The Key to an Extraordinary Life - Anywhere

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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads, I'm Andy,

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the Crossroads Anywhere Community Pastor,

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which just means I get to work with our community

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meeting online and all over the globe.

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- I'm Demanuel, I go by D-man for short.

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I'm the Engagements Manager

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for the Crossroads Anywhere Community,

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which basically just means I get to help you

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go beyond watching or reading content

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to actually engaging with people around our church,

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specifically the anywhere community.

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I'm on the team of people that get to talk

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and pray with you when you go into our website.

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Really, we are not bots, we are real people.

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So please let me keep my job and chat in with us.

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- Hey, you're joining us as we continue in the book of Acts.

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And today I actually get the pleasure

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of talking and sharing with you

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all about a formula for a life of power.

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- Before we get started with Andy,

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we're gonna go into worship together.

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Worship is more than just listening

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or singing a catchy melody

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of a prayer set to music,

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a way to point our attention to God

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and tell Him we want more of Him.

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- Yeah. So whether you're at home,

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whether you're driving to work,

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whether you're sitting in your dorm room,

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hey, lean into these songs

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and the words of power throughout.

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- You know, the Word of God says that

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we can come confidently before the throne of God

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as sons and daughters.

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And whether we have a lot or little,

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God desires our hearts. Amen.

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- It's so good to worship with you all.

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So good. Hey, I want to let you know

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there's something, something cool

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growing within our community.

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And can I tell you what it is?

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It's the growth of the Latino community

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within Crossroads. Yeah.

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That's happening. That's happening.

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This is my amigo nuevo Evan Craft.

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And Evan is here because he's --

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And his friend, they're coaching us

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to sing in Spanish.

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So, Evan, would you just say hi to our folks.

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- [speaking Spanish]

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It's a privilege to be here with you guys today.

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- It's so good.

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So, Evan, we've been working with Evan

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for the last couple of days

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so that we could speak the language

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of our growing community in an authentic way.

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Because you know what? Like I speak to --

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I speak to God in my prayers in English.

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But Natiel, say hi, Natiel. Natiel doesn't.

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He talks to God and sings to God in Spanish.

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And so that's what we're going to do right now.

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We're going to come together

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as a growing community and just talk to God

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in our native languages.

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You ready to learn some Spanish?

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All right, here we go.

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- So we invite you to sing this in English.

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[speaking Spanish]

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- I want to teach you this course.

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It goes like this. We worship the Father.

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- Let's do it again. Come on.

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- So Jesus, when Ge was on earth,

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He used analogies. Anybody like analogies?

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I love them. And He would say,

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"The Kingdom of God is like this."

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And people would start to understand

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this upside down economy.

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He would say the Kingdom is like

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a treasure hidden in a field,

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that a man would sell everything

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and go buy the field

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so he could have the treasure.

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The Kingdom of heaven is for the kids.

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You have to be like a kid

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to understand the Kingdom.

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Story after story, to help open our minds

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and our hearts to His magnificent upside down Kingdom.

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That's what we're going to sing about.

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- God, we're so thankful that You sent Your Son

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down to this earth to die on a Cross for us,

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and it turned everything upside down.

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We're thankful, God, that You rule,

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that You are sovereign, that You reign over anything.

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So God, we can surrender ourselves to You

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knowing that You are our comforter,

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that You're our peace,

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that You're our ultimate Father, God.

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You reign, You're sovereign and You're good.

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We thank You. In Your name we pray. Amen.

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Come on. Can we give it up

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for our God one more time? Amen, amen.

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Wow, thank you guys so much for worshiping with us.

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It's been amazing so far.

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Go ahead and turn to somebody

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and say hi and take a seat.

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- Crossroads is a movement of people

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meeting in person and digitally

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all across the country.

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We're not just content to watch,

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we're church you can fully belong to

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no matter where you live.

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Like I mentioned before, my name is D-man.

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I'm the Crossroads Anywhere Engagement Manager.

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My whole job is to focus on helping you

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connect to the church and the people that's in it.

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I want you to know that there's

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a ton of different ways that you can do that.

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There's two specific things that are coming up

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in the Crossroads Anywhere community

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that I want to highlight for you.

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The first is called the Anywhere Weekend.

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Last year we did something crazy,

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we invited all of our anywhere family

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to come to Cincinnati for the weekend.

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And guess what? They came!

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The weekend became a launching pad

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for Crossroads Anywhere

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and so we're doing it again this year.

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We wanted to go bigger and better this year,

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so join us in Cincinnati, July 19-21

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for a weekend of live worship, teaching,

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amazing food, and just simply fun.

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Whether you're 6, 16, or 60,

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make new friends from all around the globe

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and learn how to experience more of God

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wherever you live all year long.

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Head to Crossroads.net/Anywhere weekend to sign up.

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You don't want to miss it.

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The second thing is cohorts coming up

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called 21 Days of Better Money Habits.

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A cohort is a 21 day jumpstart

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for whatever area of life you want to thrive in.

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The next one is coming up to focus on financial freedom.

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You can participate all on your own timeline,

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but still alongside other people,

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and it will involve small daily challenges,

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some weekly inputs and training,

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and more to help you in areas of your life.

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You can find more information about it

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and join at crossroads.net/cohort.

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As we continue in the book of Acts,

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let's hear from Andy about

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the power you were designed to live with.

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- Hey, I'm Andy.

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We are continuing our dive into the book of Acts.

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And you don't know me,

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but I want to let you in on just a little secret.

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I am a little bit of a conspiracy theory nut.

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Not full on tinfoil hats and bomb shelter,

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but like my Wikipedia and podcast histories

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might have a Sasquatch or two in them.

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I'm not nuts, I just think it's fun to hear

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some stuff that won't ever make it into history books.

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And some of these conspiracies are true.

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So you want to hear my favorite real conspiracy?

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And this sounds crazy, but it is, and it's true.

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This is a true conspiracy

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that is over 100 years old,

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and it was strategically designed

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by the wealthy elites to rob you and I of power.

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There was this shadowy group that met

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in Switzerland in the early 1920s,

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and at this point in history,

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only about half of homes had electricity.

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This was cutting edge technology

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that was just going mainstream.

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And representatives from huge corporate giants

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like Philips and GE and Osram met together

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to hatch a plot.

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They actually worked together behind closed doors

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to intentionally make light bulbs

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last shorter and shorter amounts of time.

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Now, behind me, you can see the actual labs

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where they tested each other's bulbs

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to make sure that they all failed early.

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In essence, they cut the lives

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of these light bulbs from over 2500 hours

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to less than a thousand.

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Their motive just greed.

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By ensuring that light bulbs failed sooner,

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they guaranteed a demand for replacements

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and raised their own profits in the process.

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If you want the full story,

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you can follow the investigations

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of government authorities and journalists

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and how they figure this out

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and exposed it to the world.

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This might seem like

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a funny bit of outdated trivia,

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but it is a timely example of how there are

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forces colluding in the dark

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to rob and steal you of power.

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And this isn't just true for light bulbs,

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it's true for your life.

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And frankly, it's still true today,

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and I think it always has been.

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Today we're going to talk about the power

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that you were designed to live with

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and what you can do to get it back if you've lost it.

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But what does power look like?

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Well, I happen to believe that God made,

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designed and created us to operate in power.

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And the power I'm talking about,

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it doesn't just come from within,

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it actually comes from Jesus.

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We get more power when we receive more of His Spirit.

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Jesus gives us His power because He loves us.

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It was His way to leave with us

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a token of His love and a representative

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of His power even as He left the earth.

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But sometimes that can just seem a little ethereal, right?

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It might be easier to identify power in your life

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by looking at the places

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where you actually don't have it.

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So here's a couple of questions for you

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to just help you discern where

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you could use more of God's power in your life.

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Where do you feel stuck?

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Where do you feel stalled out?

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Where do you feel like you just keep

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running up and banging your head

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against the same anxieties or problems?

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Or maybe you just feel lost.

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Maybe you just feel unsure about where to go,

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or unsure if you actually have

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anything meaningful to contribute

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or to give to the world.

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Today we're going to look to the Bible,

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we're going to look to science,

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and we're actually going to look to

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the life of a man named Peter to discover

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what a life of power looks like,

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and how we can burn bright for the long haul.

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And as a heads up, we'll actually

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be taking communion a little later today.

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So go ahead and grab something

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to eat or drink for later.

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So let me start by introducing you

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to a guy named Peter.

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Peter was a fisherman,

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but he was also the first pope.

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He was this blue collar brawler and a bit of a rule breaker.

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He was the first person to recognize Jesus

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for who He was, the long awaited Messiah.

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And he was also impetuous and is known for

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being bold all the way to crossing that line

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to just being dumb.

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You might remember this little incident

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with Peter from the night Jesus was arrested.

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I love this and I was like,

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turn the other cheek, bros.

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Then Peter chopped his ear off.

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Yes, that happened. It's in the Bible.

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And it's an example of who this guy was.

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Now, if you looked at Peter's sort of resume

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for being a spiritual leader or a church hero,

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he was never going to get a callback.

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But Jesus had something in him,

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something in him from Jesus made Peter powerful

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and used him to change the world.

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The first instance of this

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is actually in Acts 2:14 where it says:

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Then Peter stood up with the eleven,

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raised his voice, and proclaimed to them,

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"You who are Jews,

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indeed all who are staying in Jerusalem,

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let this be known to you, and listen to my words."

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This is a guy who is a humble fisherman

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proclaiming the truth about who God

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is to an angry mob.

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Man, this is what power can enable you to do

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and so much more.

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But it's not because Peter was so great.

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It's because Peter stayed connected

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to God's power in his life.

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That's what I want for myself.

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That's what I want for my family.

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And that's what I want for you too.

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2 Peter 1:3, written by Peter, says this:

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Everything we could ever need

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for life and godliness has already

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been deposited in us by His divine power.

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To say, everything you need for life

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God has given you, He has put into you.

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We need to stay connected to that power.

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That's just as true for Peter then

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as it is for you and I today.

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Now, as I said, Peter was an unlikely hero

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and spiritual leader, but his friendship

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with Jesus transformed him.

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He went from being Simon,

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which was literally meant reed, like a plant

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that would blow with the slightest breeze.

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And Jesus changed his name to rock,

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something immovable and solid.

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That right there is an example

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of God's power at work in him.

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And I believe that's what Jesus power

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can do for you to make you solid and immovable,

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regardless of what life throws your way.

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Now, Peter lived in an incredible time

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of tension and dissension.

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It was filled with false teaching and confusion

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and these really different, contradictory,

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competing ideas on the right way to live.

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Does this sound familiar to anyone? Right?

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We live in a very similar time in a lot of ways.

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And this was a time where God's power showed up.

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Have you ever seen a miracle?

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I have. It is crazy

00:35:02

and not everyone is always happy about it.

00:35:05

Now the person who healed is usually happy,

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but people who are around seeing this,

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they get angry, they don't understand it.

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And that confusion leads to anger in them.

00:35:15

Sometimes they're quiet about it

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and sometimes they're not.

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That anger spills over.

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There's an example of exactly this

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with Peter in the book of Acts.

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Peter was actually walking through town

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and heals this guy's arm on the fly,

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on the fly, just as he's going about his day.

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And then Peter proceeds to preach

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and tell people about Jesus power.

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He gets interrupted by the local

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governing authorities and they say,

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"By what power or what name do you do this?"

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Meaning, "Who said you were allowed to do this?

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And honestly, how did it work?"

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They couldn't understand.

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Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit,

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said to them, "It's by the name

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of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified,

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but whom God raised from the dead,

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that this man stands before you healed."

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It goes on to say: when they saw

00:36:01

the courage of Peter John and realized

00:36:03

that these were unschooled, ordinary men,

00:36:05

they were astonished.

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And they took note that these men

00:36:09

had been with Jesus.

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Now Peter knew where his power came from.

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It allowed him to stand up in the face of a mob,

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to stand up to authorities,

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to be that rock in the midst of chaos.

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And come on, like, isn't this amazing?

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Wouldn't you like to have some of that?

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Now, the Bible isn't just this cute,

00:36:26

clinical historical book.

00:36:27

No, no, this is countercultural.

00:36:29

This is rebellious.

00:36:30

This is punk rock right here.

00:36:32

And I want you to have a life

00:36:33

that is bigger than the status quo,

00:36:35

that pushes back against the norm of what

00:36:39

the world tries to just get you to settle for.

00:36:42

I want you to experience your own miracles,

00:36:45

healings of your mind, body, and heart

00:36:47

that do more than just save you from hell later,

00:36:50

but that enable you to bring heaven to earth now.

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Let me jump out of the Bible for just a second here.

00:36:57

I've got a friend who's a physicist,

00:36:59

and he and I, we don't talk physics

00:37:01

because I just can't understand it.

00:37:03

My brain does not work that way.

00:37:05

But as I was preparing for this talk,

00:37:07

I realized that there's something

00:37:10

from the scientific world that I think mirrors

00:37:12

a spiritual reality of God's power really well.

00:37:14

So let's go back to high school physics

00:37:16

for a second, this is the formula for power.

00:37:20

The formula for power is

00:37:22

power equals voltage times current.

00:37:25

Isn't that -- it's a little boring.

00:37:26

Okay. So let me give it to you a little different here.

00:37:29

Power equals potential energy

00:37:31

multiplied by movement. Right?

00:37:33

It's a little better,

00:37:34

a little more real world for us.

00:37:35

But stick with me for two minutes.

00:37:37

I want to dive into this a little deeper.

00:37:40

And if you aren't experiencing

00:37:41

the power God designed you for,

00:37:44

I think it's because you're missing

00:37:45

at least one of these two things.

00:37:48

First, potential energy.

00:37:51

In science, potential energy is defi

00:37:53

ned as the stored energy in an object

00:37:56

due to its position, properties,

00:37:58

or the forces acting on it.

00:37:59

It's like your context.

00:38:01

For our purposes, this is your position,

00:38:03

your properties, and the forces

00:38:05

that are at work in your life.

00:38:08

So first position, what's your context?

00:38:10

Are you a student or a retiree?

00:38:12

Are you a C-suite executive or creative?

00:38:14

Are you somebody who lives in an urban context

00:38:17

or a rural one on a farm?

00:38:19

These are all important and will change the way

00:38:21

this power is expressed in your life.

00:38:23

Now, what about your properties?

00:38:25

What's your personality?

00:38:27

What life stage are you in?

00:38:28

There are different ways that God's power

00:38:30

can show up in your life based on

00:38:32

who you are and where you are.

00:38:35

God made you specifically, and I believe

00:38:37

He put you where you are intentionally.

00:38:40

And you might be missing out on God's power

00:38:43

because you refuse to believe that

00:38:44

there is a reason that God put you

00:38:46

where you are and who you are,

00:38:47

or that you're not stepping into that.

00:38:50

So I'm not going to camp out here super long,

00:38:52

but remember that the Bible has a lot to say

00:38:55

about the what and the why

00:38:56

of you and I being here on this earth.

00:38:59

Psalm 139 says it this way:

00:39:01

I will praise you because

00:39:03

I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.

00:39:05

Your works are wonderful. I know that full well.

00:39:09

So your potential energy will be

00:39:12

drained by the world trying to lie to you

00:39:14

about who you are, or by you ignoring

00:39:17

who you were created to be.

00:39:20

Peter allowed Jesus to define his identity

00:39:23

when He changed his name.

00:39:25

He also allowed Jesus to reset his position

00:39:28

when Jesus said, "Come with me,"

00:39:30

and he left everything and just left,

00:39:32

left his career, left his home

00:39:34

and began to walk with Jesus.

00:39:36

I don't know what that looks like for you,

00:39:38

but it's something to consider.

00:39:40

As you might remember from high school science,

00:39:43

there's potential energy

00:39:44

and then there's kinetic energy.

00:39:46

Let me explain this right now

00:39:48

in the least scientific way possible.

00:39:51

A few years ago, I was walking through Kroger

00:39:53

with my family, doing some shopping,

00:39:55

and I was blissfully unaware

00:39:57

that inside the stomach of my three year old son

00:39:59

there was a great deal of stored

00:40:01

potential energy happening there.

00:40:03

And as the pressure grew, he started to complain

00:40:06

and I just picked him up

00:40:07

so we could finish our shopping faster,

00:40:09

just oblivious.

00:40:10

Then in an instant,

00:40:11

just like a science fair volcano,

00:40:13

Andrew converted that stored potential energy

00:40:16

into kinetic energy by throwing up

00:40:19

straight down my neck

00:40:21

and absolutely soaking my shirt

00:40:23

and my pants down into my shoes,

00:40:25

like squishy with vomit. It was nasty.

00:40:29

It's yucky, but it was also a bad metaphor

00:40:31

for what it looks like for God's power

00:40:33

to be present in your life.

00:40:35

It's not just having power,

00:40:37

it's that power being expressed,

00:40:39

that power being multiplied by movement.

00:40:43

That energy must move you to do something,

00:40:46

say something, build something, break something.

00:40:49

It must turn into action or it's worthless

00:40:51

and it'll just burn out or fizzle out.

00:40:54

God's power in your life

00:40:56

isn't there to make you comfortable.

00:40:57

It sure didn't do that for Peter, right?

00:40:59

It didn't make his life easy,

00:41:01

it made it meaningful.

00:41:02

It didn't make him comfortable,

00:41:04

it made him powerful.

00:41:06

The Bible talks about Jesus' saving power.

00:41:09

That word in Greek was sozo,

00:41:11

literally meaning to save, heal and deliver.

00:41:14

Again, Jesus' power isn't just to

00:41:17

save you from going to hell later,

00:41:19

it's to empower you to bring heaven to earth now

00:41:23

so that you can encourage,

00:41:24

so that you can build up, that you can heal,

00:41:27

you can restore, that you can creatively

00:41:29

solve problems and meet needs.

00:41:32

To quote a very different Peter,

00:41:34

"With great power comes great responsibility."

00:41:38

Now, I love Spider-Man, but the Bible

00:41:40

puts it really well too, Ephesians 2:10:

00:41:42

For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ

00:41:45

to do good works, which God prepared

00:41:48

in advance for us to do.

00:41:49

They're good things that God has prepared you to do.

00:41:52

God's power in your life

00:41:53

should make you want to do something.

00:41:56

It's taking that potential energy

00:41:58

stored in your life and multiplying it

00:41:59

by the movement, by the current.

00:42:02

That is where power happens.

00:42:05

Some uncomfortable honesty here.

00:42:06

I am not a Peter.

00:42:08

I'm not that, like, just naturally brave guy.

00:42:11

I'm not even a Brian Tome

00:42:12

who just likes to go run around

00:42:14

and try the next new thing.

00:42:16

I tend to weigh my words and actions really carefully,

00:42:19

and too often I'm quiet when I should speak up

00:42:22

and I stand still when I should have moved.

00:42:26

I had an example of this not that long ago,

00:42:28

where a guy that I was in relationship with,

00:42:31

I just, I knew, I knew by what he was saying

00:42:34

and more by what he wasn't saying

00:42:36

that there were really, really bad things

00:42:38

happening behind the scenes in his life,

00:42:40

that addiction was taking a hold,

00:42:42

that he was betraying the people

00:42:45

that were closest to him.

00:42:47

I knew in a moment I should have said something.

00:42:52

I should have called him out.

00:42:54

I should have challenged him.

00:42:55

I should have asked him to step up,

00:42:57

and instead, because it was comfortable

00:42:59

and it would have been really, really awkward,

00:43:01

I was silent.

00:43:03

And I cannot tell you the amount of heartache,

00:43:07

the amount of pain that has happened

00:43:09

over the last two years since then.

00:43:11

The pain to his wife,

00:43:12

the pain to his children is brutal.

00:43:16

And it was because I was passive,

00:43:18

because God's power in me didn't cause me

00:43:22

to step forward, to lean in and to make a bold move.

00:43:27

And while I regret that deeply, I'm also learning.

00:43:30

I'm learning that the more I step out,

00:43:32

the more I take risks, the more I get

00:43:34

to see God do really cool stuff.

00:43:37

If you read Hebrews 11, this is where

00:43:39

all followers of Jesus who made an impact,

00:43:40

all the saints and all the heroes that we see

00:43:42

in the faith they have in common.

00:43:44

They have this thing in common where they moved,

00:43:46

where they leaned in, where they stepped forward,

00:43:48

where they spoke up.

00:43:50

So let me just ask you a couple of questions.

00:43:54

Where are you stuck?

00:43:56

Where are you not moving?

00:43:58

Where do you need to lean into the current

00:44:01

of God's power in your life and make a move?

00:44:03

I'll give you a second. What comes to mind?

00:44:10

Should you ask her to marry you? I don't know.

00:44:13

Should you make the move?

00:44:14

Should you start the business?

00:44:15

Should you go back to school?

00:44:17

Should you get the gym membership?

00:44:18

Should you schedule that time with the counselor?

00:44:20

Should you put off that thing,

00:44:22

that should you lean in

00:44:23

and do that thing you've been putting off?

00:44:25

Man, experiencing God's power only happens

00:44:29

when we allow it to move us.

00:44:32

Now here's a pro tip: don't do this alone.

00:44:36

There's an entire other metaphor

00:44:38

that I was going to go into and introduce here

00:44:40

that was going to get real nerdy

00:44:41

and be about the pairing of electrons

00:44:42

and how we can't do this alone.

00:44:44

It was going to be boring

00:44:45

and not worth the four minutes of your life

00:44:47

it was going to take.

00:44:48

So let me just tell you something here.

00:44:49

The spiritual life is not something

00:44:52

that can be done alone.

00:44:53

You need people around you.

00:44:56

If you're a part of the Crossroads community,

00:44:58

you heard Demanuel talk earlier

00:44:59

about how we aren't just content,

00:45:01

we aren't just a thing designed to watch.

00:45:03

We're supposed to be a community

00:45:05

that you can belong to.

00:45:07

And if there's one thing, one thing

00:45:09

that I would invite you into this year

00:45:12

to help you understand more of how

00:45:14

God uniquely made you and how you can move on that,

00:45:17

how you can take action on that

00:45:18

and your context, city,

00:45:20

life stage, your personality, whatever,

00:45:22

it would be to join us this summer

00:45:24

for what we call the Anywhere Weekend.

00:45:26

We did this for the first time last year,

00:45:28

inviting people from all over the globe

00:45:30

to come to Cincinnati for a weekend of vision,

00:45:33

connection, and of understanding

00:45:34

how their unique wiring can allow them

00:45:36

to be the church all over the globe.

00:45:38

And it was it was incredible.

00:45:41

Now we believe in this so deeply,

00:45:43

we'll even help make it happen,

00:45:44

whether that's lodging or covering experiences.

00:45:47

We are so excited about this.

00:45:49

So whether you're single or bringing your family,

00:45:51

whether you're 6, 16 or 65, man,

00:45:55

you will have an incredible time.

00:45:56

And the food and the experiences are all on us.

00:45:59

There's so much more I could say about it,

00:46:00

but head to Crossroads.net/AnywhereWeekend

00:46:03

for all the details and RSVP.

00:46:06

Now, if you've been around church

00:46:09

for any length of time and Peter comes up,

00:46:11

it often has to deal with Peter's failures:

00:46:15

disowning Jesus when he was arrested

00:46:17

or when he walked on the waves,

00:46:19

and then he began to sink

00:46:20

because he took his eyes off Jesus, right?

00:46:23

I think that's in some way because we are,

00:46:26

we as people just tend to be hyper aware

00:46:29

of our own shortcomings and failures. Right?

00:46:32

Isn't this true for you?

00:46:33

For most of us, we can probably think about

00:46:35

the things that we're bad at more quickly

00:46:38

than the things that we're good at.

00:46:41

Now in just a minute,

00:46:42

we're going to take communion.

00:46:44

And oftentimes in church, communion is a time

00:46:46

where we acknowledge our shortcomings

00:46:48

and seek God's forgiveness.

00:46:50

And that is totally appropriate and right

00:46:53

and healthy, but it isn't the whole story.

00:46:58

There's a much bigger through line here,

00:47:00

and I don't want you to miss it.

00:47:02

The story of Jesus' life, His death

00:47:06

and His resurrection is Jesus' love for you.

00:47:10

Jesus died so that you could receive H

00:47:13

is power. The beautiful truth is that

00:47:15

Jesus' power in your life is actually

00:47:17

inseparable from His love for you.

00:47:20

I mean, do you understand really how loved you are?

00:47:23

I mean really, like, not just in your head,

00:47:25

but in your heart?

00:47:26

Do you understand that Jesus loves you,

00:47:29

that He died for you, not someone else, but for you?

00:47:36

Think for a second about the things that you do well.

00:47:40

Maybe you're an artist. Maybe you're funny.

00:47:43

Maybe you're a great friend.

00:47:45

Think about the beauty and how incredible

00:47:47

it is about how your mind works.

00:47:49

Think about how miraculous your body is.

00:47:52

Think about how incredible it is

00:47:54

that you exist at all.

00:47:56

You are so loved

00:48:00

and God puts you where you are for a reason.

00:48:03

He filled you with all kinds of potential

00:48:06

and purpose so that you could receive His loving power.

00:48:11

So wherever you are, it's not an accident.

00:48:14

You are not an accident. It's intentional.

00:48:18

Your family, as imperfect as it is,

00:48:20

your college, your hometown, your personality,

00:48:23

you are a gift to the world.

00:48:26

You are here because you are loved

00:48:28

and you are made to receive God's power,

00:48:31

even with your quirks, with your idiosyncrasies,

00:48:34

with your shortcomings, with your,

00:48:35

I don't know, teeth that are a little crooked,

00:48:37

with your brain that's sometimes a bit forgetful,

00:48:40

but with your heart that wants to do good

00:48:42

and isn't always sure how, you are loved.

00:48:47

So as we take communion, I want us to do this

00:48:49

not just in light of our shortcomings,

00:48:52

but as a celebration of how God loved you

00:48:56

and wanted you back so badly that

00:48:58

He gave up heaven to live on earth

00:49:01

and to go through hell for you.

00:49:04

That's the real story.

00:49:08

That when Jesus met with His friends,

00:49:11

He wanted them to experience His love and power.

00:49:16

And just before He was arrested and murdered,

00:49:19

He held up a piece of bread, maybe like this one,

00:49:22

and said, "Because I love you,

00:49:24

this is My body broken for you.

00:49:28

Take and eat."

00:49:31

You can go ahead and do that now.

00:49:38

And then with His friends all around Him,

00:49:42

He held up wine.

00:49:45

He said, "This is My blood shed for you.

00:49:48

Take and drink." Go ahead and do that now.

00:49:57

Now, this moment, this moment

00:50:01

and this reality is beautiful and incredible.

00:50:04

And it might seem too good to be true.

00:50:07

And yet it is. You are loved.

00:50:10

And it is an absolute tragedy that

00:50:12

anyone has made you feel as if you weren't.

00:50:15

Because Jesus loves you up to

00:50:18

and past the point of death.

00:50:19

That is how much He cares for you.

00:50:22

You might be new to faith, or you might have

00:50:24

gone to church your whole life.

00:50:26

And in either case, the odds are good

00:50:29

that you want and need to experience

00:50:31

more of Jesus' loving power in your life

00:50:34

and to receive that in a fresh way.

00:50:36

And if that's you, I want you

00:50:38

to pray with me right now.

00:50:42

Father, we thank You for the gift of Your Son.

00:50:47

Father, we thank You that You lived a life

00:50:50

that we couldn't live and died a death we deserve,

00:50:52

so that we could be reconnected to You

00:50:55

and Your love and power.

00:51:00

God, help us to fully receive that

00:51:02

in a way that doesn't allow us to stand still,

00:51:04

but fundamentally changes us from the inside out.

00:51:09

Thank You for the gift of Your love.

00:51:12

I will try to stay connected to it

00:51:14

every day of my life moving forward. Amen.

00:51:21

If you prayed something like that

00:51:22

for the first time today, I would love f

00:51:24

or you to just send me an email

00:51:25

at Andy.Reider@crossroads.net.

00:51:27

Or you can chat into D-man and the team online

00:51:30

so that we can pray for you and encourage you

00:51:32

in your life of power with Jesus.

00:51:36

We are not just content to watch.

00:51:39

We are a community in which

00:51:41

you can experience Jesus' love for you,

00:51:44

and to figure out what it looks like

00:51:46

for you to walk in power and in confidence

00:51:49

and in boldness in a way that changes the world.

00:51:53

Pray with me one more time.

00:51:55

Father, thank You for Your power.

00:51:57

Let it change us and let it change the world. Amen.

00:52:04

- This could be one of

00:52:05

the most memorable experiences

00:52:07

you will have in your lifetime.

00:52:09

A chance to see true transformation.

00:52:12

- Yeah. Sometimes we don't know what to do

00:52:15

other than just run to the Father and say,

00:52:18

"Papa, help!" [applause]

00:52:23

Even though we were born wild,

00:52:25

we were also designed to live free.

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