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Do you want to know
a life changing secret
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00:00:05
hiding in plain sight?
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00:00:07
In the end your
entire life, mine, too,
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00:00:10
will be summed up
in only 60 characters,
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four lines, 15
characters per line.
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00:00:16
That's the average length
of a gravestone epitaph.
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This video is about
how to get ahead
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and write your own epitaph now
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so that you like the four lines
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you're going to leave behind.
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The key to writing
your own epitaph
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is your personal answers
to four critical questions
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that most people,
frankly, never even ask.
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By the end of this,
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you'll not only
know the questions,
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but you'll have the beginning
of each of your answers.
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I was 22 years
old the first time
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that I wrote my own epitaph.
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This is actually it right here.
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In at the time since I've had
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this little piece of paper,
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I've gone through three jobs,
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four houses, seven cars,
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I've gotten married,
I've had three kids.
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But I've held on to this
for more than 15 years
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because it was a life
altering experience
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that changed the
massive decisions
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I didn't even know I
was about to make
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over the next several years.
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Like what career to
pursue, who to marry,
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what house to buy and
whether or not to have kids,
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all of it.
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And if I didn't have this,
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or maybe more accurately,
the experience of making it,
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I would have made
different choices.
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Instead, I was free to choose
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what I knew mattered the most.
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Today is your turn for
that kind of freedom.
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At the end, by the way,
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I'll show you what's
written on this.
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The Freed Up experience is about
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getting on God's plan with money
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and experiencing the
freedom that only He can give.
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What you're watching
now is just one part of it.
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Freed Up is actually
an app based experience
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that normally costs
a hundred dollars.
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But, but wait, you
can get it for free
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now through the end of May 2021.
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Just go to
Crossroads.net/freedup
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to do the entire experience.
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You'll be glad that you did.
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But what do you do with
the new found freedom?
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Well, the answer is this,
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you focus on what matters most.
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Whether you're 16
or 60, this experience
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will help you not waste
even one ounce of your life.
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So what's the starting spot?
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Well, it's simpler
than you think.
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Let me explain.
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Most people spend
most of their time on stuff
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that has no shot at ever
making those 60 characters:
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refinishing floors,
collecting cards or plates,
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or in my case, bourbon,
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getting promoted to
executive vice president
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or even better, senior
executive vice president,
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upgrading cars,
lowering golf handicaps,
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binge watching
Netflix, buying, selling,
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keeping up with fashion.
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And please hear me clearly,
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while none of that
is inherently bad,
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in fact, some of it
can actually be great,
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none of it has ever
made the four lines.
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And also we're
saying this isn't a video
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about making a vow of poverty
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or swearing off material things.
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It's actually about
how to capitalize
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on everything you
have, your energy, time,
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resources, even all your stuff
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so that you can leave
a legacy that you love.
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Now, you can just watch
and listen if you want.
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But if you want
the full experience
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and you want to have
this kind of memento
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that comes with it,
one that you could
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look back on fifteen
years from now,
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go ahead and get out your phone
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and open the Web browser,
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or if you're watching
this on your phone,
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just grab something
to write with.
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If you've got your phone open,
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open your Web browser
and Google blank gravestone,
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just find any image,
don't be too picky,
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and then save it to your phone.
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After you've done
that, open the image
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and click, edit, and markup.
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You're going to be writing
on this image as we go.
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As you're doing
that, it's probably
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also worth me calling
out this isn't going
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to be all morose or depressing.
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That movement already happened
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in the early to mid
2000s. It was called emo,
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bands like Death Cab for Cutie,
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Dashboard Confessionals,
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(singing) your
hair is everywhere.
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I think it's something --
you scream at infidelities.
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This isn't about screaming
anything, actually,
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it's about you
waking up each day
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and going to bed
each night knowing that
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your life is being
perfectly spent
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and what matters
the most to you.
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Step one, you have
to fully embrace this
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somewhat weird reality,
you're somebody's ancestor
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and what you do
will impact them.
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And that impact is
called your legacy.
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I want you to think
back in time for a second.
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What's your earliest
childhood memory
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of like a parent or grandparent?
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Was it going
somewhere with them,
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maybe playing a
game or working on
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a project around the
house or out in the yard?
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Whatever it is, chances
are that memory
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is actually attached
to the legacy
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that they left to you
or are leaving to you.
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Mine is riding with
my dad in this gigantic
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old piece of crap station
wagon that he had.
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And it was supposed to
have wood panels on the side,
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but those actually fell
off before he bought it.
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So it was just this
giant black box
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with a bright red interior.
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Bench seats in the front.
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He bought it for like
several hundred dollars.
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So, you know, it
was pretty nice.
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And by the way, this
was before they knew
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about stuff like
pumpkin seats or safety.
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So at four or five years old,
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I rode up front with him.
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Me and my dad on
Saturdays, we would
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go different places,
sometimes the hardware store,
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sometimes the bank.
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But there's one
place we always hit
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every single
Saturday: White Castle.
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Glorious, glorious White Castle
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The only restaurant
where you have to have
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a bag for your bag
because of how greasy
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and disgusting that it gets.
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Every Saturday, my
dad and I would go
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to White Castle together
and we'd get a slider.
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Amazing! The
inventor of the slider
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should win a Nobel
Peace Prize for chemistry
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and probably also physics.
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Now because my
dad loved White Castle
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I love White Castle
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and because I love
White Castle, now,
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my 7 year old daughter
Gracie loves White Castle.
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Don't believe me, take
her word for it. Check it out.
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– Gracie, where do you wish you
were going for dinner tonight?
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– White Castle. – Why?
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– Because it's yummy.
It's my favorite restaurant.
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– Why is it your
favorite restaurant?
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– It has delicious fish burgers.
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– Delicious fish burger. Yeah.
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When did -- where did you
learn to like White Castle?
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– I think it was
from daddy or Pop.
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– Yeah.
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So just like something
that our family loves?
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– Well, Mommy doesn't like
it and the guys don't like it,
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but me and daddy adore it.
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– Awesome. Thank
you. I love you.
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– Love you, bye.
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– Part of my dad's legacy
and now part of mine,
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people choosing to eat
White Castle on purpose
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when they're not even hung over.
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Hundreds of years
from now there'll be
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some poor kid with
the last name Ranson
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eating a slider,
telling his friends,
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"This is what my ancestors did."
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There'll probably be
some amazing ritual
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or ceremony by then.
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Now, I know it's
strange, but it's true.
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You're an ancestor.
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Here's the thing though,
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you can be a good
ancestor or a bad ancestor.
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Exodus 20 puts it
this way, God says:
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Now, you might be like
that sounds really severe.
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I get it, but hang
on for a second.
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What this verse
says overall is that
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you either have
a positive impact
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or a negative impact
on the generations,
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plural, that come after you,
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not just your children,
but your children's children.
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But get this, God says
He will actually limit
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the negative to just
three or four generations,
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but increase the positive
for a thousand generations.
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That's incredible
news. Incredible news.
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Now, a negative
legacy is called infamy.
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You don't want to be that.
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A positive legacy is called
leaving an inheritance.
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So what determines whether
you leave infamous infamy
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or leave an inheritance?
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It's what you do in your dash.
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The dash is that
little bar that comes
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between the date that
says when you were born
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and the date that
says when you'll die.
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Now, the average dash for an
American woman is 81 years.
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The average dash
for an American man
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is 5 less than that,
76, which both proves
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that women are smarter than men
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and that no matter who you are
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and how successful you are,
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that little dash
doesn't last forever.
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Psalm 144 puts it this way:
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So when is the
right time to think
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about the four lines
you leave behind?
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The answer is right now because
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your life isn't going
to last forever.
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Your dash is small and fleeting.
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The time is now and the
first of those four questions
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that define the four
lines is this: who are you?
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And by that I mean,
who are you really?
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Like are you good or bad
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or are you optimistic,
a pessimistic,
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are you an individual, are
you part of a bigger whole?
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Is your life just
the complete story,
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or is it just one chapter
in a much larger work?
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And all of those
answers, by the way,
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are actually determined
by your answer
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to this one
overarching question.
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Are you who you say you are
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or are you who God says you are?
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And really, the two
choices here are
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the limited view or God's view.
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And I say limited,
because when you decide
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who you are, you're
limited to just a few things.
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Some people let
themselves be limited
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by painful experiences
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or the hurtful words
that were said to them.
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Some by the actual
limits that they have.
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For me, I used to
think that who I was
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is somebody whose
mind didn't work right
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because I could never
remember basic things
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and I always lost track of time.
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As a kid and as
an adult, I would get
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so hyper focused on
whatever I was doing,
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I literally couldn't
hear anything else.
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People would come up,
"Kyle, Kyle, Kyle," nothing.
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I thought my mind
didn't work right.
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Now years later, I know that
I have some form of ADHD,
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it's a limit that I could
choose to have define me.
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What about you?
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Is there some limit in your life
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that wants you to
believe it's who you are?
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Is it ADHD like me?
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Maybe it's anxiety.
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Have you ever said out loud,
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"I'm just a just a
worried person,
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just anxious all the time."
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All of that stuff is limiting.
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Listen, even if you let
your accomplishments
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define you, you're limited
to only what you can do.
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But if you choose God's
view of who you are,
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your life is expanded because
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when you listen to
God, there are no limits.
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Philippians 4:13, says:
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This is the first question
because this question,
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the answer to this
question determines
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how you will answer
the other three.
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I want you take
a minute right now
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to answer the
question: who are you?
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My answer, by the way,
may sound hokey to you,
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but I only need eight
letters for this one.
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I'm writing Son of God. Why?
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Because I want
to leave a legacy of
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everyone who follows behind me,
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not wasting their life
trying to define themselves,
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not wasting their life
trying to measure up
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to everybody else's standards,
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not wasting their
life believing that
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they're limited by
their limitations.
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No, I want to leave
a legacy of people
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who know that they're
God's and because of that
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nothing will be
impossible for them.
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I want you to take
a minute right now
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and start with your answer.
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By the way, you don't
have to nail it in this moment.
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You don't even have
to like what you write.
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Just write down honestly.
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The goal is just to get started.
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You have 30 seconds
and 15 characters
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to answer the question:
who are you, right now.
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Great, by the way, for
you rule following people,
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if you use a few more
than 15 characters,
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that's OK, relax.
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And you rule breakers
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who just wrote an
entire paragraph,
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try to trim it down to
only what matters most.
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00:12:43
We're talking four
lines, four questions.
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The second question:
who do you love
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and how do you love them?
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00:12:52
You know, all headstones
are almost exactly the same:
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name, date born, date died,
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then a list of the most
important relationship roles
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00:13:01
that that person played.
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00:13:03
Stuff like husband,
father, mother,
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daughter, mentor, friend.
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00:13:09
Notice, by the way,
not your resume,
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00:13:11
not your address, not
your impressive zip code,
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00:13:14
not your amazing golf score,
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00:13:15
not the total in
your bank account
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when you kick the bucket,
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00:13:18
not the most money
you ever made in a year.
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00:13:20
None of that.
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00:13:21
It's fifteen characters
to summarize
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the quality of the
relationships you have
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with just a handful of people
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00:13:28
and the way your lives either
move them forward or not.
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It's the sum of how you acted
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00:13:35
towards those people each day.
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00:13:38
Were you kind or short tempered?
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Were you generous
or were you stingy?
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00:13:43
Did you stop to listen
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00:13:45
or you just rush off
to the next thing?
-
00:13:48
You might be like,
"I get it. I get it."
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00:13:49
No, no, you don't.
No, you don't.
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00:13:52
Those are legacy
defining questions.
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00:13:55
A legacy isn't a side
project that you make
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00:13:57
in a garage that just attached
to the side of your life.
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00:14:00
No, it's the sum
total of the stories,
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00:14:02
the conversations,
the personal impact
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00:14:05
that you have with these people.
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00:14:07
It can be tempting to make
it more complicated than that.
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00:14:09
I doesn't need to
be because it's not.
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00:14:12
In fact you want a great legacy,
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00:14:14
just follow Hebrews
3:13 and you'll leave one
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00:14:17
more powerful than 9.999999999%
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00:14:22
of all humans who've ever lived.
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00:14:25
Hebrews 3:13 says:
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00:14:36
A legacy altering
decision could be:
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I will actively and
intentionally encourage
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00:14:43
my closest family and
friends every day, every day.
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Who are those people
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00:14:49
and what's your
relationship to them?
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00:14:50
Are you friend,
mother, daughter,
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00:14:54
mentor, father, brother, sister?
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00:14:57
And what kind of that
thing do you want to be?
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00:15:00
Loving, trusted, honest friend,
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00:15:04
inspiring brother,
encouraging father.
-
00:15:07
I want you to take
a minute right now
-
00:15:09
and start writing your answer
to question number two:
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00:15:12
Who do you love
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00:15:13
and how are you letting
them know, right now.
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00:15:24
Four lines, four questions.
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00:15:27
The third, what do you value
-
00:15:30
and how are your
actions proving it?
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00:15:33
Now, your stuff won't
make your gravestone,
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00:15:36
your values will.
-
00:15:37
Words like generous,
joyful, fun loving,
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00:15:40
grace filled, kind,
honest, hard working.
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00:15:43
But way more attention
is actually spent
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00:15:45
on passing on the stuff
than passing on the values.
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00:15:49
Most people have a will
or some kind of document
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00:15:52
that says what will
happen with their stuff,
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00:15:54
and please hear me, that's good.
-
00:15:56
Sarah and I have
wanted to ensure that
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00:15:58
our kids go where
we want them to go
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00:16:00
and that the little
bit of resources
-
00:16:02
that we have right
now get to them as well.
-
00:16:04
But here's the
thing, your resources
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00:16:06
will only be helpful if they're
paired with your values.
-
00:16:11
I was listening to
a podcast last week
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00:16:14
with a super interesting guy
named Rabbi Steve Leder.
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00:16:17
He's the author of a book
that touches on legacy
-
00:16:19
called The Beauty
of What Remains.
-
00:16:21
He's talking about
wills and he described
-
00:16:23
the kind of world that I
had never heard of before.
-
00:16:27
He said this:
-
00:17:12
I love that idea,
an ethical will.
-
00:17:14
And that's really what this
third question is hitting on.
-
00:17:17
You could think about it as
-
00:17:18
the 15 character long
version of your ethical will,
-
00:17:22
which gets us
to the actual will.
-
00:17:24
See, most of us
think of a will as a list
-
00:17:27
of money and
stuff, but it's not.
-
00:17:30
It's what somebody
wills to happen.
-
00:17:33
And what they will is 100%
driven by what they value.
-
00:17:39
But if you talk to the
financial professionals
-
00:17:41
who deal with estates and wills,
-
00:17:43
they'll actually tell
you that most of
-
00:17:45
their clients who are
planning their estates
-
00:17:47
and most of the people
who come to them
-
00:17:49
having just inherited resources
-
00:17:50
and have no idea
what to do with it,
-
00:17:52
neither of those people
who have ever actually
-
00:17:55
had a conversation
about the values
-
00:17:57
behind the
decisions in the will?
-
00:18:01
None of them have.
-
00:18:02
And see, not having
those conversations
-
00:18:04
produces all kinds
of pain and conflict.
-
00:18:08
First, so what we're
talking about in Freed Up,
-
00:18:10
the person giving
the inheritance,
-
00:18:13
they're always trying
to give freedom,
-
00:18:15
the person who gets the
inheritance often times
-
00:18:17
feels tied down
by guilt about it.
-
00:18:20
Like, "I didn't earn
this. I don't deserve it."
-
00:18:23
They're just bogged down.
-
00:18:25
They're actually less
free, which is the opposite
-
00:18:28
of what the person who left
them the resources wanted.
-
00:18:31
Second, they're are
often multiple heirs
-
00:18:33
who get different
amounts or maybe feel like
-
00:18:36
they should have
gotten different amounts.
-
00:18:37
And they're all
left to wonder why.
-
00:18:40
Like are they less valuable?
-
00:18:43
Now, the better move here
is to know what you value
-
00:18:47
and to make sure it's obvious.
-
00:18:49
You could write an ethical
will, it'd be a great idea,
-
00:18:53
or you could just
have the conversation
-
00:18:56
about what you value now.
-
00:18:59
Remember, the dash
doesn't last forever.
-
00:19:01
Now I know it can
be uncomfortable,
-
00:19:03
but it's so incredibly healthy.
-
00:19:05
And I know that
because I've been having
-
00:19:07
those exact
conversations with my dad.
-
00:19:10
He's only in his sixties
and he's in great health,
-
00:19:12
so there's nothing
really forcing
-
00:19:14
these sorts of
conversations right now.
-
00:19:16
We could very
easily put them off
-
00:19:17
or not have them at all.
-
00:19:18
But we've been having them
-
00:19:20
for the better part
of a decade now.
-
00:19:22
I'm the executor of my
dad's estate and trust.
-
00:19:26
See, I know where
his resources will go.
-
00:19:28
That's what all these pages say.
-
00:19:30
But way, way, way more
importantly, I know why.
-
00:19:35
I know his values.
-
00:19:37
Here's the thing, it's not a
one and done conversation.
-
00:19:40
You know, I don't like talking
about my dad being gone.
-
00:19:43
It's never like, "Hey,
dad, I just thought
-
00:19:45
I'd call you and we can talk
-
00:19:46
about you being dead again.
-
00:19:47
That sounds awesome.
You know, cool."
-
00:19:49
No, of course not, but
that's not the conversation.
-
00:19:53
The conversation is, "Hey, dad,
-
00:19:56
what is it that matters
the most to you?"
-
00:19:59
And that's a great conversation.
-
00:20:01
Look, if you're younger like me
-
00:20:03
and it's awkward to start
the conversation, I get it.
-
00:20:05
Just do exactly this.
-
00:20:07
I literally called my dad
yesterday and I just said,
-
00:20:10
"Hey, I'm thinking about legacy
-
00:20:13
and I know that I'm
the executor of your will,
-
00:20:16
but I just want to
make sure I understand
-
00:20:18
what it is you value."
-
00:20:20
That's it, and then
he just started talking.
-
00:20:22
It was a great conversation,
-
00:20:24
took 10 whole
minutes, that was it.
-
00:20:27
And even though we've actually
-
00:20:28
had the conversation
before, this time,
-
00:20:30
I picked up values
I missed before.
-
00:20:33
And I heard how
his life was about
-
00:20:34
putting those
values into action.
-
00:20:37
Do you know how
incredibly valuable that is?
-
00:20:42
Proverbs 13:22 says:
-
00:20:52
Leaving an inheritance is
not about being rich in money.
-
00:20:56
You can have these
conversations even if
-
00:20:58
you're not leaving a
large monetary inheritance.
-
00:21:02
The Bible says that faith
without works is dead,
-
00:21:05
in the same way your
values without conversations
-
00:21:09
will die with you.
-
00:21:11
Now do you know part
of why my faulty memory
-
00:21:14
and my time blindness,
my ADHD didn't cause me
-
00:21:18
to conclude I couldn't
learn or succeed?
-
00:21:21
It's an inheritance I receive
-
00:21:23
from my dad's dad,
George Rantzen.
-
00:21:25
He was the oldest of seven kids.
-
00:21:27
He actually dropped out
of school in eighth grade
-
00:21:30
to help support his family
during the Great Depression
-
00:21:32
because his dad
couldn't find work.
-
00:21:34
But despite never
going to high school,
-
00:21:37
much less graduating
high school,
-
00:21:39
he learned to be a butcher.
-
00:21:41
Then he learned
business, at least enough
-
00:21:43
to open his own little shop.
-
00:21:46
In his spare time,
he kept learning.
-
00:21:48
He taught himself how
to how to build furniture.
-
00:21:50
Yes, that's where I get it.
-
00:21:52
Even late in his life,
-
00:21:53
he was always
learning something new.
-
00:21:54
But the very last
memories with him are
-
00:21:56
talking to him about
computers and email
-
00:21:59
and the Internet
and also Spanish,
-
00:22:01
because he decided
that he wanted
-
00:22:02
to learn both at the same time.
-
00:22:04
See he taught me that
there were no limits.
-
00:22:08
I could learn anything
and I could do anything.
-
00:22:12
That's an inheritance,
that values passed on.
-
00:22:16
My other grandfather, Robert
Ball, never knew his dad.
-
00:22:20
He was raised by
his grandparents
-
00:22:21
and they owned the bar.
-
00:22:23
Literally means he
was raised in a bar,
-
00:22:26
probably made a mean
Manhattan at five years old,
-
00:22:28
you know?
-
00:22:29
But despite never
knowing his own dad,
-
00:22:32
he became the dad of nine kids.
-
00:22:35
And the incredible
loving grandfather
-
00:22:38
to more than three dozen.
-
00:22:40
See he passed on an inheritance,
-
00:22:42
the value of family
and adventure
-
00:22:45
and the idea that you
can move the ball forward
-
00:22:48
for your family no matter
where you pick it up in life.
-
00:22:52
By the way, neither of my
grandfathers left any money.
-
00:22:55
They didn't.
-
00:22:57
What they left
was worth far more.
-
00:23:01
Now your values that
could be expressed
-
00:23:03
through the money you leave,
-
00:23:04
but the values transcend money.
-
00:23:06
I hope you're
picking up on that.
-
00:23:07
An example from
my life right now.
-
00:23:09
Sarah and I, we want to leave
-
00:23:10
a legacy of fun
and encouragement.
-
00:23:12
So what are we doing?
-
00:23:13
Well, every night we play
Mario Kart with our kids
-
00:23:16
as the very last thing
before they go to bed
-
00:23:18
a four race tournament. Why?
-
00:23:20
Because we want the last memory
-
00:23:23
of every day they spend with us
-
00:23:25
to be having fun together
and encouraging each other.
-
00:23:29
We value fun. We
value encouragement.
-
00:23:32
What about you?
-
00:23:34
I want you to take
a minute right now
-
00:23:35
to write down
what it is you value.
-
00:23:38
And I know with this
question you could
-
00:23:40
be tempted to
write a novel here,
-
00:23:41
but really limit yourself
to 15 characters,
-
00:23:44
force yourself to get very
specific and very focused.
-
00:23:50
What do you value?
-
00:23:51
You have 30 seconds to write.
-
00:24:02
Four lines, four questions.
-
00:24:05
The last one: toward what end?
-
00:24:09
Said another way,
what are you living for?
-
00:24:13
Culture promotes living
with your eyes down.
-
00:24:16
This is the posture, head down,
-
00:24:17
look at what's
right in front of you.
-
00:24:19
Think about today. Think
about tomorrow. Nothing else.
-
00:24:22
But God actually promotes
living with your eyes up.
-
00:24:25
He says, look about today.
-
00:24:26
Yes, look clearly ahead of you.
-
00:24:27
Look at today. That's fine.
-
00:24:29
But look past today,
-
00:24:30
look over the
horizon of your life
-
00:24:32
and stare at eternity.
-
00:24:35
All of the greats live this way.
-
00:24:38
Hebrews 11 is a chapter that's
known as the Hall of Faith.
-
00:24:42
It's like the most faithful,
God filled people ever.
-
00:24:45
How did they live their lives?
-
00:24:47
It's people like Abraham,
Sarah, and Jacob.
-
00:24:49
And it says they
all live this way.
-
00:24:52
Hebrews 11 says:
-
00:25:12
The Bible says all
these people lived
-
00:25:15
with their eyes
looking over the horizon
-
00:25:18
of their life to eternity,
and they walked towards it.
-
00:25:23
That's what their
lives were for.
-
00:25:25
Your life will be spent
toward something.
-
00:25:28
It could be you
-
00:25:30
or it could be something
bigger than you.
-
00:25:33
I got the chance
to talk with a guy
-
00:25:35
who you may actually
know a few weeks ago.
-
00:25:38
His name is Sean Lowe.
-
00:25:39
He was the bachelor like, yeah,
-
00:25:41
the bachelor guy,
six, seven years ago.
-
00:25:43
To this day, by the way,
-
00:25:44
he's the only one who
married the woman he picked.
-
00:25:46
They're a great family,
got to hang out his house,
-
00:25:48
meet his kids, it was awesome.
-
00:25:50
I was there actually
to talk about other stuff,
-
00:25:52
but towards the end
of our day together,
-
00:25:54
our conversation actually
turned towards legacy
-
00:25:57
and this exact question.
Here's what he said.
-
00:26:00
You exude this guy who has found
-
00:26:04
something incredible with God.
-
00:26:07
There had to be a question
you asked that got you there.
-
00:26:10
What was that?
-
00:26:11
– Oh, that's a big one.
-
00:26:15
I would say: What
are we doing here? I
-
00:26:19
read a book recently and
the book, the author asked,
-
00:26:25
what is your grandfather's
grandfather's full name
-
00:26:28
and what was his occupation?
-
00:26:31
Chances are none of us
know the answer to that.
-
00:26:33
– No idea.
-
00:26:35
– So the point of him
asking that question is,
-
00:26:38
you know, the Bible
says life is but a vapor,
-
00:26:40
whether you live 20 years
or whether you live 100 years,
-
00:26:46
compared to eternity, we're
here for a blink of an eye.
-
00:26:49
Right?
-
00:26:50
Why are we here?
What are we doing here?
-
00:26:53
To give you one example,
to kind of bring it home,
-
00:26:56
talking about grandfathers.
-
00:26:57
My grandfather's a
World War II veteran.
-
00:26:59
He just celebrated
his 96th birthday.
-
00:27:01
– Oh, wow.
-
00:27:02
– He fought on Okinawa,
-
00:27:03
Okinawa, the bloodiest
battle in the South Pacific.
-
00:27:05
He made a deal with
God. He did not know God.
-
00:27:08
"God, if you get me
home safely, I promise
-
00:27:11
I'll serve you for
the rest of my life."
-
00:27:13
Side note, he was
scheduled, he was a Marine.
-
00:27:15
He was scheduled to be
on the first wave of invaders,
-
00:27:19
if we were to invade Japan,
-
00:27:21
which we were scheduled to
before we dropped the bombs.
-
00:27:23
He would not have survived that.
-
00:27:25
God gets him home.
-
00:27:26
He didn't serve
God. Of course not.
-
00:27:28
– He didn't hold up
his end of the bargain.
-
00:27:29
– He's just a 20 year
old. He didn't serve God.
-
00:27:31
Like ten years go
past. He gets married.
-
00:27:34
He's got this dream one day
-
00:27:37
and he's looking
out at the ocean,
-
00:27:40
but it's fiery waves. OK?
-
00:27:44
Behind him is this
beautiful castle on a hill
-
00:27:47
and there's a winding road.
-
00:27:50
Out in the ocean of the
flaming waves he sees Satan.
-
00:27:54
So he says, looking at Satan,
"I'm petrified, petrified.
-
00:28:01
I look at the castle
that sits on this hill
-
00:28:04
and I have this
feeling of safety.
-
00:28:06
I know that I have to get there.
-
00:28:08
So I'm running and I'm
going up this winding road
-
00:28:10
and I'm running and
Satan is chasing after me.
-
00:28:12
And I'm running, I'm
running and running.
-
00:28:14
At the base of this
castle, I finally reach it,
-
00:28:16
there's a door I reach
and the door is locked."
-
00:28:21
– Hmm.
-
00:28:22
– OK? My grandfather
says, "I wake up,"
-
00:28:25
and he says, "I literally
see Jesus in my room.
-
00:28:28
And Jesus says, 'You
do not know me.'" OK?
-
00:28:32
– Wow.
-
00:28:34
– So what does
my grandfather do?
-
00:28:36
He gives his life to
Christ that moment,
-
00:28:39
later becomes a pastor, OK?
-
00:28:41
He has brought untold
number of people to the Lord.
-
00:28:45
– So how would he
answer that question?
-
00:28:47
What are we even here for?
-
00:28:49
– He would probably say to
expand the Kingdom of heaven.
-
00:28:53
Yeah. – Incredible.
-
00:28:56
That's the question, isn't it?
-
00:28:57
What are we doing
here, towards what end?
-
00:29:03
The last line of your epitaph
-
00:29:05
will say what it was all for.
-
00:29:07
Will yours say for the
sake of her own enjoyment?
-
00:29:11
Will it say to make
himself happy?
-
00:29:13
Or will it say to
the glory of God,
-
00:29:17
to the advancement
of His Kingdom?
-
00:29:20
Take 30 seconds
right now to answer
-
00:29:23
the question, towards what end?
-
00:29:34
Four lines, four questions:
-
00:29:37
Who are you? Who do you love?
-
00:29:40
What do you value?
Toward what end?
-
00:29:43
The answers to
those questions are
-
00:29:46
the start of an incredible
legacy that lasts.
-
00:29:49
Oh, by the way,
what did I write?
-
00:29:53
I combined these
questions together
-
00:29:55
and I wrote these 47 characters:
-
00:29:58
he loved with everything he had
-
00:30:00
and spent it all for Jesus.
-
00:30:03
My prayer is that you
have an epitaph you love,
-
00:30:07
that you can be proud of.
-
00:30:09
I hope this experience
helped you on your way.
-
00:30:11
And we're not done yet.
-
00:30:12
We're going to
keep going right now
-
00:30:13
with something called worship.
-
00:30:15
This is a time to process
everything that just happened.
-
00:30:18
I encourage you as we
sing these songs together
-
00:30:21
to get out your phone and
to look at what you wrote
-
00:30:24
and ask God if there's
anything on that list
-
00:30:27
He wants you to pay attention
to or maybe even tweak.
-
00:30:30
Let's do this
together right now.
-
00:30:35
We covered a lot
of ground today,
-
00:30:36
and a legacy takes time
to think about and process.
-
00:30:39
One of the best
things you can do
-
00:30:40
when looking for
answers is to take
-
00:30:42
whatever you're feeling
and bring it to God.
-
00:30:44
What does that mean?
Well, in this case,
-
00:30:47
it means to talk to God,
maybe even sing to Him.
-
00:30:50
In church terms,
it's called worship.
-
00:30:52
Just telling God who He is.
-
00:31:32
- We trust in you alone.
-
00:31:34
With these words,
we tell God that
-
00:31:36
no matter what
comes, He has our trust.
-
00:31:40
That trust extends
beyond our lives
-
00:31:42
and even beyond the
legacy we leave behind.
-
00:31:45
Another way to say we trust God
-
00:31:47
is to say we surrender to Him.
-
00:31:49
You can declare
this by physically
-
00:31:51
taking a position of
surrender before Him.
-
00:31:55
If you're comfortable
and able, I invite you
-
00:31:57
to raise a hand or both
hands over your head
-
00:32:00
with your palms open.
-
00:32:01
It's a way to tell God
that He is in charge
-
00:32:04
and we trust in Him alone.
-
00:33:05
- You're doing great.
-
00:33:06
You can go ahead and
lower your hands now.
-
00:33:10
Hear it now, the
sound of the Kingdom.
-
00:33:13
We've heard these words
a couple of times now,
-
00:33:16
but what do they mean?
-
00:33:18
Well, in verses like
Luke 2:13-14, we see that
-
00:33:22
it's the sound of the
voice singing to God.
-
00:33:25
That verse mentions angels, too,
-
00:33:28
but we don't have
time to get into that.
-
00:33:30
For these next verses,
sing or hum along.
-
00:33:33
It's a way we can
tell God we trust Him.
-
00:36:06
– Interested by what
you heard today?
-
00:36:07
Well a great next
step for you is
-
00:36:09
to download the Freed Up App.
-
00:36:11
It's a personalized
experience designed
-
00:36:13
to guide you to a new
place of financial freedom.
-
00:36:15
Normally, it cost $100,
-
00:36:18
but from now until
the end of May,
-
00:36:20
the Freed Up App is available to
-
00:36:22
the Crossroads community,
that's you, for free.
-
00:36:25
Just head to
Crossroads.net/freedup
-
00:36:28
to download it. We'll
see you next week.