Crossroads

What is an allergy? An allergy is where your body reacts strongly to something that may be harmless to others. We all experience spiritual allergies… things that aren’t sins in and of themselves, but that can lead to bad decisions… Things that overwhelm our spiritual immune system. How do we deal with spiritual allergies? Avoid 1 Thessalonians 5:22 Proverbs 4:14-15 Praise 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Change your focus Philippians 4:8 Support, encouragement, and accountability Proverbs 27:17 Hebrews 10:23-25     Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney  

Prayer Matthew 21:13a   Most Christians don’t pray, or don’t pray very much. We miss out on the power of the one who says to us, “I’m right here listening.” So what does it really take to grow in prayer? Pray Pray consistently Pray continually Pray for others first Pray first   Maturity 1 Corinthians 13:4-13   How do we grow in maturity? Identify the childish Get an outside perspective Identify maturity Move   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

Daniel 3:7-18   We all have some kind of faith, or we wouldn’t be going to church or listening to sermons. So what does it look like to grow in this faith: Life change Moving from noun to verb Becoming an “even if” Christian   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

2 Peter 1:5-8 Colossians 3:12-14 John 15:13   Love Is much more than a feeling. It is a choice. And because of that, it presents us opportunities to grow. To grow in LOVE is to: Grow in the ability to give our lives to others. Grow in the ability to give our lives to others who don’t like us. Grow in the ability to give our lives to others who are against us.     Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

Luke 11:33-36   Having a dirty windshield is a lot like having sin in your life. Sin makes it hard to follow God in much the same way that a dirty windshield makes it harder to see where you’re driving.   Sin makes it hard to see Clean the Inside Deal with the damage   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

Matthew 11:28-30 Genesis 2:1-3 Deuteronomy 5:12-15 Psalm 46:10a   As we long to be our own god, we wear ourselves out until our souls are weary. Only by taking up Christ’s yoke can we find rest. There are several categories we should consider for rest:   Find rest from your work Find rest from your striving Find rest from your battle   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

Matthew 5:9   For a lot of us, it’s much easier and much more common for us to be troublemakers rather than peacemakers. But if we want to follow Jesus, we have to go against that temptation.  There are four ways we can endeavor to be peacemakers:   Make peace with people Make peace between people Make peace with your circumstances Make peace with God   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

Matthew 25:31-40   The idea of worship is so much more than something that happens for a couple hours on a Sunday morning. It encompasses our whole lives - all that we do for ourselves and for others. The way we treat one another becomes the way we worship God. There are several ways we should think about how to worship outside the church:   Worship through my relationships Worship with my service Worship in the giving of grace   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

2 Corinthians 5:16-21   Paul wants the Corinthian church to understand that they have been newly created when they give their lives to God. The same is true for us… but sometimes we still live like the old is not gone. So if we want to live like the new new creation we’ve become, we should think about making these goals for 2025:   Strengthen my connection. Embrace the traditional. Engage the personal. Eliminate the disconnectors.   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

Matthew 2:1-12; 16   Like Herod, it can be hard for us to give up our power, our authority, our possessions… our lives. But Jesus came to do just that. We might be able to relate to this quote: “I know God is working in me, but right now I’m so uncomfortable with myself, and the changes God is making in my heart feel like an attack.”   Every work of God in us requires us to lay down our crowns Sometimes the thing God is doing feels like an attack. Every work of God is good; even when it costs.   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

Luke 2:8-20   Their society considered them outsiders, but it was these outcasts to whom God chose to send a host of angels proclaiming Christ’s birth. When the shepherds heard the news about Jesus, they acted on it right away. They went to see the baby and praised God for what they had seen. We can learn several things from the shepherds’ story: There are no “outsiders” to God God is inviting “outsiders” to become insiders God’s hope is that the “outsiders” who have become insiders will invite other “outsiders”   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

Matthew 2:1-12   The magi journeyed by faith. The knew there was something important in the west: the Jewish messiah, but they didn’t know exactly what their journey would be like. And their journey may have taken some time. For us, just like for the magi, faith is a journey… that often takes time. sometimes filled with wrong turns sometimes suffers pause that requires persistence where God is always waiting   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

How do you turn your bad days into good stories? Choose perspective Colossians 3:1-3 James 1:2-4 Seek after God Psalm 9:9-11 Testify continually 1 John 4:15 Jesus made a way Romans 5:8   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

Numbers 16:1-7   Christ went to the cross to bring us the chance for intimacy and closeness with God. So there are three things for us to think about as we take communion.   What are you doing to protect the “near?” What are you doing to preserve the “near?” What are you doing to improve the “near?”   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

Matthew 16:13-20   Ekklēsia: a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly   Ekklēsia: The “called out ones.”   Ways we use the word “Church:” a building a service   Ways Jesus uses the word “Church:” the people who acknowledge his deity the people on his mission the people of Christ at war against evil   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

eirēnē: in Greek, probably from a primary verb meaning “to join.” Peace; by implication, prosperity, - one, quietness, rest, + set at one again   Shalom: in Hebrew, complete or wholeness   John 14:23-27   Christian “peace” does not mean: Peace of circumstances   The “peace” Christ offers is: Peace with God   Peace with God offers inner peace   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney  

ts 11:25-26   A Christian is not: Just someone who believes in God Just someone who practices a religion Just someone who calls themselves one     A Christian is: Someone who has given their life to Christ. Mark 8:35 Someone who loves in Jesus’ name John 13:34-35 Someone who’s on THE way Romans 7:15,18-19   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

Isaiah 29:13 John 4:21-24   respectful devotion: loving, honoring, and obeying someone who deserves our highest regard   Worship (In a nutshell): Acknowledging God as God   That means: ANYTHING can be worship   "Worship" should demonstrate itself: In the way we interact with the world In our marriages In our parenting In our private time   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

Holy: “Set apart.” Dedicated or consecrated to God or a religious purpose; sacred.   Deuteronomy 7:6 Leviticus 11:42   How should our lives be set apart? How do we live out being holy?   Holy Input Holy output Holy time   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney

Matthew 26:17-19, 26-30   We believe that communion is one of the two sacraments that we partake of in the church (the other being baptism). When we take communion often, it’s possible that we can lose sight of what it really means as we numbly follow our traditions. But if we take the time to understand the magnitude of what we’re doing when we take communion, it can change our perspective entirely.   Communion is about: Intimacy Intent Inertia   Crossroads – about heaven, earth, and the journey in between. Connect with us Website: www.crossroadsjourney.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17oxaQ1yWK2DgN0xnlMO_g Facebook: www.facebook.com/crossroadsjourney