Simple Steps to Refuel and Refresh- Oakley

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- If that was refreshing to you,

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maybe you didn't even know your soul was thirsty,

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maybe you didn't even know it was dry.

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But if that was refreshing to you, good news,

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because we have so much more of that.

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My name is Greg. I'm the community pastor

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at one of our sites here in Oakley.

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And if you're watching online, welcome.

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We're glad you're joining.

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In fact, everyone in Oakley,

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can we welcome everyone online

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who's joining right now? [cheers]

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So honored you're part of our church.

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Just consider me Andy Reider with a haircut

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if that will help you feel at home.

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Labor day is a little bit of a misnomer

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because Labor Day weekend,

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it's the unofficial end of summer.

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And I feel like when you get to Labor Day,

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you're sort of supposed to feel refreshed.

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Didn't we all have a nice summer?

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And if you're a parent

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and you just put any kids back in school,

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refreshed is not in your vocabulary right now.

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It is not.

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Labor day is sort of a pump fake.

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It's like going on vacation with young kids

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and having someone ask you, "Are you rested?"

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You go, "No, no, I'm not rested."

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In this Thirsty series that we've been in,

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we've been talking about what happens

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when we go to broken cisterns,

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what happens when we go to dry wells.

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And we've talked about things like sex

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and pornography and comparison.

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And our goal on this Labor Day weekend,

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whether you came to a site or whether you tuned in,

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was one thing: we want you to have living water.

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We want you to know that Jesus says,

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"I am living water, and whoever drinks from Me

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will never thirst again."

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That's the promise that we're after.

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It's something that we at Crossroads aim for

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all the time, to offer times of refreshment

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for thirsty souls.

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Right now is the time where you can join a group,

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and one of the core aims of a group is that

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you have people around you

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who are regularly refreshing you.

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That is, you go after Jesus together,

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you're refreshed together.

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And there's no better time to find community

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in this place, whether it's an online cohort

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or a group that meets in a site, then next month,

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as these all kick off.

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You can go to crossroads.net

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and find a group that works for you.

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And if there are any men

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who are in need of refreshing,

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the best possible opportunity is coming up

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in just a couple of months, we call it Man Camp.

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400 acres overlooking the Ohio River,

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where thousands of souls, one at a time,

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have been refreshed as they come face to face with Jesus.

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Sign ups for Man Camp our closing this weekend.

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You can go to Crossroads.net to sign up.

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There's a promise that we're going to look at tonight.

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And by the way, if you got a cup,

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either when you came in,

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or if you're watching online,

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it doesn't have to be a plastic cup like this.

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But I'd love for you to get one because

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we're going to wrestle with this empty cup.

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But I promise at the end of tonight your cup

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will be full and you will drink water.

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It's the promise that comes from

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the Gospel of John chapter seven, where it says:

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John says the Holy Spirit is a water carrier,

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and when the Spirit comes, He brings living water

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and He brings refreshment.

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So, God, that's what we're asking You for right now.

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We showed up today because

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we're in need of Your living water.

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And whether our souls are just getting a little dry

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or they're so brittle they could crack,

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we pray that You would refresh us tonight.

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Holy Spirit, come. Amen.

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Why don't we stand on our feet.

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We're going to worship together.

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- Come on.

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If you need more of the Spirit in your life,

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just lift your hands out.

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- Come on. Come on. Let's sing this out.

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- Everything we sing is a response to Him.

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- Maybe you came in today thinking like,

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"I'm exhausted, but I'm just going to --

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I'm going to show up."

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God didn't show up exhausted for you today.

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He never shows up exhausted.

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He came running towards you today.

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He says, "I'll show up for you."

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And so maybe those words are too hard to sing.

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I just invite you to take a risk.

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Take a risk. What have you got to lose?

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You're here. You're online with us.

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You're in the room with us.

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Take a risk and be willing to say, "Okay,

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I'll try to believe that Your goodness

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would actually be running after me,

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not him or her, but me."

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God never grows weary. He never grows tired.

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Try to say it. Try to believe it.

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It's worth the risk.

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- Jesus, I believe that.

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I found it to be true time and time again.

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That You fill my bucket, my heart, my soul,

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like nothing else and no one else.

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So I want everyone, I want everyone

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to sense that tonight, today.

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I want every single one to know You as living water

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because You've been it to me.

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So what it looks like right now for us, God,

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is to say that You can have everything.

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Well, I don't have everything in my pockets right now,

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but what I have is my attention.

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And so I give You my attention

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right here in this moment where I am today,

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to say You have my attention

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and I want to trust You as living water.

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I'm thirsty and I need you.

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I pray all this because of you, Jesus. Amen. Amen.

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- Yeah. Yeah.

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- Hey. So glad that you joined us online.

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Stick around.

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We got some great stuff for you in store.

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And if you're in the room, why don't you

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turn to somebody next to you and just say,

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"Hey, I'm glad to be here with you."

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Then you can have a seat.

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- If you have been tracking with this series

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that we're in, Thirsty, you know,

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some weeks we have worship at the end,

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some weeks we had worship at the beginning.

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I hope you don't mind, but this weekend

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we have worship at the beginning and the end.

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So more of that coming.

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If you're online, I feel like we just met,

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but I apologize for the claim I'm about to make.

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In 2024 I believe that the McElfresh family

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is the least thirsty of any family in America.

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We are the least thirsty.

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I say the McElfresh family.

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I am the sole male of the family.

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I live with four women, my wife and three daughters

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and they are not thirsty

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thanks to one company named Stanley.

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Stanley has been hydrating my wife

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and daughters for nine months now.

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And the photo you can see

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right as I took it last night,

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Kevin, our goldendoodle, jumped up

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in the middle over the couch because

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he also wanted to be in the photo.

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Kevin is his name. Kevin.

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We had two Christmas dogs.

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One was Ralphie from A Christmas Story.

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Kevin, Kevin McCallister.

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And yes, we say his name all the time

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like the movie, "Kevin,"

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is most often how we say Kevin's name.

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Kevin actually doesn't like Stanley's.

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He prefers drinking from the toilet.

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So you should know that about Kevin.

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I don't know what it is about having

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a metal two liter with a handle on it.

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It doesn't fit in their backpack.

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It tips over. They're $40 a piece.

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And now I hear nine months later, the Owala

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is actually the preferential water carrier.

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And so I don't know what we're going to do with these.

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Maybe we'll auction them on eBay or something.

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But I've stopped teasing about the Stanley's.

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I've stopped, and it's because

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when I went on summer vacation,

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I came back with one of these.

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It's not made by Stanley. It's made by Yeti.

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And we call it affectionately my Manly.

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So if you're wondering what a male Stanley looks like,

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it's made by Yeti. It's called the Manly.

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And I, unfortunately, unfortunately,

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it came with a side effect.

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I turned 40 last month.

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I am more hydrated than ever, and I also wake up

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to pee every single night at 4 a.m.

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so I'm not sure if it was a good trade off or not,

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but I recommend the Manly.

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We heard a song at the beginning of our time,

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that man, I'm just wondering, is there anyone else

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who would say they were in a 90s youth group

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and sang As The Deer to an overhead transparency

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in a church basement?

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Because it took me right back.

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That song is actually lifted straight out of Scripture.

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It's going to be a scripture

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we spend just a few minutes in.

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The Psalmist writes this in Psalm 42:1:

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As the deer pants for the water.

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Now, I don't know about you, that imagery

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has never really stood out to me,

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maybe because I knew the song first,

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and so I just sing the lyrics.

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But I've never actually seen a deer pant.

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I've seen a dog pant on a day like today

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where it's in the high 90s and your dog comes in

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wearing a fur parka, they are going to pant.

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But a deer, well, the context of Israel,

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their deer aren't hiding in woods.

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Their deer are in open arid desert landscape.

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And if you see a deer panting, it means that

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this deer has been under attack by a predator.

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It's running for its life.

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And when a deer gets to panting,

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it's a matter of life or death because

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it's in need of refreshment.

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So the Psalmist says, "My soul is so thirsty,

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it's like a matter of life or death.

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My soul is so thirsty, if I don't get water right now,

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the end of my life may be near."

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And I just wonder what that brings up for you.

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What is your deepest longing?

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What's the thing that it feels like

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no matter how much you drink,

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no matter you go to a dry well after dry well,

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your heart still longs for it?

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What is your soul panting for?

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Chances are, if there's a thing that

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came to your mind of something that your soul longs for,

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it's going to be a really easy thing

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that a shiny, broken cistern or dry well

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would be put right in your path because

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there's knowledge of what your soul longs for.

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And so counterfeit after counterfeit

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steal for its attention.

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I'll tell you, for me as a young man,

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I don't know if it's because

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I grew up in a trailer park.

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I don't know if it's because I had grandfathers

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who were businessmen and had ties and shiny shoes,

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but I knew from a really, really young age

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my deepest longing was for a paycheck,

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promotions and praise,

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paycheck, promotion and praise.

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I wanted those things more than anything else.

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I don't know if it's because maybe I wanted

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to show the world someday, "Look who I became."

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I don't know if it's because I wanted to

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do whatever I wanted with the money I made.

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But really, really early,

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I'm talking second grade photo,

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gelled hair, blue Oxford, pink tie.

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I was dressing the part because

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it was a deep longing for me.

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I actually went to a church camp as a teenager,

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gave my life to Jesus at 14,

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and felt called into full time ministry at 15.

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And I went home and I shared

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with some people around me, people who loved me,

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people had my best of intentions and they said,

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"Man, that's great, Greg,

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but you are too smart to go into ministry.

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You should make a lot of money

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and volunteer at a church in your spare time.

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A lot of people do that."

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And I took it as really wise, great counsel,

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and so I shifted my perspective.

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I shifted my perspective.

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And I got great grades in school.

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I got into a to a program that here in Cincinnati,

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a benefactor named Carl Lindner was paying for

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people's full ride business scholarships.

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I didn't pay a dime of college.

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I met my wife there.

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We went through five years,

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international study abroad, co-op,

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the best program there was.

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Graduated magna cum laude, graduated in June,

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got engaged, got married in September,

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bought a house in a prevalent neighborhood

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in Cincinnati and we're making six figures

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with my wife at the age of 23.

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And it was because I was being driven

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by a desire for paycheck and promotion

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and praise of others. And I got all three.

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I got all three.

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This story came back up

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and it was top of mind for me because

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as I was driving to an overnight with my wife

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to celebrate my 40th birthday, said,

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"Hey, we met when we were 19.

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What would it look like if on this couple hour drive,

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what if we try to find a milestone

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from each year that we've been together,

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starting at 19? What do we remember?"

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Oh, we remember that 4th of July trip

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where we saw the fireworks on the National Mall.

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And we got we got to 23, 24 and she was quiet.

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And I'm driving and I say, "Hey, what about these?"

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And she goes, "Those were some of

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the worst years of our life." "Really?"

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She goes, "You don't remember?

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You were miserable. You were miserable.

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You hated the job you were in so much

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that you hated Sunday night because

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you knew Monday morning was coming.

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And before long, you didn't just hate Sunday,

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you hated Saturday.

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And when you're married to someone

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who hates the weekends as well as their job,

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it's not very fun."

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And I just started to go, "Oh, my goodness,

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that's that's right, that's right."

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I remember going on Sunday night

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shopping sprees to Target.

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I have a collection of DVDs that I've never opened

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because I just wanted to buy something

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to show I can do something with this money.

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I can do something with this.

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It doesn't have control over me.

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But I got to tell you, the pursuit of a paycheck,

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the pursuit of promotion,

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the pursuit of the praise of others,

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it did not just have me drinking from an empty well.

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I felt like all that pee had me drinking from the toilet,

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and I was pissing away the best years of my life,

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pissing away the best years of my life

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in pursuit of something that would never satisfy.

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Now, by the grace of God, I was a part of this church.

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I was in a small group.

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We were in a study where a question came up.

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I remember I was sitting in my living room

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and it said, "What is God calling you to surrender?"

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And I felt immediately: your job, your job.

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And then I was flooded with, "Oh, there's no way.

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My family is so proud of me.

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I didn't pay a dime for the education I got.

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I got a job during a recession

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that people would kill to have.

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Not only that, if I quit,

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there's no way I'm going to find one."

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And some very wise people, by the way,

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interesting tidbit, our Lead Pastor Kyle Ranson

00:36:01

was in my living room.

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He said, "That sounds exactly like God.

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That sounds exactly like God because

00:36:06

you're not who he made you to be right now.

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And so if you're feeling like He says that,

00:36:11

we support you."

00:36:12

My wife that evening said, "Hey,

00:36:13

I don't know what this means, but I'm behind you.

00:36:16

I'm behind you."

00:36:17

I think I thought that, well, if I heard from God,

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He's going to like, take this one

00:36:22

and give me a dream job right away. Right?

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Wouldn't that make a great video testimony?

00:36:26

Like, "I heard God, I quit,

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and now He gave me my dream job."

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And that did not happen. It didn't happen.

00:36:32

In fact, I realized no one's hiring.

00:36:35

People would say, "We'd love to hire you,

00:36:36

but we're in a hiring freeze."

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And so I showed up in an atrium of Crossroads,

00:36:42

and I met with someone and said,

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"I don't have a job, but I got a lot of time.

00:36:46

Can you use me? Can you use me?"

00:36:49

They said, "We're going to a student camp tomorrow.

00:36:51

Fill out this background check. You can go."

00:36:53

And it started the beginning of 18 months going

00:36:57

to Wendy's with middle schoolers after service.

00:37:01

Learning that I had a little bit of a leadership gift

00:37:04

and invitations to teach on a stage

00:37:06

and get feedback,

00:37:08

the ability to lead entire services on my own.

00:37:11

I have to tell you that I didn't have a paycheck,

00:37:15

I didn't have a position,

00:37:17

and I was the most refreshed and watered

00:37:19

I had ever been in my life.

00:37:21

It was my first time tasting living water.

00:37:26

It was my first time seeing that all those things that I wanted,

00:37:29

I'd been going to broken wells.

00:37:30

I've been drinking from the toilet

00:37:32

and Jesus was showing me

00:37:33

when you drink from streams of living water,

00:37:35

everything changes.

00:37:37

Now I got to tell you,

00:37:38

I am hesitant to ever share this story.

00:37:41

I'm hesitant because if you're in this room

00:37:44

and you're in a tough spot in your career,

00:37:46

the answer is not quit your job and work at a church.

00:37:49

I don't want that to be the thing that you hear.

00:37:53

And I'll just confess that sometimes

00:37:56

I go back to those Ps.

00:37:58

Sometimes I look around and go, "Wait,

00:38:01

my friend just turned 40

00:38:02

and he has way nicer toys than me.

00:38:05

Did I? Did I jump track too soon?"

00:38:08

Or I look at an authority figure,

00:38:10

like our senior pastor Brian Tome, and I go,

00:38:12

"Does he approve of me?

00:38:14

Does he think I'm doing a great job?

00:38:16

Does he want to do something different about me?"

00:38:18

And when that happens, I remember, "Wait a second,

00:38:22

wait a second. I've been here before."

00:38:26

I love the Psalmist describes it like this, verse 5.

00:38:37

Where is your soul downcast?

00:38:39

Where's your soul feel like

00:38:42

it's so brittle it could break?

00:38:44

Where's the place where your spirit

00:38:46

is discontent within you

00:38:48

and you know it, but you don't know why?

00:38:50

What are we to do?

00:38:52

What are we to do when our soul is downcast,

00:38:54

we thirst after God?

00:38:56

Well, I'll just keep reading

00:38:57

because verse 5 continues like this, it says:

00:39:08

Hope in God. Hope in God.

00:39:12

I got to tell you that being on a stage

00:39:16

at a church feels like a pat answer.

00:39:18

Okay. Hope in God.

00:39:19

But how do I do that? How do I do that?

00:39:21

I don't know if you notice the language of the Psalmist,

00:39:23

but he's not preaching to someone else.

00:39:25

He's preaching to himself.

00:39:27

So why are you downcast?

00:39:29

Why are you so downtrodden?

00:39:32

Hope in God. Hope in God.

00:39:34

Fix your gaze. Put it back where it belongs.

00:39:38

Earlier this year, I picked up running

00:39:42

mainly because I knew I was 40.

00:39:45

I knew I needed to lose some weight,

00:39:46

and people take very unflattering photos

00:39:48

of me on stage.

00:39:49

And so I thought, I've got to fix this once and for all.

00:39:53

And so I started running.

00:39:54

And I did it at first and I hated it.

00:39:57

And the more I did it, the more I actually thought,

00:39:59

"Man, I like this, I crave that sort of

00:40:02

I'm not really thinking about anything."

00:40:03

I love being outside.

00:40:05

I hate being on a treadmill.

00:40:06

I love running outside.

00:40:08

And last week, Justin, who you just heard

00:40:11

lead some worship, Justin did a triathlon.

00:40:15

This man did a triathlon.

00:40:16

He biked and swim and ran and lived to tell about it.

00:40:20

So I thought, I'm curious how fast I can run a mile.

00:40:24

So I put my shoes on and I ran out of my house

00:40:26

onto the sidewalk, and I set my watch

00:40:28

and I just started running.

00:40:29

I just started running.

00:40:31

I thought, "Okay, I can keep this.

00:40:33

I can keep this pace."

00:40:34

And like halfway I thought, "Oh no,

00:40:36

I started way too fast. I started way too fast."

00:40:38

And by 0.9 miles I was literally preaching to myself,

00:40:42

"Greg, you can do this.

00:40:43

I know it hurts.

00:40:44

I know you want to stop, but you can do this.

00:40:47

You've been running all year. Don't give up.

00:40:49

You know at that tree, your watch is going to beep

00:40:51

and it's going to tell you you made it to one mile.

00:40:53

Keep going, keep going."

00:40:55

That's what I had to do to run.

00:40:57

That's what you have to do to your soul

00:40:59

when it drinks from the wrong place,

00:41:01

when you find yourself drinking from a broken well,

00:41:07

when you find yourself drinking from a dry cystern.

00:41:10

The Psalmist says you have one option,

00:41:13

it's to put your hope in God.

00:41:17

That's why Jesus says, "I am the living water."

00:41:21

Jesus doesn't say something that

00:41:23

you get one time and then you're done.

00:41:25

He uses the thing that He knows we need on a daily basis,

00:41:29

or else we will not survive.

00:41:31

Jesus says, "No, I'm the living water

00:41:34

and you're to drink to me."

00:41:35

What does the Psalmist say?

00:41:36

"Again, I put my praise in You,"

00:41:38

again and again and again, because after this

00:41:42

I'm going to step off the stage and I'm going,

00:41:44

"Man, I hope, I hope I have the praise of others,

00:41:46

I hope I do." I go," Wait a second.

00:41:48

Don't drink from that.

00:41:49

Don't drink from the toilet again.

00:41:51

Fix your eyes on Jesus. Put your hope here."

00:41:54

Jesus is the only way that we can put our hope

00:41:56

in a place that will never disappoint.

00:41:59

And I've just been reminded time and time again.

00:42:02

You really want to fixate on a paycheck

00:42:05

because you went 18 months without

00:42:07

and God was a provider that you could have never matched.

00:42:10

Do you really want to go after a promotion

00:42:12

because your Bible says that He chose you

00:42:15

before the foundation of the world was laid?

00:42:17

He calls you holy and blameless, and He calls you a son.

00:42:21

Why would I go after the eyes of men

00:42:24

when that's what my Father says about me?

00:42:26

And so I want to give you an opportunity

00:42:31

to not just know what the longing of your heart is,

00:42:36

to not just look at the dry well

00:42:40

that you've been drinking from,

00:42:41

but to actually take your hope

00:42:44

and to put it back where it belongs,

00:42:47

to fix your eyes on Jesus.

00:42:51

Justin and I went to student camp together,

00:42:54

and we did this song. - Yeah.

00:42:57

- And it it sort of wrecked us.

00:42:59

- It did. Just like sort of your world changed

00:43:03

in middle school ministry years ago.

00:43:05

About a month ago, we were at middle school camp.

00:43:07

And I tell you, we've said it from the stage

00:43:10

a bunch of times, but what's happening

00:43:12

in our student ministries across our church

00:43:13

is amazing.

00:43:14

And we got to stand in an arena and hear

00:43:17

a thousand middle schoolers just

00:43:19

sing the name of Jesus, sing the name of Jesus.

00:43:23

And I had never heard this song before

00:43:25

and thought, "Oh man, it's just so simple.

00:43:28

It's so good."

00:43:29

And then why I'm going to play it here

00:43:32

in this moment is because a few weeks ago,

00:43:34

it was over in our chapel.

00:43:36

I don't know if you knew Crossroads had a chapel.

00:43:38

That sounds very not like us.

00:43:40

- It is a beautiful chapel. - It's beautiful.

00:43:42

And we were just around the piano,

00:43:45

singing songs and singing this song.

00:43:48

And it was a friend who said, "Hey,

00:43:50

that week that's coming up on Living Water,

00:43:53

where we just want to give our people living water,

00:43:57

that song has to be played."

00:43:58

So that's why we're going to play it.

00:44:00

That's what we're doing.

00:44:01

- Whether you're watching or you're in a room,

00:44:04

you may not be ready to proclaim this name,

00:44:07

you may not be ready to sing it or to even say it,

00:44:11

but I believe that there's power

00:44:12

in it even being sung over you.

00:44:16

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

00:49:18

- It is as simple as that.

00:49:21

It is as simple as that as when your soul is thirsty,

00:49:24

when your soul is downcast,

00:49:27

to put your hope back in Him,

00:49:29

to fix your eyes on Jesus.

00:49:33

As part of this Thirsty series,

00:49:36

they they made a funny video.

00:49:38

They would ask if some of the community pastors

00:49:40

would participate in.

00:49:41

And maybe you've seen these viral videos,

00:49:43

but there's a box with hidden liquids,

00:49:46

beverages, and straws sticking out of the box.

00:49:49

And you have to take a drink and guess what it is?

00:49:52

I did not want to do this,

00:49:53

but I participated anyway.

00:49:55

And the first one really took me by surprise.

00:49:59

I didn't know what it was.

00:50:01

The second one. Okay, this tastes a little chalky.

00:50:04

And by the third I went, "Oh right, we're thirsty.

00:50:07

The funny commercial we're doing energy drinks.

00:50:09

Right, right. Energy drinks."

00:50:11

So I went for the fourth and I took a big swig

00:50:15

and I about spit it out and said,

00:50:16

"Oh my gosh, what is that?

00:50:18

It's awful. It's terrible."

00:50:20

They said, "Are you serious?" I said, "Yeah."

00:50:22

They said, "It's just water. It's just plain water."

00:50:28

I think the analogy holds true though,

00:50:30

because when we're so used to drinking

00:50:34

from the false source, we don't even know

00:50:37

what living water tastes like anymore.

00:50:39

We don't even know what Jesus can do for our soul

00:50:43

because we've been drinking from the toilet.

00:50:47

I can put a bowl of ice water in front of my dog,

00:50:50

or I can leave the lid open

00:50:52

and I know what he will choose every time.

00:50:55

Don't do the same thing.

00:50:57

Don't do the same thing.

00:50:58

Because Jesus says, "I am living water

00:51:01

and I can refresh you.

00:51:02

I can make streams of living water come out of you.

00:51:05

You can refresh others who are in need."

00:51:08

And so right now, whether you're at home

00:51:12

and you've got a cup or whether you're in here

00:51:13

and you have one of these, we want you to taste

00:51:17

cold, refreshing, delicious water.

00:51:22

At home you can fill it up with any ice water,

00:51:25

whatever would quench your thirst.

00:51:27

And in this room we've got

00:51:29

beautiful vessels of water

00:51:31

across the front of the stage

00:51:32

and the backs of the room.

00:51:34

And we're going to continue to worship.

00:51:36

And if at any time you go,"

00:51:39

I need some living water.

00:51:41

Jesus, I'm going to step out

00:51:44

and I'm going to come to You because

00:51:45

You're the only one that can satisfy."

00:51:50

Lord, I pray that as we drink

00:51:53

this cold, refreshing, crisp water,

00:51:58

the way that it feels going down into our chest,

00:52:03

that it would feel like a fresh filling

00:52:05

of Your Holy Spirit, and that Y

00:52:07

our Holy Spirit would bring streams of living water.

00:52:13

Amen.

00:52:14

Let's stand up as we worship again.

01:05:00

- We've only got an hour more, so...

01:05:02

We don't. Here's what we got.

01:05:10

I'll take you right back to Jesus's words

01:05:12

in John 7 Jesus said this to you and to me:

01:05:19

If anyone thirsts, let them come to Me and drink.

01:05:25

For whoever believes in me,

01:05:28

just as the Scripture has said,

01:05:30

out of your heart will flow rivers of living water.

01:05:34

It's a promise of our Savior and our King,

01:05:39

and our fountain that never runs dry.

01:05:42

I hope you walk out of here with a full cup today.

01:05:49

In the name of Jesus, I bless you as you go.

01:05:51

Have a great week.

01:05:53

Glad you're with us online. We'll see you all.

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