Questions to Start Your Year Off Right | Crossroads Church

I'm looking here, or am I looking at you? I don't want to say this out loud. I ate a Slim Jim. I don't know if this should go on the internet, but... Hi, I'm Brian, the main pastor of Crossroads. Happy New Year. I hope that last year has gone pretty well for you, and I hope that next year goes really well for you. Maybe even better. So this is one of those moments when everyone at Crossroads can be in the same place, because many in our community don't live near an installation, but we have closed our installations to help our volunteers and staff recover, to enjoy the holidays. And so all of us at Crossroads, regardless of where you are, or outside the world of where you are, we are here right now. This is our weekend experience, so it's good to have you with us today. And today, we're going to talk about topics that will push you to a new level in your year 2026. Thank you for joining us. Let's get going. Let's go. Hey, you did it. You survived the holidays. You deserve to rest and reflect on 2025. Let's take a look at the year that's left behind. Last year was intense.

For some, it was a wave of blessings. For others, it was a small struggle. In any case, it's a new year, and you know what that means. It's time to make lists of goals that we won't meet. If you want to drink less coffee, make more lizards, or finish Lord of the Rings, do it. For Frodo. A new calendar year is an opportunity for a new beginning after all. But what would happen if this new beginning was about something else? Something else that... Okay, let's go back. The term God's kingdom is very vague. I understand. God's kingdom is really any place where people experience their power in action. So, how would that look in practice? Just as we thought. Healings manifest, miracles, repentance, dreams, families that reconcile, lives that completely change. God is doing something big. We have the evidence. The waters are moving. One could even classify it as the beginning of a revival. There's also more good news.

This type of power is also at your disposal. God has given you authority to be brave in 2026. You can start the new year with confidence, expectation, and preparation. Are you ready? We ask our pastors how they prepare for a new year, and other important questions. What was your first car? It was a 1978 Chevy Vega. Orange. I didn't know if it was paint or rust. I had a 1985 Ford Escort. The problem was that it was like 1995, but it had the best sound. It had my 6x9 speakers. On the door, it had my portable radio. I mean, in 1993, a white Chevy Capri, my friends and I found this light, it flashed red and yellow, not red and blue. That scares the police. It's not allowed, and I don't approve it. Never do it. However, we put it in the front of the car, and we used to follow the people, turn it on, and get closer so they could get closer. And again, I'm telling you this to emphasize that you should never do that. Never do it.

¿Cuánto tiempo dejas tu árbol de Navidad puesto? ¿Hasta el último día del año o el primer día del año? No me quedo. Hasta la tercera semana de enero lo quitamos. Está claro que ya está al final, que ahora se parece más a un arbolito de Charlie Brown que al árbol con el que comenzamos. Hasta entrado febrero. No el final, sino hasta febrero. Tienes que despertar un día y decidir, quiero que mi casa luzca peor. Hoy me mordí la lengua. ¿Les ha pasado eso? No, estoy bien. En la iglesia afroamericana hay un servicio de vigilia. Literalmente, durante los primeros 18 años de mi vida, ni siquiera sabía qué significaba cuando la gente decía que la bola cayó. Estábamos en la iglesia desde aproximadamente las 10 de la noche hasta cerca de la 1 de la mañana. Y, francamente, me encanta. De hecho, lo echo de menos. Y pueden confiar en mi palabra para esto. Algún día celebraré un servicio de noche de vigilia en una de nuestras sedes de Crossroads. Haremos eso un año. Tres años nuevos seguidas, alguien de mi familia terminó en urgencias. Y así que yo, después de la tercera, dije, ya terminé con el año nuevo. And then we haven't been in an emergency for, I don't know, seven or eight years now.

The most disappointing New Year of all. I went to Kansas for a basketball game between Georgia Tech and Kansas. And then my friends and I said, let's go out, let's celebrate the New Year. It's going to be amazing. And there was nothing. Nothing happening in Kansas City. Absolutely nothing. Now that they've calmed down, we ask them, What question do you ask yourself when you enter a new year? A question I ask myself, and in fact I ask everyone in my family every year is, Imagining Jesus asking, What do you want me to do? That's a real question he asked a blind man before. Which is, Maybe an incentive question. Do you ask a blind man that? Why don't you pray? If you can heal him, why don't you do it? I don't want to give a full sermon here, but it's really crucial that we know what we want. That God does it for us this year, not the goal. That I must fulfill to reach that goal. I think that's a very good thing. We can invite God to participate in that. But what are the things you just want him to do for you? It could be serious. It could be anything. We ask that question every Christmas Eve, and we write it down, and we review it a year later, and then my grandchildren, my sons-in-law, and my sons-in-law, my daughters-in-law, we go back and review what we said a year earlier, and see how many things happened,

and then we have something new for next year, and it doesn't always have to be to end hunger. What I want from him is, we think of something altruistic and very dark, asking for that is fine, but one of the things I asked for was, I think it was, I want to get a big raise this year. I think I asked for that. And how crazy, this year I got two. Wow, wow. The other thing I'll say is, Jesus, what do you want me to do for you this year? I want him to grant me a marriage with 100% physical ability. I want Liv to recover from all the things related to chemo and radiation, and to have enough hair so she doesn't have to deal with a wig that causes suffocation due to the recovery from the oncological diseases and hormonal problems. It's a very, very long thing. I hope that at some point in 2026, I have my wife back completely physically, and we can be the physical couple we've always wanted to be, or have always been. That's why I chose this question. Who is there in your life now that you weren't at the beginning of the year

for a very specific reason? One of the ways I look back on the past year is by observing patterns in my life. I think that frequently God performs a long and paused work in which if we separate and observe certain patterns, we can see where he's been working that we might have lost. And that's why one of the ways I do it is in this specific question, because the pattern I observe in my life throughout many, many years is that when God is in motion, he will begin to surround me with the people that that will need. Whenever we move, I believe, above all, to a new place. He is always guided by his Spirit, and he always shares himself with other people. So I begin to observe, like, who's coming into my life that maybe wasn't there before? And does that indicate a movement of God? Some years yes, others no. I always enjoy those questions where I look for patterns. So this year, for me, I hadn't considered it until very recently,

and I see that God has brought three different women who are very strong. Bold. I would say decisive leaders. And that indicated something very specific because it hadn't been like that in a long time. I would say that there have been recent years where I felt alone. Professionally, in what I do and seek to do. And this year, I feel that it was an abundance. When I look back, there are three different women who are in my life in a very important way, and they are all looking for Jesus, and they are all influencing what I do. And it excites me to see, perhaps for the first time in a long time, that in reality I will have other women who are like in the work for which God has called me in the kingdom with me. And that excites me a lot. I love our boys. I love the men I work with. But it is special to see God bring new women into my life. This question occurred to me. What new adventure do you want to embark on next year? And the reason why this occurred to me is because I find that we all have something that we are dreaming of. And we often don't say it out loud. So this idea of ​​a new adventure is a way of expressing it. And in reality, mine is not extravagant, but it is something I want to do. I used to set a goal for myself at night, sleeping outside. I love camping. And there is something about being outdoors and around a bonfire that is so invigorating for me. And so this year I want to spend at least seven nights waking up in the forest. It doesn't matter the place, but somehow I want to do it. I have some ideas of how to achieve it. Probably my daughter and I will go to Red River Gorge at some point. Those will be a few nights. I always wanted to make a section of the Appalachian Trail. Maybe that will cover a few nights this year. Part of it will be a boys' camp. Part of it will be a bonfire. But I want to spend at least a week outside. Waking up outside in the forest, looking at the stars before going to sleep. My question for everyone is a three-part question. What was the best part of this last year? What was the worst part of this last year? And what do you expect the most?

The next year is a question we ask in our small group on every birthday. And it is like when a year ends and the next year begins, questions of reflection. The first two are to remember, because the Bible orders us to remember. In fact, it is the third most frequent commandment in the whole Bible. Remember. Remember. Remember. And not only the good. God says, remember my wonders. But He also says, remember the bad. Remember that you were slaves. It is important to remember. And the third question is that of hope. That is, this next year I hope for something. I have hope for something. It does not have to be like this great spiritual thing, but simply something good. A verse that has always meant a lot to me in the New Queen Valeria, which was the first version I heard. It says, I would have lost my spirit if I had not believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of those who live. And it is something small in the Bible that says, you have to wait for something. You have to remember and believe that you will see the goodness of God. Not only one day when you reach heaven, but here and now. There are more good things to come. So ask those three questions. My answers. The worst part of this last year was that we enrolled our children in school. For the first time. They have studied at home all their lives. That is another story. And they wanted to go to school and we said, great, let's do it. So we put them in a school. And one of my children was harassed almost immediately. For the first half of the school year. And it was probably the hardest part. A time that Sarah and I have spent as parents. Since we did not expect it.

We did not know how to handle it. I think in retrospect, we did some things well. And in retrospect, there are things that I would do differently. But it was very hard to see our son go through that. And it is also difficult to know as a father, what you do. How, when you intervene, and how you have good conversations that are productive. And all that. I am glad to report, by the way, that this is totally different. A year later. A year later. Totally different for that child in the same school. And so we are extremely grateful that God did that. That is probably the thing that was the best thing of my last year. It is to see the arc of redemption. How God took that difficult situation and did not take us out of it. He called us to stay in it. And still produce something better than we could have imagined in that same place. What I most hope for next year. Create great memories. Spend a great time together. As a family. Sara and I, and our three children. Ben, Ellie, Gracie. Time flies. How much more time will I have them all in my house? Which seems crazy, because it seems that yesterday everyone was in diapers. But my oldest son is in his first year of high school. And so I say, okay. We have like three more summers. In which he will be in our house.

And in which we can probably count, maybe. Maybe he has a summer job for one of them. And he needs to stay or whatever. But we have three more opportunities for ... Time together. to create great memories. And so, we have intentionally planned to save less money to be able to spend more with our children while they are at home. And I am looking forward to some of the adventures and trips that we have planned with the children during these next 12 months. Before reflecting on these questions, we wanted to share a story from our community to inspire you. This past year, Joey proposed to talk to his friend Eve about Jesus. So we gave him a phone call, we told him not to break it, and to reflect on what God is doing. Hello everyone, my name is Joey, and I am a student here at the University of Cincinnati, and I am here to take you on a little journey behind the scenes of how I saw God move in me in 2025. This is a special place in my heart because it is not only where my personal walk and relationship with Jesus began and began to flourish, but now it is a place where I can call home and share that love of the Lord with my friends and classmates. And God did something very special this year in one of those relationships, and so I would love to share that with all of you today.

In our first stop here, I take you to where my friendship with my friend Eve really began. He was here behind me in this dormitory known as Daniel's Hall, formerly known here as the Dirty Dance, and one of those first nights here in this dormitory, I met my friend Eve, and we began to have conversations about similarities of things that we loved in our lives and ways in which we both competed in high school, and he is a fan of the Browns, I am a fan of the Bengals, so we shared some fun jokes about that. And this is the place where I finally began to get to know him and spend time together, and now we are back in my house, actually in my room in my office. This is a space that has become special and important because this is a space where I can just spend time with Jesus every day. A space where I can pray in the name of my friend, Eve. In fact, right behind me, you can see these sticky notes, and I would simply write small things that I want to see God do in my life, or fragments of the Scriptures that would increase my faith, or challenge different areas that I would believe in. And they were all built around this idea of simply seeing God move

in ways that I had never seen Him move. And I began to pray for my friends, in the name of my friend, Eve. And I simply asked God to go before me and find them where they are, and to begin to move in His heart before I could force it in His heart. Now I take you for a little walk to one of our favorite places on campus. And that is our dining room, one of our dining rooms, and the closest to our bedroom, known as On the Green. They served incredible food. The orange chicken on Thursdays became a famous basic product. Now I take you to a place a little deeper. This was one of the first times that I began to listen to Eve speak with curiosity about what God is doing in my life, and how He may want that in His own life. He was not yet ready to say a permanent yes to something, but he only had curiosity. He began to ask questions, and it was a moment for me to share some of my answers and things that I was going through and things that I was learning

at Crossroads Uptown. This only represents the first time that he and I went to church together. And that was only a few months ago. He had contacted me one early Sunday morning. He asked me if we could go to church. So we went to Crossroads Florence. We listened to the service. We had a great time. And on the way back, you know, he said, man, I loved that. So we just talked about the next steps that we could take. He bought a new Bible, and we decided to start reading the word together. And what you can do is simply begin to discover this for yourself, spend time with God, begin to read the Bible, and see what He has for you personally. And now for our final stop here, I take you to where we now meet every Wednesday here at Rose Street Cafe right next to the UC campus. And then I look around the place, and this is the same table that Abe and I come to when we sit here every Wednesday. And we just open the Word. And we just open the Word. in the questions of our shepherds.

Imagine Jesus asking you, What do you want me to do for you? Who is in your life now who was not a year ago? In what new adventure do you want to enter next year? What were the best and worst parts of last year? And what do you most expect from next year? I hope you have enjoyed this experience today. Before we move on to the next, I want to pray a blessing on you and on next year in your life and in your family. So God, thank you for this church of which we are part. Thank you for the call in our lives. Thank you for your plans for us. God, I know that your word says that you have plans to prosper us, not to hurt us. So God, would you give us your spirit of hope, your spirit of peace, your spirit of resistance during our next year, that we can know you more in 12 months than we know you now, that we love you more in 12 months than we love you now, that we see progress in our lives, in the specific places that you have marked for us. Amen.