Crossing family, it is so good to be with you all and welcome
those of you joining at our different locations, those of
you watching online and we want to send a very special welcome
to those of you who are part of the crossing.
Inside we are celebrating all the baptisms that happened this
past month. We believe in you, we are
rooting for you, and I had some great conversations with some
pastors this week about some cool things that we might be
able to partner with those of you on the inside to be able to
accomplish more on that in the future.
I also want to welcome those of you who are new here and have
not stopped by the New Here booth.
I want to tell you before you leave today, I would love it at
all of our different lobbies if you'd go out and meet some of
the incredible people at our New Here booth because we have a
gift for you. Before I get into the message, I
have a special announcement I want to kind of walk you
through. You know, but as a church, our
mission is to help people find an intimate, personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. Our desire is to make this
region where you and I live the hardest place on planet earth to
get to hell from. And if that's your desire, I
wanted you to know how to best leverage the Christmas services
that we are going to be having this year at our church.
Last year was a phenomenal year for us and we had our highest in
person attendance for a Christmas Eve services that
we've ever had before. And then we started to look at
the data from years past and we realized that the last time that
Christmas fell on a Wednesday, there was a nine percent drop in
attendance from the previous year.
And we were going that 9% is a whole bunch of people who didn't
get an opportunity to hear about Jesus.
So this year we are going to make a bold, evangelistic,
outwardly focused strategy and some of you might hate us for
it, but I at least wanted you to hear it from me.
In an effort to maximize our Christmas Eve services and
hopefully not experience a nine percent drop in people hearing
about Jesus, we will not be having normal weekend services
on the 19th and the 22nd. What that means is, is you need
to check with your local campuses and you'll hear more
about this at the end of the service about how best to
leverage it. Because here at the crossing, we
don't just do Christmas Eve services, we do Christmas Eve,
Eve services and we do Christmas Eve, Eve, Eve services.
And in order to do Christmas Eve services and Eve, Eve services
and Eve, Eve, Eve services and pull off three weekend services.
Can you imagine the things that would come out of my mouth?
We don't want to do that. Jesus died to make sure that
people heard a clear gospel, not a Clayton confused gospel.
And what happens is that some of you and not all of you, you
would show up for church on a weekend, but you would then go,
well, I'm not going to show up and bring somebody on Christmas
Eve. And because we want people who
don't know Jesus to find Jesus, we are making this move.
Lifeway Research did a survey and they found that 57% of
people who do not attend church would attend a Christmas Eve
service if somebody that they knew invited them to go with
them. In other words, over the half of
the people that you invite to come with you to one of our
Christmas Eve services will say yes.
So if you are with us and our desire to make this region the
hardest place on planet earth to get the hell from, I want you to
start thinking right now, who are you going to invite?
I'd like all of you, every single one of you.
So if you're going, you're talking about somebody else.
No, you, I would like you to think of two families, two
names. And then you need to know the
service that you're going to so that when you invite them, you
could say, would you like to come with me?
In fact, what we're going to do right now is we're just going to
pray over our Christmas Eve services and hopefully all the
people that will have a chance to hear about Jesus and take
their steps of faith for the very first time.
Heavenly Father, as a church, we just want to make you proud.
We want our heart to be aligned with your heart.
And when you sent your son, he said that he came to seek and
save that which was lost. And so God, right now, we lift
up the two names that's in everybody's head.
And God, we're asking that they would be open to coming to
service with us, that when they show up, they would feel like
they've walked into home. That's something in the worship,
in the message, in the lobby, in the smiles and the volunteers in
the parking lots would make them desire to take their next step
of faith or their very first step of faith.
You know, my pray, Amen. Today we are starting a brand
new series and it is all about Christmas.
And in order to do that, I decided to, you know, get you in
the Christmas spirit and see how smart you are when it comes to
Christmas stuff. And there's nothing like
Christmas music. Now, what would you believe is
the artist who has the number one Christians or not Christian
Christmas album of all time according to Statistica?
I know there's some debates out there, but for according to
Statistica, you got Mariah Carey.
Pretty decent job, not bad. How many of you would say Mariah
Carey? She's she's the winner.
OK, interesting. How many of you guys Kenny G,
how many of you don't even know who Kenny G is?
OK, Kenny G. All right, His Christmas album,
Miracles. Céline Dion.
Oh, God bless Céline Dion. She's probably singing as we go
in the pearly gates. And then you got Josh Groban.
OK, how many of you think it's Josh Groban?
If you raise your hand, you're wrong.
Real quick. How many of you you think it's
Céline Dion? Raise your hand.
God bless you guys. You're wrong.
How many of you guys think it's the Jewish guy who doesn't
celebrate Christmas? Kenny G, you'd be right.
That's right. That's exactly right.
You come at me and hate on the fact that I like Kenny G, but I
wrote this sermon to Miracles, man, it's gold.
Listen, go home, put it on and see if you hate it.
All right, you have to scroll all the way down on Spotify, but
it's the Miracles album in it it goes all right, it's hard.
You can also listen to another album they did with Aaron
Neville been around this world. It's good.
All right, for those of you don't remember Aaron Neville all
right next one, stay on, stay on, stay on.
Been a lot of places. How is anybody remember the
Aaron Neville song? Listen to that one too.
Been a million places. OK, it's it's so good 10,000
times. But when I look into your eye, I
can feel it coming. Hey, Jennifer's here.
First service and I'm fired up. All right.
What was the first song broadcast in space?
Was it Jingle Bells? Was it?
Do you want to build a snowman? Was it baby, it's cold outside?
Before it got cancelled by the crazies, Mary, did you know how
many of you guys think it was? Mary, did you know?
You're wrong, Baby, it's cold outside.
You're wrong. Some of you just keep raising
your hand. I think it's all of them.
I think it was the cantata. OK, Do you want to build a
snowman? You'd be wrong.
We were in space in the 60s, guys.
Jingle Bells. That was the first song.
Now let me give you a little history on another song.
It started off written as a poem penned in France entitled
Cantique de Noel in 1847. Placid Kapadie, Rachmir and I
practiced that in the mirror for this moment were was the author.
The words would eventually captivate a country, bring peace
for a night in the middle of a war, be banned by the church,
and become a rally cry for the North and a favorite Christmas
song sung at Christmas Eve services all across the globe.
About a decade after it was written, it was discovered by a
graduate of Harvard College and Divinity School by the name of
John Sullivan Dwight. He became a pastor in
Massachusetts back when Harvard produced preachers, but for
unknown reasons he would grow physically I'll every time he
ascended the stage and stood behind the pulpit to preach.
This led to severe panic attacks that were completely
unexplained, and it forced himself to lock himself in his
home and never go out in public. Unable to continue in ministry,
he pivoted and looked for other ways to use his talents as an
accomplished musician and writer.
He used his skills to found Dwight's Journal of Music, and
for three decades he quietly edited the publication.
While he could not face the crowds, he inspired some of the
most gifted musicians and music lovers in the Northeast, and as
he was looking for new material to review, he read Cantique de
Noel in French. He was so moved by the song and
especially the third verse that he felt compelled to introduce
this song to America. As a strong abolitionist, a
person who's against slavery from the North, he believed this
song would help in the efforts to do away with slavery in the
South. So he translated the song from
or the poem from French to English, put it to music, and
the song quickly, quickly found favor in America, especially
during the North in the Civil War.
The song Oh Holy Night, the third verse.
Truly He taught us to love one another.
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall he break, For the slave is our brother, and in his
name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy and grateful
chorus raise. We let all within us praise His
holy name. Christ is the Lord will praise
his name forever. Today we begin a new series
called Thrill of Hope. A weary world rejoices, and our
goal is that by the end of this series, your affection for
Jesus, your appreciation for God, and your commitment to His
mission will soar. There's no easy way to say it.
Our world is weary. We are tired of politics, worn
out from anxiety, exhausted by fear, fatigued by change,
drained by work, emotionally spent, spiritually taxed, and
tired of the unknown. What could make a weary world
rejoice? I'll tell you the hope of God
found in the person of Jesus, AW Tozer said.
What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most
important thing about us. I'm going to say that again,
what comes to your mind when you think about God is the most
important thing about you. Our perception of God shapes our
lives and our actions, and thus it becomes the most critical
aspect of our identity. So crossing family, what comes
to your mind when you think about God?
Because it might be the most important thing about you.
Maybe some of you today you would say that God is a distant
being who is indifferent to our pain and our suffering.
Perhaps some of you would say that he's great, but he's
unapproachable. Others of you might say that God
is a grudge holder, impossible to please, unfair.
Others of you, you have a pretty realistic view of yourself and
what you've done and you've given up on the idea that a God
who knows everything would want anything to do with you.
What comes to your mind when you think about God because it might
be the most important thing about you.
John when he's thinking about God, it tells us an awful lot
what he thinks about because he says in first John chapter one
verse 8, he states clearly that God is love Jesus, God's Son.
When he was sent here to earth and he was speaking on behalf of
God to the people, he was asked what is the greatest commandment
and his response set the tone for anybody who calls themselves
a Jesus follower. Mark chapter 12 verses 30 and 31
says this. Love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all
your strength. The second is this, love your
neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater
than these. You've heard me talk about this
hundreds and hundreds of time. Because if it was the most
important thing for Jesus to tell his followers, and we're
going to be Jesus followers, we should spend an awful lot of
time looking at this. And while we were reading this,
you might be asking yourself, who is my neighbor?
And some of you, you might be going, dear Jesus, please, not
the person in house #2 Jesus, I will love the person next door.
I promise I will. But please, I like the people in
house number one, I like the people in house #3 but dear God,
please, baby Jesus, I don't want it to be the people in house.
Number two, others of you are going.
This is great news because I like all the people I live next
to. We live in the country, OK?
Our Missouri campus is like, I love this sermon already.
This is going to be fantastic. You were frustrated because
you're like, are you? Some of you are happy because
you're going. I don't have no problem loving
my neighbors. I thought Jesus was going to say
my ex-wife, my boss, my hateful Co worker, my difficult
employee. Who is my neighbor?
That's a really good question and Jesus actually answers this
question. Why does he answer it?
Because the people who heard Jesus say this had the same
question that you and I have. They too wanted to know who
their neighbor was. Let me show you, it's in the
Bible, Luke chapter 10. On one occasion, an expert in
the law stood up to test Jesus teacher.
He asked what must I do to inherit eternal life?
What do I got to do to be saved? I want to be on your team when
it all comes down. OK, What was written in the law?
Jesus replied, How do you read it?
The man answered, love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your
mind and love your neighbor as yourself.
The guy gets it right. He was paying attention in
class. This guy would be awesome.
Let's keep reading. You've answered correctly.
Jesus replied, do this and you will live.
So when we do this, we're doing the things that Jesus followers
are supposed to do and Jesus followers go to heaven.
This guy's right on track. And then but he wanted to
justify himself. So we asked Jesus, and who is my
neighbor? And Jesus decides to tell a
story to illustrate and to answer this question.
In reply, Jesus said a man was going down from Jerusalem to
Jericho when he was attacked by robbers.
They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went
away, leaving him half dead. This guy was walking along.
They come upon him, they rob him, they beat him, they take
his clothes, and they leave him half dead.
This is how Jesus begins to answer the question, Who is my
neighbor? Look what happens next.
A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he
saw the man, he passed by on the other side.
The pastor is walking by, just coming back from church, and he
sees the guy beaten, half naked, half dead.
Surely he's going to stop. He preaches the sermons, he
prays a lot. How could he not stop?
He loves God. But the priest, the pastor walks
by on the other side of the road.
Well, maybe it has a better story.
OK, let's keep reading. So to a Levite when he came to
the place and saw him pass by on the other side, the Levi, this
was the difference maker at the crossing church.
Friends with the pastor's. They know all the secret
handshakes that we do. They help out at all the events.
They help lead the Bible studies.
They've even been considering going into full time ministry
and dedicating their life in service to the Lord.
And does he stop and help the person who's on the side of the
road busted up and beaten? No, he walks by on the other
side. OK, this guy's still here.
We got to keep reading. But a Samaritan, full stop.
Jesus is playing dirty. He is taking them to a place
that they never thought that they would go.
You see, the Jews hated the Samaritans, and the Samaritans
hated the Jews. And Jesus, talking to an
audience full of Jews, is about to make the Samaritan the hero
of the story. Watch what happens.
But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was.
When he took pity, or when he saw him, he took pity on him.
He went to him, bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.
Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn
and took care of him. The next day he took out two
denarii and gave them to the innkeeper.
Look after him, he said, and when I return I will reimburse
you for any extra expense you may have.
Which this is Jesus talking. Now which of these three do you
think was a neighbor? To the man who fell into the
hands of the robbers, the expert in the law replied, The one who
had mercy on him, Jesus told him go and do likewise.
It is the Samaritan who stops to take care of the person he most
likely would have hated, and most likely would have hated
him. You see, the Samaritans were
outside the circle of the Jews, which means you and I have to
ask a terribly important and uncomfortable question.
Who is outside of the circle that you have drawn?
If you're a Democrat, Jesus makes a Republican the hero of
the story. If you're a Republican, he is
making a Democrat the hero of the story.
If you're a boss, he's using the employee you can't stand.
If you're an employee, he's using the plant manager.
That drives you crazy. It's the school board member,
the ex, the neighbor in house #2 that becomes the hero of the
story. For John Sullivan Dwight, it was
not a Samaritan, but a slave who was the neighbor.
Why are the chains broken? Because the slave is loved by
God. And if the slave is loved by
God, then the slave must be loved by me, and the slave can
no longer be a slave. Why in his name shall all
oppression cease? Because there is a new code, a
new ethic. And if the blood of Jesus was
shed for me, then it was shed for you as well.
And not just for the people in my circle, but His blood was
shed for people outside my circle.
You see, crossing family, every single one of us are unified in
our need for Jesus, and we are unified in the fallenness of our
sin. However, more than that, you and
I are unified in the fact that we can be and we are redeemed
through the power of Jesus. Look what it says in Ephesians
chapter 1, verses 3 through 8. Praise be to the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly
realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
For just a second, let me be your rich uncle who dies and
leaves you an inheritance. And right now you are sitting at
the attorney's office and he is going through the will, and you
are finding out all of the things that you have in Christ
that you and I are all about to inherit or are inheriting what
Jesus has done on our behalf. And He's going to list all of
these. Let's keep going.
For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be
holy and blameless in His sight. In love.
He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ,
in accordance with His pleasure and will to the praise of His
glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He
loves. In Him we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins in
accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on
us. Crossing family.
What do you think about when you think about God?
Because it might be the most important thing about you, I
want you to think that God has blessed you with every spiritual
blessing in Christ. That He chose you before the
creation of the world to become holy and blameless in His sight.
Before you could ever pray the right prayer, ask for
forgiveness, or even know or utter the name of Jesus, He made
a way for you to become holy in His sight.
How did He do this? Because of the cross.
God does not see our sin. He sees the blood of His Son.
And when you are covered in the blood of His Son, you are holy
and blameless in his sight. How did He accomplish it?
God willed it. God commanded it.
He wrote it down in advance. He called the play for you and
I, rebels and sinners and wretches, to be made into His,
of all things, His children, sons and daughters in His
Kingdom. And hear me, it was His pleasure
to do so. God did not redeem you at
gunpoint where he was forced to do this act even though he
didn't want to do it. God redeemed you because it was
His pleasure to do so. I want you to visualize a father
throwing up a small child in the air and catching him.
It was His pleasure to redeem you through His Son.
I want you to think of a of a mother watching Christmas
presents be opened under the tree and the pleasure that
washes over her. That was the pleasure that God
have when He redeemed you and then He adopted you.
And anytime you adopt, there is always a price.
And we were adopted through Jesus.
Jesus paid the price. It was free to us because the
one that God loved, Jesus, paid a price that you and I could not
pay. And the way was for Him to die
on the cross. That was meant for us to suffer
in the hell that you and I deserve.
But because of what Jesus did, we have been redeemed and our
sins have been forgiven. He has paid the debt that you
and I owed. And how did He give us these
blessings? Was He and Ebenezer Scrooge
barely giving you enough to get by?
No, the Bible uses the word. He lavished it on us abundant,
reckless Christmas level spending.
How many of you try to set a budget for Christmas?
You should. If you didn't raise your hand.
How many of you go? It's pointless because we always
go over anyway. Because you lavish.
When you go to Texas Roadhouse and you get the rolls, do you
put a little bit of butter on the roll?
No, you lavish it. You stack it high and tall, and
when you experience the lavish love of God and every spiritual
blessing in Christ, when this happens in your soul, you don't
want to hoard it. You want everyone to know it and
experience it, even those outside your circle.
On the night of September 6th, 2018, a 26 year old accountant
by the name of Botham Jean was murdered in Dallas by an off
duty Dallas police officer by the name of Amber Geiger.
She had gone home after a long shift and she had gone to her
apartment complex and she had started to go up the stairs but
she lost track of how many flights that she had gone up.
And instead of being at four O 1, she was at three O 1.
And so the door in front of her she thought was her own but
wasn't. She noticed that the door was
ajar and that there was a black man in what she thought was her
house. As she opened the door, the
black man started coming towards her because he was wanting to
know why is someone trying to come into my house?
And she wanted to know why is a black man coming after me out of
my apartment? And she pulled her firearm and
she discharged those bullets and she killed him.
Race relations in our country deteriorated rapidly, The
headlines and social media posts repeated for weeks.
White police officer kills unarmed black man in his
apartment. She was found guilty in a court
of law and sentenced. And at the conclusion of the
trial, like there is at most trials, there is a moment for
victim impact statements. This is a chance for those who
have been affected by the actions of the person who is
being sentenced to speak their peace.
And you can imagine if somebody that you cared about, somebody
that you loved, life had been taken by somebody else and you
got a chance to speak what was on your mind to speak what was
in your heart? What would you say?
I've been in the rooms when these have been read, I've been
in the rooms when these things have been said.
Some of the most vile, hurtful, horrendous things that have ever
been said have been said when a person is reading their victim
impact statement and on some level, how could you blame them?
There's a father going. My daughter would still be alive
if it wasn't for you. She was wonderful and you're
worthless. You should be the one who's
dead, not her. You get it.
Well became the time for the victim impact statement after
Amber had been tried and convicted and Botham's 18 year
old brother Brandt had been consumed with rage and had been
spending time plotting the darkest of revenge.
He had not missed 1 moment of the trial.
He took no bathroom breaks. He sat through every bit of it,
even all of the video footage, as he saw his brother motionless
on the floor and blood leaking all around.
Filled with rage and hate. He closed the distance to the
microphone as he prepared to deliver his victim impact
statement, having no clue what he was about to say, and as he
sat down, scooted himself to the microphone.
This happened. I can speak for myself.
I I forgive you and I know if you go to God and ask him he
will forgive you and I don't think anyone could say it again.
I'm speaking for myself, not even bad for my family, but I
love you just like anyone else. And I'm not going to say I hope
you rot and die just like my brother did.
But I see I, I personally want the best for you.
And I, I wasn't going to ever say this in front of my family
or anyone, but I don't even want you to go to jail.
I want the best for you because I know that's what that's
exactly what both them would want you to do.
And the best would be give your life to Christ.
I'm not going to say anything else.
I think giving your life to Christ would be the best thing
that both them would want you to do.
Again, I love you as a person and I don't wish anything bad.
Are you? I don't know if it's possible
but can can I give her a hug please please.
Yes. On that day, he chose to be a
neighbor to the officer who killed his brother.
And in that moment, you and I and the whole world got a
glimpse of heaven, a taste of glory, and you felt the thrill
of hope. We're moving to a time of
decision. To those of you who are here
right now, you can experience all of those blessings in Christ
the moment you begin an intimate, personal relationship
with Jesus Christ. Hear me, The moment you say yes
to Jesus, you will be made holy and blameless before God.
You will be adopted as His children, you will see the
riches of His grace, you will be redeemed through the blood of
Jesus, you will finally be forgiven of your sins, you will
receive wisdom and insight, and you'll be given the gift of the
Holy Spirit. All of these things are waiting
for you. Why on earth would you put it
off? What I want to challenge you and
encourage you to do in just a few moments, the people around
you are going to stand and sing and some of them are going to
come to the steps and pray. But I what I want to encourage
you to do is either turn and talk to the person that brought
you here today or take a bold, a bold faith filled risk and walk
all the way up here underneath that screen next to the
baptistry. And there'll be somebody there
who would love a chance to talk with you and answer the
questions you have about starting the relationship that
you desperately need with Jesus. Don't put it off.
There's too much waiting for you, too much in store for you.
To the rest of you in the room, those of you who would call
yourselves Christians, followers of Jesus, in light of all of
those spiritual blessings that you and I have in Christ, who is
outside of your circle that needs a neighbor?
We spend so much time wanting the world around us to change
without us having to have any skin in the game.
We want the world to be more loving, and we want the world to
be less hateful. We want to see people all around
us do the right thing, even do the hard thing.
And that's part of our problem. We keep wanting everybody else
to do the things that God calls them to do, so maybe we won't
have to. But if our desire really is for
people to find an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus
Christ, and if deep down inside of your heart there is this
passion to make the place where you live the hardest place on
planet earth for people to get to hell from, change has to
start with us. So here's what I'm going to ask
you to do if you're a Christian, whether you come to the steps or
whether you just kneel where you're at.
Would you spend some time on your knees praying for the
people that have been outside of your circle for far too long so
they can find what you found in him?
Would you stand with me? We want it all.
We want every spiritual blessing in your Son Jesus to be pouring
out on our lives and deposited into our hearts.
We want all of it, Heavenly Father, we want everything you
have to offer so that way we can be everything that you have
created and designed us to be. We want you to have the pen of
our life and we want you to write the rest of the story.
And there are people that we have drawn outside of our circle
because of the hurt and the pain that they've caused us.
And we've failed to see them as a future child of you, a future
brother or sister in Christ. But following your example, we
were outside your circle and you bled and died for us anyway so
that we could be brought inside your circle.
So God, make it clear what you want us to do.
In your name I pray. Amen.