What If You Don't Have What It Takes? | Crossroads Messages

prison director with Crossroads Church. If you're new to Crossroads where a church all about helping people connect with God and discover life in Jesus invites us into no matter where we've been or what our circumstances may look like today. Now quick heads up, later in today's service, we're going to take communion together. If you're unfamiliar with communion, it's something Jesus invited his followers to do as a way of remembering his sacrifice for us. The bread represents his body and a cup represents his blood. Pour it out for the forgiveness of our sins. So if you're able to, go ahead and grab some bread or crackers, some juice or soda or whatever you have available. You can participate with us when that moment comes later on in service. All right, now we love to say that we're a real church for real people and we're not afraid to dive in. What does that really mean exactly? Well being real is rooted in authenticity and authenticity is rooted in being vulnerable. Most of us can relate to the fear of failure. Because we're afraid we hide our weaknesses. The promise in the Bible is that when we stop fearing failure, when we stop hiding our weakness, that's when we see God's power show up in the most incredible ways. I've seen your past that Kyle Ranson short came one and only. It's leading us into that today. Let's dive in. My name is Kyle. If you missed last week, you might have missed the fact that Brian is taking a new position and I will be our new senior pastor, which I'm very, very excited about. So thank you. Very, very excited about that. Today is going to be a raw. It's kind of a raw look at where I am, what I'm processing, what I'm thinking about, what I'm praying about. What God has on my heart and mind as I step into this new role. And when I say raw, today is raw, raw. I teach at our staff trainings on Wednesday. We have every other Wednesday teach a lot of those. And when I teach there, I do it differently than when I do it here on the weekend. On the weekend, we have like time. We got to be tight on. We have somebody who's in the back running our slides. So we got to be coordinated. You got to kind of write things out. When I teach on Wednesdays, it's just slides I make and no notes. And I taught on Wednesday at staff training and gave kind of where I am, what I'm thinking about. And so many people came up to me like, Kyle, you should do that same thing. But on the weekend, the first one was Andy Ryder, our community pastor for Crossroads, anywhere. He's like, you should just do that. I was like, that, that? So yeah. So anyway, today is me. My laptop slides I make that I'm going to run myself in no notes. Some of you are like, can you have notes though? Like we vote. We vote that you have notes. No, no notes. Not doing that. Let me give it to you, Raw. Welcome to staff training. Talk to you about what God has on my heart.

The picture I give you to start is this. For my favorite TV show ever, Friday night lights. Amazing. Treat yourself if you haven't seen it, watch it someday. Featuring by the way, a Hall of Fame Kyle Chandler plays a football coach on the show. And in the coach to motivate his team, he always says, clear eyes, full hearts can't lose. I'm like, that's exactly how I feel right? Clear eyes, full hearts can't lose. Full heart. And I am humbled. I am honored. I am overjoyed and excited that God would invite me in to this position. Unbelievable to me. Crazy to me. And clear eyes. You know, when you sign up for something new, it's a good idea to understand what you're committing to. What are you promising to follow through on? Good idea to know what you're getting yourself into before you jump into it. Before I got married, I had a mentor who was coaching me on what it meant to be a husband. And he said this thing to me that kind of maybe sit back down. He was like, hey, if you don't have a moment before your wedding day, where you are deeply sad and mourning, you don't understand marriage. I was like, wow, I like Sarah. And the point he was making, he goes, you know, to call the husband, especially in scripture, is to literally lay down your life for your wife, says it everywhere. Ephesians 525, husbands love your wives. Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. So you're signing up to die. It's like, okay. Now, if you pick the right spouse, it's worth it. Actually, it's worth it. Which, speaking of which Sarah and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary last week. So when a publicly say, happy anniversary, beautiful, I love you. You are so strong. You're a source of wisdom in my life. I literally don't know if I'd be here without you. I just love you so, so much. It's amazing. Now, one of the things that I didn't realize that was signing up for when I got married is I married a runner. When you marry a runner, they make you run. Warning. We're signed up to do a turkey try as a family on Thanksgiving. Your morning will start and luxury and smelling nice things and to. She runs the queen bee, half marathon every year, 13th year, she ran it yesterday, she did great. By the way, half marathons, I think we should rebrand them. Half marathon is misleading, it sounds easy, I'll just a half a marathon. It's 13.1 miles. When you have to drive 13 miles,

you're like, I don't know, I'm too tired, I might just door dash, you know? She ran it, she's so tough when she ran this race, she got starting cramps in her feet in the last mile, and so she's like hobbling along, and then she flipped around backwards, she's like, oh, actually I can go faster if I go backwards. So this is her finishing backwards in the race, that's how tough my wife is. Now marriage, when you get married, just know what you're getting yourself into. Same with any kind of new thing going on in your life. What is this gonna require of me? What is it gonna take for me? How do I get the power that I need? And again, that's the moment that I find myself in, stepping into this new rule. God, what is it I'm signing up for? So many people have encouraged me over the last few weeks and days and said, you know, Kyle, you're gonna be like Joshua. There's lots of leadership transitions in the Bible. One of the most famous is Joshua from Moses to Joshua. And if you go to the book of Joshua, you'll see God over and over and over again, saying the same thing to Joshua, the same words. Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid. Now why would God say that to Joshua? It's because Joshua was afraid, that's why. God's not wasting his breath.

He sees something in them as he comes to a moment of change where Joshua is hesitating or Joshua's unsure where he's doubting, where he's the opposite of strong and courageous, where he's fearing. And see, all of us, we come to these moments of change in our lives, the human natural temptation is to go to a place of fear, to be afraid about what might happen. I don't know what change you find yourself on the edge of or considering maybe it's one that's coming your way, whether you want it or not. Maybe it's one that you have the option of stepping into. Maybe you're brand new in high school, freshman in high school. Maybe you're brand new in college, you're freshman in college, you're something new on the horizon. Maybe you're considering a career change, stepping into something new or switching schools or getting married, asking the question. And there's just this thing in you that hesitates this fear. I think if we're honest though, our greatest fear is not having enough. That's not our greatest fear. It's not not being in control. It's not the boogeyman. It's not enemies far away or whatever. If we're honest, when we come to these moments of change in our lives, the thing that we were most afraid

of our greatest fear is our own weakness. It's not having enough. It's not being enough. See, in our lives nothing highlights our weakness like moments of change. Nothing does. It forces questions on us. What if I'm not enough? What if I don't have what it takes? What if I fail in some big public spectacular way that people like I care about, the people who are counting on me? What if they all see that I'm not enough? How in the world would I ever get the power that I need? Those are the questions that we wrestle with and the questions that we ask. Today we're gonna talk about what it means to ask God for power, power made perfect. In my hope of my prayers for every single one of us that today we get the promise that God gave Joshua courage, strength, and a complete and total lack of fear as we step into the new thing God has for us. Let's pray together before we go any further. God, thank you so much for your presence. I'm asking that your word would speak powerfully to each and every one of us today that we hear your voice and we would have the courage to follow. Amen.

So I'm talking about my job here. What is my job? And it has this conversation with Brian about my job and the commissioning that we're gonna do, which by the way we're gonna do a commissioning of me, more small gathering kind of family friends and a few other people around on November 5th that's gonna happen. And we decided not to do that on a weekend mainly because it's a spiritually waiting moment. And Brian and I are both like, "We don't wanna do this many times." See, when you come to church on a weekend, you come one time. We don't come one time. We come lots of times. Over and over and over and lots of services. And it was like, "I don't wanna do this moment." And then they have to like photocopy it a bunch of times over the course of a weekend. And so we're doing that on November 5th and we're talking about this moment. And Brian used this word. He said, "Have you thought about vows?" He's like, "No, what do you vow?" He says, "What do you vow and what are you committing?" And that word I think is the appropriate word. It hearkens back to marriage, right? What are you actually committing to? So I'm gonna ask this question God. You know what in I vowing which takes me back to what have you called me to?

Ephesians 4 1 through 3 says therefore it prisoner for the Lord I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called You know the Bible says that all of us have a calling in a calling by the way the reason that God uses the word calling He has to call us to it is generally because part of us does not want to go So he's like come here. I'm calling you in this direction So I've been going back to what is the call on my life I'm speaking of of call. I had a moment last week. It was Wednesday We're gonna do a family meeting which is where we're gonna tell kind of givers and servers around here our news first And we knew as soon as that meeting was over we're gonna send an email to the entire church 92,000 people announcing our transition news and I had to be in the atrium at six o'clock I wanted to shake hands and meet as many people as possible and about 530 I had this clear thought drop into my head which is I should call my mom and let her know Now she knew she knew a transition was happening her parents knew this but didn't know this gonna happen and I thought you know She might get some calls to emails tonight. She'll probably give her a heads up And so I called her and that's we're having a conversation. I remembered this moment This is the first time anybody ever told me I was called into ministry and it was my mom Remember exactly where I was in her house I was sitting down hanging out and my mom comes running into the room She'd ripped a page out of her Bible and underlined a verse about being a minister and candid to me She's like God says you're called to ministry. I was like, okay Now I actually had that page of the Bible with me at crossroads It was it hung on my desk for for years and years But during covid we boxed stuff up because we weren't in the office for a while and the box that got put in got thrown away And I was like man, I really I wish I had that you know I Would love to remember what the verse was and in what it said that seems important in this moment What have you called me to? So on the on the phone last week I said, hey mom, do you remember this moment and she goes? Oh, yeah, I Remember exactly and as you told me a part of the story that I either didn't know or I forgot Which is more likely if you know me and she said I remember exactly where I was when I when I heard it She goes you remember that church we went to with the terrible music and the preaching that went on way too long

And I was like, yeah, it's like this little church plant. There's a one-man show This guy would play the guitar by himself Sing terribly put the guitar down pick up a Bible and not just go verse by verse, but I mean word by Word through Scripture no matter what it was about She's like I was zoned out and I heard what sounded like an audible voice Say this these words. I'm giving Kyle a stewardship Since you looked around like where where did that voice come from and had a moment ago and I think this is God speaking to me Then she went home. She opened her Bible. She looked up verses on stewardship now. She's telling this to me She goes oh and by the way, I photocopied that page from the Bible and taped it back in so hang on a second I gotta say she a picture and this is the picture of my mom's Bible You can see on the side says my name 6 1299 June 12th 1999 my mom heard this and she underlined this verse and gave it to me. I became a minister According to the stewardship from God, which was given to me for you It's from Colossians 125 given a stewardship from God which was given to me for You she goes hang on. This has been my study Bible. Let's see what let's see what the study Bible says a steward is supposed to do Then she sent me the pictures of what a steward is supposed to do. So here it is Stewardship a steward was a slave Who managed his master's household? supervising the other servants Dispensing resources and handling business and financial affairs Paul viewed his ministry as a stewardship from the Lord the church is God's household First Timothy 3 16 and Paul was given the task of caring for feeding and leading the churches for which he was Accountable to God Hebrews 13 17 And then it says all believers are responsible for managing the abilities and resources God gives them to fulfill the word of God She read that to me and she goes Kyle. I think that's your job description I was like yeah, I think that's my job description. I think that's what I'm signing up for What am I committing to? Well, I'm committing to the job of a stewardship of this house. And he said, close that verse in there,

first Timothy three, it actually says this, I'm writing you these instructions so that if I'm delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. And so one of the sober-minded things I'm doing, clear eyes, full heart, the clear eyes part, what am I signing up for? What am I getting myself into? What am I committing to? What am I vowing? One of them is this, I am a steward, not the owner. Why? Well, because the owner of the house is the one who paid the price for it, that's why. And that wasn't me. Jesus bought this house. It is his house. And it was an expensive price, Acts 2028. It says, pay careful attention to yourselves, and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. That's another word for stewards, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. He bought the house, he paid the price. He's the head of the family. I am a steward, I am not the owner, which means something very, very important. It means one day I will be held to account

for how I manage the master's household. See, biblical leadership. The supply is not just the overseers, not just the church leadership, but any biblical leadership. If you wanna lead like Jesus led, if you want Jesus-shaped leadership in your life, it is always, always, always not autonomous authority. It's not, I do whatever I want. I'm in charge, I have the power stick my way or the highway. It's not, it's accountable authority. Accountable to the church, accountable to a board of overseers, yes. But more than that, accountable to God himself, those footnuts quoted this verse too, Hebrews 13, 17, have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, why? Because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account, not optional. It's a must. The Bible's clear that all of us get into heaven with the same general admission ticket. There's only one kind, there was only one price, the blood of Jesus. That's it. I don't have a better one than you and I'm a different one than you. It's not the blood of Jesus plus all the cool stuff I do as a church leader. No, not that.

Just the blood of Jesus gets you in. And, and the Bible also puts these clues in there that there's some kind of accountability session when you get into heaven. There's some kind of review that God wants to do over the idle words that you speak, over the choices that you make. And it has some kind of effect into eternity and especially that's true for leaders. Must give an account. The other thing I'm bowing and committing to is to lead like Jesus. That means I must be. I am committing to and bowing to be the last, the least and the lowest. Which is not typically how you think about leadership, right? Everyone's always like, congratulations on your promotion. You know, climb in the ladder and you're the eye on top and all the things. Well, no, actually, that's not how Jesus viewed leadership. One of the most common conversations Jesus had with his disciples was about how to get promoted in his kingdom. Literally. If you think the disciples are like these spiritual superheroes asking about God, how do we pray healing prayers more? How do we, you know, how do we get more in touch with your spirit? They never ask that crap.

They're like, how do we get promoted? Over and over and over again. And Jesus tells them over and over and over again. A couple of places where this happens. Mark nine, verse 35, sitting down, Jesus called the 12th disciples and said, anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all. And they're like, okay, but how will we get in charge, you know? So one chapter later, they have the conversation again. Jesus says, but whoever will be great among you must be your servant and whoever will be first among you must be slave of all. Even this one they don't get. They keep following them into Jerusalem. I think he's gonna take over the government. There's gonna be all these new jobs in there. And instead what he does is he marches to the cross. And the night before the cross to have the last supper was sitting down to have a meal. And again, at the last supper, the disciples again go, Jesus, but just one more time, like, how do we become upwardly mobile in this kind of operation you have? How do we get promoted up? And what Jesus does in that moment is he goes, you still don't get it. Great, I'm gonna do something that burns a memory in your minds. And so the one who came from on high,

lowers himself, takes off his outer garments, gets a towel, wraps it around his waist, Because this is what it means to be a leader in my kingdom. You are the last, you are the least, and you are the lowest. It's not typical org chart stuff. Typical org chart stuff is if you get the top job, you go to the top of the org chart. You climb the ladder. Congratulations. Biblical leadership is an upside-down org chart. You're signing up to be on the bottom in the servant of all. That's what's required of me in this job. Another thing is required of me is that I must be above reproach, says this in many different places in the Bible, here in Titus 17, or Titus 1-7, sorry, as an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered, or a drunkard, or violent, or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm with a trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine, and also to rebuke those who contradict it. Must, must, must. This probably sounds like your job description, too, right? That work? Is that what it? No. Doesn't say that. This is what's required of me. That's required. Beyond that, by the way, is I'm required to be found faithful, and I do mean required. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians 4 verse 1. This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ in stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards, required of stewards, that they be found faithful. I could go on and on and on. We could be here for two more hours telling you about all the things that are required of an overseer, required of a steward in the Bible, but I think you get the picture. So let's just pause and have a raw moment. Let me just be honest for a second. I don't have what it takes. I cannot do that. Hospitable, lover of good. I'm like, oh my gosh, all this up. I do not have what it takes. And I know when someone says that to us, do we have two responses that our culture has shoved down our throats that we want to barf back out? What does yes you do? Well, buddy, you got what it takes. We believe in you. We're for you. You can do it. No, look, I'm a millennial. I'm the first generation. We sold that bill of goods too. It does not work. You told me I could be whatever I want when I grew up and I wanted to play in the NBA. It did not happen. They are not looking for slow, short point guards. Can't, doesn't work. The second thing that we say to each other is, you know, fake it till you make it. Hey, you might feel that way. You might feel like you can't, but man, do not be an idiot. Like, don't tell anybody. Don't show your

weaknesses. Hide it. Fake it until you make it. Now, neither one of those strategies ever come from the mouth of Jesus. None. Instead, he has a completely different radical approach and a promise of how you and I can get power in our lives to do the new things that God has called us to. The thing that we're hesitating about in our lives. It shows up most clearly in the life of Paul. Paul was, I think, the second most influential person in human history. Jesus is number one. He comes and he teaches and he preaches for three years and then he dies on the cross. He raises from the grave. He spends 40 days walking around. Then he goes off into heaven, entrusting the spread of his gospel in the building of the church to a handful of people. One of which is Paul. Paul takes the gospel and builds churches all over the known Roman world that time. Crazy, crazy, influential leader. And Paul's strategy was not, yes, you can, and it was not fake it till you make it. Instead, his strategy was boast about weakness. In a letter to the Corinthians, Paul said, if I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, he knows I'm not lying. He goes, I'll boast about the weakness. I'm not lying. And then he goes, I'll prove it. Here's an example. At Damascus, the governor under King Eratos was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me. But I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands. I'd be like, wow, is that an example of weakness? You escaped? Doesn't that mean you're like a super spy James Bond or something? No. This shows his weakness because those baskets, we know this through archaeological evidence, could hold about 80 to 90 pounds. Paul's saying, I'm very tiny. I am not a large, impressive, weakness. Now why in the world would Paul boast about his weakness? Like if you are a consultant hired to help Paul, you would not do this. By the way, Corinth was a place where you boasted about your strengths. It was a society built on upward mobility where you gained influence and economic advantage through boasts of strengths. Why would he boast about his weakness? Well Paul said it's because of what Jesus said to him. If you open a Bible, especially modern Bibles, oftentimes the words that Jesus says, his direct quotes are in red letters. Most of those appear in the four biographies of Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, because then again Jesus dies resurrected, goes off to heaven, and most of what he does is communicating through the spirit. But there are a few examples past that in the book of Acts and then a couple of Paul's letters where Jesus

has direct red letter quotes. Paul shows one of those in his letter to the Corinthians, but he said to me, Jesus said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Think how crazy that is. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. I think that we think Jesus' power will be made perfect when we finally get it together. When we kick that habit, when we know enough Bible verses, when we can do the thing, when we acquire more knowledge, that's when Jesus' power will be made perfect in us. No, no, perfect means whole and complete, not waiting for anything else. And Jesus says that happens in weakness. Paul says, "Therefore I'll boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses." Why? So that the power of Christ may rest on me. For the sake of Christ, then I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then and only then am I strong. Do you and I have to understand this? We have to understand this. Embracing weakness is the key to power. There is no other. There is no other. In your life, if you're stuck, you're at a point of decision. Okay, we've been dating for a long time. I think marriage is the next logical step. But I'm afraid because I don't know if I have what it takes. I've never seen a marriage that's gone the distance in my family. I don't know. And so if you're hesitating, I know that the major that I'm in is not the right major. There's another one that I want, but I'm afraid I don't have what it takes. I'm hesitating. I know there's another job that I want I'm afraid to apply because I'm just hesitating. I know that God's calling me to do more and to serve more and to take a leadership role around here, but I'm I'm hesitating. I'm hesitating. You're if you're waiting to the point where you think you have the power to do it, that will never happen. It will never happen. Embracing your weakness is the key to gaining God's power. That's it. What's fascinating to me is God's strategic, strange prep for me, for this job. I'm very thankful that the past seven, eight months as a church have been great. God's done amazing things. We've seen a record number of baptisms and all kinds of cool stories like grading this happen play out. We got 3,000 guys at man camp right now. I mean, crazy stuff. It's great. It's great. And being raw, it

has been terrible. It has been awful. It's been hard for me. Seven months of crap. Not just crap, a crap sandwich. Triple decker. Manage a crisis. Manage a transition. Manage a new job. All the same as that time. In the most common prayer I prayed over the last seven months is Lord, I can't. I can't. Early on, as everything was kind of blowing up way back when February, March, and you know, everyone's getting mad. We're getting getting people throwing rocks at us from inside the church. People throwing rocks at us from outside the church. And I felt like one of the things God was calling me to was to be a peacemaker. And I went to the Bible, looked up peacemaker and found in the sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes where Jesus talks about peacemaker. This is the section where he goes, "Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek." And he says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God." And I was like, "Awesome. Awesome. I want to be like Jesus." No, you don't. No, you don't. You know how Jesus made peace? He went and he got beat up. He got bloodied. He got bruised. He got cut. He got killed. See, when you jump into the middle of what feels like a war and everyone's throwing punches and you're the peacemaker, sometimes you get hit from all sides. It's like, "Lord, I can't!" I can't, I can't. There were moments where I thought, I don't know what's gonna happen here. Is half the church gonna leave? Is it gonna explode? Am I gonna have to lay off half of our staff? Lord, I can't. The moment's where I thought, I don't know where we go is Brian coming back. I've never imagined that this church continuing not to have doing ministry with them. Lord, I can't, I don't want to. I can't, I can't.

In the craziest thing, I can say this now in hindsight. Didn't know it in the moment, but in hindsight looking backwards over this period of my life, I can say this. I think the thing that God needed to hear from me the most before he would entrust me with this stewardship is that prayer. Lord, I can't, I can't. Because when you pray that prayer, you open yourself up to hear his response, right? But I can, I can. And so for me, I step into this new role, full of confidence, full of hope, about the future, full of giant expectations of what God will do in and through me, in and through this church, not because I can, because God can. It's the same in your life. It's the same in your life. Have you prayed, Lord, I can't. Had you thought about it as a holy prayer? Many of us were embarrassed to say that to God. Like, I don't want to tell him I can. I mean, he's counting on me. No, he's not. You're counting on him. What he wants you to do is figure that part out and then tell other people, boast about it. So here's some of my boasts. Just a short list, by the way.

You can, you can email Sarah later and she will continue this conversation. I have ADHD, I'm terrible with time. Never know what time it is this morning. I did not take a shower. Why? Well, I woke up when I was supposed to, but I lost back in time and I had to jump in my car and drive here. Don't smell me. Super forgetful. Never remember what's going on. Never remember where I'm supposed to be. Never at all. I didn't go to Bible college. It's recommended for pastors and teachers to go to Bible, I didn't do that. Then go to business school. I went to design school. If you would like a better looking toaster, I can help. I am qualified. Also, I tried to run from the calling God gave him. My mom ripped that page out of her Bible and handed it to me. You're called into ministry. Some are before my senior year. What I should be picking, where am I going to go to school so I can follow through on the calling? And instead I went, no thanks. I'm going to be a designer and went to Georgia Tech. My mom told me, by the way, she's like,

I wasn't worried, I knew you'd come around. I knew you'd come around. See, when you're willing to boast about your weaknesses, you open yourself up to pray the most powerful prayer you can possibly pray. I would call it a prayer of salvation. Lord, I can't, but I believe you can. Have you prayed that prayer? Lord, I can't, but I believe you can. And do you know that it's okay to say about the belief part? Lord, help me, I believe, but help me with my unbelief. That happens in the gospel. As God walks up to Jesus goes, Lord, I believe, but help me with my unbelief. And Jesus hears that. And if you rewards that faith, Lord, I can't, but I believe that you can't see. It is essential, essential, essential to believe it. I must be vulnerable about my weaknesses. It is the only path to power. And I'm telling you, it's the secret behind 30 years of success at Crossroads. It's why God has moved through this church. Not 'cause we're smart, not 'cause we have the best strategies and the best ideas and the best anything. No, maybe the best coffee. We might have the best coffee. But besides that, it's because we've been willing to show our weaknesses. (audience applauds)

A lot of people, I know we're wondering what will change and what won't change about Crossroads? Even if you're like, like me, oh, I like Kyle, I'm excited about this. Or maybe you're like mildly tolerant. I can kind of tolerate that guy. I'll stick around and see what happens. Still, no matter where you are, everybody, everybody, I know is wondering what's gonna change or what won't. This be a church that I recognize in six months. Will this be a place I wanna be in a year? A place I'm proud to be part of three years from now? What will change and what won't? I'll tell you a couple things that will not change and I would even say cannot change. One is our mission, connecting seekers through community-growing Christ followers who are changing the world, reaching lost people, connecting them into the family of God, mobilizing them on mission to change the world. That will not change. (audience applauds) Our vision, our vision. We laid that out a couple of years ago. 10x and 10 years. Push for an awakening. Guess what, we're in year two. You wanna know what the next eight years is about? I can tell ya. Push for an awakening.

That's the vision and our values. Being a real place for real people. Dying on the hill of authenticity, even and especially when it shows our weaknesses. See, as you mature, there's this temptation to stop showing your weaknesses because you think that's what's supposed to happen when you mature. That cannot happen as a church and it cannot happen in your life. It can't, why? Well, because the math doesn't work this way. It's not weakness minus weakness equals power. Don't confuse that in this message. This is not a message of if you give God your weakness, he will take it away and make you strong. No, the context for Paul saying, "My grace is sufficient for you. "My power is made perfect in weakness." Is when Paul begs God to take away the thorn in his side, the weakness, and God goes, "Not gonna do it." It's not weakness minus weakness equals power because the math also isn't my power plus God's grace equals power. It's not that. God's not like, gosh, I've got 90% of the power needed to move through your life. I've got 90%. I'm only asking you for 10. It's not, that's not the math.

He goes, "I've got a hundred percent. "I'm asking you to recognize that you've got zero." 'Cause when you recognize that, then you get the math equation right. My weakness plus God's grace is what leads to power. Period, period. And so the question I throw back to you is this, are you willing to be seen as unimpressive? Your people, you have authority over. Could be your kids. Could be people at work. Could be a social circle that you're in, and you have social influence. That's a type of authority on them. Are you willing to be seen as unimpressive? If you're not, by the way, it's holding you back. Holding you back is a leader. One of the most famous and respected leadership groups in the country is a group called Table Group, founded by an author named Patrick Lencioni, and he said this in an article in The Wall Street Journal. Whether we're talking about leadership, teamwork, or client service, there's no more powerful attribute than the ability to be genuinely honest about one's weaknesses, mistakes, and needs for help. Nothing inspires trust in another human being like vulnerability. And yet, few business people actively strive to grow in vulnerability,

wanting instead to project strength and confidence to the people they lead, work with, and serve. Ironically, ironically, they're limiting their potential for success. When is the last time you let people see you as unimpressive? When is the last time you stepped into something new that you knew you would be bad at? Us adults, we stopped doing this. As kids, we jumped in and we're unafraid and we're the worst, we don't really care. As adults, we start to care and so we stop stepping into new things because we don't want to be seen as bad. We don't want to be seen as unimpressive in it as limiting our lives. If you want power in your life, I want you to be like my hero from the past year. My son Ben. Ben is a sophomore in high school. Ben is a natural-born thinker. He's hilarious. He's creative, brilliant kid. Not an athlete. Not an athlete. Stop playing organized sports when he's about seven years old. And in this year, as a sophomore, decided he wanted to run cross-country. Problem, he broke his foot around May as we couldn't train all summer. Bad athlete, no training, starts cross-country.

Did not go well to start with. He finished dead last and five out of his first seven races. And these aren't races of like 10 kids. There's like 150 kids. There are some races where everybody else would finish. Everyone finishes. The second last kid runs by Sarah and I sit and we wait. A minute goes by. Two minutes, we're like, where is Ben? Did he go to Wendy's for a frosting? Like, where did he-- some of the races he was last by four minutes. And the first time this happened, I thought, oh, man, he's going to want to quit. Because, of course, because, of course, he's going to want to quit. But after the race, I said, hey, buddy, how are you feeling? He's like, well, I mean, I wish I was faster. But I really like it, and so I'm going to keep going. I just kept going. The one part is in his last race. He set a personal record by four minutes. Not only was he not last in the race, he was like almost beating some of his friends on the team. It was crazy, crazy. He's coming down the home stretch of this race. And I can see he's in front of one of his best friends, the kid's like a 15 feet behind him or something, but gaining on. I'm like, Ben, sprint.

You're like 100 feet, I go, everything. And he didn't have any more gas in the tank. His friend passed, and I talked to him after the race. And he because, well, I didn't have anything left. He was like, I puked twice in the race. which when in the ramp a push-in. So, $20 for Ben, $40 for you to pick twice actually, very, very good. Are you willing to be bad? Are you willing to be unimpressive? If you are, if you are, you'll see breakthrough in your life. God will do things in and through you. You could have never imagined the most powerful prayer you can ever pray. Lord, I can't, but I believe you can. It is the prayer of salvation that unleashes power in your life at the beginning, and it's the prayer you need to pray every day if you want to continue in Christ. Traces all the way back to the thing He did that changes everything. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 13, "For He was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God for we are also weak in Him." The invitation of Christ is to come to Him weak with nothing and to let the sacrifice that He gave for us unleash power in our life. He did that sacrifice on the cross, looked like defeat, shame, failure, weakness, but it was none of those things. It was victory, glory, salvation, and power, and it's available to you. Maybe you've never prayed before, Lord, I can't, but I believe you can. I just want to invite you right now, that can be your prayer of salvation and say, "Jesus, I can't, but I believe you can." You just start there with Him, commit your life to Him, so thank you for saving me on the cross. Thank you for taking my weaknesses and paying the penalty for each and every one of my failures

and mistakes unleash power in my life. His answer to every single one of those prayers throughout all time has always been yes, yes. If you just prayed that prayer, I want to invite you to do what we're going to do to close the service today, which is take communion together. At that last supper, after Jesus washed the disciples' feet, He gave them one more tactile image to burn in their brains and then told believers would come after them to do this in remembrance of Him. There's a piece of bread on the table and He took that bread, which you can peel off the top little thing there and get out that piece of bread. Hold up between your fingers. He took the bread and He broke it. I want you to snap that in half and He said, "This is my body broken, made weak for you." Friends, this is the body of Christ, broken for you. Let's eat it in remembrance of Him. After that, there was a cup of wine on the table. This is actually juice that you're holding in your hand and peel off the top of that. And He held up the cup of wine and He said, "This is my blood shed for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. Friends, this is the blood of Christ, the only power you need in your life, that you can only get when you come up to Him and you say, "I have nothing to offer. I'm empty of myself. I am weak." And He says, "Come drink of My power." Friends, this is the blood of Christ shed for you. Let's drink it in remembrance of Him. Let's pray, God, thank You. That You meet us as we are. That You do call us to more, but You call us in our capacity. God I'm asking that You would give us the blessing of Joshua, each and every one of us. Lord, I know that there are so many of us.

We're all over the place on these new beginnings, on new things You're calling us into you on places where we're afraid, places where we're hesitating, places where maybe we're popped up with pride, believing that we needed to fake it until we make it. God, would You call us the way You called Joshua? Would You give us that blessing to be strong and courageous and unafraid, not, not, because we believe we can, but because we believe you can. Would You make us the people of power, people of weakness, people of grace? Amen. It's been taking a minute to spend some time with us today. My encouragement is simple. Don't just hear God's word today. Take one step because of it, maybe for you that's open in your Bible, maybe it's spending a few quiet minutes in prayer, maybe it's forgiven someone, or asking for forgiveness from someone, or simply saying yes to whatever God has put in front of you today. Whatever that next step is, take it, and if this message encourages you, we'd love to hear from you. Send us a video ground or write to us at [email protected]. Our team reads every letter. We love to walk alongside you until next time. Keep pursuing Jesus, keep opening His Word, keep saying yes to Him. See you soon.