thing worth celebrating.

So, yeah.

- He said the Lord was working on him.

- Yeah, the Lord just, he said, and this is --

this sounds like this guy,

church wasn't a whole part of his story,

but it definitely was that weekend.

Yeah. So he said that his heart literally was changed

during the end, during the weekend.

- I just love that picture of community.

So, I say this a lot,

I'm gonna say it again before this thing's done,

we are not content, we're community.

And if you want more people that are in your corner,

more people praying for you, a more deep and beautiful

and vibrant picture of what it looks like

to have community, would love for you to join

our upcoming community cohort.

This is a way to get more understanding

of what real life giving community can be

and how to build it for yourself.

And like, the best thing,

it's not like a class that you show up for.

It happens asynchronously.

You can do it in a way that fits your schedule

and you can connect with people all over the country

in a way that is convenient and works for you.

So, click the link to join our upcoming community cohort.

We'd love to have you there and have you build

this Crossroads anywhere community alongside us.

All right.

We've got another great story for you

and another great reason to celebrate right now.

- I went on a mission trip this year to go South Africa.

An absolutely amazing trip.

I went with my 17 year old daughter.

While I was there, one day I got up,

but I wasn't feeling right that day

And I just was kind of feeling down,

it's like I wasn't connecting.

And Nikita reached out and just wanted to kind of

get to know me a little bit, you know? It was great.

She asked how I was doing that day,

and I mentioned to her that I wasn't feeling that great

and I wasn't sure why.

And all of a sudden it kind of hit me.

It was the anniversary of my mom's death.

My parents had been in a car accident three years prior,

both my parents, and they were hit head on

by another driver that crossed over the line.

And my mother was killed.

My father was the only survivor of the accident.

It had been three years since it happened.

And in that time I had been handling

a whole lot of settlement stuff.

You know, after the car accident,

there was a lot to take care of.

But I realized I never really had time

to mourn my mother's death.

I never had that time to really just process what had happened.

And Nikita and I started talking about it.

And I started just really understanding

what was going on that day, because it was

the first day in three years

where I had time in my life

to just process what had happened,

to mourn my mother's death,

to realize it was the anniversary of her death

and to process it on my own, you know,

in a place far away from where everything happened.

And to have the downtime to do so without having

all the hustle and bustle of everything from life.

Nikita explained to me what she and her family do

when they have a death in the family

and on the anniversary of that death

they go out and they find a rock.

And in order to kind of say goodbye or process

that loss they kind of, you know, to say goodbye,

to say goodbye to that loved one

that is no longer on earth with them.

I went back and later that evening after dinner

and all of our other prayer and worship time that night,

I went for a walk by myself and I came across a stone.

And I picked up the stone and I held on to it

and I prayed and I thought.

And I thought and I prayed.

And I kept trying to toss the stone over into the brush

that was on the other side of of our cabin.

And I couldn't do it. I couldn't let go.

It probably was a good 20, 30 minutes later

when I was finally able to toss the stone

and let go and mourn and say goodbye

and finally processed and put to rest

what I'd been holding on to for the last three years.

I'm very grateful that Nikita was there

to share that with me, to give me that,

the little nudge that I needed to say goodbye

to my mom for one last time,

the nudge I needed to get past it.

- Is it just me or are you thankful for Kelly's honesty,

like, for her vulnerability in talking about,

man, One of the most challenging things, right?

The loss of a loved one.

I unfortunately know from personal experience

that when I lost my mom, like, that burying a loved one

and grieving a loved one are not the same thing.

And that for us to grieve well,

for us to move towards wholeness and healing,

that's a really challenging thing to do alone.

So, I love that Kelly was a part of a community

where she had people encouraging her towards wholeness

and encouraging her towards healing

and even had an Nikita alongside her.

I love that picture of going past your comfort zone,

even to a place like South Africa

where you can experience God in a fresh way.

And that idea of going outside of your comfort zone

to experience more of God, I think is really important.

And there's actually something I want to invite you into

that might be just a little bit of that.

We do a thing every month, the first Thursday of the month

called Monthly Night of Prayer.

And it's a time where we've seen God

show up in big ways.

It happens on Zoom and hey, don't write me off,

like, it's a good Zoom call.

I don't know if you knew such a thing could exist,

but there's a time of worship

that actually I get to lead with a band.

It's really, really fun and a time for you

to receive prayer from one of our vetted, gifted,

trained, equipped prayer team members.

They're awesome and they will actually

listen to God on your behalf.

It's a thing called prophecy.

And they'll ask God to talk to them and give them

something encouraging and strengthening for you.

It's a beautiful time where we've seen God show up

and speak to people and even seen God show up

and bring, like, emotional and physical healing

in beautiful, beautiful ways.

It's a whole list of stories that I could celebrate

just on that.

But I'd love for you to join us,

11/3, November 3rd 7:30 p.m. Sign up.

We'd love to pray for you and have you join us

for Monthly Night of Prayer.

All right, let's keep this party going.

We've got another story to help you celebrate right now.

- Last year, November 6th, my husband and I

had a miscarriage of our first child.

And through that, God showed up in many ways.

But specifically, He helped us uncover that

I had a couple underlying health conditions

that was causing our infertility.

We'd been trying for baby for about a year

and we thought that we had an absolute miracle,

and we did.

Our baby was absolutely a miracle.

But God helped us uncover some pretty significant issues

that I had regarding our fertility.

And through that I have now gotten the go ahead

for my doctor that we are good,

that all of my tests came back positive

and that we are able to start trying for another baby.

But also through that miscarriage,

my husband showed up

in a way that I've never needed him before

and never seen him show up before.

He was absolutely touched by God,

specifically at Couples Camp.

After losing our baby in May.

We were due in May and Couples Camp was in May.

And we went to the prayer tent together

and that was the first time that he ever asked

to receive prayer from anybody else.

And it was the first time he ever felt moved by God

or felt like God was in his presence.

And through that, our marriage has grown tremendously.

His faith has grown tremendously.

God has shown up in other ways.

It's opened a door for us to go back to school

and to get our degree and just --

just to start a great new journey.

So, God has shown up in many ways,

sometimes not the way that we want,

but sometimes the way that we need.

- Man. I love Hannah's story.

I love hearing the story of someone

who's really, really honest and real about, man,

one of the most painful things that you can experience.

But the story not ending there, right?

Like, of her and her husband leaning in

in the midst of that challenge,

in the midst of that pain.

Leaning in and going past their comfort zone

and experiencing God and experiencing fresh hope,

fresh life, fresh joy.

I just love it.

It's one of the things we say around here all the time,

that we're not just content, we're community.

We're not just stuff to watch.

We're a group of people like Hannah

who are trying to lean in and expecting to see

more of God move in our own lives,

that God will give us more reasons to celebrate.

I actually want to tell you a story that I heard.

I was having lunch with a guy and he shared this story

with me of a guy named Tommy.

And Tommy lives in Kentucky

and is a part now of our Lexington community.

But when the story began, his addiction had actually

brought him to a really sketchy situation, we'll say,

down at Red River Gorge.

And he ended up falling off of a cliff,

falling off of a cliff

and breaking his foot really, really badly.

And so much so that it took him two days

to crawl back out to civilization,

to crawl out of the woods, out of the wilderness,

back where he was found.

And over those two days,

it was actually the weather was really bad.

He had frostbite so bad that by the time

he got to a hospital, his doctors were afraid

they were going to have to amputate his foot.

And it's in that moment he actually realized, like,

he had a moment with God, had a moment with God

where he felt like he needed to reach out

and experience a faith community.

And he did that with Crossroads

through our Facebook page of all things.

And you know what he did?

He liked our Facebook page.

And that's not the end of the story.

One of our team members, a coworker of mine,

reached out and just introduced herself

and asked if she could pray for him for anything.

He mentioned his surgery, mentioned his addiction,

and and mentioned that he had a surgery coming up

that would determine whether or not he got to keep his foot.

This coworker prayed for him and the surgery went great.

God showed up with those doctors

and in the midst of that surgery

and he was able to keep his foot.

Well, he realized then that he didn't just need

a moment with God or even just an answered prayer.

He didn't need a moment with God.

He needed more of God, on going as a part of his life.

And he started watching Crossroads online.

And then he started joining our community

in Lexington, Kentucky, and experiencing God

to the level where it's not just him,

but actually he's inviting friends

from the Recovery home where he lives

to experience church alongside of him.

I love those stories, stories that fill us up,

that put gas in the tank,

that don't drain the life from us,

stories that, man, show us that God still moves,

still shows up, is still for you and me today,

that we can expect good things from God

when we look to the future.

Man, I love the chance to celebrate the good things

that God is doing in your life

and in the lives of people

all over our Crossroads community.

Man, we want you to experience happiness.

We want you to experience joy.

We want you to experience

more and more reasons to celebrate.

Hey, next week we've got a new series starting off

called The Blessed Life.

We hope you'll join us then.

See you next time.

Next week on Crossroads.

- Growing up, things were tight.

I always held money close to my chest

and spent it my way.

It wasn't until I decided to trust in God fully

that the fear of not having enough faded away.

Now I'm living a blessed life.

God always gives me what I need.