The Danger of Identity Drift: A Gospel-Centric Correction

• Apologetics and Identity [00:24:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts historical apologetic methods (facts, compassion) with the modern focus on identity, arguing that identity is the current cultural 'sweet spot' for communicating the gospel.
• Spiritual Adoption and New Creation [00:27:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > Explains the theological concept of adoption into God's family, citing Romans 8 and 2 Corinthians 5:17 to assert that believers receive a new identity, shedding their old 'slavery' and issues.
• Nicknames as Identity Markers [00:30:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > Uses personal anecdotes about giving nicknames to staff and biblical examples (Simon to Peter, Sons of Thunder) to illustrate how Jesus assigns new identities that reflect spiritual reality.
• Sifting and Testing [00:32:59 ▶️ 📄]
  > Introduces Luke 22:31, focusing on Jesus calling Peter 'Simon' before a test of faith, suggesting that being 'sifted' like wheat is a process where God reverts to the old name to prepare for a new identity or ministry.
• Identity and Renaming [00:33:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor discusses Jesus renaming Simon to Peter and using the name 'Simon' to reference his old identity during trials.
• Suffering and Personal Trial [00:34:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal account of enduring difficult emotional weeks and making painful decisions.
• Spiritual Warfare and Sifting [00:39:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the concept of Satan demanding to 'sift' believers like wheat to attack their old identity.
• The Nature of Satan [00:40:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines 'Satan' as a Hebrew descriptor meaning 'accuser' or 'adversary' rather than just a proper name.
• Spiritual Sifting and Adversarial Attack [00:45:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of wheat and chaff to explain how Satan sifts believers, targeting their deepest insecurities and 'old identities' to cause them to fail or doubt.
• Old Identity vs. New Identity [00:46:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The speaker contrasts his past identity as an 'orphan' (feeling abandoned, jealous, and defensive) with his new identity as an adopted child of God, explaining how the former drives negative behaviors.
• Identity Drift and Vision Drift [00:52:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor distinguishes between external attacks and internal 'drift,' where believers become lackadaisical and lose their spiritual vision, comparing it to businesses or churches losing their original mandate.
• The 'Relentless Auctioneer' of the Flesh [00:54:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using GLP-1 drugs as a metaphor, the pastor describes the 'old identity' as a constant, nagging voice (like an auctioneer) that demands attention to food, money, appearance, or control.
• Old Identity vs. New Identity [00:56:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that believers interpret crises through their 'old identity' (e.g., anti-authority, celebrity-worship, control), which Satan uses to accuse them, whereas the new identity in Christ calls for repentance and service.
• Repentance and Turning [00:58:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > Based on Jesus' prayer for Peter, the pastor emphasizes that turning (repenting) is necessary to strengthen brothers, contrasting the natural inclination to justify oneself with the call to admit wrong and make things right.
• Ministering to the Hurting [01:00:57 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor connects Peter's restoration to his commission to 'strengthen his brothers,' illustrating that true spiritual growth involves looking outside oneself to bless others, particularly those who are suffering.
• Church Awakening [01:06:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines church awakening not as numerical growth or private piety, but as a collective movement of repentance and outward ministry to the hurting.

• Sermon Illustration [00:34:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal story about his 'hardest 10 weeks' of life, using it as a benchmark to relate to the congregation's struggles and introduce the theme of being 'sifted' by God.
• Sermon Illustration [00:30:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor lists numerous nicknames he has given to his community pastors (e.g., Vicki as 'Early', Matt as 'Captain Enthusiasm', Johnny as 'Johnny G Elementary') to illustrate the concept of renaming and identity.
• Sermon Illustration [00:31:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the biblical narrative of Jesus renaming Simon to Peter ('Rock') after Peter's confession, and also renaming James and John to 'Sons of Thunder', illustrating how Jesus assigns new identities.
• Sermon Illustration [00:33:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy of parents calling a child by a nickname versus their given name to illustrate the shock of Jesus calling Peter 'Simon' instead of 'Peter'.
• Sermon Illustration [00:36:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal story of rebuilding a 1952 Dodge Power Wagon with a friend named Jeffy to distract himself from emotional pain, which leads to a moment of crying and receiving a spiritual word.
• Sermon Illustration [00:38:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a moment in the shower where he apologized to God for comparing himself to Job, only to hear God say 'You are being sifted,' which provided him with clarity.
• Sermon Illustration [00:44:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the agricultural process of threshing wheat, where beating the grain and throwing it in the wind separates the heavy wheat from the light chaff, illustrating how spiritual trials sift a person's faith.
• Sermon Illustration [00:46:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares his personal history of being adopted at a young age and how his 'old identity' as an orphan makes him vulnerable to specific spiritual attacks.
• Sermon Illustration [00:45:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts his personal history of being adopted and feeling like an 'orphan' with a 'primal wound,' leading to survival mechanisms like jealousy and preemptive aggression, which he now recognizes as his 'old identity' being targeted by Satan.
• Sermon Illustration [00:50:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > He references biblical figures (Peter, Thomas, Judas) to illustrate how their 'old identities' (pride, doubt, greed) were exploited by the adversary during their sifting, specifically noting Judas's love for money despite his good intentions.
• Sermon Illustration [00:54:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > He uses the example of GLP-1 weight loss drugs derived from a lizard enzyme that suppresses hunger, comparing the 'old identity's' constant nagging about food, money, or appearance to a 'relentless auctioneer' that won't stop talking.
• Sermon Illustration [00:52:53 ▶️ 📄]
  > He applies the concept of 'vision drift' in organizations and churches, where a clear initial mandate slowly degrades into mere maintenance, paralleling how individuals drift from their God-given identity.
• Sermon Illustration [01:04:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares personal anecdotes of making hospital calls and visiting a friend who lost his son, noting that he has cried more in the last 10 weeks than his entire life combined, illustrating how suffering creates a 'tender spot' for encountering God.
• Sermon Illustration [01:01:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the story of Peter denying Jesus three times, describing the crushing relational and spiritual pain this caused both Peter and Jesus, which serves as the backdrop for Jesus' subsequent restoration and commissioning of Peter.

• Pastoral Charge [01:06:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > Embrace God's goodness and mercy.
• Pastoral Charge [01:07:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > Pray for empowerment for personal and corporate spiritual life.

[00:00:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:02] Hey everybody, welcome to Crossroads. We're so glad you're here.

[00:00:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:00:06] Here's the truth we're leaning into today. The future you is being built right now. One decision at a time. Not someday, not when life slows down, but right now.

[00:00:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:14] Yeah, but before we get to our teaching for the day, I want to celebrate what happened yesterday. More than 4,500 people from Crossroads all over jumped in for Go Day, building a better future for their cities and neighborhoods where we repaired, landscaped, mulched, cleaned, served, and generally just showed up to love others.

[00:00:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:00:31] And across anywhere, hundreds of you around the globe, in over 11 different states, five different countries, you served your neighbors, you became the church where you live.

[00:00:40] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:40] Yeah, because when we serve, we're not just doing a good thing.
[00:00:43] God is forming us into a different kind of person, the kind of person who doesn't just say they care, the person who actually goes and loves and serves, sometimes with a rake and mulch.

[00:00:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:00:53] That's right.
[00:00:54] And to everyone who gave your time, your energy, your muscles, your sweat, your prayers.

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:57] Yes, maybe your back hurts.

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:00:58] Yes, thank you.

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:01:00] We're going to jump in with worship right now.
[00:01:02] Stand and sing with us.
[00:01:03] Here we go.

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:01:04] After the scars reached out and rescued me, I had known the love of the Father's heart, a prodigal now redeemed.

[00:01:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:01:23] From where I was, He's the Savior.

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:01:52] The world that we live in, but there is a kingdom.

[00:13:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:13:57] It's your kingdom.
[00:13:58] We get to bring into this space.
[00:14:00] We get to be the light in this world.
[00:14:02] God, so I partner with you.
[00:14:04] And I love singing words like this because it's a reminder.
[00:14:07] It's a reminder of what's important.
[00:14:10] And that's your kingdom.
[00:14:11] It's your truth.
[00:14:12] It's your way.
[00:14:14] We say yes.
[00:14:15] In Jesus' name we pray.
[00:14:17] Amen.
[00:14:19] Come on.
[00:14:19] Let's celebrate what God is doing.
[00:14:22] He's so good.
[00:14:24] And let's make this place a little bit smaller.
[00:14:27] High five two or three people around you.
[00:14:29] Tell them your name if you don't know them.
[00:14:31] And then you can have a seat.
[00:14:33] Hey, if you're out here, what you'll quickly learn is that this is the real place for real people. Six of a series that's all about how what you do now is important for the future you. And we get a glimpse of that in Ty's story.

[00:15:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:15:03] This was my escape, man. This was, I mean, the casino was where I lived just two blocks away and was able to, you know, come here as I wanted to and from work sometimes. I'd leave work early
[00:15:24] a few hours, come here, and then easily just john home afterwards. But you don't really realize that you have a problem or that it's that it's that uh bad um until somebody points it out to you
[00:15:41] I've always been compulsive even from a young age I had I struggled with pornography um like very young and I would just compulsively like eat I knew it was wrong and it was actually something
[00:16:07] probably really destroying me but I couldn't stop and that led so much to like so much self-hatred I had major example of rejection in my life of people that really cared for me and I was scared
[00:16:24] of that for most of my life after that that I didn't want to be vulnerable gambling was kind of a culture thing within my family like aunts and uncles would go to the casino and have fun
[00:16:35] we would play have poker nights ended up moving close to the casino in Cincinnati eventually became a place that I went to a lot and I didn't tell anyone I wanted to skirt away from a responsibility and put everything on the turn of a card I
[00:16:57] like was basically playing in a way that I was well over my means I did that for long time before getting caught. It's really hard to look back and think like what was real and what wasn't because I was lying to every in myself but from
[00:17:16] what I can kind of gather at the ATM at the casino when I ran out of money and I went to go get more I fat-fingered it and I hit checking instead of savings. It
[00:17:26] was a couple days later that my wife said hey what what's this withdrawal in in the bank account. And I, in the moment, I felt so panicked. So I came up with this lie of like,
[00:17:38] oh, I bought a new golf club. And she, she just kind of said, I think maybe you need to look at what you're trying to accomplish through something like that. And ultimately she was kind of saying,
[00:17:55] you're compulsive. My therapist kind of shared with me, you need to, you need to figure out what is compelling you to do these things?
[00:18:03] What are you feeling in the moment?
[00:18:05] What are you going to do about it?
[00:18:06] And I was able to abstain from gambling for almost a year and a half.
[00:18:12] And that was like daily check-ins with people.
[00:18:15] And it was really important that I ask them and show them my whole self.
[00:18:21] I remember saying to all of them, for the first time in my life, I feel fully known.
[00:18:27] And like, I don't have anything hidden and it felt amazing.
[00:18:36] Ultimately, I relapsed.
[00:18:39] I got found out again by my wife.
[00:18:43] It was devastating.
[00:18:47] My wife ultimately gave me an ultimatum.
[00:19:00] There were a few things, but one of them was, you have to go to a Gamble's Anonymous meeting.
[00:19:05] It's easy to look back and think God was silent.
[00:19:08] I know he wasn't.
[00:19:10] I just ignored him a lot.
[00:19:12] I know the road that I was on was leading to destruction and it almost did because when I relapsed a hundred percent I there was no other alternative I thought for sure the best thing for
[00:19:27] your family right now is life insurance the the worst thing I could have done for my kids is hurt myself or take any take their dad but at the time I'm so steeped in shame and self-loathing
[00:19:46] I have hope now because I am making the character changes that have come from my suffering and perseverance.
[00:19:55] One of the things for Gamblers Anonymous is the paying back of our debts.
[00:19:59] I'm driving rideshare on the weekends, and I'm doing this now so that in five to seven years from now, I can look back and say, I don't have anything attached to my previous life.
[00:20:16] Previously, I don't think I actually believed that God would accept me for who I am.
[00:20:20] Now, I believe the thing God says.
[00:20:24] I'm chosen, worthy, accepted, worth dying for.
[00:20:29] You know what I don't have is a date for when I stopped my self-hatred.
[00:20:35] And I really wish I did, in a way.
[00:20:39] But maybe that's a, I don't know, maybe that's a beautiful thing that I can just sit confidently now and know like, I like me.

[00:20:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:20:51] Man, I love that video.
[00:20:52] Ty's a good friend of mine and I love how God wants to move us all towards more health and more healing.
[00:20:58] It also reminds me a few weeks ago, I was literally on a different continent speaking a different language through a translator and some people in our Anywhere community, I just asked them, hey, why Crossroads of all the churches out there?
[00:21:09] And they said, for them, there were two things.
[00:21:11] They're really simple and telling.
[00:21:13] The first was, well, because this is the first church I've been a part of where I didn't have to pretend that I was perfect, that I had it all together.
[00:21:20] He said, secondly, because Crossroads doesn't just talk about helping people, they actually go and serve.

[00:21:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:21:26] If you're new around here, that is what we hope you see today.
[00:21:29] We hope Ty's story helps you believe you can bring your real self here, not the cleaned up version, not the I'm totally fine version, your real self.
[00:21:38] Yeah.
[00:21:39] And we hope that Go Day helps you see that we take Jesus seriously too.
[00:21:43] And when he tells us to go and love and serve people, we want to be a church that doesn't just talk about faith, but we want to live it.

[00:21:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:21:50] Yeah, that's exactly why we're pursuing something we call 10X.
[00:21:53] 10X is our pursuit of a God-sized vision to help spark spiritual awakening in our world.
[00:21:59] It started with bold financial commitments back in 2024 and is still growing today.

[00:22:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:22:03] 10X is a massive vision with work that will take decades and take us all over the world.
[00:22:08] But one of the goals within it is to put Crossroads sites in 10 cities in 10 years.
[00:22:14] Why?
[00:22:14] Because we know there's more stories and more people like Ty that need a place where they can come and receive the freedom that God has for them.

[00:22:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:22:20] Yeah, and we actually just took a big step forward towards that goal through Crossroads Church Live.
[00:22:24] These were one night events designed to bring Crossroads into new cities.
[00:22:28] We launched the first two in Indianapolis and Detroit, and it was incredible.

[00:22:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:22:33] Yeah, the people who showed up there, they didn't just show up to a one time event, they're stepping into community, they're getting into groups and they're praying for what God has for their cities and what God
[00:22:41] has for them. And all of this only is possible because of generosity. Yeah. You're about halfway

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:22:47] through this three-year commitment that many, many in our community made to give above and beyond their normal tithe as a part of 10X. And if you've already jumped in, hey, we just want to say thank
[00:22:58] you. You are helping build the kind of church that reaches people we may never meet in cities

[00:23:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:23:02] we may never live in. Yeah. And if you haven't, there is still time for you. You can go to crossroads.net slash give. But before we move on, we want to talk about something else very
[00:23:14] practical for you to take with you this summer, which is our Crossroads Anywhere app. You might be watching right now on the app. You may not be, but summer schedules get crazy, and we want to
[00:23:25] make sure that you can watch services, read the Bible, do all of these things, and stay connected

[00:23:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:23:30] with our church through the app. That's right. So download the Crossroads Anywhere app wherever you get your apps and stay connected. Your summer schedule changing doesn't mean you have to lose your spiritual rhythms. Now, today we have Brian Tone. He's going to be teaching about some of the
[00:23:47] things God has been speaking to him and showing him over the last few months on his extended leave.

[00:23:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:23:58] Well, I am going to talk about some of the things that I've been learning and God's been doing in me, but that's going to be in a little bit because today is not about me. It's actually about God,
[00:24:07] obviously, and it's about all of us in here today. I'm going to share a piece of my story only because I think it's something that God's been doing in our church and in you. Whether it's
[00:24:17] your first time here or not, I think you're going to get something today. So let's pray before I go any further. God, you are kind to be patient with us. You are strong to equip us. You are
[00:24:30] loving to forgive us. You are generous to supply us with all that we need. And I pray that you do all of these things through the words that I have today, that they be your words and you would do
[00:24:40] something powerful and profound inside of your people. Help me to represent you and your truth well. And I pray these things according to the character and identity of Jesus. Amen.
[00:24:51] Arguably the most respected pastor of the last few decades is a guy by the name of Tim Keller.
[00:24:59] He's wrote a bunch, a bunch, a bunch, a bunch of books. He started and ran a killer church in New York City called Redeemer. And he died several years ago. I had a few times to interact
[00:25:10] with him and his wife, Kathy, and just a deep, deep, deep dude. And Tim believed that the modern day apologetic is identity. Now, let me tell you what that means. Apologetic means the way you
[00:25:23] communicate the gospel, the language in which you communicate the gospel. When I came to know faith, came to know Christ in the 80s, in the 80s and 90s, the modern day apologetic, how you help people
[00:25:34] understand what the gospel was and the language they could understand was facts and figures.
[00:25:38] Give all the proofs for why you can believe the Bible.
[00:25:41] Give the proofs for why you can believe that the resurrection is real.
[00:25:43] Then it moved from there into compassion ministries, which is, man, people may not understand what you believe.
[00:25:50] They may not like what you believe.
[00:25:52] But if they see that you love people, you're compassionate, you're making an impact on the people, they'll actually listen to you.
[00:26:00] This is a friend of mine who's a gay activist.
[00:26:03] And he loves what happens at Crossroads, except when we talk about sexuality.
[00:26:07] Then he hates it.
[00:26:08] And he actually defends us because, you know, we're friends and he loves what Squash is doing.
[00:26:12] And he does because he sees the things that we're doing, how we're loving the community, like we did with the Go Day yesterday, all over the place, stuff in India, all over the place, because that's an apologetic that reaches people.
[00:26:23] Now, all those things, those kinds of apologetics, they may be effective for some of us today.
[00:26:28] But the one that is really, really down the sweet spot in our current cultural context is identity, which means that you not only get to figure out who you are, more specifically, God makes you someone new.
[00:26:43] God gives you a new identity.
[00:26:45] You get the identity of Jesus.
[00:26:47] Jesus' holiness becomes your holiness.
[00:26:50] Jesus' power becomes your power.
[00:26:53] Jesus' identity as the Son of God becomes your identity.
[00:27:00] This is a radical, radical, amazing truth, which is why it's called the good news.
[00:27:05] That's what gospel means, the good news.
[00:27:06] Romans 8, 15 says this.
[00:27:08] For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.
[00:27:13] By the way, all of us were born with an identity and that identity has you enslaved and it's the root of all your fears.
[00:27:21] We'll talk about that in just a minute.
[00:27:22] But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father.
[00:27:27] The spirit of adoption.
[00:27:28] You come into the family of God.
[00:27:30] You're not born into the family of God at birth.
[00:27:33] You come into it.
[00:27:34] But God adopts you into it.
[00:27:35] When he adopts you into it, he gives you a new name.
[00:27:39] Now, I got adopted into the Tome family at birth, and I got a new name.
[00:27:43] Well, actually, I didn't have the name before I was at birth.
[00:27:45] I never had the old name.
[00:27:46] But I was adopted into that family, and that family had to become my identity.
[00:27:55] Identity is big today.
[00:27:56] It's why we knew this last journey that we did on the race was going to be a massive one for our church because everyone wants to find out what their race is.
[00:28:06] How do I learn about me?
[00:28:08] How do I find out what God's doing in me?
[00:28:09] How do I figure out my future?
[00:28:10] When we've done stuff in the past like Thrive Lines, where we map out our past and figure out who we are, like that overwhelms everything else in the journey because people just get fixated on that.
[00:28:21] Today we have, you know, identity politics.
[00:28:25] All of this stuff that is so down, my truth.
[00:28:28] All these are things that are speaking to my identity, which is why Tim was working on work on this and I hope his wife Kathy finishes it up she's a brilliant woman but hear me Jesus isn't about identity politics he is about identity spirituality
[00:28:42] which means that you can have a brand new identity 2nd Corinthians 5 17 therefore if anyone is in Christ that means in his identity he is a new creation the old has passed and behold the new
[00:28:57] has come the old identity is past what you used to think of yourself is past what you had as hang ups are past all of your problems is gone all of your mistakes are gone all of your issues before
[00:29:09] him is gone that's good news unless you're so deluded you don't even know that you had any of those things you're all still like oh interesting interesting concept okay great very actually very few people even understand their old identity very few people understand their issues very
[00:29:25] people who understand their need for the gospel, their need for God.
[00:29:28] Because our identity, our current identity has become so used to just accommodating who we are and justifying who we are and saying that's just the way I am.
[00:29:37] No, it's not just, it is just the way you are, but that's not who God wants you to be.
[00:29:41] He wants you to be a new creation.
[00:29:44] He wants you to be a treasured child and son and daughter of the family of God, of the Most High King, which brings you new identity, new perks, new blessings, knew all of that jesus gives out new identities all the time that's part of why he gives out
[00:30:03] nicknames now i like nicknames nicknames i give nicknames a lot uh i'll just i'll just run through some just just our community pastors we got way up north we got uh vicki diller up up in columbus
[00:30:15] and she is early i don't even i won't tell you why i call these people that she's early matt castman date and he is captain enthusiasm keep working on down we got tim sennep and mason
[00:30:25] didn't call him, I call him Tiny Tim and now I call him Teeny. He loves that one. You come on, keep on coming down. You've got Oakley. You've got Greg McElfresh, who's Cheese. I don't have
[00:30:35] time to explain all these. Go over the west side. You've got Steve tilling his perfect hair. He's Brill Cream. Go over the east side. You've got my daughter. She's been there for, she's been my
[00:30:43] daughter forever. She's been in Bumbles since the day she was born. Go down, go down to Florence and we got, we have Caroline Draper. She's sweet Caroline, sweet Caroline. And then, and then to rounded out. Oh no, I almost forgot Brody. Brody at the Uptown, of course, he's Brody Bunch. That's
[00:30:56] him. And then if you come all, all the way down, all the way down to Lexington, you got one of my favorites, Johnny, John Gillespie is also Johnny G. And then when I actually went on a motorcycle
[00:31:06] trip with him recently, he was so freaking annoying. He, he, he rode like there was a school zone everywhere. Like he was calling, it was so slow. So Johnny G is now Johnny G Elementary is
[00:31:18] what he is because he rides so soon. Now, my nicknames are just meant sort of for humor's sake. They're fun and all that stuff. But man, when Jesus gives a nickname, it is a new identity.
[00:31:32] Simon gets a new identity. He gets the name Peter. Jesus calls him Simon. Then he calls him Peter because Jesus says, who do people say that I am? And everyone's beating around the bush. No one
[00:31:43] wants to be clear. And finally, Jesus says, who do you say I am? And Peter says, he takes the leap.
[00:31:49] He says, I say you're the Christ.
[00:31:51] That's who I say.
[00:31:52] And Jesus says, right, right.
[00:31:56] And this is a foundational statement of the kingdom of God that's going to build from here.
[00:32:00] And you are a foundational person.
[00:32:02] So therefore, I'm going to call you Petra, i.e. rock.
[00:32:05] You're no longer Simon.
[00:32:07] You're now rock.
[00:32:09] That's what you are.
[00:32:10] He calls James and John, these guys, he calls them the sons of thunder.
[00:32:15] It's pretty cruel.
[00:32:17] Now, let's get to the passage I want to spend the rest of our time looking at today and a little bit of of my story here's what it says i'll just read it for us and then we'll talk about luke chapter 22 this is at the end of his life
[00:32:33] just before just before he is arrested tried and crucified he's at the last supper and uh you know peter's being his normal aggressive boisterous self and jesus decides to um just tell him some bad stuff is going to happen for him he's going to be denying him he talks about the cock crowing
[00:32:52] three times and a bunch of stuff i'm not going to go into today you don't have to know that all this stuff to get what i'm going to talk about today for the rest of our time but let's just
[00:32:59] read it luke 22 verse 31 jesus says simon simon behold satan has demanded to sift you and have you that he might sift you like wheat but i have prayed for you i pray for you that your faith may
[00:33:18] not fail. And when you have turned again, you will minister to the brothers. Jesus uses a word for him that freaks him out. He calls him Simon. From the moment he calls him Peter, renames him
[00:33:38] Peter, he never says Simon again. It's never recorded again until this moment. You ever have somebody who has a nickname for you and then they use your given name? You're like, and maybe it was
[00:33:52] your parents got in trouble and they always called you Susie, but now they said, Susan!
[00:33:58] If my parents ever said, Brian Douglas Tome!
[00:34:01] I'd be like...
[00:34:03] You know, all the nicknames I just mentioned, if I went up to any one of those folks and I just said, hey, Vicki, she'd be going, what's coming on here?
[00:34:14] If I said, hey, hey, Greg.
[00:34:17] In fact, it would sound so weird if I said Greg.
[00:34:20] Because they know something is about to happen.
[00:34:23] when jesus calls peter simon the first time he said that since he renamed him at least it's recorded in the bible this is a really big big deal so here's a piece of my story and i only
[00:34:41] share this today because it's your story because i believe god has been doing in me what he wants to be doing in you if he's not doing it already. I've had the hardest 10 weeks of my life,
[00:34:57] bar none. Horrible 10 weeks of my life. Now, I must also say it's all relative because a lot of you have got way, way, way, way bigger problems than I do, okay? I'm just saying benchmark the rest of my life. If we put all of the problems on the table and you have all
[00:35:14] of yours, I'll take mine. They're really not that bad. They're emotional in nature. You know, You've got, many of you have got way, way big problems.
[00:35:20] I'm just saying from my experience, it has been a hard, hard, difficult, difficult time.
[00:35:27] And I'm trying to distract myself oftentimes from the poop I'm in.
[00:35:32] And I'm just trying to keep my head and do the right thing and keep myself focused.
[00:35:37] And yet at the same time as I'm praying and I'm meditating, there's only so much you can do of that.
[00:35:41] Well, Bible says pray at all times without ceasing.
[00:35:43] Yes, I know.
[00:35:44] You can't be on your knees all day praying for 10 weeks. You just can't do that, right? So I'm trying to find things that are distracting me, things that I can get my mind off of stuff. So one of them is I have a 1952 Dodge Power Wagon,
[00:36:01] an old pickup truck that's been in disrepair for decades. And I got it and I've been rebuilding it and it's been really, really, really cool and therapeutic. And I got a friend of mine comes
[00:36:11] over. His nickname is Jeffy, which is one of my most lame nicknames. His name's Jeffy. Jeffy comes over and um we're working and a part of what he's doing it because he wants to be with me and just
[00:36:21] kind of minister to me and i'm doing it because i want to get my mind off of things so we're sitting there one day and we're we're working on something and and he says something funny or i see something
[00:36:31] funny i start laughing and as i'm laughing i realize man the only reason i'm laughing is because i'm trying to be distracted from the poop that i'm in right now and i start laughing and i
[00:36:43] go immediately from laughing into crying and here we are just just just crying all over him and he's kind of empathizing with me and stuff like that it's just it's that was that kind of day later
[00:36:53] that day i got a word of a decision that was the right decision but was also a very painful decision we had i don't know if you recognize or not on march 24th we as a church passed our 30th
[00:37:07] anniversary. That's pretty amazing. 30 years. So I had an idea that was, hey, let's look at the roles. Let's look at who's given. Let's look at who served. Who was around in 1996 and who's around
[00:37:25] in 2026? Let's do something to celebrate with them. And then on top of that, let's pull in some young folks who are going to be critical for the next 30 years. That was 240 people. 240 people
[00:37:36] have been here for 30 years. Dudes, dudettes, let's give those people a hand. It's unbelievable.
[00:37:42] Unbelievable. 30 years of faithfulness. It's just fantastic. So I learned that same day when I'm crying and stuff that that 30th anniversary I was so excited about was postponed slash canceled.
[00:37:56] I just canceled my 60th birthday party because Libba was going through chemo and just couldn't do that. My 60th birthday party was going to be about me getting excited to finish off my final 10 years at Crossroads. And the 30th wasn't going to be about me, but I was going to get that sort
[00:38:08] of same, that same encouragement, right? So when that hit that day and just more stuff hit me, it put me in a really bad way. So after I work on a car restoration project, I'm oily, I'm dirty,
[00:38:20] I'm sweaty. So I go up and I start taking a shower and I'm just, I'm just not in a good space.
[00:38:29] I say to God, God, I feel like I'm Job. And as soon as I say that, I apologize. I say, God, I'm sorry. I'm doing this out loud with him. I said, God, I'm sorry. I'm not Job. My wife hasn't
[00:38:42] died. My kids haven't died. I haven't lost all my money. I don't have boils all over me, scraping them with broken pottery. No, I'm not Job. I'm not Job. Sorry. And then he says to me the clearest
[00:38:54] thing I've ever heard from him 45 years. We walked in for 45 years. He says, you're being sifted.
[00:39:02] and when he said that it was like a bolt went through me and at the same time it's like a screen fell away from my eyes and someone put binoculars on my face my vision physically physically changed
[00:39:18] like that like i had a clarity i hadn't had before to the point where i was noticing moisture on the ceramic tile that i'd never noticed before god had just spoken to me he told me something was
[00:39:29] for me. You are being sifted. Now, I knew what this came from. This came from this story I just read with you. I'm going to spend the rest of our time on. But because I'd never really preached on
[00:39:41] this or done a deep, deep study on this, I'd read it many, many, many, many times over the year. But because I hadn't really dug into it. So when he said you're being sifted, I knew exactly who he
[00:39:50] was talking about. So that was my project for the night. So let's talk about what this means and what it means for you and for us first we have the names okay the names i'm all my
[00:40:05] there there are the name first here's here's a name for us simon simon we just talked about that name simon simon he uses that name and it now i'm gonna tell you why he does in just a minute
[00:40:18] the next name is satan now actually satan is not a name satan is not a name like fred or jose satan is a three-letter hebrew word that is a descriptor it means accuser it means adversary
[00:40:37] it's become his name we'll use as a name but that's not what it was in the original context it was just the hebrew word for accuser or for adversary andrew del banco is a professor
[00:40:50] at Columbia University and he wrote a book that I thought was really interesting I read a long long time ago it's called the death of Satan and in the death of Satan he says the problem with us
[00:41:01] and Andrew Delbanco is not a Christian I don't even know if he's spiritual he's not a Christian but he's in the book he basically is trying to redeem the idea of Satan or at least help us
[00:41:11] understand that as we as a culture have become highbrow thinking people who can't believe in fairy tales anymore and therefore we can't believe in satan or even what he says evil we can't even believe that there's an actual literal physical evil anymore or spiritual evil we've lost the
[00:41:26] ability to interpret things in culture and understand things in culture you know there's school shootings so people are like oh my gosh how could this happen uh because there's evil in the world and there's a satan who wants to steal kill and destroy that that's why it is and he's just
[00:41:40] saying that because we have killed satan or eliminate that idea modern people have a real real hard time understanding evil and pain but you and i shouldn't if you happen to have a christian worldview or if you're seeking that because jesus says very clearly i just i mentioned john 10 10
[00:41:56] the thief comes to steal kill and destroy so this is what satan is going to do with simon he is going to accuse him he is going to come against him and he does that with you and he does
[00:42:18] it with his old identity this is why i believe he uses the name simon instead of his new identity his authentic identity is peter because god gives him who god you are who god says you are
[00:42:30] you are not who you say you are you are not who you believe you are you are not your truth if You're going to walk with God.
[00:42:37] You are God's truth and you are who God says you are.
[00:42:41] So when Jesus says, Simon, Simon, he's saying this is what people said you were.
[00:42:46] So I'm going to go back to that.
[00:42:48] I say you're Peter.
[00:42:49] I'm going to go back to that.
[00:42:50] And every difficult thing, the most difficult things that you're going to experience and I'm going to experience are going to be related to our old identity.
[00:43:00] Simon was going to be accused and come against according to his old identity.
[00:43:10] When it says here that Satan has demanded, this is a weird one for me, man.
[00:43:14] I just got to tell you, I don't understand.
[00:43:17] I don't understand this.
[00:43:19] Like demanded.
[00:43:21] Demanded to who?
[00:43:22] Like demanded to God?
[00:43:23] God just went, whatever.
[00:43:25] Or God's like, oh, okay, you're demanding.
[00:43:26] I'll let you have this one.
[00:43:27] It's a weird one.
[00:43:29] A lot of things in the Bible I don't understand.
[00:43:30] This is one of them.
[00:43:30] But Satan has demanded to have you.
[00:43:34] Here's a big one.
[00:43:35] Get ready for it, friends.
[00:43:36] This is really big.
[00:43:38] You.
[00:43:38] This you, this you in the Greek is plural, meaning Satan has demanded all the disciples.
[00:43:48] He wants all of them.
[00:43:49] You, if you're a follower of Christ, he wants you.
[00:43:51] He wants you bad.
[00:43:53] He's demanded to have you.
[00:43:55] And the best way he can have you, the best way he can accuse you, the most effective way he can come against you is to play to your old identity that is the secret button to push to cause us to drift from god
[00:44:08] to cause us to be about ourself to cause us to just be in a really bad bad bad way so as i started digging into this i realized this is exactly that night after the shower this is exactly what's
[00:44:23] happening to me demand to sift you like wheat sift you like here's the way that would work you would have a there's other ways many ways they would do it but here's the basic way they would
[00:44:33] have the threshing table, which would be this stone table that would be above ground. And they bring in all the wheat, all the wheat. And the wheat at the kernel inside is the core essential
[00:44:43] necessary for food because it was bread. That was a staple element, was bread.
[00:44:49] Which some of you are going like, I couldn't live because I'm glucose intolerant. Not glucose intolerant. What's it like? Gluten, gluten, gluten. I'm gluten intolerant. Yeah, you're weak and you would die. Yes, that's true. But other than that, they bring it. No, you wouldn't. It's different
[00:45:04] wheat back then. If you ever get over like Germany, you'll be like, I can eat bread again.
[00:45:08] We've jacked up our food sources here in America. That's another sermon. Anyway, they'd bring this in, bring all this stuff in, and then they would take a pitchfork and they would beat on it, beat on all of this stuff. And the point was around the kernel of the wheat, there was what
[00:45:24] was known as the chaff, a light sort of shell. They would beat on it and they would throw it up in the air and then as the wind would blow it would blow away the lighter chaff and the heavier
[00:45:35] wheat would fall down just like if you go panning for gold gold is heavier than the stones the sand the gold comes down the bottom and they beat it again and they throw it up in the air and it comes
[00:45:44] and they beat it and i'm reading this i'm saying to god god it's exactly what's happening to me i am being beaten and i am being stabbed and so many ways that i'm being stabbed feel like stabs
[00:45:56] in the back this one was just a stab in the heart just a and this is the perfect way for me to be sifted by satan the perfect way because it's right in line with my old identity of an orphan
[00:46:12] i was born at a very early age and then i was adopted i was adopted into a family and i I think I'm so thankful that there wasn't the prevailing thinking back in 1965 that when you
[00:46:31] get adopted in the family you should keep up with your birth mother and birth father that would have been a horrible idea because anytime Dick and Eileen Tome who are my parents would have said
[00:46:42] anything I didn't like I would have always thought yeah but what if I was with my real parents what was my identity what if it was there anytime I was upset I would I would because I would be
[00:46:52] confused on what my identity was, right? No, I was a tome. I am, because I got adopted in the family of God. This is why the Bible says we're adopted into the family of God, because God adopts us. He
[00:47:02] wants us. He chooses us. And it gives us perks and privileges that others don't have, because they don't have that identity. It's my kids have perks and privileges from me that your kids will never
[00:47:13] get from me. They'll all love them and be about them, but it's just different. And so my old identity though is of an orphan that i'm abandoned psychologists say that there was a primal wound
[00:47:25] that took place when i got separated from my mother psychologically my birth mother i don't know if that's true or not i'm thankful my birth mother did what she did was an amazing loving thing i'm thankful my life but perhaps perhaps there was something there all i do know is i've
[00:47:39] felt and operate as an orphan for most of my life which means i feel like i'm alone i feel like people are going to abandon me in any moment. I feel like I only get to stay in the orphanage
[00:47:50] if I'm good enough, if I succeed enough. I see, I look at people getting more porridge than I'm getting. I get jealous. Why are they getting more stuff than I'm not getting? I beat myself up when
[00:48:04] I don't measure up or I beat people up around me, beat people up around me because I'm afraid you're going to beat me up. So if I can beat you up and push you off before you push me off,
[00:48:11] that's a that's a classic orphan survival mechanism and this last 10 weeks has been the perfect thing you're forgotten you're not needed no forgiveness for you you haven't measured up you're not necessary we don't need to say x y it's just all of it and and and that's what god
[00:48:34] spoke to me now the beautiful thing the beautiful thing about this is that once i understood that this was this was the code this was happening it changed everything everything that night i went to
[00:48:51] bed and as with most nights up at that point wake up at 2 10 in the morning i don't know why 2 10 just woke up at 2 10 can't get back to sleep my mind just spinning up that night though i wake up
[00:49:02] and my mind's going and i and i i recognize this because god's just spoke me i go oh i'm being sifted and i fall right back to sleep because i can understand i'm being sifted now when you
[00:49:16] when you know you're being sifted it's not like oh i solved the puzzle it's not hard anymore no it stays being hard but it's very helpful to oh this isn't by accident because there is an
[00:49:27] adversary who wants to do this to me now he was there's someone who's accused me now hear me very very clearly i'm not saying there's an adversary who made me do missteps that's on me i'm saying
[00:49:39] There's an adversary who wants to mess with my mind and how I react to difficulty, who wants to mess with me and throw me off and wants to accuse me.
[00:49:48] And you have an old identity and there is an adversary right now who is sifting you.
[00:49:53] It's in the plural.
[00:49:54] It's all of the disciples, all of them.
[00:49:59] Peter is getting sifted.
[00:50:01] He's really, you know, pregocious and all that stuff.
[00:50:03] And then he's pregocious in the wrong way.
[00:50:05] He, you know, he denies Christ.
[00:50:07] Thomas, Thomas, his old identity, I believe was always a doubter so we get the idea doubting Thomas and Thomas says Thomas says yeah I rose from the dead I'll believe when I put my fingers in his wrist and put that I don't I don't
[00:50:20] believe it and what do you know Jesus shows up and he realizes oh I'm on my old identity and then Thomas goes on to invent the steam engine because he says I think I can I think I can I think I can
[00:50:30] and he can climb mountains because he overcomes his old identity because all of the disciples or get Judas there's a lot of people who feel bad for Judas oh poor Judas poor Judas you know he's
[00:50:43] really he deserves forgiveness he's really good guy no he's not he's a horrible guy Jesus says of Judas it'd be better for him if he wasn't ever born Judas always had an old identity of money
[00:50:56] he didn't give up Jesus as I was taught in my Sunday school give up Jesus because he had the best of intentions because he wanted the Jews to get out of slavery to to Rome and so Jesus wasn't
[00:51:07] doing what needed to happen so he's just kind of trying to gently push him so he gets his power and authority and stops the slavery no no no that's not what it is no no the bible is very very clear
[00:51:17] the guy had a problem with money and he sold him for silver and and he was keeping the money chest which you know all of us as leaders make problems make mistakes i'm not sure why jesus had him keep
[00:51:29] the money chest i almost sorry lord not to say you're a perfect leader i am you are a perfect leader but you may we don't understand that one we don't understand that one but his old identity
[00:51:40] comes through and peter gets sifted he gets sifted excuse me judas gets sifted and he fails there is an identity assault that's being made on you all the time by an outside external entity who has a personality who knows you and knows your buttons and he custom makes things for you
[00:52:02] that's one thing that happens to our identity the second thing that happens today which is actually even more sinister, more common. And this thing, you can't control what Satan's going to throw your way. You can control your response to it. You can't control it. This one you can control.
[00:52:14] It's identity drift. When you know who you are and you just allow yourself to be lackadaisical and get off your spiritual game. Sometimes there is an assault on our identity and sometimes there's just a subtle, long-arching tail off of our identity. Or some would may call it vision
[00:52:35] drift, the vision drift for our life. We're very clear on who God has made us to be and where we're supposed to go. But man, over time, we just, man, I just start going the easy way. I start being like
[00:52:47] everybody else. And so this clear thing I had, just clear thing, happens in organizations, right?
[00:52:53] Business start and they have a very clear mandate what they're trying to do, what they're trying to build, where they're going. And then there's just, there's vision drift. Well, let's kind of branch into other things and let's worry about this instead and eventually over time eventually you
[00:53:07] can't even recognize it there's a there's drift it's not the same churches this way start off with great vision we're gonna do xyz we're gonna we're gonna change the world we're gonna do all this stuff and then and then with very few exceptions eventually it becomes let's just be
[00:53:24] a growing church that grows five percent a year and gets to pay our bills and has some good music can have decent teaching we're like no one starts a church ever saying that start a church going no
[00:53:34] we want the dream of the kingdom of god we want the dream of of changing lives in an entire city entire region being changed but but but vision drift happens there and all these are hard because
[00:53:46] of our our own personal identity drift if you are not clear and vigilant and fighting for who god says you are you will drift and you will drift in your own identity and you will be frustrated
[00:54:00] spiritually to say the least and likely much much worse things are going to happen we have physical reminders of the spiritual world all the time one of the one of the physical reminders are the glp-1
[00:54:14] drugs they uh uh you know the i have a friend who's married to a woman who ran the rollout for one of those GLP-1 drugs.
[00:54:23] What is it?
[00:54:24] Zempik, Wagovi, Wagyu, whatever they're called.
[00:54:28] Jumanji, all these different ones.
[00:54:31] And their specific drug case said that their key was that they found that there was a lizard on an island somewhere that ate once a month and they were able to identify an enzyme in this lizard
[00:54:45] and they were able to incorporate that into the drug.
[00:54:47] And so what that does, it makes you not have desire.
[00:54:50] you have less desire to eat. You're not thinking about it all the time. The New York Times said this just a few weeks ago. So for those who are overweight and have food issues, it says this.
[00:55:00] It is like a relentless auctioneer. This is your old identity. You know there's cake in the kitchen.
[00:55:06] Hey, there's cake in the kitchen. Don't you want the cake in the kitchen? It just talks to you all the time. There's cake, cake, cake. There's salt over there. There's pretzels. Come on, come on.
[00:55:16] and that's what it's like with your old identity your old identity is talking to you all the time i'm being told all the time you're not working hard enough you're not working hard enough you're
[00:55:26] not keeping up you're not keeping up you're gonna lose it all you're gonna lose it all because it's all about you they don't care about you they don't care about you they obviously don't care about you
[00:55:33] and you're that whatever your thing is it's always talking to you all the time money money like i don't want anybody who has an identity of money who thinks they have an identity money because
[00:55:43] money just seems like a fine, responsible thing, but talks to you all the time. You don't have enough? Save more. Check your account balance today. Check it out. Check it. It's a constant auctioneer. Go, go, go, go, go, go. Think, think, think, think. Work, work. Serve, serve. If it's
[00:55:56] body beautiful, your physical image, it doesn't end. Don't look in the mirror. Don't look in the mirror. You're going to be depressed. Or look in the mirror. Look in the mirror. You're going to feel good about yourself. Oh, get the right clothes. Get the right clothes. Oh, you better
[00:56:06] work out. Find a new workout. Work out. Work out. Get the right new stuff. There's always like, There's always some new drink a gallon, gallon challenge, 75 hard, whatever.
[00:56:16] There's always like the new things.
[00:56:17] I got to take care of that old identity.
[00:56:20] I mean, it's family.
[00:56:21] It's family.
[00:56:21] It's like, man, you can't let go of your kids.
[00:56:23] Can't give them freedoms because it's all about you and control.
[00:56:25] Maybe that's your identity.
[00:56:26] Whatever it is, friends, these things go on and on and on.
[00:56:30] So with the crisis we've been going on, which I brought on us, by the way, I brought on us, many of us are interpreting it through our old identity.
[00:56:41] So if your old identity is partially anti-mega church pastor, this is perfect for you.
[00:56:47] Perfect.
[00:56:49] That's right.
[00:56:50] I know you.
[00:56:51] I know you've got some secret life sexual sin.
[00:56:53] Of course.
[00:56:56] Or maybe on the other side, your old identity, you need a celebrity to look up to.
[00:57:00] You need someone.
[00:57:01] There's always someone.
[00:57:02] And maybe for some of you, I was that spiritual celebrity for you.
[00:57:05] Sorry to disappoint you.
[00:57:07] That was always going to happen because that should be Jesus and not me.
[00:57:10] But nonetheless, if you're all identity, like I need a person who embodies everything.
[00:57:16] Your old identity said, forget it.
[00:57:18] The Christian faith isn't real or whatever it is because I was your guy and now maybe I can't be.
[00:57:26] If you were anti-authority, your old identity is like, you're always assuming that like you're the only one who knows right.
[00:57:32] And you always configure the situation out.
[00:57:36] And everybody else who's above you is just stupid.
[00:57:38] This is perfect for you.
[00:57:39] Perfect for you.
[00:57:39] They're like, God, the board.
[00:57:40] The board doesn't know what the heck they're doing.
[00:57:43] Because it's your old identity.
[00:57:45] If you're money, we talked about the money one.
[00:57:47] You're looking at this going, what the heck?
[00:57:49] BT's not around.
[00:57:50] Church isn't going to be able to do okay financially.
[00:57:52] It's going to change.
[00:57:53] What's going to happen here financially?
[00:57:54] If you're Dudley Do-Right and Pollyanna Pureheart, and you're just all you can do is rated G movies.
[00:58:02] It's amazing you're around here still, by the way.
[00:58:04] It's amazing you are.
[00:58:06] But you're like, wait, the guy had a rotting crop?
[00:58:10] Just too much.
[00:58:12] So all of us interpret every situation according to our own identity because that's what the evil one is accusing us.
[00:58:22] He is against us.
[00:58:23] It's not his name.
[00:58:25] It's his job description.
[00:58:27] His job's description is to jack up your relationship with God, not allow you to see things clearly.
[00:58:34] Now, he says to Peter, he says, I prayed for you, singular.
[00:58:40] Peter, you can't control the other people.
[00:58:42] I can't control you.
[00:58:44] I can't control me.
[00:58:45] You can't control the people around you.
[00:58:46] You want to.
[00:58:47] You think you can.
[00:58:48] I find it's much, much more fun to criticize people for their unfaithfulness to actually be faithful to yourself.
[00:58:55] So he says to Peter, I pray for you, singular, that you'll be faithful, that you'll be faithful.
[00:59:02] And when you turn, when you turn, oh, yeah, there it is.
[00:59:10] When you turn, there it is.
[00:59:11] when you've turned again when you've turned when you've make a shift you will strengthen your brothers strengthen your brothers turn basically repent change i have gotten a good bit of people say to me when i repented publicly a few weeks ago but they were upset except by what i said
[00:59:35] upset they thought they had to say it let me be very very clear god told me very clearly on week to that he wanted me to publicly repent it was my idea it was all my words no one edited them
[00:59:47] it was my god because he said i had about five things that he spoke to me real clearly i'm just i'm just giving you two of them right now this is one of them like man you need a model for people
[00:59:58] how to repent because very few people ever do you know who has a hard time repenting by the way people who don't repent you know do you know do you remember the last time you repented
[01:00:12] You remember the last time you were wrong?
[01:00:15] Remember the last time you went to someone and made it right?
[01:00:19] Your old identity won't have any of that.
[01:00:23] Your old identity won't allow you to do that.
[01:00:25] Your old identity only wants you to justify that you are the way you are.
[01:00:29] That's how Satan accuses you.
[01:00:30] He accuses you that you're really good and you don't need forgiveness.
[01:00:35] He accuses you that you're self-sufficient and you don't need to play well with other people.
[01:00:44] Now here's where things get really powerful in our last couple minutes.
[01:00:47] I could go so much further here.
[01:00:50] But when you've turned again, so Peter, when you turn again, you're gonna strengthen your brothers.
[01:00:57] Next time Jesus sees Peter, it's when it's known as his restoration and he calls him Simon again.
[01:01:02] I think he calls him Simon because he's redeeming the name.
[01:01:06] And then something unbelievable happens.
[01:01:11] Before I say that, let me be clear about Jesus.
[01:01:12] You know what upset Jesus more than anything?
[01:01:15] Some say, well, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
[01:01:17] says you can't get to heaven that's another sermon we don't even know what that was yeah but jesus said on more than one occasion if you deny me before men i will deny you before the father
[01:01:26] peter denies jesus before people jesus is being led away and here's peter and someone says for the third time they say you you know that man you're one of his followers and peter said i
[01:01:39] don't know what you're talking i don't know the guy and jesus hears him that's how crushing that be for jesus your best friend your best friend says i don't even know i don't even know him
[01:01:51] crushing you know how crushing it would be for for peter to say that about his best friend and he sees that he hurt him and he denied him in front of people and hurt him down left him hurt
[01:02:03] him relationally and and gave himself immortal spiritual peril because he's heard jesus says you die before men i will deny you before the father you imagine the the pain and the heartache that he goes through.
[01:02:19] And can you imagine the 50 days later, the Holy Spirit's unleashed, for now the Holy Spirit is not this external force, but an internal force inside of us, the very identity of God who's living inside of us.
[01:02:33] And people start speaking languages they never spoke before, not because it's fun, because they start speaking languages so they can tell people about the new identity that's available to them.
[01:02:42] That's why they do.
[01:02:43] And the disciples are sitting around going, what is going on?
[01:02:47] What's going around?
[01:02:47] And it says in the book of Acts that Peter, standing with the 11, standing with the 11, meaning the 11 of them are around and they're going, someone's got to interpret these people.
[01:02:59] Jesus told us all the time this is coming.
[01:03:01] It's coming now.
[01:03:02] Someone's got to.
[01:03:03] And the 11 are going around.
[01:03:04] Peter, you're the guy.
[01:03:05] You should go do this.
[01:03:07] You.
[01:03:08] Peter gets the mic of the most esteemed sermon ever given in history where 50 days earlier, just 50 days earlier, He had denied Christ.
[01:03:20] And yet, these people know about the new identity.
[01:03:23] They know about the forgiveness of God.
[01:03:25] They know how God empowers, and he gets up and does that.
[01:03:30] He ministers to his brothers.
[01:03:34] I've tried really hard to get outside myself.
[01:03:40] You know, when you're in your pile of poop and you're getting tested and you're getting accused, the natural inclination is to go inside.
[01:03:48] Just go inside.
[01:03:49] Worry about myself.
[01:03:50] And the thing is, the more you think about yourself, the more depressed you get.
[01:03:55] The more Peter thinks about himself, the more he's depressed.
[01:03:57] That's why Jesus says, as you're turning, minister to your brothers.
[01:04:02] So I'm looking for ways to do that this last 10 weeks.
[01:04:06] I saw a Crossroads person I never met before on Facebook, and they were in a hospital.
[01:04:12] And I went, I should just go make a hospital call.
[01:04:14] I haven't done a hospital call for a long time.
[01:04:15] So I just go, and finally I walk in.
[01:04:17] And they are freaked out, right?
[01:04:19] because if I do a hospital call, you are going to die.
[01:04:25] I'm basically the angel of death because you're really in a bad way if I'm coming to the hospital.
[01:04:32] So I come in there like, we had a good time, had laughs, prayed for them.
[01:04:37] It was good.
[01:04:38] Like premarital counseling.
[01:04:41] I haven't done that for a while.
[01:04:42] I got nothing better to do.
[01:04:45] May as well minister to people.
[01:04:50] A couple days ago, I had a conversation with a friend of mine.
[01:04:54] as part of our church. I got to know him playing basketball many years ago, and he lost his son.
[01:05:01] His son died. His name is Jim. We're talking on the phone. We're both crying. I said, you know, the thing is, I've cried more in the last 10 weeks than I have my entire life combined. In fact,
[01:05:17] I'm crying so much, I finally learned how to talk and cry at the same time. Because if you don't cry, you can't figure out how to put that together. We were laughing about that.
[01:05:26] God meets with the suffering in a way that he doesn't meet with the successful.
[01:05:35] God speaks to those who suffer in a way that he doesn't speak to those who are successful.
[01:05:42] Not that the successful aren't loved.
[01:05:44] When I'm successful, not that I'm not loved.
[01:05:46] It's just there's a tender spot there.
[01:05:49] And there's a tender spot for encountering God, which is maybe why Peter is commissioned to then minister to the brothers.
[01:05:57] It's not like when you turn, you're all good and just go back to life.
[01:06:00] No, minister of your brothers.
[01:06:01] Friends, we all want here to be part of awakening.
[01:06:04] We don't want to be a part of a church that just pays its bill and grows 5% a year.
[01:06:08] We want to see an awakening.
[01:06:09] And you know how awakening happens?
[01:06:11] It doesn't happen by you having a prayer life alone.
[01:06:14] It doesn't happen by you fulfilling your 10X commitment alone.
[01:06:18] It doesn't happen by you reading your Bible alone.
[01:06:21] It is when you identify how your identity is trying to be hijacked by the evil one and you make a turn and you minister to the hurting people around you.
[01:06:34] You go outside of yourself to bless people.
[01:06:38] We do that.
[01:06:39] We do that and we'll be knocking on the door of an awakening that maybe we've only ever read about, but it's all about whether or not you will repent and turn.
[01:06:49] You will turn from your old identity.
[01:06:51] And why wouldn't you?
[01:06:52] He's so good.
[01:06:55] He's not afraid of you admitting you're wrong.
[01:06:56] He's not afraid of your sin.
[01:06:58] he died for your sin. That's the beautiful thing about him. The overwhelming love of God who takes you the way you are and makes you something new. Lean into it. God, thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your mercy. God, empower
[01:07:11] us as individuals and as a church. Amen.

[01:07:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:07:35] Every moment of every day, God has opportunities.
[01:07:39] Your mic's off.
[01:07:41] Hey, I love that. Every moment of every day, God is forming us. That God has opportunities where he has, man, opportunities to shape us, to grow us, to mature us, and to make us more like him.
[01:07:54] I love Brian's vulnerability.
[01:07:55] I love Brian's authenticity.
[01:07:56] I love Brian leading us in the way that we repent and say, God, you can change me.
[01:08:01] You can change me.
[01:08:02] I need your help to make us new.
[01:08:05] Everything we do around here, everything we do is designed to help us experience more of God and be shaped to be more like him.
[01:08:12] And we've got a couple of different ways that that's happening.

[01:08:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[01:08:14] And opportunities to grow.
[01:08:14] One of them is a cohort that's starting here this month for parents of littles, zero to four-year-olds.
[01:08:21] I am in that group.
[01:08:22] Let's be honest.
[01:08:23] We are, like, exhausted.
[01:08:25] We're confused.
[01:08:26] We're like, how do you do this thing?
[01:08:28] But at the same time, it's, like, the most rewarding, amazing thing ever.
[01:08:31] That's right.
[01:08:32] So we're going to get people in the same stage of life together to be able to get encouragement and coaching from people who have already been there and have done it well.

[01:08:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:08:39] That's right.
[01:08:39] It's actually led by my wife, Rachel, and I.
[01:08:41] We're just out of that phase.
[01:08:43] our kids are a little bit older, but all the ways that, man, we struggled, frankly, and all the ways that the Lord grew us through that. So you can go to crossroads.net slash cohorts to sign up for
[01:08:51] that. We can grow alongside other people. Also talking about like growing alongside other people, you might just watch Crossroads online. Hey, there is so much more. And I would just say so much better that God has on offer for you through this church. The best thing about Crossroads isn't
[01:09:06] the content. Isn't the stuff you watch. It's not this. It's not general. It is the community. It's the people around here.
[01:09:12] So right after our 10 o'clock service today, it's about 11.15, we're actually going to be jumping on an Anywhere Meetup.
[01:09:20] It'll be on Zoom.
[01:09:21] You can join us.
[01:09:21] You can be camera off.
[01:09:22] You can be camera on.
[01:09:23] You can be mic off, mic on, whatever you want to do.
[01:09:25] But it's a chance to get to know some of the folks around here, hear some insider information, go a little bit behind the scenes.

[01:09:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[01:09:31] Yeah, we have some special guests planned.
[01:09:32] We're going to give out some free swag to people.
[01:09:34] But yeah, we're real people.
[01:09:36] Crossroads is a real place for real people.
[01:09:38] We've been saying that a lot today.
[01:09:39] And so come meet us and get to know us a little bit and maybe win a prize.

[01:09:42] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:09:42] You can scan the QR code on the screen or just text meet to 301 301.
[01:09:47] And we hope to see you there.
[01:09:49] Thanks so much, guys.
[01:09:50] We'll see you next week on Crossroads.