The Surprising Way to Find Your Purpose | Matthew 9:35–38 | Crossroads Daily

Hey, I'm Chuck. I'm Chris. I'm Dani. I'm Mesh. I just, this is one of the most moving things Jesus says to me because he looks at the crowd and you see his heart for people, right? Jesus looks at the crowd of people. He says they're harassed, helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. That's the Bible says he sees. And then he does the surprising thing of not trying to fix it all himself, but looking at the ragtag 12, 20, however with them group of people and saying, Hey, I've called you to do this. So I'm going to tell you, I have a pet peeve. And so if you've done this to me at Crossroads or you said this to me at Crossroads, hopefully I've corrected you because it is a pet peeve of mine. It really is. When someone comes to me and they're a part of our church, you are a part of Crossroads. And the first thing you say is, Oh man, you guys do such a great job. I'm like, Whoa, who is you guys? Who is you guys? The church is us. And so unless you just showed up for the first time, if it's your first weekend, then great. You get to say you guys, because you may not feel like you're a part of it. But if you serve in kids club, if you help park cars that day, if you serve with students, if you help with camps, if you have any role in our prayer team, you are you guys, you guys, it's not something that exists. And so anyway, I just get real passionate about that because we are the church. That's right. And Jesus makes that abundantly clear. He's called you to get your Jersey dirty. Not just me because I'm a paid professional Christian. Like no, all of us get to be a part of this. So I want to ask you guys, when is the first time you got your Jersey dirty? What's the first time you remember serving and being a part of this thing called the church? What was that for you? For me, it was, gosh, I think it was 2007. We had started coming to Crossroads in 2006. And I heard about WizKids. Remember we used to do WizKids? Yeah, tutoring. And they would bus in kids from downtown Cincinnati to Crossroads on Monday nights. We had a food team that cooked them a home cooked meal. They would eat and then we would do tutoring and all that stuff. And I'm going to tell you what, that changed my entire trajectory. Rolling my sleeves up, serving with a bunch of people and getting to know those people. And Crossroads was great about the we thing. We owned it. The volunteers ran that thing. I was like, oh my gosh. They coordinated the buses. We did all of it, the food, everything. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is what it means to be a part of the kingdom. This is what the kingdom looks like. All of us, shoulder to shoulder, doing this thing together. And

the relationships, the depth of relationships, not just with the volunteers, but with the kids. Man, it was powerful. Powerful. Yeah. Changed my life. Love that. Love that. It's proximity for me too. I used to work in like sports performance and stuff like that. And the place I worked at, there was a couple of gyms that we would go serve at. One was called the Lord's Gym here in Cincinnati. The other one was with Block Ministries here in Cincinnati. They specifically had block sports. And you talk about rubbing shoulder to shoulder with people in the urban core, people who are experiencing all sorts of levels of difficulties that, whether it's like homelessness, whether it's poverty, whether it's food insecurity or a number of things. And we just got to be with them. Honestly, we just got to be with them, work out with them. Ministry to them wasn't just sitting down reading a Bible and talking, although we did get to do that. It was hearing each other's stories, getting to know each other and working out too. We also did some athletic training type stuff as well, which was super fun. But that was what felt like getting my hands dirty in real ministry work, being in proximity with people who not only I got to serve, but who served me in a different way too, just because they had their own perspectives and upbringings and things like that. So true. I remember literally getting my hands dirty when I was in middle school and a close family friend of ours was like, hey, we need to go help clean up this person's house that we know through our church. And I was like, great. And I thought it was gonna be like 20 minutes, like just take a broom to the corner and we're good. And we show up and basically this family who had been missionaries overseas for a year had rented out their house to some folks and they destroyed it. This house is destroyed. And they're like, all right, like we're gonna do this. And I was like, I want to go play Xbox. What are we doing right now? And I think it was like a 10 hour just like we are gutting this house and cleaning it as best as we can. And I think even like I didn't even in the moment I leave, I'm not even like, oh, that felt so good to do. I was just like, no, like I could have been doing so many other things with this day. And but looking back, I'm like that probably changed that family's life. To be able to come back and not have to deal with that.

nightmare but also I feel like it was a probably a notch of like compounding interest of a bunch of things of the Lord showing me like you can do hard things and that's often that can be a lot of doing ministry and serving others it's like you're gonna do a hard thing and you may not see even the fruit in that moment like I never saw I don't even know who that family is I just showed up that day and but I'm glad those moments like that happened for me otherwise I don't know if I would have learned that kind of lesson. That's so good that's so good I just love first of all your faces lighting up as you told your stories it was like I was there I was in that kitchen with the food being cooked for WizKids I was in that gym you know I need to probably be in that gym more but I was in that gym and even for you even though it wasn't I love what you said like it's not oh there's my wonderful ending to the story but like what you did that day was profound and it made a difference and I love what you said like you don't know that family but that family knows you today you better but they might not know you by name but they know what it looked like when the body of Christ showed up for them and and here's the thing I think about discipline and when I'm one of my friends before I was a dad or maybe I was a young dad he said something about discipline that I always go back to you said hey Chuck discipline is not something you do to your children discipline is something you do for your children and I think this invitation Jesus gives us to be a part of the harvest is the same thing Jesus could have met all the needs of the people around him he didn't invite his disciples into it to do something to them he was wanting to give them something and you know I mean just thinking about the the way this story goes the disciples get their jerseys dirty and then they come back and they talk to Jesus and like man even the demons trembled at our name and we got to cast out demons we got to heal people like and Jesus is celebrating with them because they actually were a part of the harvest and so I think for us as a church particularly being a larger church it's easy to look around crossroads and say you guys got it yep whoever you guys is and whatever the you guys ministry you're looking for

so it's really easy to drop your kid off at Kids Club and say they got it it's easy to send your kid to camp and say they got it it's easy to see people go on go trips and say they got it it's easy to think about the music and the creativity and the teaching and say they got it and the truth is there's an invitation that God has for us for me to serve to actually get my jersey dirty to be a part of the harvest that he's building the harvest is plentiful Jesus says the labors are few yeah it's just pray to the Lord that he would send labors into the harvest field I just love Jesus's vision for that yeah I think it's something we can never lose as followers of Jesus that we are called to be harvesters we're called to take a rake and whatever else whether are the tools you use I didn't grow up on a farm but whatever other tools you use when it's harvest time it's for us to do that you know which sports phrase I don't know if that's the right terminology the Seahawks yeah they have this idea of the 12th man yeah right where if you're a fan of the Seattle Seahawks you're the man essentially what they're saying is if you're a fan you're part of this team yes and I don't like even the Packers like you can literally like most that stadium has part ownership in the Packer they literally are part of the team yeah but I love that analogy like why they do that stuff it's like no this isn't just about us it's not just our players who are playing on the field that we are all in this together yes we are all God has called your number if you're guys put a jersey on you he's called your number to harvest the feeling man amen so hey if you're if you're listening to this and you're part of Crossroads as of today which is July 10th there have been over 2,000 people at Crossroads who've been baptized this year alone which is unbelievable that's insane and here's what I want you to know wherever you serve whatever you're a part of whatever you're doing around here you have a stake and a role in all 2,000 of those stories of life change now maybe you might not have been person dumping them in the in the water and raising them up but I want to tell you no matter what you do if you clean whatever it is that you do at our church you are a part of the harvest and I believe God has more for us and I think the invitation is not

because you have to but honestly you get to be a part of what God is doing in the body of Christ and maybe for some of you that call is outside of the context of Crossroads great great great go where the harvest is and participate get your jersey dirty because in that there is something for you