You Are What You (Digitally) Eat

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- When despair for the world grows in me

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and I wake in the night at the least sound,

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I go and lie down where the wood drake rests [cat]

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his beauty on the water and the great heron feeds. [videos]

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Come to the peace of wild things

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who do not tax their -- [background sounds build]

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- Distracted yet?

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What would our lives look like

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if we took a break from all this,

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the 24 hour news cycle

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and doomscrolling ourselves to death?

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How would our lives be better if we made space

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for talking and dancing and laughing with each other

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until we pee our pants?

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God wants us to experience a full life,

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but our distractions are getting in the way.

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It's time to kill the noise and listen for God's voice

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echo through the pages of the Bible.

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Let's unplug.

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Unplug from digital distractions

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and plug into the real life God has for us.

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- Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads.

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We're so glad that you're here. Hey, my name is Andy Ryder.

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I lead our Crossroads Anywhere community.

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That's folks meeting all over the globe,

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not in buildings like this one.

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We're so glad you're here with us.

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This is my friend Jen. - Hey, I'm Jen Mead.

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I am on our Crossroads Women team.

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- That's right, and we are in the 4th week

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of a series called Unplug.

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We're sort of resetting how we relate

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to our digital devices, in particular our phones.

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But the goal with all of this is really

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to just acknowledge the fact that

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everything that we tap, swipe, watch,

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listen to, it all is shaping us in some way,

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and we want to take a good look at

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if it's shaping us into the kind of people

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that we want to be and that God designed us to be.

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- That's right.

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We just want to turn down the noise,

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remove some of the distractions,

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and see what God might have for us.

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- All right, come on.

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Let's bring some energy in this room.

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Hands up everywhere. Come on.

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- God, You are the one thing,

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the one thing in this world that's worthy of

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our affection and attention and praise.

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You're the only one worthy of it

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because You are the creator of it all.

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You know all.

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You know us better than we know ourselves.

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So it only makes sense, God,

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it only makes sense for us to come with hands open

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and hearts that are curious of who You are

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and what You want from us in this life.

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Why? Because You created life itself.

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Life doesn't come from us.

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It didn't originate from us.

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So our thoughts on our own, our ideas are not our own.

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God, You want to be Lord of it all.

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So in this moment right now, God, I say, have it all.

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I say flood my mind, flood my thoughts, give me Yours.

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Not the ones I've created aside from You.

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Not the ideas and the plans that I've made

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and not consulted You about, God

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but would you give me, would You give us

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Your thoughts, Your desires?

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Because those desires are great for us,

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whether we see it and know it or not.

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God, You're faithful. You're good.

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And we choose today to lean in and trust You more.

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Thank You, Father. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.

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Come on.

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Y'all, I gotta stop closing my eyes when I pray,

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because I felt like I was about to head off the stage there.

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It's so fun being with y'all.

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Hey, find somebody next to you

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and give 'em a good handshake.

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Tell 'em your name, if you don't know 'em already.

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We're all family here.

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And then you can have a seat.

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- So we are in full swing into our 40 Day Digital Reset.

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We're trying to remove distraction and replace it

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with things that help us thrive and grow

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and be more healthy and experience more of God.

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Now I know we're just started, but how has it been for you?

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- Well, I grew up Catholic,

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so Lent is a thing that I've experienced,

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the 40 days of sacrificing something.

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- Fish fries?

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- Yes. No meat.

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So as -- what I do now is, I take the time

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that I typically would be watching a show at night

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or doing something else digitally,

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and I replace that with the Bible.

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So I've been spending time reading

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and God always has something for me

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when I just switch up my time and it's been great.

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- Oh, that's so good.

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How's it been for your family? You've got young kids.

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- Family is harder.

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We've got four kids under the six and under.

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And so the TV and screens can be helpful for us.

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- Free babysitting, yep, I understand.

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- So, but we just kicked it off last night,

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and we did no screens at night, and we had,

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like, a tent going, and the kids were so good.

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Andy, like, I don't know. It was magical.

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But like, we had Spider-Man's birthday party

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under the tent and a lot of things happening.

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And so it was really sweet time

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that we're having as a family,

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and we're going to be talking about God more

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through all those times, too.

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And so we're excited to see what God does.

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- That's fantastic.

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- And we know there's going to be fighting,

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but we're you know --

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- Sure, but it'll be analog fighting.

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No, there's something cool that happens when we --

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It's not just about, like, removing something.

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It's about replacing that with something else,

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something better.

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And so it's not just about removing TV,

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it's about having more time together as a family.

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And similarly, it's not just about removing

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doomscrolling or whatever, as helpful as that might be,

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but it's replacing some of those behaviors

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with things that intentionally tee us up to get more of God.

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And one of those that's coming up starting,

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we've never done this before, but this is going to be

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Monday night prayer meetings at all of our locations

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and online, 7 p.m. eastern.

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We're going to have Monday night prayer meetings.

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This is not the time for us to come and receive prayer.

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This is the time for us to lean in and say,

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"God, we want You to show up and do something special

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in our home and our family and our neighborhoods

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and our city and our region

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and our community across the globe."

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That's what we're doing, and we do it

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with the knowledge that every major movement of God

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throughout history has been preceded by people

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faithfully and diligently praying.

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And we're leaning into that ourselves.

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Yeah, I was actually just in a meeting

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planning for these prayer meetings.

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And actually, something came up that you

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and Crossroads Women have been doing for over a year.

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- Yes, we have been doing monthly online prayer meetings,

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praying for our Crossroads Women Ministry specifically.

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So one of the things that we've been praying for

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on a regular basis is the Ignite Conference.

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This is our second year for

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an all women's conference at Crossroads.

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- Second year because the first year sold out completely, right?

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- Well, yeah, and we want this to be an annual thing.

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It sold out completely, so this year

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we're at Crossroads East Side.

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We'll have seats for over 2000 women.

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And we're so excited.

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We want to invite the women in

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our Anywhere community also into community,

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into relationships with other women

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who are on mission for the Kingdom of God.

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- Love it. Speakers from all over.

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Alli Patterson will be hosting the conference.

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It's going to be amazing and just like any conference,

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we'd love for you to travel.

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Make it happen. It will be worth your time.

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- Absolutely. Yeah, we're going to have on our website

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go to crossroads.net/ignite.

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That's where you can learn all of the details,

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you can get registered for the conference.

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And we're going to have hotel room blocks

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and all the things for those traveling from out of town.

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So we really hope to see you there.

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It's going to be a powerful weekend.

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- Love it.

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So all these things, whether it's Ignite once a year,

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whether it's Lent kind of for a season,

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these are all different ways that we just

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communicate to God, "We want more of You in our lives,

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and we want to trust You and we want You to move.

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We want You to move in our families and in our cities."

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Now, there's another way that we actually do this

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that's not once a year, it's not for a season,

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it's not even monthly or seasonally.

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It's consistently. And that's through giving.

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And that makes all this stuff possible.

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And if you're one of the faithful people

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who makes this stuff happen, I should say

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we're thankful for your trust and, man,

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thankful that you are believing God's going to move in that way.

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And if you maybe have questions or feel like

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I want to learn to trust God with

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a new part of my life financially,

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more information for you at crossroads.net/give.

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Now that's it from us.

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We're going to jump back in with the Digital Reset.

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[indistinguishable media playing]

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Thus saith the Lord, "Awake, O sleeper,

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and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you."

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"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord,

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"plans for welfare and not for evil,

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to give you a future and a hope."

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"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

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I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."

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"I am the good shepherd.

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The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

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"But you will receive power

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when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

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And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,

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and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the earth."

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"And I heard the voice of the Lord saying,

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'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?'

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Then I said, 'Here I am. Send me.'"

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- Would you pray with me?

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God, that's our prayer.

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We want to wake up to Your voice in our lives.

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We recognize that too often other distractions

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have come in and drowned you out.

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We're asking that for the rest of our time today,

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You would speak to each one of us individually,

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that You would call us closer to You,

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to become more like You.

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Thank you for the invitation to wake up. Amen. Amen.

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Well, welcome to Crossroads, everybody.

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Welcome. My name is Kyle.

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I'm our Lead Pastor, if we've never met before.

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Pumped that you're with us.

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Excited for this message wrapping up a series today.

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By the way, if you're part of Crossroads

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and part of our 10X Push,

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I'm going to give you some updates later on

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I think are going to encourage you.

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If you're brand new, you're joining us

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for the very last week of a series we're calling Unplug,

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which is all about asking the question

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what happens if we unplug from technology?

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It's the last week of this series.

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Next week, we start a brand new series

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about going full Amish.

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How to grow a beard.

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Make your own butter.

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Cobble your own shoes.

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I'm just kidding.

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Now, this series is not about being Amish.

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It's not that.

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It's not about rejecting technology out of hand.

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It's saying what would happen

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if instead of technology taking life from us,

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it gave life to us? What might that look like?

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We started a 40 day digital fast as a church

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on Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, this past week,

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lines up with Lent.

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Lent is a super old tradition, going back

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all the way to the second century,

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about 100 years after the first followers of Jesus

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this tradition started.

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In the year 325 Council of Nicaea

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it was officialized as 40 days.

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Why did I tell you this boring history facts?

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It's so you know there is a deep stream

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of 2000 years almost, of people like you,

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using this exact time that we're in right now

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to conform to Christ.

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Now, the way that it works is really simple.

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You can jump into, by the way,

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if you haven't already jumped into the fast, not too late.

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We've got an amazing landing page for you

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Crossroads.net/unplug.

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Lots of resources to use.

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Again, you're like, "That's on the web.

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Aren't we supposed to get rid of technology?"

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No, we're supposed to use it differently, that's what it is.

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Lots of great resources there.

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Pick whatever, however you want for your fast.

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You could stop social media.

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You could get rid of the news.

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You could chuck your phone in the river.

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It doesn't really matter to me.

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Whatever you want to do is fine.

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I have given up social media,

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and I've also paused my research.

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And my research, if you didn't know,

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it focuses a lot right now on the tools

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I probably need for woodworking on YouTube.

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Just kind of researching gadgets that I might need.

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It's online shopping is what it is.

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So pausing that.

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You can do whatever you want to.

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I'd love to have you join, again, not too late

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for you to jump into that along with us.

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The question to ask, though, is

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why would a church do a digital fast?

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We all know these things are bad for us, right?

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And we all know that.

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But donuts are bad for us too

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and we're not doing a fast from donuts.

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And in fact, I promise you, as long as

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I'm your Lead Pastor here at Crossroads,

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we will never, never do a donut fast. Never. Promise.

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Unless the tariffs on donuts get out of control,

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and then we might have to.

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Now, why are digital fast?

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Why would we do that?

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Because it turns out that this,

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as new as we think it is, is actually very, very old.

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This is one of the oldest pieces of technology

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on record, dates all the way back to ancient Greece

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and ancient Egypt, where it was developed

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almost simultaneously 4500 years ago.

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This thing turns out to be something, you know, a fork.

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Why do I say that?

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Because you use it to consume things

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that have a much bigger impact on you

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than donuts do on your waistline.

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When you use it to consume fear, you become fearful.

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When you use it to consume outrage,

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you become a person who's constantly outraged.

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When you use it to consume judgment, you become judgmental.

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It's a consumption tool.

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And the end of this series turns out

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it's not actually about technology.

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This is a series about becoming and consuming

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because what you consume is who you become.

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And the primary focus of Jesus is not actually

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how you're behaving, it's who you're becoming.

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I love how the great theologian Dallas Willard put it.

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He said:

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A lot of us have different church backgrounds,

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come from different places.

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You might be like, "No, I thought God's goal was

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to get me to like, do good behavior,

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like become a more moral person."

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Um, no, not actually. That's good.

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Let's become more moral. That's great.

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Let's do the good things and stop the bad things.

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But that's not God's end ultimate goal for you.

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It's not the ultimate destination

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He has for your life,

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aka, your destiny.

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He says that your destiny is to be conformed

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into the image of His Son, into the image of Jesus.

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Romans 8:29 says:

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Last week, Chuck talked about Romans 12:2,

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four chapters later, and at the idea of

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not being conformed to the patterns of this world.

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Yes, don't be conformed to the patterns of this world,

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but that sits in the context of four chapters earlier,

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Paul saying, "Do be conformed.

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Absolutely be conformed to Christ."

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It's the destiny God has for you.

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I think one of the biggest sins a church can commit

00:31:58

is to make following Jesus,

00:32:00

the life of being a Christian sounds safe and boring.

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I'll just tell you, if the longer you follow Jesus,

00:32:08

the more safe and the more boring your life is getting,

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you're doing it wrong because

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that's not being conformed to Jesus.

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Because the longer His life went on,

00:32:15

it didn't get more safe, it didn't get more boring,

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it got more dangerous and therefore more impactful

00:32:21

to the point where He goes to the Cross,

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He defeats death.

00:32:24

And 2000 years later, you and I are in a room

00:32:27

or watching online and still learning about Him

00:32:29

and trying to follow Him.

00:32:30

Said simply, He changed the world.

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And to be conformed to His image

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means to become a world changer.

00:32:37

God wants you to be that way.

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He wants you to change the world, and not just Him.

00:32:41

He actually says that all of creation,

00:32:44

everything you see around you, every person,

00:32:47

all of creation is waiting for you to say yes

00:32:51

to being conformed to Christ.

00:32:53

It says this in Romans 8:19, it says:

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Who waits? All of creation, all of creation waits.

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For who? The children of God, which is you, which is me.

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And it's not some of us, it's not the special ones,

00:33:22

it's all of us, God says all of creation is waiting.

00:33:27

That's why our Crossroads mission statement

00:33:28

reads the way that it does. You might not know it.

00:33:30

Maybe you're new or you've been around a while

00:33:32

and you've never seen it.

00:33:34

We don't trot it out all that often.

00:33:35

We do take it very, very seriously, it's:

00:33:41

Not who are becoming more safe and more unnoteworthy. No.

00:33:46

Who are changing the world.

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See, the truth is, though, unless we become like Christ,

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unless we're conformed to His image,

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when we get to the world we have

00:33:55

absolutely nothing to offer it.

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We must become like Jesus.

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That's the pattern, becoming is the process

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of consuming what will, over time conform you to Christ.

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That's why this fast is a complete waste of time.

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If you don't replace the time you spend

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consuming crap on your phone

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with time spent consuming what will conform you to Christ,

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it's a complete waste of time.

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Because the truth is, none of us are going to

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accidentally become like Jesus.

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I've never woken up in the morning and been like,

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"Oh, I think I'm more loving.

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I just went to bed less loving

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and then I woke up more loving.

00:34:41

I went to bed more judgmental.

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And then I woke up and I'm less judgmental.

00:34:46

Oh my gosh, this is amazing."

00:34:47

No, you don't accidentally grow physically,

00:34:51

get stronger, get healthier.

00:34:53

You don't accidentally grow financially.

00:34:55

You don't accidentally grow spiritually.

00:34:57

It takes a process of conforming.

00:35:00

See, the world and God have very different ideas

00:35:03

of how you become who you're meant to be.

00:35:05

The world says that the way you become

00:35:07

who you're meant to be is a process

00:35:09

of discovering and uncovering your true self.

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It's not what God says.

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He says the process of becoming who you're meant to be

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is a process of consuming and conforming

00:35:20

to the image of Jesus.

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It's not just simply reading the Bible,

00:35:25

it's doing the Bible. It's letting it saturate.

00:35:28

It's bending your life, conforming who you are to it.

00:35:30

It's prayer and gratitude and scripture reading

00:35:32

and serving and generosity.

00:35:34

It's all those, it's doing those things, becoming like Him.

00:35:38

There's an easier way

00:35:40

to probably frame this entire concept.

00:35:43

You are what you eat. That's it.

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You absolutely, you are what you eat.

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And my question for you today is what are you eating?

00:35:55

What are you conforming to? What are you eating?

00:35:58

I've eaten some interesting things recently in my life.

00:36:00

I took a trip to Nepal recently. More on that later.

00:36:03

And when you go to Nepal, a lot of people get sick

00:36:07

because of the stuff that they eat, actually.

00:36:09

And I noticed this.

00:36:10

We do Go trips to Nepal.

00:36:11

I noticed many people come back sick.

00:36:13

And so in my pre-trip meeting I asked the leader.

00:36:15

I said, "Hey, just kind of roughly, like,

00:36:17

what percent of people who go to Nepal get sick?"

00:36:21

And she was like, Well, -- all of them,

00:36:24

everybody, all the time."

00:36:27

And I was like, "Okay, well, I would like to not get sick.

00:36:31

So, you know what might I do to to not get sick?"

00:36:33

And by the way, like when I say sick, it's a --

00:36:35

It's a both end. It's like a boom.

00:36:37

Like a explosive both ender

00:36:39

I think is the medical condition that you get.

00:36:43

So, I don't want that to happen to me. What can I do?

00:36:45

She said, "Well, two things.

00:36:47

People get sick because of what they eat.

00:36:49

So one, avoid anything weird.

00:36:53

And two, don't eat anything washed in water."

00:36:57

Like, easy. I can totally do that. I'll survive.

00:37:00

And then I found myself here

00:37:02

on the floor of a rural village leader's house,

00:37:06

where he offered me a local delicacy.

00:37:08

Something very, very special. He was very excited to offer us.

00:37:11

It was this: a bowl of frog.

00:37:15

I know you're like isn't that green beans up there?

00:37:17

No, that's chopped up frog.

00:37:18

That's little bits of frog. Not just any frog.

00:37:21

Dehydrated frog that had been rehydrated in water.

00:37:26

So let me think about this.

00:37:27

Something weird. Check, frog.

00:37:29

Something washed in water.

00:37:31

I mean, frog lives in water, so, yeah,

00:37:32

definitely touched the water

00:37:34

and then rehydrated with more water. Absolutely.

00:37:36

So did I eat it?

00:37:38

Before I answer that question, let me tell you

00:37:40

two things about me, very important to know.

00:37:43

Number 1, I have the opposite of irritable bowel syndrome.

00:37:46

My stomach is an ironclad trash can.

00:37:49

You could put the nuclear waste from Chernobyl

00:37:52

inside of my stomach, I'd process it'd be awesome.

00:37:55

Maybe I should do that for the world.

00:37:56

I should just eat it all up. It's amazing.

00:37:58

And number 2, I what my wife describes as overly confident.

00:38:05

And so when offered the frog, I was like,

00:38:08

"Heck yeah, man, when in Rome, you know, when in Nepal.

00:38:12

Eat the frog." I absolutely ate it.

00:38:13

Frog is very green, if you've never eaten frog.

00:38:16

There was no napkins.

00:38:17

I had my shoes off, white socks on.

00:38:19

You know the, like the fresh green spring grass stain

00:38:24

you would get as a kid, you'd slide on the grass,

00:38:26

you'd get this amazing neon green thing down your leg?

00:38:30

That's what I had on my socks as I wiped my hands on my socks.

00:38:33

I mean, just frog bits everywhere.

00:38:35

Super, super gross, super crazy.

00:38:37

Now, amazingly, did I get sick?

00:38:40

No. I didn't. I know, I know, right?

00:38:44

I was as shocked as you guys are. Crazy. Crazy.

00:38:47

It had no effect on me.

00:38:49

And I bring that up because I think many of us

00:38:54

think that there's a couple of special things about us,

00:38:56

that we have an iron clad mind,

00:38:59

that we have an iron clad heart.

00:39:01

And I think if I could just say

00:39:03

maybe we're a little bit overly confident about that.

00:39:05

I'll just admit that when it comes to what I consume,

00:39:09

the news I take on, the information I take in,

00:39:12

what I consume with this fork,

00:39:13

I don't have an ironclad mind.

00:39:16

I don't have an ironclad heart.

00:39:17

It actually does affect me, deeply, deeply affects me.

00:39:22

In fact, what tends to happen with me is

00:39:24

I think what happens with you is that

00:39:25

it kind of puts me to sleep

00:39:27

to whatever God is doing in my day,

00:39:28

whatever God's doing around me in my life,

00:39:30

whatever God wants me to be engaged

00:39:31

with the people around me,

00:39:32

it just kind of puts me to sleep.

00:39:34

And that's not an accident.

00:39:35

It's actually an act of war.

00:39:37

Because the Bible says that you and I have an enemy,

00:39:39

and the enemy's strategy is pretty simple

00:39:42

and pretty ingenious, if you think about it.

00:39:44

He's like, "You know, I think I can win this war

00:39:46

if I just put the other side to sleep,

00:39:49

get them to not even fight the battle."

00:39:51

That's what's happening in our world today.

00:39:54

Week one of the series Brian read this verse, Ephesians 5:14:

00:40:04

Here's the very next words, it says:

00:40:16

Now that phrase making the best use of the time,

00:40:19

that's actually a Greek verb.

00:40:21

And the verb is redeem.

00:40:24

To redeem the time is the call of Paul who wrote these words.

00:40:29

Redeem the time. What does that mean?

00:40:31

Well, redemption is the process of

00:40:33

taking something of less value

00:40:36

and exchanging it for something of greater value.

00:40:39

So I take my worthless paper coupon to Chick-fil-A

00:40:43

and they give me a free chicken sandwich.

00:40:45

God bless America. Amazing.

00:40:47

Redemption is beautiful, right?

00:40:49

Well, Paul says do this with your time.

00:40:52

Take the time God's given you.

00:40:54

Stop exchanging it for something of lesser value

00:40:57

and exchange it for something of greater value,

00:40:59

something that will conform you to the image of Jesus.

00:41:02

Do that. Use it to conform to Christ

00:41:05

in order to transform the world.

00:41:08

This is why, for us Ransons, we've been weird

00:41:10

when it comes to our time spent with technology

00:41:13

for a very long time, much longer than this Digital Fast.

00:41:16

We've been very, very weird because we know

00:41:18

that what we consume will conform us.

00:41:20

And so we've had limits in our house. Limits personally.

00:41:24

Some examples for me personally.

00:41:26

Every day when I wake up,

00:41:27

I very intentionally do not open this.

00:41:31

I don't do that.

00:41:32

This is not, I don't wake up, check the news.

00:41:35

I don't wake up, check text messages.

00:41:37

The very first thing I do is I spend time with God.

00:41:41

I go downstairs, I sit, I pray, I think about Him.

00:41:45

And then when I do open this, I open the Crossroads app

00:41:48

and I read scripture and I meditate on God's Word,

00:41:50

and I let it change me and shape my day.

00:41:52

Why do I do that?

00:41:54

Well, it's because the Bible says

00:41:55

thou shalt not look at thy phone first.

00:41:57

No, it doesn't say that.

00:41:58

No, that's not why I do it.

00:42:00

I do it because I know that the first thing in

00:42:03

in the day is the thing that's likely to stick with me

00:42:06

and shape the entire rest of my day.

00:42:08

And I don't want that to be whatever headlines on the news.

00:42:11

I don't want that to be whatever Instagram feeds me.

00:42:13

I want that to be what God feeds me,

00:42:15

because what I consume is who I become.

00:42:19

We've also been weird with our kids because

00:42:21

we know the same thing is true about them,

00:42:23

what they consume is who they will become.

00:42:25

And so we've had guardrails up that make us very, very weird.

00:42:28

And let me just say, parents, if you're in here,

00:42:30

if you need this permission, you're allowed to be weird

00:42:33

when it comes to technology.

00:42:34

In fact, if you're not weird

00:42:36

in the way you parent with technology,

00:42:38

you're just the same.

00:42:39

And I think all the headlines you would ever read

00:42:41

would say you don't want to be the same.

00:42:43

In our house you don't get a phone

00:42:45

until the summer before eighth grade.

00:42:47

That means that in your friend group,

00:42:49

you are the last person to get a phone.

00:42:51

And I'll just tell you, my kids love that. Love it.

00:42:56

Of course not.

00:42:58

My son would go to Crossroads Students

00:43:00

and they'd put up QR codes for camp and whatever,

00:43:02

and he'd come out of that and be like,

00:43:03

"Dad, I need a phone.

00:43:04

I can't even do church because I don't have a phone.

00:43:06

I can't scan the QR code."

00:43:08

I was like, "Oh, that sucks to be you, buddy,

00:43:10

cause you're not gonna get one. Too bad."

00:43:12

We also, another thing that's weird,

00:43:15

I highly encourage this, parents, highly encourage this.

00:43:17

My son's phone has a bedtime,

00:43:20

and it's bedtime is before his bedtime,

00:43:22

and it goes to bed in my room, not his.

00:43:24

Highly encourage that.

00:43:26

And starts an example that you set as a parent too.

00:43:29

You can't just put the the limits on your kids.

00:43:31

"Hey, you want you to know I learned at church today

00:43:33

that what you consume is who you become,

00:43:36

and so we're going to put your phone away,"

00:43:37

and then you just be on your phone. No.

00:43:39

It has to start with you.

00:43:41

And for me, most of the time, most days

00:43:45

my phone is on Do Not Disturb. Why?

00:43:48

Because the opposite of do not disturb

00:43:51

is please disturb me.

00:43:53

Think about it for a minute.

00:43:54

If your phone had a setting called Please Disturb Me,

00:43:57

would you ever click it?

00:43:58

No, but that's its default.

00:44:02

And what I recognize in my life is that I'm not God.

00:44:05

I cannot be always disturb able.

00:44:07

I cannot be always accessible.

00:44:09

I have 622 unread text messages right now.

00:44:13

That makes some of you sweat.

00:44:14

You're like, "Oh my gosh, the red button

00:44:15

with the number inside, you just see that?"

00:44:17

Yeah, I do. It doesn't bother me.

00:44:19

By the way, if you put on Do Not Disturb,

00:44:21

you don't even see that red thing. It's perfect.

00:44:23

It's amazing.

00:44:24

I refuse to be always accessible. Refuse.

00:44:27

I want Christ to conform me,

00:44:30

not the expectations of technology.

00:44:32

I want Jesus to conform me.

00:44:34

We have an amazing research team here at Crossroads,

00:44:36

a couple staff and an amazing large team of volunteers

00:44:39

who do world class research.

00:44:40

They surveyed thousands of people and found out

00:44:43

that the number one thing that will conform you to Jesus

00:44:46

is spending time with Him individually, one on one,

00:44:49

every single day by reading your Bible,

00:44:51

praying, and practicing gratitude.

00:44:53

Those are the three core exercises

00:44:54

inside the Crossroads app, by the way.

00:44:56

The number one thing.

00:44:57

In fact, they found if you'll just do that once a month,

00:45:00

it'll grow you and conform you to look like Jesus

00:45:03

more than anything else you could possibly do.

00:45:05

And so I'm just going to ask you what would happen if you took

00:45:08

the rest of this Digital Fast seriously?

00:45:10

We've got 35 days left.

00:45:12

What would happen if you took the rest of it seriously?

00:45:14

Maybe you started the fast. That's awesome.

00:45:16

Lots of people start stuff.

00:45:17

Less people finish.

00:45:18

Well, what would happen if you finished it?

00:45:20

I'd actually love if it would help you,

00:45:22

I'll be in the Crossroads app every single day

00:45:24

from now through Easter. Every single day.

00:45:26

We have a devotional in there that's selected scripture

00:45:29

designed to help you, inspire you, push you around this topic.

00:45:32

Short little devotional thoughts around it.

00:45:34

You can read the scripture.

00:45:36

You can read my journals that I write

00:45:38

every single day about the scripture

00:45:39

if that's helpful, or read the community.

00:45:41

You can pray in there.

00:45:42

I'd love to see you in there.

00:45:44

What would happen is you will transform. Why?

00:45:47

Because the process of conforming

00:45:50

is electing to have small daily discomfort,

00:45:55

small daily pressure in your life.

00:45:58

That's the only way actually to transform. Only way.

00:46:02

Two years ago, I was up here and doing a message

00:46:06

and I made a joke about having bad teeth.

00:46:08

And when I say joke, I wasn't joking about the bad teeth part.

00:46:11

They were really, really bad.

00:46:12

This is a picture of my teeth right here.

00:46:14

Sure you want to see this?

00:46:15

Let's zoom in a little bit closer

00:46:17

just to make sure everybody gets this. A little closer.

00:46:19

And one more time, just a little bit closer.

00:46:23

See what I had for breakfast that morning right there.

00:46:26

Bad teeth. Right? Not not super great.

00:46:28

Now, I had these things since third grade,

00:46:30

that's when they came in.

00:46:31

They were always kind of crooked and whatever.

00:46:33

And my life, I just sort of accepted it.

00:46:36

And to be honest, I didn't even think it could change.

00:46:38

It was just kind of like the way that it was,

00:46:41

you know, it couldn't change.

00:46:42

And then after this message in which I made this joke,

00:46:45

an amazing orthodontist who has become

00:46:46

a great friend to me and Sarah, Grace Kerr reached out.

00:46:50

She sent me the simplest email and basically said,

00:46:53

"Hey, I can help change that."

00:46:56

I was like, what?

00:46:58

Literally not not occurred to me that this is possible.

00:47:01

It's like, "Oh, okay."

00:47:02

So I went in for a consultation and she shared with me

00:47:06

that she could not transform my teeth overnight.

00:47:11

I wasn't going to wake up the next day

00:47:13

and have perfectly straight teeth,

00:47:14

that that would not happen.

00:47:15

But she did say if I would submit myself

00:47:19

to small daily discomfort, that my teeth could conform

00:47:25

to the image of straight teeth by putting

00:47:28

these little plastic trays in my mouth,

00:47:30

and in the course of 18 months,

00:47:32

my mouth would be transformed.

00:47:34

And here they are now.

00:47:36

I just had my last orthodontist appointment.

00:47:37

Perfectly straight teeth. Unbelievable. Crazy.

00:47:45

What in your life have you decided

00:47:48

is just the way that it is?

00:47:51

Is it your flat line marriage?

00:47:54

Is it your distant relationship from your kids?

00:47:56

Is it your distance you feel between you and God?

00:47:58

What have you decided is beyond change?

00:48:03

I just say to you, I think God would say

00:48:05

the same thing that Grace said to me.

00:48:07

I think He would say, "You know, I can help change that.

00:48:10

It's not going to happen overnight."

00:48:12

You're not going to wake up tomorrow completely different.

00:48:15

But in the course of time, if you'll hang with Me,

00:48:18

for say, 18 months, I promise you'll be

00:48:20

radically more different

00:48:22

than you could ever possibly have imagined.

00:48:24

That's the process of change.

00:48:25

Are you willing to endure the difficulty

00:48:29

of daily discomfort in order to conform to Christ? Many aren't.

00:48:34

The great Catholic theologian G.K. Chesterton said this:

00:48:51

It's not that people have tried this process

00:48:55

of conforming to Jesus and found

00:48:57

it doesn't produce anything good.

00:48:59

No, that's not actually happened.

00:49:00

It's that people have discovered that

00:49:02

it's going to require small daily discomfort,

00:49:05

intentional choices, put the phone down,

00:49:07

pick up scripture, pause, pray, and decided

00:49:11

that that's not going to be worth it. Just left untried.

00:49:15

But the world and God is waiting for you. Remember?

00:49:22

All of creation awaits. Who? For you to be conformed.

00:49:27

And Isaiah 6:8 says this:

00:49:42

God says, "Who will go for us? Who should I send?"

00:49:46

And I think a lot of us,

00:49:47

we take this as like God's asking for suggestions.

00:49:50

God, I nominate Gary. I think he's an excellent choice.

00:49:52

Real trustworthy guy.

00:49:54

Tanner in accounting.

00:49:55

Not really sure what his job is anyway,

00:49:57

probably spare him. Let's send him."

00:49:59

No. He's not. God's not asking for suggestions.

00:50:02

There's only one right answer to this question:

00:50:04

Whom shall I send?

00:50:06

It's here I am, Lord. Send me.

00:50:09

That's it. That's the only thing.

00:50:11

It's your fight.

00:50:14

Last week of the Crossroads App, we read

00:50:16

1 Kings 20, the story of King Ahab.

00:50:18

If you don't know, King Ahab is the worst.

00:50:21

He's the worst. Not, you know, not my opinion.

00:50:24

God literally writes into the Bible:

00:50:27

King Ahab is the worst. He's the worst king.

00:50:31

That's his legacy.

00:50:32

Still, God has patience with him, has grace on him,

00:50:35

and gives him second chances in 102nd chances.

00:50:37

And there's a scene where a rival king comes up

00:50:39

and gets on the border of Israel

00:50:41

and starts to -- wants to fight.

00:50:43

And so God sends this prophet to King Ahab

00:50:45

to promise King Ahab that

00:50:47

God's going to deliver him victory.

00:50:50

Here's how the story goes in 1 Kings 20. Ahab starts.

00:51:02

"You, stupid! What do you -- What do you mean?

00:51:05

You're the -- You're the king.

00:51:06

Who will start the -- It's your battle, it's yours."

00:51:10

And I read that I was like, man, God, Ahab is the worst.

00:51:13

He sucks so bad. You're right. What an idiot.

00:51:17

And I sat there and I was like, wait a minute,

00:51:20

wait a minute. How many times in my life

00:51:23

have I taken that same attitude?

00:51:25

How many times in my life has there been

00:51:27

a battle on my front door and I just thought,

00:51:31

"Man, I hope someone deals with that."

00:51:34

Maybe it was a big external thing,

00:51:36

maybe it was even inside of my own home.

00:51:37

Man, my wife seems discouraged.

00:51:40

I hope someone cheers her up.

00:51:45

This is what we do, right?

00:51:47

How many times does that happen inside of your own home,

00:51:50

or in your own neighborhood, or in your own workplace?

00:51:52

Or the problem, even on the other side of the world,

00:51:55

"Man, I hope someone shows up and deals with that."

00:51:59

Let me just give us a reality check.

00:52:01

Someone isn't going to fix your flat line marriage.

00:52:05

They're not.

00:52:06

Someone isn't going to connect with your kids more.

00:52:09

Someone isn't going to come along

00:52:10

and work on the connection between you and God.

00:52:12

Someone isn't going to solve the thing

00:52:14

on the other side of the world that bothers you

00:52:16

because someone is you. It's you and it's me.

00:52:19

And I think God's saying to His communities,

00:52:21

God's saying to us, "Wake up."

00:52:24

That's why as a church we have this phrase

00:52:26

that we say all the time.

00:52:27

It's that we believe we're God's plan A,

00:52:30

and there is no plan B.

00:52:31

It doesn't mean we think Crossroads

00:52:33

is the best church at everything. No, not at all.

00:52:35

There's many churches who are so much better

00:52:38

at many things than us, and therefore

00:52:39

called to different things than us.

00:52:41

Praise God, that's amazing.

00:52:43

But what we assume is that when there's a problem

00:52:46

near or far that we just can't shake,

00:52:49

we don't look around and go,

00:52:50

"Man, I hope someone deals with that."

00:52:52

We decide it's up to us.

00:52:54

It's actually how I ended up

00:52:56

on the floor eating frog in Nepal.

00:52:59

It's because 15 years ago our Senior Pastor, Brian Tome,

00:53:02

went to that part of the world and learned

00:53:05

about the sex trafficking industry.

00:53:07

If you're not familiar with that part of the world.

00:53:09

Nepal is about a Tennessee sized country

00:53:12

that sits right above India.

00:53:14

There's an open border between the two countries.

00:53:16

And Brian went to India, and he learned that

00:53:19

many, many of the minor girls who were trafficked

00:53:21

into sex slavery in India come from Nepal. Why?

00:53:25

Because Nepal has 50% unemployment. That's why.

00:53:29

A very impoverished country.

00:53:30

And sometimes these families get so desperate

00:53:32

that they have no other choice, they feel like,

00:53:34

than to sell their daughters and receive money.

00:53:37

Now, sometimes they know where they're going.

00:53:39

Many times they don't.

00:53:40

They think it's a different job, a housekeeper or whatever,

00:53:42

but they receive the money in

00:53:43

and these girls end up trapped in brothels

00:53:46

for years and years and years.

00:53:48

And when Brian went there and he saw it,

00:53:49

it broke his heart.

00:53:51

And he didn't go, "Man, I hope some NGO sees this

00:53:55

and starts to help."

00:53:57

No. He went, "I assume this is our problem.

00:54:00

So God, we'll take it on."

00:54:02

And for 15 years our church has been fighting sex slavery

00:54:05

on the other side of the world

00:54:06

because we assume someone is us. [applause]

00:54:14

Now, through the 10X Push, we are very far from done.

00:54:17

We've actually raised millions of dollars

00:54:19

to invest in that work.

00:54:20

That's why I went over there to check on the work

00:54:23

and to sharpen the pencil, do due diligence.

00:54:25

We don't want a single dime given

00:54:27

to be wasted at all. At all.

00:54:30

Now we had about 5000 families commit to the 10X Push.

00:54:33

Amazingly, half have already gotten started.

00:54:36

Half have yet to start.

00:54:37

Sarah and I just this past week

00:54:39

we had a difficult conversation, frankly,

00:54:42

about how are we going to fulfill this commitment?

00:54:44

Because we know that we want to be conformed to Christ,

00:54:46

and we know that part of being conformed to Christ

00:54:48

is our yes has to be yes. Matthew 5:37,

00:54:57

As we've had this conversation, what does it mean to conform?

00:55:00

And I'll just tell you, when the rubber meets the road,

00:55:02

and it's time to do the hard thing,

00:55:04

to endure the daily discomfort of giving more money away

00:55:07

than we've given away before in our lives,

00:55:09

when it comes time to do that,

00:55:10

the critical thing is to remember why.

00:55:15

And why, for me, starts with Anjali.

00:55:17

I met Anjali ten years ago.

00:55:19

Many of you know her. You've seen videos.

00:55:21

This is a screengrab of a video that

00:55:23

I interviewed her for ten years ago.

00:55:25

She was a recently rescued minor out of a brothel.

00:55:30

And she was at the beginning of the process

00:55:32

of being conformed to Jesus.

00:55:34

She didn't know Jesus before.

00:55:35

Nepal is 1.8% Christian, so she had never heard of Jesus.

00:55:40

She gets out, she goes to the aftercare home

00:55:42

and they introduce her to Him and she starts to change.

00:55:45

But at this moment, she was early in the process.

00:55:47

Very understandably, she was very fragile.

00:55:50

We were told not to look her in the eye.

00:55:52

Our crew was asked not to talk to her.

00:55:53

Me, the interviewer, I was the only one

00:55:55

actually allowed to talk to her.

00:55:56

We had lunch.

00:55:57

We weren't allowed to sit with her.

00:55:59

She's just fragile. Again, understandably.

00:56:01

Can I just tell you, I got to see her on my trip to Nepal,

00:56:05

and she is completely transformed.

00:56:07

This is Anjali today at the school that she runs.

00:56:10

She's back in her village. She's running a school.

00:56:12

It's incredible.

00:56:16

Now, on the first day of our trip,

00:56:18

we met with our partner, had a really in-depth time with them.

00:56:22

The partner who did her aftercare

00:56:26

called the Apple of God's Eye.

00:56:27

Been a very, very long time partner of Crossroads,

00:56:30

an amazing organization.

00:56:31

I learned there that Anjali is not unique.

00:56:35

She's special. She's incredible.

00:56:37

But there are dozens and dozens and dozens

00:56:39

of young women just like her, who grew up,

00:56:42

who were rescued and then grew up

00:56:43

in the aftercare homes run by Apple of God's Eyes

00:56:45

that we've helped support, who are doing incredible things.

00:56:48

Who have been conformed to the image of Jesus

00:56:50

and are now transforming others.

00:56:52

The woman who runs their amazing counseling center.

00:56:55

The woman who runs all of their aftercare homes,

00:56:57

the woman who runs their school.

00:56:59

All of them are just like Anjali. It's insane.

00:57:03

I got to go to the homes and visit many of the girls

00:57:06

and they're just alive.

00:57:07

I mean, the most vibrant, alive, confident,

00:57:09

Jesus loving 12, 13, 14 year olds

00:57:12

you've ever met in your life.

00:57:13

I met one girl who's 14.

00:57:15

She told me she wants to be a doctor.

00:57:16

I have no doubt, no doubt that she will be,

00:57:19

because the work

00:57:20

that's happening over there is incredible.

00:57:23

Now, many of you know, part of the 10X Push

00:57:25

is investing millions of dollars in helping

00:57:27

bring to life an aftercare campus, a new elevation

00:57:31

to help them expand their territory,

00:57:34

expand their capacity.

00:57:37

Now, this wasn't a filming trip.

00:57:38

I'm going to show you a video,

00:57:39

but you got to know this wasn't a filming trip.

00:57:41

So this is just on an iPhone.

00:57:43

There's terrible wind noise, but you're going to be okay.

00:57:45

You're gonna make it through the video,

00:57:47

I want you to hear from David,

00:57:49

who's the leader of Apple of God's Eyes. Here he is.

01:01:38

- The work they're doing is incredible.

01:01:40

It's incredible to be part of it.

01:01:41

Did you notice the yellow plant between us growing there?

01:01:45

You know what that is? That's mustard seed.

01:01:49

It happens to grow wild in that part of Nepal.

01:01:51

If you read scripture, you might know that

01:01:53

Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed,

01:01:57

that if you plant it in your heart,

01:01:59

it will grow day by day, and you'll transform

01:02:03

into a tree that gives shade to everybody.

01:02:05

And it's there. Crazy.

01:02:09

Now the next day, we got to go visit Anjali in her school.

01:02:12

We've been supporting and help fund her school

01:02:14

for a number of years now, and part of the 10X funds

01:02:17

are also going to help her expand her school.

01:02:20

And I'll tell you, I've been around the world.

01:02:22

I've seen schools in third world countries.

01:02:24

Oftentimes, as in Nepal, they're part of the solution

01:02:27

because the economics are part of the problem.

01:02:29

And so if you can give somebody an education,

01:02:31

you can improve their situation economically.

01:02:33

I've been around and seen all these different schools.

01:02:36

This is the best one I've ever seen.

01:02:38

She is an incredible leader.

01:02:40

She has been completely transformed.

01:02:42

She has a staff of 20 people, cares for 140 students,

01:02:46

has her own home with 36 girls living in it

01:02:49

who she's personally caring for.

01:02:50

It's crazy what she's doing.

01:02:53

I also got to sit down and talk to Anjali. Here she is.

01:03:03

- Somebody told me that

01:03:04

your dream of the school was impossible.

01:03:07

- Yeah, even for now, I just to see the reality

01:03:12

and, um, to see what it is come

01:03:17

and to think just in mind, it seems impossible.

01:03:20

You know who I was before, like, without nothing,

01:03:23

even without education.

01:03:25

And I didn't have any, you know, any identity,

01:03:29

any knowledge and anything and just so miracle.

01:03:33

I feel this has been possible because of God

01:03:37

and the changes that He brought.

01:03:40

My life, for me, it's something amazing

01:03:44

than what I had -- I never imagined

01:03:46

I will be able to this,

01:03:48

will be able to do this for a community

01:03:50

or I never, like, thought my life will be this way.

01:03:55

- Yeah. Did you ever doubt at any point?

01:03:57

- I just prayed for a small thing,

01:03:59

I will come back to my village and,

01:04:01

you know, start a small school and, um, just do that.

01:04:06

But God gave me more than what I dreamed

01:04:10

and more than what I prayed for, so.

01:04:14

- Well, and what's incredible, and I don't know

01:04:16

how easy it is to see through the pictures and videos,

01:04:18

but this school is not small.

01:04:20

It's big, and it's also growing.

01:04:24

- Yeah. - Which is amazing.

01:04:26

And this property that we're on right now,

01:04:29

this is for families committed to 10X,

01:04:32

this is the property where we're going

01:04:34

to help fund the expansion of the school.

01:04:36

So tell us about what's going to go right here.

01:04:40

- Like, now we have 140 kids here.

01:04:45

We will add every year 20 kids.

01:04:48

And we need more classrooms for this in the future more kids.

01:04:53

Because last year we had to send many kids back,

01:04:58

like we had to say, no, we don't have classrooms,

01:05:01

like we are limited with 20 seats.

01:05:04

But when we built the building here,

01:05:06

we will make classrooms more bigger

01:05:08

so that whoever comes, we, you know,

01:05:11

mostly we can accept them and give.

01:05:13

So more parents and more kids

01:05:16

can have more opportunities to school.

01:05:19

- That's awesome. Well, I know,

01:05:21

I'll say this for my family,

01:05:23

for every family that Crossroads,

01:05:25

it's an honor and blessing just to get to be a small part of it.

01:05:28

So you are an inspiration to us.

01:05:30

And I know you made my faith stronger.

01:05:32

I know you made our whole church's faith stronger.

01:05:34

So we just want to say thank you

01:05:36

and we pray blessings on you and this school.

01:05:39

And our hearts are always with you,

01:05:41

even if we're not here every day,

01:05:42

our hearts are always with you.

01:05:43

- I always want to thank you.

01:05:45

You planted the seed.

01:05:47

Many people just want to read and to grow the plant.

01:05:50

And that is me and everything, every changes

01:05:54

and everything that we have been able to do

01:05:56

is because of your support since the beginning.

01:06:00

Like, my life is your blessing.

01:06:02

Like, thank you to Crossroads

01:06:05

and all the team and all the members.

01:06:07

- Awesome. Can we pray for you?

01:06:12

If you're watching this,

01:06:14

I want you to just put your hand out.

01:06:16

Just extend your hand.

01:06:17

I know that you're not praying

01:06:19

in the moment that I'm praying,

01:06:20

but together, we're going to pray for Anjali.

01:06:22

So put your hands out.

01:06:24

Lord, thank You for this amazing woman.

01:06:28

Thank you for the boldness and the strength

01:06:30

and the wisdom and the leadership

01:06:31

and everything that's in here.

01:06:33

And we're asking that you would 10X

01:06:35

all of Your favor on her life, Lord,

01:06:36

that You 10X her influence here,

01:06:38

the number of students coming to this school,

01:06:41

the number of families impacted and changed.

01:06:43

Her family, Lord, give her favor with Liam,

01:06:48

with her husband, as a mom,

01:06:50

as a daughter, as a sister,

01:06:52

her sister goes to this school.

01:06:53

And every aspect of her life,

01:06:55

we're praying blessings and favor over her,

01:06:57

and we're asking that You give her more dreams

01:06:59

that maybe seem impossible today,

01:07:01

but ten years from now, I believe

01:07:03

we'll be standing here seeing them

01:07:05

completely fulfilled and even more.

01:07:07

Just bless You for who she is

01:07:09

and for getting to be part of her journey.

01:07:12

Lord, thank You for the inspiration that she is to us.

01:07:14

Help us have the faith that she has too. Amen.

01:07:20

[applause]

01:07:25

- She's amazing. She is absolutely amazing.

01:07:29

And I'm telling you, there are more of her waiting for you.

01:07:33

There are more people like her waiting for you

01:07:36

to take conforming to Christ seriously

01:07:38

so you can transform their world.

01:07:40

And great news, you don't have to be perfect to do it.

01:07:43

There's not a bar you have to clear,

01:07:45

God's like, "Well, you know, you're kind of a level two.

01:07:48

You got to be a level four before I send." No.

01:07:50

If you are in process, actively being conformed,

01:07:55

God says you can go transform the world.

01:07:57

Here's what it says in 2 Corinthians 3:

01:08:04

Present tense, in process --

01:08:12

To be a world changer, like God wants you to be,

01:08:14

you have to be conformed.

01:08:17

And being conformed comes down to what you consume.

01:08:20

I'll make you a promise.

01:08:21

If you consume courage every day, you'll become courageous.

01:08:27

If you consume love every day, you'll become more loving.

01:08:30

If you consume joy every day, you'll become more joyful.

01:08:33

If you consume bravery, if you can spend time with God,

01:08:36

you might find yourself so convinced that He's called you,

01:08:39

you end up on the other side of the world

01:08:41

changing someone's world.

01:08:43

Let me pray for you.

01:08:44

God, thank You so much for Your call.

01:08:46

Thank You that You didn't call us to live a boring life.

01:08:49

Thank You.

01:08:50

Thank You that You invite us to be conformed to Christ.

01:08:53

You could have just said, "You are the way you are,

01:08:55

I saved you, good enough," but you didn't stop there.

01:08:57

You invite us into more and we want more.

01:08:59

God, I'm praying over these next 35 days,

01:09:02

from now through Easter, that You would give us

01:09:04

the desire to be like You so much so we would endure

01:09:08

the daily difficulty of putting down our phone

01:09:10

and being conformed to You.

01:09:12

And that through that we would be changed. Amen. Amen.

01:09:19

Well, thanks for being with us.

01:09:20

If you want prayer, prayer is down front.

01:09:24

Otherwise, we'll see you next week

01:09:25

for our series on being Amish. Bye!

01:09:29

- Thanks for watching with us.

01:09:30

I loved the reminder from Kyle of

01:09:32

you are what you eat.

01:09:34

I've heard that phrase before.

01:09:35

We become what we consume,

01:09:37

and I feel like I've gotten really comfortable

01:09:39

with what I've been consuming.

01:09:41

And I want to be someone who conforms

01:09:43

to what Jesus wants for me.

01:09:45

I saw those videos and the things in India,

01:09:47

and I want to be a world changer.

01:09:49

- Yeah, that only happens

01:09:51

with small acts of faithfulness

01:09:53

done over time, like Kyle's braces.

01:09:54

That's what we want.

01:09:56

That's what we're trying to tee ourselves up with

01:09:57

with this entire Digital Reset.

01:09:59

And that's why I'd love for you to join us

01:10:00

either at one of our physical sites

01:10:02

or join me online 7 p.m. Monday

01:10:05

as we kick off these nights of prayer,

01:10:07

these times for us to lean in and say,

01:10:09

"God, we want You to show up

01:10:10

and change us and change our lives

01:10:13

and our cities and our globe."

01:10:14

So that's what we're going to be doing.

01:10:16

Guys, thank you so much for joining us

01:10:17

on this Digital Reset.

01:10:19

And we'll see you Monday for the Night of Prayer.

01:10:21

- See you Monday.

Live a Greater Story

You Are What You (Digitally) Eat

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