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