The Truth About Church | Anchored Week 5

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You were made to be brave.

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You were born to make a difference.

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God designed you for heart-pumping, joy-filled adventure

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and we're here to guide you to that adventurous life.

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Crossroads Church.

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Hey, everyone, and welcome to Crossroads.

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My name is Hannah Sheppard.

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Happy Fathers' Day to all the fathers out there.

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So excited to celebrate you guys.

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I know I'm going to be celebrating my dad.

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I'm going to get him an Easy Bake Oven,

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just what he's been wanting and I cannot wait.

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Crossroads is a place that was made for you every step of your journey,

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whether that's just exploring God,

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or maybe you're already in relationship with Him.

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And if you are in a relationship with God,

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we're going to be taking communion today

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and that's just to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.

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So I want you to be ready for that,

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so go ahead now and grab something to eat and something to drink.

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I've got some Ritz Crackers and some Sprite.

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And so if that's your story, that'll work.

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Today we're in our last week of the Anchored series

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where Brian is going to talk to us

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about the last part of the Apostles' Creed, the church.

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- In the second and third century, just like today,

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there were a lot of opinions on what it meant

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to believe in Jesus.

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His followers knew this was a problem,

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so they worked together to write formal statements

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about what those non-negotiable beliefs were.

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They called those statements creeds

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and one of the most well-known and enduring

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is the Apostles Creed.

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For 1700 plus years, these are the truths

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that Christians have anchored themselves to.

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- I'm in right now Crossroads Uptown,

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one of the places we meet physically when we can.

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And a lot of people have always loved this building.

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I have not.

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In fact, I've really never loved any church building.

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Whenever I'm in a church building it oogies me out.

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I've gotten a little better today.

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But, man, initially just really -- Why is that?

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Because I've got a lot of bad memories in church-y buildings.

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When I was a little kid I would sit in the very front row

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in the middle while my mom played the organ

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and my dad sang in the choir.

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And we'd open up our our hymnals,

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which I thought they were known as hum-nals,

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because everyone would always hum. (vocalizing)

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No one was really into singing.

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And I would just hum my way along

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and partly I was humming because I could even read.

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I would have the hymnal actually upside down.

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And I -- and I would read and I just never got it.

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I never connected.

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So church buildings really turn me off.

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When it comes to church, whether it is a building

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or whether a church is a collection of people, it bothers me.

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As I got older, I would walk further and further

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back into the church to get away from the front.

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And I wish someone had told me about

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Ephesians 2:19 and following that says this:

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As I was in the midst of all of these people,

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I was actually in the midst of Ephesians 2,

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a bunch of different people with different backgrounds

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and some different viewpoints gathering together.

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I never really understood the "Holy Catholic Church,

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Communion of the Saints" line that is in the Apostles Creed.

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Now, I wasn't Catholic, or specifically Roman Catholic,

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as many of my friends were.

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And I thought that was a problem when we used to

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recite this creed, "One holy Catholic Church."

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Catholic here doesn't mean Roman Catholic.

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Catholic means all embracing.

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The early followers understood that they were going

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to have differences in minor doctrines.

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They were going to have differences

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in how they prefer to worship.

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But regardless of their personal preferences

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on some secondary issues -

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and what is a secondary issue?

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Virtually anything that's not in the Apostles Creed.

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These were the things that we were

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supposed to be anchored to, not a lot of petty things

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that Christians have fought with each other

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for generation after generation.

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Maybe that's why the bumper sticker exists:

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Lord Jesus, Save Me from Your Followers.

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We're just a bunch of cantankerous people, many of us.

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We just get all anal and all up in a tizzy

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over things that believers have differed with.

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I tell you what, the family of God is a lot wider

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and a lot bigger than a lot of Christians believe.

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And if you notice from Ephesians 2,

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it's not talking about buildings.

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Jesus Himself is the cornerstone.

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He is what central. He is the one we're built on.

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Not our worship preferences.

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Not how we engage the political sphere.

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It is Him. He is central.

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And then all of these different people

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are being placed together to form a church,

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not a building, to form a communion of saints.

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I wish someone had told me that, but they didn't.

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And so as I would age, I would get more and more cynical,

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going further and further into the back of the church.

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In the Book of Matthew 16, it says this

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that Jesus says to His disciple Peter:

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Jesus asked Peter and the other disciples,

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"Who do people say that I am?"

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Peter says, "I say, You're the Christ.

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I say, You're the Savior we've been waiting for."

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He gives this foundational statement

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that Jesus is the cornerstone.

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He's the pivotal being for all of humanity

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and all the truth of God.

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And when Peter says this, Jesus tells him

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that he is going to be foundational,

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that this testimony is going to be

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the foundational statement upon which the church is built.

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When I was in the back of my parents' church,

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I didn't understand these things.

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I thought this was the church.

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I thought this was the representation of the vibrancy of God,

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in which case God wasn't very vibrant.

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I came to the conclusion that if this is what God is about,

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A, God doesn't exist,

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or I don't really want to be in the God page.

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Right around that time, yes, I'm dating myself,

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the song Highway to Hell by AC/DC.

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God Bless America, AC/DC, right?

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I'm on the Highway to Hell and me and my friends

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would just fist pump that.

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And it was when I would sing that song and fist pump it,

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it was more so an anthem against this,

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like this somberness, this lifelessness

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is not something I want to be a part of.

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I remember looking at a guy, he was in his 50s,

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he was a bit overweight, right over this way.

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And he was falling asleep in the service.

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And I remember thinking myself, "Dude, what are you here for?

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I'm only here because I have to be here.

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You obviously don't want to be here, and yet you're here.

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Why? I don't understand, because there's no life here

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that I want to be involved in whatsoever."

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This fueled this cynicism that I had to church,

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to churches and I had to realize, man,

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if I'm cynical about the church, the holy Catholic Church,

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embracing that God is doing different things

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in different people, that we all come together

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being formed into a building,

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that's what Ephesians 2 talks about.

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By the way we read that before,

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that the Holy Spirit is coming not to fill a building,

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but God's Spirit resides in people who have received Jesus,

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and specifically not just you as an individual,

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though the Holy Spirit can reside in you as an individual,

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but the context of that passage in Ephesians 2 says

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God's Spirit comes when there is a collection of people

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who say, "Jesus is the cornerstone. He is central."

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When there are people who are coming together,

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there is a church that has power.

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If you want the power of God,

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you're going to have to be pro church.

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You've got to get away from your negativity

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and cynicism around the church.

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If you don't like the church, then you don't like Jesus

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because Jesus is about the church,

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He's about a collection of people.

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And when I find people who are negative on the church,

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I also find somebody who really is lacking a spiritual power.

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Maybe great arguments, but lacking a spiritual power.

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The church is the greatest thing God has ever created.

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The Bible says Jesus has come and died for the church.

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He loved the church so much that He has died for her.

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That's another verse in the book of Ephesians.

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Friends, we've got to have a great attitude about the church,

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about the communion of saints, about the Holy Catholic Church,

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different languages, different worship preferences.

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We've got to have a good attitude about,

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because that's who Jesus died for

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and that's the group of people

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that He's uniquely pouring His Spirit into.

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Pouring His Spirit into for what purpose?

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Well, that's what I talk about next.

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- I'm so glad Brian talks about how Jesus died for the church.

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And that does not mean a building, that means you and me.

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And so that's why I'm excited that our church

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is having an impact even when our buildings are closed.

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And now, more than ever, our friends and neighbors

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need the church.

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For those of us who are part of the church

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or Crossroads, we tithe and just to be obedient to God,

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but more than anything, to be a part of something

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that is bigger than ourselves.

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And you can do that right now as well.

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You can go to Crossroads.net/give or text Crossroads to 313131.

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Next, we're going to see a video about how we,

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Crossroads the church, is making an impact in our communities.

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You don't have to just see these videos on our weekend.

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You can also catch this on our social media

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by following the information at the bottom of your screen.

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Get some good news and some encouragement in your feed this week.

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- Oh, the smell of the locker room,

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the musky testosterone has been seeping from masculine pores.

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Maybe it's the same in a female locker,

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although it would be estrogen seeping.

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I don't know. I've never been in a female locker room.

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But there's something about locker rooms.

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It's because it's a place where something's happening.

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It's a place of preparation for something to happen.

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It's a place where people have come together

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to bond together to do something together.

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That's what a church should be.

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The church is the place where the identity of Jesus

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should be anchored.

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A church is a place where people should understand

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the attributes of Jesus

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because there is a team that is there together.

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I think part of why I've never connected

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with church buildings is because the church building

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isn't as inspiring to me as a locker room.

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Because when you're in a locker room,

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you're in a place where people are doing things.

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They're resting from having done something.

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They're getting strategy.

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They're getting each other fired up.

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My most inspiring times as a human being

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oftentimes were in a locker room in high school.

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And I just always wondered, why can't we be

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that inspired when we're in church?

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It's probably because we're not really clear in church

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what we're there for.

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Are we there as the church to sing?

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Are we there as a church to learn?

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I'm all for singing and I'm all for learning,

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but the church is about moving.

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That passage we looked at before in Matthew 16,

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when Jesus tells Peter, "Upon this rock I'll build my church,"

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and the next part is,

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"And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

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Gates are defensive instruments.

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They're not offensive instruments.

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When I was less mature in my understanding of the church,

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I used to think that I needed to go to church

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to get away from all the bad things

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that are happening outside these walls.

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I've got to get in my little holy huddle.

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I've got to -- I've got to escape to get spiritual.

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And I am up for escaping to get spiritual

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and getting away from things that happen in the world.

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There's something about that with the church,

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but really, the church is an offensive instrument.

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The gates of hell are defensive.

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What Jesus was saying is, "Peter, you're going to be

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a part of a movement where people who are coming together

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and moving and bashing down and overthrowing gates

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and systems that are happening in our world

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that are not the way of God."

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When a church is at its best,

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it comes together in a locker room environment,

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whatever the church building may look like

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and whatever the house may look like,

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where all different kinds of believers are together.

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And we say, "Folks, are we really clear on who we are?

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Are we really clear what we're here to do?

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Because we -- we are going to do that.

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We are going to go out and bless this world

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and bring the name of Jesus to this world."

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That's why it's so important for us to remind ourselves

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of that here at Crossroads,

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and to show stories of people who are making masks

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or being generous or banding together to help kids

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or being a church that speaks to, hey,

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we have a race problem in our country.

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We need to try to fix that and get people together.

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There's got to be plays, there's gotta be a strategy to us

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versus my strategy is to live my life and do whatever I want

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and then evacuated to a church building

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and get my church on.

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No, you get your church on when you get on a team

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and you get engaged in the world.

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This is the call of Christ.

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And if you're anti church, anti Church involvement,

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guess what? You're anti Jesus.

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You're anti being on the team of Jesus.

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That's what we mean when we say we are the hands of Christ.

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We're the feet of Christ. We're the eyes of Christ.

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It actually comes from the book of 1 Corinthians 12,

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this long diatribe on us being a body that moves.

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Here's what one section says:

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We are a body and we are one and we are meant to move.

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That's what a body does, it moves, it sees.

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It retreats and rests and sleeps.

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But we're put together to be able to move someplace

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and do something.

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Every church is going to look a little different

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because every church, every gathering of believers

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has got a few different things that they believe.

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Every church has got a few different focus areas

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that maybe another church doesn't. And that's OK.

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God doesn't want and need all churches to be the same.

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We need to be one,

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even if we're not gathering together all the time.

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Every person inside of the team of Jesus,

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which is the church, has different abilities,

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different skills, different aptitudes.

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All of these positions up here have different sizes,

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have different speed levels.

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You've got the heavy weights, you got the fleet of foot.

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All of them are needed to come together in a winning team.

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And this is the way it is in the church.

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Maybe the reason why the world isn't progressing

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as much as we'd like to, it isn't getting more healthy,

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it isn't getting more loving, it isn't getting more whatever,

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might be because you're on the sidelines.

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It might be because you've been duped by our enemy

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who we're engaging with, you've been duped by your enemy

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to think that I'm just supposed to go to church

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and agree with what's there or disagree

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and have some spiritual -- No, you're not.

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No, you're supposed to go to church so you can be the church

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and engage our world, to be part of offense,

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pushing back the hellish things that are in our world.

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You start doing that, we start doing that,

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and people start getting more interested in Jesus.

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It's good to be on a team.

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It's good to be in a locker room.

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And it's good for the church to gather in buildings,

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to get clear on the mission and to restore ourselves

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because we are a body that's moving.

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And one of the things we do when we gather

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is we partake of the body of Christ, it's known as communion.

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Let's go back to our church building and do that right now.

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So today, we've tried to get anchored in the ancient belief

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that there is one holy Catholic Church

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and a communion of saints.

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One holy Catholic Church, God's people are in different places

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in different parts of the world

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with different preferences, but we are one.

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For everyone who sees Jesus as the cornerstone,

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He is building a building with us together

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and we are to be together.

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We are to commune with one another.

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It says in the Book of Acts 20:7:

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We're gonna actually take communion right now.

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It roots us, it anchors us in what makes us different,

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those of us who are on Jesus's downline.

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When he instituted communion, He took the bread

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and He broke it and He says,

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"This bread signifies My body that is broken for you.

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When you gather together, take and eat of My body."

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The body of Christ broken for you.

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He then took the wine and He poured it out.

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And He said, "This wine represents My blood,

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My blood that is poured out for you, spilled for you

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so thatyou don't have to work off your own trespasses.

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I've worked it off for you.

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And He said, "When you gather together,

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when you commune together, take and drink My blood."

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The blood of Christ shed for you. Take drink.

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When people come together, anchored and rooted

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in Him being the cornerstone of a building

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of people being fit together,

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and when we see ourselves not as a stable structure,

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but as a living, moving, breathing team,

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a group of people that is meant to offensively change

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and bless the world because we are anchored in Him,

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when that happens, friends, the world starts to change.

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Our world needs some changing

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and the work of Christ needs to go on.

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It's going to go on through you and I

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and other universal people in the Church of Jesus Christ.

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Let's be a team. Let's be offensive.

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And let's be a blessing this week.

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One of the things we can do is go on offense

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and sing these words to God.

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We're going to do that right now.

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These are ancient hymns.

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And let's not try to hum these hymns.

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Let's sing it like we mean it to the very God who gives us life.

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To hear more Crossroads Music you can text MUSIC to 313131.

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Another way to stay anchored throughout the week

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is by processing the weekly teaching with other people

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You can download the weekend followup guide in the Crossroads App,

00:31:36

or download the app at crossroads.net/anchored.

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You can bring this message of hope to more of your friends and neighbors

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at crossroads.net/give or text CROSSROADS to 313131.

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This series we learned a lot about the core of our faith,

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but like Brian talked about, it doesn't stop there.

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We can live the adventurous life and put that faith into action.

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That's the next series and I want you to take a look right now.

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See you next time.

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- A life with God doesn't hvae to be boring.

00:32:06

You were made for adventure.

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It can be a heart-pounding life of purpose.

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Join us every weekend for 30 minutes of challenge, hope,

00:32:15

and encouragement to guide you on your spiritual adventure,

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