Does What I Do With My Body Matter?

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- Ah, doesn't a beach sound nice right about now?

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But if you stay on the beach, you're actually missing out.

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What if I told you the most exciting part

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was under the water?

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When we go deeper in our relationship with God,

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He takes us on an adventure

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and we see things we never thought were possible.

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When we look at the Bible,

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Jesus challenges us to go deeper.

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People would come to Jesus asking Him

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to meet their immediate needs,

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but He would regularly respond with deeper questions

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because He knew wrestling with those questions

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is where life change really happens.

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To go deeper with God, we have to ask deeper questions.

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And the deeper we go, the more He has for us.

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Will you go deeper?

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- Hey, I'm Chuck Mingo,

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one of the teaching pastors here at Crossroads.

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Why don't you introduce yourself?

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- I'm Griff Ray.

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I work with Crossroads Anywhere all over the place.

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- Speaking of all over the place, that's true,

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Crossroads is one church with multiple locations.

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We've got people gathering physically,

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and digitally like you,

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and we're just glad you're with us.

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Over the next couple of weeks

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we're leaning into these deeper questions, Griff.

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- Yes, deep questions.

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Questions are all surrounding Christianity all the time.

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In fact, Jesus himself was asked questions all the time.

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And the interesting thing is,

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He would respond most of the time with another question,

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just a better one that was a little deeper

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and caused people to think a little bit

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about themselves and God and maybe learn something.

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- Yeah, indeed. And you know what?

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You probably have questions.

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Whether you've been following Jesus

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or maybe you're questioning Bible,

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God, church, all of that.

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We just want you to know you are in the right place

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and there's an opportunity for you to go deeper.

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And we just want to talk about a couple of the ways

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you can go deeper in your journey with God,

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and you can go deeper in relationship here at Crossroads.

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- Yeah. One of the things we've just started

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is this Digital Fast leading up to Easter.

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And so we're all taking a step back,

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putting our phones down.

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But don't put your phone down or close your computer.

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- Don't close your laptop.

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- Not in all ways, but just in ways

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that maybe aren't as healthy for us.

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And so it's been a huge eye opener for a lot of people

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as we consider the influence of technology on our lives.

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So it's not too late to join.

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It's a great experience.

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You can just go to crossroads.net/unplug

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and join us in this fast.

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- It has really been eye opening.

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My my wife, my kids, we're all doing it.

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And one of the things we're learning about fasting

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is it isn't just about what you take away,

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but it's also what you add.

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And one of the things that we've added

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as a community are Monday Night Prayer Meetings.

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And it's been so good to just gather

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at 7:00 on Mondays and pray with other people in our community.

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- Yeah. And you come here to Oakley.

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This is where you live.

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But no matter where you live,

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you can come online with Anywhere.

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All you got to do is text "together" to 301301

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and you can join us Monday at 7:00 Eastern Standard Time.

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And we'd love to have you a part of that prayer time with us.

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It'd be great.

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- Griff, another way that God continues

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to invite me to go deeper is through generosity.

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This idea of trusting God with my finances.

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And my family and I, we've been doing that for years.

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And I'll just tell you,

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there's a tremendous blessing in that,

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not just in the things that God does for us,

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but really the things we get to be a part of.

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And so maybe you've been here for a while,

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but you haven't stepped in.

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Hey, as one giver to another,

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I just want to encourage you.

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There's no better time than now to step in

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and trust God with your giving. And if you want to do that,

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you can go to Crossroads.net/give

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and be a part of what we're doing here.

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But maybe this is your first time checking us out.

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We are not about your money, and in fact,

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we hope you get blessed and receive something today.

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- Yeah, and when we talk about giving,

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it's not just of our finances,

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God asks us to give of ourselves.

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And that's another way to go deeper.

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If you really are wanting to go to a next level spiritually,

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if you want to shake things up in your life,

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I really encourage you to try a Go Trip.

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I recently got to go to South Africa

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and you're stepping into a different culture.

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You're in a different part of the world.

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And every trip you're involved in making

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a tangible difference wherever you're at.

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And that's great. It's amazing.

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We worked on schools with all the kids.

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It was incredible.

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But what really happens is the difference

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is really made in you.

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Nobody comes back from a trip and stays the same.

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You've got different views of your life,

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of your purpose, of what you're here for

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and all that can translate into your everyday life.

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So I really want to encourage you to check out a Go Trip.

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- Yeah, I mean, we go everywhere.

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There are places like South Africa.

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There's also places in the Caribbean.

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There's places in Latin America.

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You don't have to fly.

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I'm getting on a bus and I'm going to Alabama.

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That's another place that we do a Go Trip.

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But what I will tell you is this,

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it can be an inflection point for your life,

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and we want to invite you into it.

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Whether you're single or married.

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There's trips for families.

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There's trips for people who connect digitally.

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All of that is available, and we'd love for you

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to step into this unique opportunity to Go

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and learn more about what God has for you.

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And when people Go, their lives are changed.

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And so we've got a story that we're excited to share with you

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about a guy named Jason in our community,

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and how his life was changed because he decided to Go.

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- Hey, Crossroads, this is Jason.

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Just day one back in the United States,

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thinking about my experience

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on my Go Trip to Johannesburg.

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I came back a changed man, and I didn't know

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or expect to do that as much and as impactful as I did.

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If I rewind back before this,

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I was in a totally different place.

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I was going through the midst of a separation

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that would lead to a divorce, a bankruptcy,

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and then a setback in my personal life at work.

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And it was hard.

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It was hard as a man to not be able

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to provide for your family.

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The rock bottom for that was when I got a letter

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that they were going to foreclose on the house.

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And I got to the point where, driving home one day,

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I called a friend and I said,

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"Hey, if I go the other lane of traffic,

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are my kids going to be okay?"

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I never thought I would get that low,

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but when you lose control of things

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and you think that you can control it,

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I think that's where it fell apart.

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When I thought about God and needing God

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was probably a few weeks after the incident on the highway.

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I went to Awaited based on an invitation from a friend.

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Tim was on the stage and he was putting all the chains on

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and explaining how those chains were like our sins,

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the failures, the expectations people put on our lives,

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and how Jesus lifted His arms on the Cross

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and those just fell away.

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That was just a moment where I knew

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that's what I needed in my life,

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and that's what led me to start going to church.

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We went into the I AM series.

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I think that was probably when things started to click for me.

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Finding out that my identity comes from God

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and not myself and not my failures

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and all these things that were going on in my life.

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That was really something that broke things loose.

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I've been trying this my way and it's not working.

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So, God, if you could fix it, why don't You step in?

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It wasn't like instantly,

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but I started to notice things changing.

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They had baptisms at the end of that series

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and I did not sign up.

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It wasn't really something I was thinking about.

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They said, "We think there might be someone else

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out here that might need to be baptized."

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And next thing you know,

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I'm looking around because people are clapping.

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And I had stood up. I was not expecting to do that,

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but it was one of the best decisions I'd made.

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And that was certainly the beginning of something great.

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I ended up going to Man Camp.

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When I went to Solitude Time,

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I was sitting out there going through the prompts.

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For some reason, an image of a butterfly was put on my mind.

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I didn't really understand what it meant.

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Then later that day, I went to the mash tent

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and as the men started praying for me, he goes,

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"I feel like I'm getting an image

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of a caterpillar going into a cocoon

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and coming out a beautiful butterfly."

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And all of a sudden the image

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that I'd seen in Solitude made a lot of sense.

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You know, I read somewhere that a butterfly

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is proof that something can come out of

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a total darkness and be beautiful.

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I remember sitting in the service one Sunday

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and I just heard the word "go".

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So I remember praying on it.

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I ended up on Johannesburg.

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I thought I was already in a great place with God

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before I went there, because I was really renewed

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and refreshed, but that trip just put it in hyperdrive.

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My prayer life was not as great as it could be.

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I was still kind of learning, but while I was there,

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I met one of the folks with us, Cecilia,

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and she just loved to pray.

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Even when things were going bad on the trip,

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she would pray and she believed it would happen.

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And there was no doubt in her mind

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that things were going to happen.

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We were going through a really bad day.

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We'd gone to the Apartheid Museum,

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hearing the history of all these things that were going on.

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We were just down. It was just sad.

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I remember getting out of a van and Cecilia says,

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"Lord, if it be Your will, can we just see some zebras?"

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Not even an hour later, we're walking around

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and there were zebras everywhere.

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It was -- It was God.

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That was eye opening for me.

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My middle son, he graduates this year from high school.

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And I was like, where do we want to go?

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For my oldest we went to Universal.

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And I was like, "I want to take a trip, let's do something."

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He's like, "I don't want money spent on me."

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I said, "Well, what if I send you on a Go Trip?

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Would you do that? "He's like, " That would be fine.

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I'll go on a Go Trip."

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The thing that God really was trying to show me

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on that trip was, I just need to share my story.

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God uses it for other people. It's not for me.

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It's His story of what He did through me.

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I actually got a tattoo that says "I am" on my arm.

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And I left it unfinished because my story is not finished,

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it's just getting better and better each day.

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- Well, that song is what I'm going to talk about today.

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It may not be a question you're asking,

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but it's a question I'm going to answer.

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So let's pray before I go any further.

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God, thank You for giving us time to slow down,

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time to think of things that

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we maybe wouldn't think about someplace else,

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time to hear things we wouldn't normally hear.

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And maybe tonight, maybe just do something

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we didn't even think about doing before we came in here.

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I pray You'd help my words to be on target

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and exactly what You want Your people to hear.

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And I pray these things according to character

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and identity of Jesus. Amen. Amen.

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All right. You can have a seat.

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We're going to have more singing in a bit.

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We're shifting things up a little bit today.

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Hey, everybody. My name is Brian.

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How's everybody doing today? Good.

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We're in this series on questions, Deeper Questions.

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Questions are important.

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Like, um, if a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound?

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You know, that's an important question.

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If my wife is talking alone in the forest,

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do I still lose the argument?

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That's another question.

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If I don't take a pic and post it on Instagram,

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did it really happen?

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Like, man, I'll tell you what.

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Last week I had the most Instagram worthy week

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for a long, long time, but I'm on a Digital Fast,

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as are a lot of us, and it just didn't go up there.

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I assume it still happened.

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It's really fun getting into a different rhythm with things,

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and hopefully you're enjoying

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whatever your Digital Fast looks like,

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or you can still jump on in.

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Anybody can jump in at any time.

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There's plenty of time left in Lent.

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Well, the question we're looking at

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is not about trees and forests and digital things.

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Today we're looking at the question,

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it's actually a series of series of questions

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that I get rather frequently, or we get rather frequently.

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I'll just bundle them together and they go like this.

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Is it okay for a Christian to get a tattoo?

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What about drinking?

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Can someone be a Christian and drink?

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And what about tobacco?

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All these sort of things are lumped together.

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And let me just --

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This is not the question we're looking at today.

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I'm going to tell you there's a deeper question underneath that.

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But let me just tick these three questions off

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real, real easy just so you're settled.

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Like, yeah, it's a good one.

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So first of all, uh, tattoos are fine

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so long as you're not worshiping an ancestor.

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There's one verse in the Old Testament

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that talks about no tattoos.

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It's the context of that people

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would have tattoos to a dead relative

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they would be praying to and worshiping.

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So if your tattoos aren't that

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and you're worshiping the one true God, good, you're fine.

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No, no worries on tattoos.

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Now unless you're going to get

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like 666 tattooed on your forehead,

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that's probably a bad idea.

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Alcohol.

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There's no prohibition for alcohol in the Bible.

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There's a lot of cautions,

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because for a lot of us, it's a huge danger area.

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We need to stay, stay away from it

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or be very, very, very cautious if we're in it.

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But Jesus did have his very first miracle

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was turning water to wine.

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It was real, legitimate wine.

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The wine steward who was there said it was.

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So Jesus turned something into wine, then it is okay.

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It's okay to have alcohol moderately.

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Obviously, drunkenness is not a good idea.

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And then as it relates to tobacco.

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Tobacco is interesting because

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tobacco isn't mentioned anywhere in the Bible.

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The other things are.

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Nowhere in the Bible is tobacco mentioned.

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I had a good bit of emails

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and like wondering what was that all about?

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A few months ago

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when I reenacted John McClane from Die Hard.

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Yes, we realized and learned after that question

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is Die Hard a Christmas movie?

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Yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

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We learned that. We put that one to bed.

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But just because I want to poke the bear a little bit,

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let's replay exactly what I did,

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what bothered some people. Here we go.

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- Oh, Man. God bless America.

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Smoking in church. Oh, how good it is.

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- So there you had it.

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I have two tattoos, if you haven't noticed.

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And I'm no stranger to tobacco either.

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It's interesting, if I had a cigar in that clip,

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no one would have bothered at all.

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Like, because cigars are okay. You know?

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What I say cigars are for people

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who don't have the guts to smoke a cigarette.

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That's what cigars are for.

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I don't care who you are, that's funny.

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I made that one up. That's funny, I don't care.

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I don't care who you are.

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Charles Spurgeon is known as the Prince of Preachers.

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He was the most influential pastor in the early 1900s,

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had the largest church in England,

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and would do open air meetings all over the place.

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And people would flock to see him and hear him.

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And so when he went to places,

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there was a core of press staff that would interview him.

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At one of his press conferences.

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He was a cigar smoker.

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And they said to him, they said,

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"Mr. Spurgeon, how is it you can defend

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your use of tobacco by having a cigar?"

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And he said, "Well, anything done in moderation,

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nearly anything done in moderation,

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is just fine before our God."

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And the reporter asked a follow up question.

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He said, "Well, what would moderation not be?"

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And he thought for a moment and he went,

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"Two cigars at the same time."

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I like the little humor there. I like that.

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Now, this is important to understand.

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There's two aspects of our body:

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the deeper question of these questions is this:

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what role does my body have play in my spirituality?

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That's the deeper question.

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We ask these surface ones,

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but the deeper question I want to ask is

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what is the role of my body in my spirituality?

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Does God care about my body?

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What does my body say about God?

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What's my body, how I'm taking care of it,

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say about my relationship with God?

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In the book of Matthew 26:40,

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I looked at the verse prior to this last week.

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I'm going to look at the next verse.

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It's when Jesus is praying right before

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He's arrested, tried and crucified.

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And He invites His friends, His disciples, to pray with Him.

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And let's look what happens in verse 40.

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And He came to the disciples and He found them sleeping.

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And He said to Peter,

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Peter, come on, man. I need you. You're my buddy.

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And I'm asking you

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to have a prayer meeting for an hour with me.

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You couldn't, like, hang for an hour?

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You keep falling asleep.

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And He says the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

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This is one of two ways the Bible

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talks about our flesh, our flesh.

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And Jesus. When He talks about here,

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He's just talking about our physical prowess.

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He says we want to do something.

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We have desires to do something, but our flesh is weak.

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We want to run a marathon,

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but our flesh is weak and we can't.

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We want to pray, but our flesh is weak.

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Our sticktuitiveness, our attention span,

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whatever it is we want to, but our flesh is weak.

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Our flesh. Our literal, actual flesh.

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The Bible was written

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with the backdrop of ancient Greek philosophy.

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The Bible is actually written in Greek.

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It was written to Greek speaking people,

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or at least translated for Greek speaking people.

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And the ancient Greeks, they were very influenced by Plato,

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who was one of the greatest philosophers of their time,

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of all time.

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And Plato believed that our body was matter

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that was not really true.

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That our body wasn't valuable,

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that what was really valuable was in heaven.

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There was a replica of our true body,

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and this is a poor image.

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So he would -- He literally taught,

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like there's a chair here.

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You think it's a physical chair.

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It is a physical chair, but it doesn't matter

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because there's a replica of this chair

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in the spiritual realm, and that's really what's valuable.

00:24:20

The body is invaluable.

00:24:22

Flesh isn't valuable. It isn't important.

00:24:25

Perhaps some abuses during the Industrial Revolution,

00:24:28

took advantage of the environment because after all,

00:24:30

the physical doesn't matter.

00:24:33

Others abuse this, or at least let it infiltrate

00:24:36

their worldview with God and their spirituality

00:24:39

by believing the body is bad, the body is evil,

00:24:42

which is what led some early monastic monks

00:24:46

to flagellate themselves and beat themselves.

00:24:48

It wasn't just that they were punishing themselves for sin,

00:24:51

but they were beating their body as if my body doesn't matter.

00:24:54

I don't care about my body. It's nothing.

00:24:56

It's about my spirit.

00:24:59

Then along comes the Bible, when Plato has this philosophy

00:25:03

and writing to Greek people

00:25:05

and completely flips it on its ear

00:25:07

and gives it a totally different twist.

00:25:10

1 Corinthians 6:19, it's not a different twist,

00:25:13

it's just clarifying

00:25:15

what God has always spoken of in the Old Testament.

00:25:18

But this is the New Testament passage that says this:

00:25:21

Or do you not know that your body

00:25:22

is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you

00:25:25

whom you have from God, and you are not of your own

00:25:29

for you are bought with a price, so glorify God in your body.

00:25:35

This verse says this isn't just --

00:25:39

This is not just only not flesh, like low flesh.

00:25:44

This is actually a temple.

00:25:46

Early Christians were asked, "Well,

00:25:48

where do you go to worship your God?"

00:25:50

"Uh, we don't have a temple."

00:25:51

"What do you mean you don't have a temple?"

00:25:53

"Well, my God lives here.

00:25:55

I receive His Spirit and He lives here in my temple."

00:25:59

The early followers of Christ

00:26:01

were trying to keep up with their Judaism

00:26:03

and they never really wanted to leave

00:26:04

their Judaistic cultural history.

00:26:07

And when they came to see Jesus as the Messiah,

00:26:10

they started getting kicked out of the synagogues

00:26:14

and were banned from the temple.

00:26:16

And they certainly didn't like that because

00:26:18

that was part of their cultural identity.

00:26:21

But at the same time, it didn't kill their faith

00:26:23

because they realized that the temple was nothing.

00:26:25

The Spirit of God wasn't in the temple.

00:26:27

They possessed the Spirit of God.

00:26:30

When Jesus dies on a Cross, I'm going down rabbit trails.

00:26:33

Are we okay for rabbit trails

00:26:34

and for a little bit of depth here today?

00:26:36

I'm going to bring in just a minute.

00:26:38

You just got to understand, there's a --

00:26:40

If you come to know Christ,

00:26:42

and if you come to embrace life the way God sees,

00:26:45

you're standing in a deep, long stream.

00:26:48

This is not some interesting spiritual philosophy

00:26:51

that's just kind of been created in the last hundred years

00:26:54

or something that's popular now.

00:26:55

We stand, I stand, maybe you'd like to come with me,

00:26:58

in a very deep, cool stream.

00:27:06

They would say, "I, you know,

00:27:08

I don't have to go to the temple because the spirit lives here."

00:27:12

When Jesus died, when He died on a cross,

00:27:15

the Bible makes it really clear that in the temple

00:27:17

where they believed the Holy Spirit lived,

00:27:20

that God, there's a curtain that separated

00:27:22

like the inner sanctum of the temple

00:27:24

where the priests and the hyper holy people could go

00:27:26

from the regular Joes.

00:27:28

And the regular Joes couldn't go in there

00:27:29

because they weren't good enough,

00:27:31

because that's where the Spirit of God,

00:27:33

so they believed, lived.

00:27:34

And God miraculously had angels, however He did it,

00:27:37

rips that thick curtain, a really thick curtain,

00:27:39

rips it from the top to the bottom.

00:27:42

It's like God Himself is ripping it, as if He's saying,

00:27:44

"Let's be done with this foolishness

00:27:46

that I live in buildings. Let's just be done with this."

00:27:50

God lives in people. You know how amazing that is.

00:27:54

It totally -- it totally switches the narrative of,

00:27:58

like, what can I eat? What can I put in my body?

00:28:01

To what do I want in the temple?

00:28:04

What do I want in there?

00:28:05

Do I want a pack of cigarettes a day in there?

00:28:07

Probably not.

00:28:09

Do I want a chocolate cake every day in there? Probably not.

00:28:16

Do I want a whole bag of cheese curls? Probably not, you know.

00:28:22

But the question behind the question isn't like

00:28:24

what's the healthy thing for me? What do I want to do?

00:28:26

The question is like what's the best,

00:28:28

most honorable use for my body?

00:28:32

Because my body, if you become a follower of Christ,

00:28:35

He deposits His Spirit in you,

00:28:38

and the Spirit lives inside of you, a temple.

00:28:41

Do you understand how important that makes you?

00:28:43

Do you understand that therefore,

00:28:45

when you go into a room, if you've ever been this way,

00:28:47

if you go into a room, you're not just a person

00:28:50

who steps in with another worldview.

00:28:52

You're a temple that possesses a God that's going into a room.

00:28:57

That's how important you are,

00:28:59

and that's how important your body is.

00:29:01

Your body actually in many ways is sacred.

00:29:04

Now, having said that, I'm now going

00:29:06

to go flip the switch to another part of flesh,

00:29:09

which I'm going to spend the rest of my time on.

00:29:11

I'm not talking just about --

00:29:13

I'm not talking about this anymore.

00:29:14

We've settled that for a moment.

00:29:16

But I want to talk about the other aspect of flesh

00:29:19

that's talked about throughout the Bible

00:29:20

that if you don't understand what's being said,

00:29:22

you might miss it.

00:29:23

The other aspect of flesh is the spiritual inclination

00:29:31

that we have to be about ourselves and not be about God.

00:29:36

The default mode of pleasing myself instead of pleasing God.

00:29:42

The drive I have to be about my own stuff

00:29:47

and my own feelings instead of God's stuff and God's feelings.

00:29:51

The flesh is that aspect of us that's more,

00:29:57

it's more spiritual, it's emotional.

00:30:00

It has drives and it influences us big.

00:30:06

You may have heard the old tune

00:30:07

sticks and stones will break my bones,

00:30:09

but names will never hurt me, right?

00:30:12

Not true, not true. Wrong.

00:30:14

Mrs. Rankin, my first grade teacher,

00:30:17

was the first person I remember saying that.

00:30:19

And I said, "Okay, that's good, that's good."

00:30:20

People are picking on me

00:30:22

or I can't remember what they were saying,

00:30:23

but I was crying one day about something someone was saying.

00:30:26

Okay, okay. I didn't really understand what she was saying.

00:30:28

And now I know, no, she was wrong.

00:30:31

I don't know if she knew she was lying, but she was lying.

00:30:33

I've had a lot of broken bones.

00:30:36

I don't feel them anymore.

00:30:38

Sticks and stones break my bones.

00:30:40

I've had two broken arms. I've had broken fingers.

00:30:42

I had broken toes.

00:30:43

I have dislodged, broke my collarbone.

00:30:46

What does that bump?

00:30:47

That's a permanently dislodged broken collarbone.

00:30:49

I've got all kinds of broken stuff, and they heal

00:30:52

and I don't think about them. It's fine, I move on.

00:30:54

But, man, I've been called names and it still hurts.

00:30:59

I've been gossiped about and it hurts.

00:31:03

I've been accused of things and it hurts.

00:31:08

There's been sarcastic things

00:31:09

that might have been said to you, maybe it still hurts.

00:31:12

You know, sarcasm comes from the Greek word for flesh,

00:31:15

which is sarx. That's the word sarx.

00:31:19

And that's what sarcasm does.

00:31:21

We laugh, but if we're the butt of it,

00:31:22

it actually tears at our flesh.

00:31:24

Our flesh being that immaterial aspect of ourselves.

00:31:27

It tears at us. It hurts us.

00:31:30

The Bible talks about our flesh as being

00:31:33

in opposition to and fighting against the Spirit

00:31:38

that you may or may not possess.

00:31:40

So three categories we're going to spend

00:31:42

the rest of our time on: spiritual awareness,

00:31:45

spiritual discipline, and spiritual declaration.

00:31:49

Hopefully, what I'm just saying right now,

00:31:51

I've just made you aware of something.

00:31:52

"Oh, okay, so there's a reason why it's so hard

00:31:56

for me to do the right thing."

00:31:57

Yeah, of course there is. That's your flesh.

00:32:00

And all of us have the problem.

00:32:02

Little babies have the problem.

00:32:03

Doesn't matter what color you are,

00:32:05

what income class you are, what your education level is,

00:32:07

what your age is, where you were born, or anything.

00:32:09

All of us. All of us have this spiritual condition

00:32:12

that's called sin and it's this battle

00:32:15

that rages inside of us,

00:32:17

between our flesh and the Spirit of God,

00:32:20

our natural human tendencies

00:32:22

and the things that God wants us to actually do.

00:32:26

And we can see in the physical realm

00:32:28

there's a bunch of things in the physical realm

00:32:31

that actually mirror things in the spiritual realm.

00:32:34

Let me explain a few for you.

00:32:35

One is a physical sex.

00:32:37

We know sex can be very, very physical,

00:32:40

and spiritual intimacy.

00:32:43

The Bible talks really clearly about sex, intercourse,

00:32:46

being for a man and a woman who have committed to one another,

00:32:50

and they've declared it in front of a bunch of people

00:32:52

and they've made a covenant with one another.

00:32:55

It talks about that again and again.

00:32:57

And one of the reasons why we might not like that

00:33:00

and one of the arguments is, "Well, it's just my body.

00:33:03

It's just my body. I'm just lending my body out.

00:33:06

It's just -- It just feels good."

00:33:08

That's kind of a platonic philosophy

00:33:10

It's just my body.

00:33:11

God doesn't care how I'm using my body.

00:33:13

It doesn't matter what I'm --

00:33:14

Why do I keep pointing to my crotch when I talk about it?

00:33:19

Stay awake. Keep hands away, keep hands away.

00:33:24

It's just -- It's just my body.

00:33:28

Well, yeah. Yeah.

00:33:30

That's what the flesh wants us to believe.

00:33:32

The flesh wants us to believe that there are

00:33:34

no spiritual ramifications for what we do sexually.

00:33:37

And actually, when we have sexual intimacy,

00:33:41

if you ever are blessed to have sexual intimacy

00:33:44

with a husband or with a wife, it can be amazing.

00:33:49

It's not always amazing.

00:33:51

It's not always amazing for every couple.

00:33:52

But it can be amazing because what's happening

00:33:56

in the physical realm is mirroring

00:33:59

what's happening in the spiritual realm

00:34:00

where I've declared, you and I are one

00:34:03

and I proclaimed it to everybody there is.

00:34:05

And I gave a vow in front of people that I'm with you,

00:34:10

and I'm looking at you, and I'm committed to you right now.

00:34:14

See how the physical mirrors the spiritual.

00:34:18

Also physical nourishment and spiritual feeding.

00:34:21

We know that our bodies need to be nourished.

00:34:23

We need so many calories. We need the right vitamins.

00:34:25

We need the whatever, our body needs to be feeding this way.

00:34:28

And this is also the way our prayer life is,

00:34:32

or our spiritual life is.

00:34:33

Our spiritual life needs nourished.

00:34:36

It needs things that come into our life.

00:34:40

One of the reasons why we do Camps around here

00:34:42

isn't just because it's really fun to detach.

00:34:44

That is great, but it's also a reason to get nourished.

00:34:48

By the way time is running out for Couples Camp.

00:34:52

If you are a married couple, I'm just telling you

00:34:56

there's nothing better you're going to do all year

00:34:58

than come to this year's Couples Camp.

00:35:00

It's going to be amazing.

00:35:03

We've made a lot of changes.

00:35:04

I have friends of mine who lead,

00:35:07

they do what's called Family Life Ministries.

00:35:09

They're the top rated speakers on marriage in the country.

00:35:13

They travel around the country.

00:35:14

I've known them for a long, long time.

00:35:16

They got a radio show, podcast.

00:35:17

Dave used to play for the Detroit Lions. They're amazing.

00:35:20

They're going to come with us that weekend.

00:35:22

Dave and Ann Wilson, it's going to be freaking amazing.

00:35:24

I'm just telling you right now, I'm telling you right now,

00:35:26

your flesh, if you're married, your flesh is saying,

00:35:29

"Oh, no, I don't want to do that."

00:35:31

Your flesh is going, "I don't -- It's just too complicated.

00:35:34

I can't -- I can't find --"

00:35:36

You know, if who's your favorite artist?

00:35:39

Luke Combs? Uh, T-Pain?

00:35:42

Uh, you know, who? - [indiscernible]

00:35:47

- Someone didn't say Sugarhill Gang, did they?

00:35:50

No. Whatever. Whatever. Your, uh, Justin Bieber, whatever.

00:35:53

Here's the here's what, if I told you,

00:35:56

if I told you in a couple months that that person

00:36:01

was coming to Base Camp to do a set,

00:36:04

I promise you, you would change everything in your world

00:36:08

to be there because your flesh wouldn't fight it.

00:36:12

But your flesh, if you're married, your flesh

00:36:14

will always fight building into your marriage.

00:36:17

Your flesh only wants you to be validated

00:36:21

that your way is the right way in your marriage.

00:36:23

Your flesh always wants to win the argument

00:36:26

and you just think your life is better, the marriage is better

00:36:28

if your spouse would just do what you say,

00:36:30

if your spouse would just think like you.

00:36:33

That's what your flesh says.

00:36:34

And that's why many of us never build into our marriages

00:36:38

doing anything because our flesh doesn't want it.

00:36:42

And I'm telling you,

00:36:43

if you want something spiritually different,

00:36:45

you got to do something physically different.

00:36:47

And that includes get your rear end to Couples Camp.

00:36:50

I'm telling you, it's car camping.

00:36:52

We've made it easier for you. Just get there.

00:36:54

You will be thankful too.

00:36:55

Can I have some applause from people in our rooms

00:36:57

who've been to Couples Camp? [applause]

00:37:02

But there is a spiritual feeding process

00:37:05

where you choose to do things to grow spiritually.

00:37:07

We're going to talk about communion in a couple weeks.

00:37:09

We're going to have communion.

00:37:11

That's a physical thing, it actually feeds us spiritually.

00:37:14

There's the Crossroads App or if you have your paper Bible,

00:37:18

it's reading the Word of God.

00:37:20

It's getting spiritual nourishment for yourself.

00:37:24

We are not spiritual --

00:37:27

We are not physical beings with spiritual properties.

00:37:31

We're actually spiritual beings with physical properties.

00:37:35

You were wired for the spiritual world.

00:37:39

You are wired to operate in it,

00:37:42

and you do whether you like it or not.

00:37:44

But sometimes when we have the handles,

00:37:46

the right handle holds, it can make a difference

00:37:48

for giving us actual success.

00:37:50

Galatians 5:16-17 says this:

00:37:52

But I say, walk by the Spirit,

00:37:55

and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

00:37:58

See how the -- They're not talking about

00:38:00

gratify the desires of the flesh,

00:38:02

like gratifying your need for chocolate.

00:38:03

It's not talking about that.

00:38:05

It's just talking about this part of you that wants

00:38:09

to rebel against God and be all about yourself.

00:38:11

I'll read it again.

00:38:32

The Apostle Paul says this another time in the Bible.

00:38:34

He says, "I do the things I don't want to do,

00:38:36

and I don't do the things I want to do."

00:38:37

Why is that? That's still true for all of us. Why?

00:38:41

Because we all have this common condition called the flesh.

00:38:45

Even if you came to know Christ,

00:38:47

your flesh is still wreaking havoc on you.

00:38:51

It's like a chicken.

00:38:53

I've never done this myself, but from what I understand,

00:38:55

if you take a chicken on the farm

00:38:56

and you cut its head off, it still runs around and squawks.

00:39:00

It's dead, but it's still running around making a mess.

00:39:03

That's what happens when Jesus comes into your life.

00:39:06

He kills the works of the evil one.

00:39:08

You are His, instead of the evil ones',

00:39:11

but He still has this muscle memory of running around,

00:39:16

squawking and trying to make things messy.

00:39:18

That's what the flesh does.

00:39:20

And so the way we come against that is spiritual disciplines.

00:39:25

See, sometimes,

00:39:26

sometimes we don't want the answers to questions.

00:39:28

Sometimes we just want the basic question,

00:39:30

can I have a tattoo or not? Yeah.

00:39:32

So I'm giving you the deeper questions,

00:39:34

the questions that really matter.

00:39:35

Whether you have or don't have a tattoo

00:39:38

is not going to impact your spiritual life.

00:39:41

It's not going to impact whether you get to heaven or not.

00:39:44

It's not going to impact you having

00:39:46

a peace that passes all understanding.

00:39:48

It's not going to impact whether you have

00:39:50

a power that's beyond your normal flesh. Doesn't at all.

00:39:54

But we're fixated on these, like, moralism questions.

00:39:56

There's a place for them,

00:39:58

but let's just understand they're bottom level questions.

00:40:01

The top ones are these things like,

00:40:03

what do I have to do to have the life that I actually want?

00:40:07

What do I have to do to experience God in full color?

00:40:10

What do I have to do to have a power

00:40:12

that goes beyond the power of my flesh?

00:40:18

It's doing things like praying.

00:40:21

So proud of our church.

00:40:23

We've got these old school prayer meetings,

00:40:27

just fuddy duddy prayer meetings happening

00:40:30

on Monday nights during the during the Digital Fast.

00:40:34

There's no music. There's no video.

00:40:36

There's a printed sheet to follow along what we're doing.

00:40:39

And there's a person up front.

00:40:41

I did it at Oakley two weeks ago.

00:40:43

I did it East Side last week.

00:40:45

And then there's just praying, being led in prayer.

00:40:48

Now, there's not a lot,

00:40:49

as far as the size of our church is concerned,

00:40:51

there's not a lot of people who are there.

00:40:53

We have we have a very, very big church.

00:40:56

And I knew that. I expected that. I expected that.

00:40:58

Because the flesh doesn't want to go to a prayer meeting.

00:41:01

That's why. We say, "Well, it's boring."

00:41:03

Maybe, but the flesh doesn't want to do that.

00:41:06

Just too hard for the flesh to stomach it.

00:41:08

But what is so good is we had 500 people the first week

00:41:13

with all of our sites, which is great.

00:41:15

And what was really great, is the second week it was 600.

00:41:19

So we grew. We grew in our prayer.

00:41:23

20% more people said, "Hey, this is pretty good.

00:41:26

I kind of liked it." I love that.

00:41:29

And it's not that I love things that are attended well.

00:41:31

I love that it grew because people went,

00:41:34

"I got nourished here. My spirit got nourished."

00:41:39

You're here at a Crossroads right now,

00:41:42

wherever you are, whatever site you're in

00:41:43

or experience with friends in a coffee shop,

00:41:46

wherever you are, you're here.

00:41:47

And I think you'd agree you're getting nurished.

00:41:50

And there's legitimate data that supports this.

00:41:53

Let me read the results of a study from

00:41:55

the National Library of Medicine.

00:42:22

What's all the greater? Religious service engagement.

00:42:27

Well, we call that going to church.

00:42:30

Going to church and your flesh

00:42:32

will always fight you going to church, always.

00:42:35

But there is something, and this is just the research,

00:42:37

this is just the data.

00:42:38

It's not my opinion with an ax to grind and a few Bible verses.

00:42:42

The research is abundantly clear, something happens

00:42:45

when you come into a communal environment

00:42:47

with a bunch of people

00:42:49

who are worshiping God and singing together.

00:42:52

And even if you don't believe what everyone believes

00:42:54

and sing what everyone's singing,

00:42:56

you're in a different place,

00:42:57

just being in that environment helps us.

00:43:02

It blesses us. Why?

00:43:05

Because something in the Spirit realm is being fed.

00:43:09

Your natural autopilot setting

00:43:12

and my natural autopilot setting,

00:43:14

the default programing is always going to be me. Me.

00:43:20

The favorite topic there is me. And me is not God.

00:43:26

And the longer I go inside of myself,

00:43:29

that's what my flesh wants, just look at my flesh.

00:43:32

Look at my finances. Look at my problems.

00:43:35

Look at my pains.

00:43:37

Look at the wrongs that have been done to me.

00:43:39

Look at this. Look at -- Look at what's going.

00:43:41

Look at my thighs are too small.

00:43:44

Look at my -- Let's just -- just go inside.

00:43:46

See everything wrong with you, with what's going on.

00:43:50

You're not. You're not going to God.

00:43:52

You're not looking at God. You're looking at yourself.

00:43:55

You call it a self-improvement program.

00:43:58

It's flesh management you're trying here,

00:44:00

and it's a fruitless endeavor

00:44:01

because you'll never satisfy your flesh

00:44:03

because your flesh exists to piss you off.

00:44:06

That's what it exists for.

00:44:07

Your flesh exists to frustrate you. That's what it does.

00:44:11

That's why you'll never make enough money.

00:44:13

You'll never be thin enough.

00:44:14

You'll never be successful enough.

00:44:16

You'll never be accepted enough.

00:44:17

Because it always wants more, more, more, more,

00:44:21

not more of God, more of me.

00:44:24

And it doesn't work.

00:44:26

And I'm just calling out what we all know.

00:44:28

This is the way it is.

00:44:30

And I'm telling you, the way this is,

00:44:32

is the spiritual roots of what we ignore

00:44:35

and we don't pay attention.

00:44:37

The war of our flesh against the Spirit, the flesh makes excuses.

00:44:43

"Well, you know it's just your truth."

00:44:46

Flesh makes excuses. "Well, I can't, I can't.

00:44:48

I can't receive that right now."

00:44:50

Flesh makes excuses. "I'll get around to it.

00:44:53

I just this is just not the right season."

00:44:55

The flesh, that's what the flesh does.

00:44:57

The flesh does anything it can to not be dealt with.

00:45:02

Again, I'm not talking about my body flesh.

00:45:05

I'm talking about the spiritual aspect of my life

00:45:08

that's negative, this affliction that

00:45:11

I have to be about me and not be about God,

00:45:14

be about selfishness and sin,

00:45:15

and not be about holiness and righteousness.

00:45:20

And if any of this is starting to ring true for you,

00:45:23

you might be ready for the third thing,

00:45:27

which is spiritual declaration.

00:45:31

It's when you understand these things, you go,

00:45:33

"You know what? I'd like to go a different way.

00:45:37

I'd like to do something different."

00:45:41

We have an opportunity for a bunch of people

00:45:43

who've signed up for this who are going to do this.

00:45:46

And there's others who came here today,

00:45:48

and you just came to have a kind of a good time.

00:45:50

And guess what? God has some different intentions for you.

00:45:54

You have the ability to declare that you want

00:45:58

to live by the Spirit and not by the flesh.

00:46:00

You have the ability to declare that

00:46:03

you want to stamp out your flesh by baptism.

00:46:08

Now, I like baptism. I like infant baptism.

00:46:12

I was baptized an infant.

00:46:13

My mom and dad did a really good job.

00:46:14

They said, "Hey, we want to bring

00:46:16

our little kid into this church and we're going to baptize him."

00:46:19

And I don't know exactly what they were thinking

00:46:21

when they baptized me.

00:46:23

I haven't had a deep talk about it with them.

00:46:25

But I know what I was thinking when I had my kids baptized.

00:46:28

I baptized my kids when they were little itty bitty babies.

00:46:31

Some people Crossroads dedicate. We give you an option.

00:46:35

You want to baptize, you want to dedicate,

00:46:37

you know, how can we work with you on this?

00:46:39

They both mean basically the same thing.

00:46:41

It is this: the parents are saying, "We are committing

00:46:44

that we want to bring this child up in the faith,

00:46:47

and we want to make a declaration

00:46:49

to the community to that.

00:46:50

And so the community sees we want this child

00:46:53

being built into and spoken to, spoken into by this community."

00:46:56

That's good. It's wonderful.

00:46:57

It's healthy. That's why we do it.

00:46:59

But that's different than all the baptisms

00:47:02

in the Book of Acts, which is after Jesus left,

00:47:05

which were people who came to understand Jesus.

00:47:08

And they said, "Oh man, I do not agree with my flesh.

00:47:14

I do not like the way my life is heading.

00:47:17

I don't like it at all.

00:47:18

I need Jesus and I need to eliminate the flesh.

00:47:22

I need to crucify that flesh.

00:47:25

I need to kill that flesh."

00:47:28

Just as Jesus was killed in the flesh, they say

00:47:30

I need to have my flesh killed.

00:47:34

That spiritual aspect of me being against God,

00:47:36

it needs to be eliminated.

00:47:39

And that has nothing to do with infant baptism.

00:47:42

That has to do when somebody says, "You know what?

00:47:44

I want something different. You know what?

00:47:47

I'm not going to keep going the way that everybody else goes,

00:47:49

which is towards themselves. You know what I'm going to do?

00:47:52

I'm going to go the way of God, and I'm going to declare,

00:47:55

I'm going to take a stand, and I want to eradicate the flesh.

00:47:58

I want to drown the flesh.

00:48:00

I want to leave it in the watery grave.

00:48:02

I am done with it.

00:48:03

And though I may still squawk and run around

00:48:06

like a chicken that's had its head cut off.

00:48:08

Though I don't expect to be sinless,

00:48:10

though I expect this to be

00:48:11

an ongoing battle the rest of my life.

00:48:13

Doggone it, I choose to be different.

00:48:15

I choose Jesus. I choose God.

00:48:17

I choose to stand out, and I choose to stand above my flesh.

00:48:21

And I choose to stamp it out. I choose to drown it.

00:48:25

And I don't care who knows it.

00:48:26

I don't care how uncomfortable it makes me.

00:48:28

I don't care who sees it.

00:48:29

I don't care how wet I am, I am done, I'm done with it.

00:48:33

And I'm declaring myself right now."

00:48:36

In the book of Romans 6,

00:48:39

this is what it's talking about when it says this:

00:48:48

Do you know this?

00:48:49

[indiscernible] your baptism He died, you died.

00:49:05

So I want to go in His path.

00:49:06

His flesh got crucified and the same Spirit

00:49:10

the Bible says that raised Him from the dead

00:49:12

gives life to your mortal bodies.

00:49:14

So just as the Spirit brought Him back to life,

00:49:17

so I'm going to trust when I die to my flesh

00:49:23

in the bottom of the watery grave, I'm going to trust

00:49:26

there's going to be a fresh filling of the Spirit,

00:49:28

and He's going to come

00:49:29

and I'm going to walk in newness of life.

00:49:31

Verse five.

00:49:32

For if we have been united with Him in death.

00:49:35

Yes, you must be united with Him in death.

00:49:37

You cannot just add Jesus to your life.

00:49:39

You have to be united to Him in death.

00:49:48

Again, the physical life of Jesus,

00:49:51

the spiritual life of Jesus equated to

00:49:54

our physical journey, to our spiritual journey.

00:49:57

He does this. We do this.

00:50:17

I think I've done -- I think I've done a bit of disservice

00:50:22

to our church over the past many years.

00:50:24

And I'll tell you what it is.

00:50:26

I think that -- I think that we have given,

00:50:32

many of us, a nice spiritual experience with baptism

00:50:37

without the understanding of the spiritual weight

00:50:41

and magnitude of it.

00:50:44

I think a lot of us, when we've gotten baptized,

00:50:46

we were just adding Jesus to our life.

00:50:49

Just want to add Him in my life.

00:50:50

Had no intention of declaring war on our flesh.

00:50:55

I think a lot of us when we got baptized,

00:50:57

we just wanted to end a Go Trip in a nice way.

00:51:01

Had no intention of things changing about our life

00:51:05

and declaring, declaring, I am done with my flesh

00:51:09

and I'm going to fight a tooth and nail by the power,

00:51:11

by the power of the Holy Spirit.

00:51:14

That's why we're going to start adding something different.

00:51:17

It starts right now.

00:51:18

We're going to do what the early church did.

00:51:20

What the early church did was they would

00:51:24

not just ask a question like, who's your Lord and Savior?

00:51:27

And the person would say something like, Jesus.

00:51:29

That's always the right answer, Jesus.

00:51:32

And I baptize you in the name of

00:51:34

the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

00:51:35

We're going to do that.

00:51:37

But first we're going to ask another question

00:51:40

that goes to whether or not you want to be done with the flesh,

00:51:43

whether or not you are declaring independence from your flesh,

00:51:49

whether or not you're willing to renounce your flesh.

00:51:52

Everyone who gets in the baptismal say

00:51:54

we've talked with them about this.

00:51:56

They're going to be asked two questions.

00:51:58

The first question is this: Do you renounce sin,

00:52:06

the works of the flesh, and any allegiance you have

00:52:10

to the powers of this world?

00:52:13

And they will say, "I renounce, I renounce."

00:52:18

Get that said, because two things are happening:

00:52:20

You're a renouncing. You are declaring yourself.

00:52:24

You are drowning something in that pool.

00:52:27

And then you are coming back to life

00:52:29

because who's your Lord and Savior? Jesus.

00:52:31

We baptize you in the name of

00:52:33

the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

00:52:34

Friends, this is not symbolic.

00:52:38

It's not symbolic.

00:52:41

There is, for many people, a real, concrete,

00:52:44

tangible thing that takes place,

00:52:46

and it takes place inside the person who says,

00:52:49

"I am choosing for nothing to control me anymore

00:52:52

other than Jesus.

00:52:54

I am choosing that I don't want my normal life plus Jesus.

00:52:57

I am choosing, I want a different life

00:53:00

and I want a different leader and His name is God.

00:53:03

And it's not Brian, it's not Jill,

00:53:07

it's not Tanika, it's not whatever.

00:53:10

I choose that."

00:53:13

So we're going to have a great time worshiping.

00:53:15

We backloaded the songs today. We're going to worship.

00:53:17

And while we worship,

00:53:19

we're going to see people renounce

00:53:22

and get baptized,

00:53:23

people who were prepared in our auditoriums,

00:53:26

and some of you are here and this is your time.

00:53:28

Right now it's your time.

00:53:30

It's your time right now. Stop it.

00:53:33

First step for you is to say no to your flesh,

00:53:36

like, no, I am not going to listen to you

00:53:39

and make a passive, passive mistake.

00:53:42

This is serious.

00:53:43

Like, if you want this kind of life

00:53:46

and you can't decide to get baptized, you don't want that.

00:53:50

I promise you your life will not change because

00:53:53

no other decision is going to make in your life

00:53:55

is going to be any easier than this one

00:53:58

of renouncing and having people support you.

00:54:00

I would love that for you

00:54:02

if you're the kind of person who wants spiritual change.

00:54:06

And if you are, we're going to have all of

00:54:08

our community pastors right now are going to come up

00:54:10

and give you the instructions for what happens in the room.

00:54:12

And we're just going to celebrate

00:54:14

and have an amazing time, connect with God and witnessing,

00:54:17

witnessing flesh being killed and Spirit coming to life.

00:58:49

- Man, all these people have a story that's led them here.

00:58:53

It's so good. And here's what else is good.

00:58:55

Even though they're all renouncing.

00:58:57

[cheering] That's right.

00:58:58

Even though they're renouncing and they're receiving,

00:59:02

it doesn't matter what we do from here on out

00:59:05

in terms of God's love, because He is faithful.

00:59:07

Great is His faithfulness. It never stops.

00:59:11

Even when the flesh has a temporary victory over us,

00:59:13

we don't lose His faithfulness.

00:59:15

We don't lose His love. He is great.

00:59:17

He has a faithfulness like none of us

00:59:19

can understand in our own flesh.

00:59:21

He has a love that none of us can understand in our own flesh.

00:59:25

He has a sticktuitiveness and a strength

00:59:28

that none of us fleshly people can.

00:59:30

But there's spiritual clarity happening these tubs.

00:59:33

Let's keep it going.

01:02:07

Yes, He is. He's so good.

01:02:09

Always faithful.

01:02:16

From the beginning of time,

01:02:18

God's been pursuing us, wanting oneness with us

01:02:22

because He loves you.

01:06:45

- Hey, Crossroads, so glad that you're with us.

01:06:48

Man, this is a really special treat because

01:06:49

our Anywhere Community, that's the part of our church

01:06:51

that doesn't meet in physical buildings on Sunday morning,

01:06:54

but is all over the globe.

01:06:55

And we've seen people get baptized as far away as Japan

01:06:58

and as close as our own hometowns, wherever those are.

01:07:01

But right now, we get to be with Jennifer,

01:07:04

who lives in Illinois and actually drove halfway,

01:07:06

got to meet us at this church

01:07:08

that was kind enough to open for us

01:07:09

so that she can be baptized today and move forward.

01:07:12

So, Jennifer, tell us why you're you getting baptized?

01:07:16

- Because I'm ready to commit myself to Christ.

01:07:18

- Yes. - And be born again.

01:07:19

- Love it. Let's do this.

01:07:23

- Jennifer, who is your Lord and Savior?

01:07:26

- Jesus Christ.

01:07:27

- I baptize you in the name of the Father

01:07:29

and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

01:07:36

- [cheering]

01:07:41

- Oh my gosh, I'm a little wet. Oh, but it was so worth it.

01:07:44

- That was incredible.

01:07:45

- Man, there's just nothing better than

01:07:47

getting to celebrate that moment of declaration.

01:07:49

That's what baptism is, people declaring

01:07:51

I am going the way of Jesus

01:07:53

and it's just awesome to celebrate that together.

01:07:55

- Yeah, anytime someone makes that decision,

01:07:57

and this is the beautiful thing,

01:07:58

Crossroads Anywhere, you can make that decision.

01:08:01

We've got people all over the country

01:08:03

who are willing to come and be with you

01:08:05

and see you through that decision.

01:08:07

You're not on your own.

01:08:08

You let us know at anywhere@crossroads.net.

01:08:12

Just email us and we will make arrangements

01:08:14

to make sure someone comes to you

01:08:15

and walks you through that, just like Chuck did.

01:08:18

We will do that with you. So exciting!

01:08:20

- I love it, man. Speaking of excitement,

01:08:22

we are upon one of the biggest holidays,

01:08:23

I think, in our country.

01:08:24

- Yeah, March madness is here. - Right, that's exactly right,

01:08:27

although I think my brackets already busted.

01:08:29

- I think so. - But man, on top of that,

01:08:31

we also have Holy Week and Easter.

01:08:33

You know, this is the pinnacle of the celebration

01:08:36

of what people did today in baptism,

01:08:38

because Jesus lived, He died and He rose again.

01:08:41

And so we've got celebrations coming up

01:08:43

for all of those special moments.

01:08:45

And it's an opportunity for you to celebrate with us.

01:08:47

We've got a wonderful last supper,

01:08:49

which is this last meal

01:08:50

Jesus shared with his closest friends.

01:08:52

We've got a remembrance of that that's happening.

01:08:54

Holy Week where we really -- I'm sorry, good Friday,

01:08:56

we remember what Jesus did on the Cross for us.

01:08:58

And then finally the celebrations of Easter.

01:09:00

We've got Easter services happening

01:09:02

all over the place, including online.

01:09:04

- Yeah, and now there's a bit of a debate about Easter.

01:09:07

Okay? Because we talked about deeper questions.

01:09:09

- Yeah. - So Easter Bunny,

01:09:11

like BT has brought this up a couple times,

01:09:14

like how does that work?

01:09:15

Because Easter is about defeating sin and death.

01:09:17

- Killing it, right? - Yes, killing death.

01:09:20

And that feels like to us

01:09:22

way more like a grizzly bear than an Easter bunny.

01:09:25

- Talk about a deeper question.

01:09:26

- That's right. Why? Why not Easter grizzly?

01:09:29

So we've got some t-shirts,

01:09:31

Easter grizzly t-shirts that we're making,

01:09:34

and we want to send one to you.

01:09:36

We've only got 20, probably 19,

01:09:38

because I think it's a great t-shirt.

01:09:39

- Oh my gosh.

01:09:40

- We've got some we want to send out.

01:09:42

All you have to do is let us know

01:09:44

who you are and where you are.

01:09:45

Text Anywhere to 301301

01:09:48

and we'll be sending out that sampling.

01:09:50

But we'll make sure everyone gets something.

01:09:52

So we'd love for you to be a part of that.

01:09:54

- Man, like we said, this is

01:09:55

an opportunity for you to go deeper.

01:09:57

We're so glad you're with us.

01:09:58

Thank you so much and we will see you next week.

01:10:00

- See you next week.

IMPROMPTU message from Kyle

Does What I Do With My Body Matter?

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