Say Yes To An Xtreme Life With God | Crossroads Students

We're getting into it right there. We're getting into it. [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey, what's up? I'm Jason. We're here back to School Dash Extreme. Here's why we're doing it. We're trying to help you understand what it looks like, feels like, and actually is following Jesus. The life of following Jesus is an adventure. It is something that you do not take lightly. Most people never go on it. They get afraid that, you know, they fake it maybe for 60 minutes. They'll show up in church, but they're not actually following Jesus. And so we grabbed one of these, we rented them, and we decided, you know what? Let's go on an adventure and try to help students understand what it means to actually do something and understand about your relationship with God, to actually follow him. Why are we doing this? Because when Jesus showed up, he said his purpose is that you, yes, you would have a rich and satisfied life. He's not talking about rich finances. He's talking about rich stories, rich memories, rich relationships. Do you have any of that? Maybe you've seen it a little bit, but do you have any of a rich life? Like when people look at you, you're like, "Oh, they have lived a rich and full life." What about satisfied? Are you satisfied? Do you lay in bed exhausted at night sweating from just the amazing day that you had? Or are you laying in bed just wondering, "What's going on with my life? Isn't there more? Isn't there something more that I can do?" And so here's the adventure. Here's the analogy that we're doing. Following Jesus is like driving one of these crazy UTVs. Following Jesus is like driving on an adventure where you don't know what's going on. And most people, most people, hopefully not you, most people, they never get in. They never get in. They hang out at the campsite, they hang out in their tents, they eat marshmallows, and they sit around and they talk about how fun it would be if they ever got in the driver's seat and followed Jesus. They talk about all the fun things that maybe it would be like on the other side of the hill.

How fun it might be climbing that mountain, but they never get in. Are you going to be the same way? Are you going to settle for following Jesus as just showing up to church for 60 minutes a week? For you, is following Jesus just going to be you putting a verse in your Instagram bio, and that's it. For you following Jesus, is it just having the right answers every once in a while when someone asks you? Or are you going to go all in on the adventure that God has for you? Before you do this, I got to tell you, you've got to count the cost. And Luke, Jesus is talking to his disciples and he's telling them, "Hey, before you even follow me, this is what you should do." Luke 923, he says, "Any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way. Take up your cross daily and follow me." And if you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life, for my sake, you will save it. So before you say yes to this thing and make an emotional decision, I want you to right now, what is it going to cost you to actually go all in on the life that Jesus has for you? What is it going to cost you to start looking more and more like Jesus every single day? You're going to have to give up being comfortable. People are so afraid to give up their comfort. They are so afraid to take risks. They're afraid to talk to that girl, to order that thing, to make that call, to try out for that team because maybe they'll get rejected, maybe they'll get shut down. They're so afraid to have a real conversation with somebody because maybe that person will judge them. Are you going to let your fear hold you back from being uncomfortable following Jesus is not comfortable? That's why he's saying, "Pick up your cross and follow me." You might as well be saying, "Pick up your electric chair and follow me." Willing to die every single day for the adventure that God has for you. Following Jesus is not just having the right answers or doing the right things. Following Jesus is not a whole bunch of rules. It's God saying, "I have plans for you that will make a difference into eternity if you will follow me." And most people don't listen.

They just sit around and do nothing. Most people, they fake it. They fake it. Here's what they do. I'll show you. Here's what they do. They walk up and they're like, "Oh, yeah." It was so fun, look, I'm so muddy. That was so fun, it was a really fun drive. But that's not you, that's not me. What if we said, "Hey, I'm not gonna fake it. "I'm not just gonna sit in the driver's seat "and think about what I'm doing. "I'm gonna go all in, I'm actually gonna get there. "I'm gonna get to the end." When I was about 16 years old, I was faking it. I had the mud on my face, I was pretending about its steering wheel, I was a pro fake at following Jesus, I knew all the right answers. I had all the right looks. I was at church every single Sunday, I was a leader in the church. But I was desperate for people to like me 'cause I didn't have a real relationship with Jesus. I was not satisfied and I was not rich. And so I just started doing everything that it would take to get people to like me. Everything that it would take to be in control of my life and land where I thought I should go. So I'd wake up every morning and I would do

whatever I wanted to do. And that looked like drinking and partying with my friends. It looked like getting drunk many, many times. It looked like using my words to tear people down in the worst ways, to say horrible things that I'm so ashamed and embarrassed that I said. I would pride myself at making people cry 'cause of the things I said to them. One night, I was at a birthday party and I was just totally drunk. Like I don't even remember much of this story, my friends had helped me piece it together on the back end of it. But my friends were hungry. In fact, I was hungry too. And there was this whole party of people and they were all hungry and I thought I'll be the savior. Here's what I'll do, I'll control everything. I will drive completely drunk to Taco Bell, spend all of my money and buy as much food for people as I can. So I did it. Got in the car and I drove drunk. I don't remember any of this. All I know is my friends said that I was gone for about 58 minutes driving one mile down the road and back. I showed up, I remember this. I had sobered up a little bit and I had these bags of Taco Bell, like, you know, 100 tacos.

And I was gonna be the hero, I was gonna be the savior. People would finally like me. And I showed up and they had found frozen pizzas and everyone was stuffed. And everything that I had to offer met nothing to them. So they looked at me and they're like, Jason, you're such an idiot. Can't believe you would do that, you're so stupid. They didn't need a single taco. I remember dropping them and grabbing another drink and going to my car and just passing out. A shamed and embarrassed and alone. I woke up the next morning, still drunk, and drove home and my mom was watching the news and I was so out of my mind drunk that I thought, if I go straight to my bedroom and pass out, my mom will suspect that I'm drunk. So I'm just gonna sit down next to her and watch the news for a minute 'cause that's normal. Sit down, just watch the news and the anchor gets on and tells this story of a little girl. It was at a sleepover and she was at one house and sleeping at her friend's house across the street, she forgot her pillow. So in the middle of the night, the moms are standing on the porch and the girl walks across the street, gets her pillow, gets a stuffed animal and walks back. And while she's walking back,

a drunk driver comes and hits and kills her. The news anchor said that they couldn't believe it, but it seemed like he didn't even notice that he hit her and he just kept driving like nothing had happened. I'm sitting there so ashamed and so scared and so broken from last night. My mom said, I can't believe that type of person exists in the world. And I felt the full weight of my horrible decisions. The full weight of what my life looks like when I'm in control, when I'm in charge. Eventually they showed the description of the car and the map and I realized it wasn't me. It couldn't have been me. Even with an hour of my life completely blacked out for my mind. But I went up to my room and I knew in that moment that I was just as guilty as that drunk driver. I had made the same mistake. I had done the same stupid thing. And I was no better than he. And all the best choices that I could make for my life and my plans and my dreams led me to the lowest moment of my life. I hated the person that was looking back at me in the mirror. And so I prayed a prayer to God. And as I got, if you wake me up tomorrow morning, I don't deserve it. But if you wake me up tomorrow morning, I am no longer in control of my life.

I'm going to get in that thing and I'm going to follow you wherever you take me. I'm not going to be afraid of the hills or the mud or the rain or wherever you're going, Jesus. I'm in all the way. Two months after I prayed that prayer and started praying to every single day, I found myself in Jamaica caring for orphans that nobody cared about. Six months later, I found myself as a youth pastor We started with four students, ended up with 28 students, doing a thing called Camp Awesome that was a blast. A year after that, I found myself just saying yes to Jesus in Mexico for three years, working at a school, learning new languages, eating new food, meeting incredible new people that changed my life forever. And then 11 years ago, I said yes to coming on staff at Crossroads. And now thousands of students, I've had the opportunity to get to know and we're all just asking the same question every single morning, Jesus, what do you have for me? What is this adventure that you've called me on? What's my next step? What's my next tail? What's my next obstacle? And here's my biggest fear for you. Is that you will live your entire life comfortable, just how you are right now.

Live your entire life, making yourself happy and fat, and comfortable, and living an easy life. You grow old, you'll find a comfortable person to live with. You have some comfortable kids and you'll buy some boats somewhere and you'll just be comfortable and cozy. And you'll never find out what your life could have been like if you said yes to Jesus just one time. And then one time again. And then one time again. 'Cause here's the secret of the whole thing. When you start following Jesus, you start to look more like Jesus. And then you can build an entire future for yourself on this earth or you can know that there's an eternity waiting for you that God has a kingdom and his kingdom is right here on earth and you can be a part of it. You have the fullest life possible. The most adventurous life imaginable. It'll be a tragedy if we didn't have you live up to your fullest potential. So you're gonna have to make a choice. Are you gonna choose to stay exactly how you are? Or are you gonna do the scary hard thing of saying yes to the adventure that Jesus has called you on? Are you gonna throw away comfort, throw away security? Are you gonna face your fears and get behind the driver's seat and follow Jesus wherever he is taking you?

It's your choice. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)