TARGET | Win This Year: Week 1

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Whoever said loserly-ness is next to godliness?

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A loser, that's who.

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You want to win this year?

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I want to win this year.

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God Almighty wants you and I both to win this year.

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Are you ready to win?

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I sure am.

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Let's win. Win this year.

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WIN!

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- Welcome to Crossroads.

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My name's Lena.

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And we're so glad to have you joining us online, maybe for the very first time.

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Crossroads is a church that was started for people

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who had given up on church, but not necessarily on God.

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And so regardless of where you are spiritually today,

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you're in the right spot.

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And we're so glad to have you with us online.

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We're starting a brand new series to kick off 2020 called Win This Year.

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And in this series, we're going to spend four weeks

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talking about what it means to win because Jesus came

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that you might have life to the full,

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the fullest life you could possibly have.

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And that means winning.

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And so we want to see all of us in a place where we can win this year.

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And I believe that we're gonna get good stuff out of the next hour together.

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And so let's get started with Win This Year.

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- Y'all came ready to sing today.

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This is great.

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2020 is starting off right in this room.

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I'm ready for growth in 2020.

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I'm ready for new adventures for me and my family, so, yeah.

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So one of the ways we're going after that, my wife and I,

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in six weeks we'll get on a plane and go to India together

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on our first Go Trip together.

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Yeah.

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New adventures, not me going away,

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but us going together to make our family stronger.

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So 2019 was like, we got to see the goodness of God,

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His faithfulness with us.

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2020 we're asking for growth.

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2020 I want to see breakthrough.

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God, there's no one else that I will go to with my whole life

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to say I put all my hopes and all my trust in You.

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I'm banking everything on You, God, everything,

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because you've shown Yourself to be powerful,

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to be good and faithful and true.

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So I sing my guts out to You, my heart out to You,

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because that is who You are.

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Thank You for showing us that in Jesus

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and each and every day for those of us who walk with You, God.

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I love You. I praise You because of who You are.

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Thanks for singing with us. [ applause ]

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If you're new with us, this place can feel big.

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Trust me, I was new just a couple years ago.

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So this place can feel big.

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Let's make it feel a little smaller.

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Turn to somebody around you and say, "Happy New Year, good to see today."

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- I am excited to dig into what it means to Win This Year,

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what it means for God to care about me winning,

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what it means for God to care about you winning.

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And so we've got ways as a church all week long

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for you to be engaging with God,

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engaging with other people and engaging with the church,

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which is God's rescue plan for all of humanity.

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And so if you want, you could download the Crossroads App today,

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the Crossroads Anywhere App.

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Take Crossroads Anywhere you are during the week.

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I love being in the app.

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Just about daily I do my Bible reading in the Crossroads app

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and I get to see what other people in our community have shared,

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what they're praying for,

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what they're talking to God about in the midst of that scripture.

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And then maybe my very favorite part of the app

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is getting to pray for other people and submit my own prayer requests

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and getting notifications when other people,

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some who I know and some who I don't, pray for me

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on the day that I asked for prayer.

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It's pretty incredible.

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Not to mention all of the great content and podcasts and articles

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and things that are in the app for you to read and watch

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and listen to all week long.

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So if you want to get the best out of Crossroads,

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download the Crossroads Anywhere App today.

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I think your week and this year is going to be better for it.

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You know, we have lots of other ways for you

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to be connecting with people and connecting to the church.

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And so you can chat with us on the Crossroads Web site.

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There's a chat box in the bottom right hand corner

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and we have real live people on the other end of that chat system

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who would love to pray for you, answer your questions,

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help get you connected to the church.

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And maybe this year in 2020 you've said,

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"I really want to dive all in.

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I want to go deeper into my spiritual growth.

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I want to go deeper into my relationship with other people.

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I want to try leading something."

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Well, we have a brand new group season

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that's starting here in about a month.

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And now is the time for you to be considering:

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Do I want to lead a group online or in person in my city,

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from my home, from my hometown?

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And so if you want to do that, chat with us.

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We'd love to help get you started

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in the group leader application process

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and getting you set up to lead a group of people near you in 2020.

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So let's get started with Win This Year,

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Week 1, you've got to have a target.

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- Hey, welcome, to everybody, to Columbus,

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our first weekend having real services in Columbus, Ohio.

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Awesome, awesome. I hope you have a great, great time today.

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I've been looking forward to this series for a long, long time.

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And I hope you are, too.

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So let's pray before we get into it.

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God, thank You that you're God that gives us the ability laugh.

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You give us the ability to think.

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You give us the ability to have goals,

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the ability to have the exhilaration of winning

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and even the feeling that comes from losing.

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I want more of us to feel the exhilaration

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and have a life going in the right direction

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and getting to the right place.

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So help me to be Your mouthpiece on this and be helpful and clear,

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most importantly, in alignment with Your truth.

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And I pray these things according to the character

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and identity of Jesus.

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Amen.

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Do you realize that 2019 was the best year ever?

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I'll say that again: 2019 is the best year ever,

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at least according to something I read in The New York Times.

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It says this:

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You say, "How can this be?"

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As recently as 1950, 27% of all children died by age 15.

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That figure has dropped 4% over time.

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That's amazing.

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The drop in the graph goes down, down, down.

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Every single day in recent years, another 325,000 people

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got their first access to electricity.

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Every day, 325,000 people.

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Every day 200,000 people got fresh piped water,

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every single day, 200,000.

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Every single day 650,000 new people gained access to the web.

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That means access to information, every single day.

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In 1981, 42% of the population endured what's known as extreme poverty,

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that is living under $2 a day or less.

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42% of everyone in the entire world in 1981

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42% were living on less than $2 a day.

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That portion has plunged to right now it's less than 10%

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of the entire world is in extreme poverty.

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You can clap for any of these things you want clap for,

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any of 'em, you can clap, clap, clap.

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It's amazing.

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Literacy, where we are literacy wise,

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the literacy charts keep going up, up, up, up.

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I know we all want to be depressed about the state of the world.

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If you want to be depressed about the state of the world,

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well, sorry, you just want to be depressed because

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the state of the world is actually

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going a very, very good direction holistically.

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Now, let's not care about the world, just disregard the world.

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This series really isn't about the world, it's about you.

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It's about you. Yeah, it can be about you sometimes.

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It's about you.

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You are part of the world.

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God has created you.

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He has planted you on this world.

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And He wants you to have a life that wins.

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He wants you to win.

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He wants you to go to a new place.

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The very concept of winning, when I think win,

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many of us might think of Vince Lombardi who said this:

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I could just feel some of the churchy church types in here.

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I can just feel you like...

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Some of you churchy church types are like,

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"Winning? I came here to church.

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I don't wanna hear about winning and Vince Lombardi.

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Hey."

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I know. This is like -- This is a weird churchy church things.

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I'm sorry to burst your buzzle, burst your bubble.

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Burst your buzzle too, I'll do that while I'm at it.

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Sorry to burst your bubble, but loserly-ness is not next to godliness.

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I don't know why we think that not doing well

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and losing is somehow of God.

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And if you're doing really well

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or someone's doing really well, then so must be away from God.

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That's not what the scriptures teach.

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The Book of 1 Corinthians 9:24 the Apostle Paul says:

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He says run such as to obtain, or other translations say,

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Run in such a way as to win.

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Win.

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This doesn't mean beat somebody next to you.

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This doesn't mean I'm supposed to beat you

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or you're supposed to beat me.

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It means that each one of us has a specific lane,

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each one of us has something to be about in our life.

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And you'll either win or you'll lose.

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And you have to not like the idea of losing.

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Vince Lombardi also said, "Show me good loser

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and I'll show you a loser."

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You have to have this thing that says, "No,

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I need the life that God is enabling me to have

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and I want to win in every area of life."

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This is a biblical commandment.

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It's a biblical commandment.

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If you like, the idea of don't, you know, steal things, good.

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You should also like to thing of you should win,

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because that's exactly what God says.

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It's exactly what it says in the Scriptures.

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And truth be told, most of us are not playing to win.

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Most of us are maybe playing not to lose.

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We're trying to not screw up our life.

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We're trying just to have everything be calm and even.

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This is the first weekend for the NFL playoffs.

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I saw a study of all the teams when they had critical decisions

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going into the final seconds of the game,

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the study said that when a team had the ability

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to kick the field goal for the win,

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kick the extra point for the win,

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or they had the ability to do a two point conversion for the win,

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the teams that kicked the extra points

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and then got into overtime lost way, way, way more

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than people who went for the 2 points

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and whether they lost or won in the two point conversion, they lost.

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Because there's something they believe in the psyche

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of a coach, of a team that's okay for a tie.

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That one overtime comes, they don't have what it takes to win

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and they lose at a much higher rate.

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So if you want to just not lose, play for tie,

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play for not getting in trouble with God

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or having people around you think you're a nice person.

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They might think you're a nice person,

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but it doesn't mean your life is going the right direction.

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It doesn't mean that you're going to actually win.

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The theme we're going to look at in the whole series

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is the theme of the Nation of Israel,

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specifically this one little segment in their history

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when they were under the leadership of a guy by the name of Joshua.

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Now it's important to have a little macro history

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of where Israel's come to this point.

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If this is your first time hearing this or a refresher,

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its really important to have in the back of our mind.

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So let me give it to you.

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The Nation of Israel, they're in bondage,

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they're in slavery to Egypt.

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There is the leader that's supposed to come and take them away.

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Charlton Heston -- or I mean, Moses comes to take

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the Nation of Israel out of slavery.

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And miraculous things happen, God shows up on their account.

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There is these crazy plagues that happen that caused

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the the Egyptians to let them go, to release them.

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So the Nation of Israel gets loose.

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They come out, they come up against a sea, a big body of water.

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And now Egyptians and the pharaoh is coming after them,

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coming up on their backside.

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Moses comes out, he takes his staff, and by God's power,

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he jams it in the ground and the water opens up.

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And they get across the water.

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And then pharaoh in Egypt starts to follow

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and they get halfway through and God lets the water go and they drown.

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And you think, "Oh, my goodness, you've won.

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Amazing. You've won.

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You've won."

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Well, none necessarily,

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because getting out of slavery wasn't the goal.

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Getting into the Promised Land is the goal.

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That's winning.

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Winning was not -- from God standpoint was not,

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"Oh, good, you're out of slavery."

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Winning was going to get you to the Promised Land.

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And from the time they get out of slavery

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to the time they actually win is a long, arduous thing.

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They're complainers. They're belly acres.

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They complain when there isn't water when they wanted to have happen.

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They complain when God gives them food miraculously,

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but it's the same food day in and day out, over and over again.

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They don't want it.

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They're having a hard time with it.

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They pick a person from each one of the twelve tribes

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and they go into the Promised Land

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to scout out what it's going to look like.

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So when they go over, they come back with a report and say,

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"Man, it's amazing.

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Yeah, it's a land of milk and honey.

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It's awesome."

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The only problem is, ten of the scouts say,

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"The only problem is there's huge, massive giant there.

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We can't do it. We can't do it."

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They're saying we can't do.

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And all the people of Israel are like you, "We can't do it.

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Oh, no, we can't win."

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Meanwhile, these people are seeing genuine, legitimate miracles.

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These people's have seen waters parted.

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These people have seen plagues brought by their God.

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These people have seen like miraculous visions

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of a pillar of fire that's leading them

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or a cloud that's leading them.

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It's one of the ways God would speak to them and lead them.

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They're seeing all this stuff and yet, oh, no,

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when it comes down to something difficult.

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Oh, oh, can't do it.

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So finally God's fed up.

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He goes, "That's it.

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You're all bunch of freakin losers."

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That's exactly what it says in the Bible,

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they're all a bunch freaking losers.

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He says that. He says you're all a bunch freakin losers.

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You're -- none of you are going in until you all die,

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except for the two spies, Joshua and Caleb,

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who said we can do it.

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Everyone else believed the ten negative spies.

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So now what I'm going to do is I've got people here

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who don't have a winning mindset.

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I'm going to wait for all of you to die, all of you die.

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And once you die, whoever has now been born in that timespan,

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they're gonna go into the Promised Land.

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And so that's what's happened.

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Now the last person has died.

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They've been wandering in the desert.

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You heard wandering in the desert for 40 years.

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That's why they're one in the desert.

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They're not wandering the desert because they're lost.

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They're wandering in the desert

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waiting for the freaking losers to die.

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You wonder if, like, maybe they're taken snakes

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and throwing them in people's sleeping bags,

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"That guy's got to die, because I want to win,

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but he's got to die."

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I mean, you just wonder what they were doing.

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So now they come up to a Jordan River, which marks the Promised Land.

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Guess what, friends? 2019 is dead.

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I don't care how good or how bad it was, it's dead.

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It's in the back, background.

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Nation of Israel, whatever happened to part the waters,

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that was dead, it was way back there.

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Releasing from slavery, that good, dead.

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Buddy, that was gone.

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Friends, your 2019 means nothing for your 2020, nothing.

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It may have set you up for something, but 2019's over.

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You're at a threshold right now in this new decade.

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New decade, amazing, new decade.

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You and I get to decide, do I want to win or do I want to just be?

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And so Joshua, in Joshua 1:6,

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who's the new leader who succeeded Moses, he says this:

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Or that you may win wherever you go.

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For us to win, we have to be able to have a sense of vision.

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Where are we going?

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Four things for today.

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The first is this: to understand vision,

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to understand where you're going,

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I don't like the term vision, goals, all this stuff.

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That sounds is too nebulous to me.

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I'll boil it down to this: You have to know what you want.

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What is it you want?

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You have to know what you want.

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What is it that burns inside of you?

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This is why we don't get our New Year's resolutions.

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They don't actually happen because we don't really want them.

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I'll get into that in just a moment.

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We have to figure out what is it that we want.

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Now, we're gonna show a video right now,

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which is something that I want.

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It's a rather lengthy video.

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It's 8 minutes and 30 seconds.

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And let me tell you why, what I want about this.

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It's a project that I've been personally working on

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and many people around here at Crossroads

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have been working on it for two years.

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Because I love when people come to environment like this

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to learn about God, that's wonderful.

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But I also know that most people aren't coming

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to environments like this to have things put into their mind.

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Most people are going to Netflix, are going to Amazon Prime.

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And if I want to influence or if we want

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to influence positively people to understand God,

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we've got to get in those platforms,

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not just expecting people get into a Crossroads some day,

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though we'd love that to happen or whether you're gathered

00:27:16

as a Crossroads group in your home right now.

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So we have in January, January 26 coming to Amazon Prime

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is a series that we brought out.

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Ad it comes out called Phantom Lake.

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It comes on, streams on Amazon Prime on January 26.

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I'm hoping you'll be a part of it in some way, shape, or form.

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It's about -- it's about people who are trying something new

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to go to new territory, being on motorcycles

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who aren't hardcore motorcyclists, who've never been out west.

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Trying to help them understand that pushing through

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difficulties in the physical realm on your motorcycle,

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will enable you to win and push through difficulties

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in areas that really matter in your life.

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It's a huge, huge deal and I'm pretty excited about it.

00:28:04

So we're gonna take a look at a clip of this.

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It's got tie into what we're gonna do with the rest of our day.

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But before we do it, we're also going to

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for the first time this year, the first time this decade,

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we're gonna have these people with bags going to pass down aisles,

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or you can go to Crossroads.net/give.

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Crossroads is a tithing church.

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People who are hardcore into God tithe.

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We give 10% of our money to God.

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Others of us are trying to be someplace else in that journey.

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Wherever you are on your journey, if you're new today,

00:28:30

we're just beside you here, help us to serve you.

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And as we had the opportunity to to be generous,

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we're going to take a look at 8:30 of Phantom Lake.

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- Across the rugged terrain of Colorado and Wyoming,

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10 unlikely riders pursue

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an elusive mountain top destination called Phantom Lake.

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Anmong them are a single grad student.

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- It's just me and Alexa.

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Alexa can't give me a hug.

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- A photographer and tinkerer.

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If you don't have a pair these, you need to get 'em.

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- An adventure starved accountant.

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- I'm domesticated.

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I need an adventure, please.

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- A second career jazz singer.

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- This really is real.

00:29:18

This is really happening.

00:29:19

- A college student.

00:29:20

This is my valid motorcycle's license, in case you were wondering.

00:29:23

- A multi-business entrepreneur.

00:29:24

- As far as my off-roading experience,

00:29:26

there's a first time for everything.

00:29:28

- A semi-retired lobbyist.

00:29:31

- You gotta keep that smile.

00:29:32

Oh, yeah.

00:29:34

- A quiet engineer.

00:29:35

- Hopefully I make some more close friends on this trip coming up.

00:29:39

- And a diligent young father.

00:29:41

- I have a fear of heights and I overcome that fear.

00:29:43

- Long time pastor, adventurer, and father figure,

00:29:47

Brian Tonin will lead the way.

00:29:48

- Jesus tells a story about God.

00:29:50

He says what God does is He gives...

00:29:53

- To make it to the end they must overcome mental fatigue,

00:29:57

physical fatigue, and even the landscape itself.

00:30:04

Will these writers have the determination, stamina,

00:30:07

and courage to make it to the end?

00:30:13

- I wake up every day and I say to God,

00:30:14

"God, whatever you've got going on today, I want to be a part of it."

00:30:19

We're gonna do something really unorthodox

00:30:21

in taking inexperienced riders on this trip.

00:30:24

You've got to be in a situation

00:30:26

that's foreign to what you're used to.

00:30:27

New riders are going to be challenged.

00:30:30

I have this feeling that everyone has an adventure taht they're on.

00:30:33

I want to see real people in the real world

00:30:36

with real life adventures learn how to conquer them.

00:30:38

That's why I want to this trip with people who need it.

00:30:42

If we're not in a difficult position

00:30:44

we don't grow the way we could grow.

00:30:46

I learn when things are difficult.

00:30:48

I learn when I get smacked in the mouth.

00:30:50

I learn when I fall down.

00:30:52

I don't want to fail because I didn't try hard enough.

00:30:55

Some people would say, "Well, you're a pastor,

00:30:57

shouldn't you just be doing Bible studies?"

00:30:59

I'm about making real men and women stronger

00:31:02

and this is a way that I found that does it.

00:31:14

We start having the idea for a series around motorcycles

00:31:19

when we realize that it relates to real life.

00:31:24

All of us have adventures in our life,

00:31:26

we have challenges in our life.

00:31:28

And so a motorcycle and camping are just some physical things,

00:31:31

that believe it or not, oftentimes correlate

00:31:33

to some of the personal adventures

00:31:35

and challenges that we're all doing.

00:31:37

- The goal today, this is decision day.

00:31:40

The goal is that we walk out of this room

00:31:42

and we have the cast for this adventure trip.

00:31:45

Make your teams, everybody.

00:31:48

- If you're nervous, that's probably why we invited you here.

00:31:51

There was people who really had their stuff together

00:31:54

and our great riders and have been out west and this that,

00:31:57

they weren't going to round two.

00:31:58

This is not a riding competition.

00:32:00

We want to sort of stretch us a bit.

00:32:11

You're not impressing anybody if you're a great rider.

00:32:13

You're not impressing anybody to go through the sandpit

00:32:15

at 50 miles an hour, if you can.

00:32:17

Just look at today as a fun thing.

00:32:19

You're going to have fun today.

00:32:20

Whether or not you're gonna go the next level or not

00:32:22

is a bunch of variety of factors.

00:32:24

You really can't mess this up.

00:32:25

We just need to see where you are.

00:32:27

- Everybody voted for Thomas. Is that right?

00:32:30

- Um-hmm.

00:32:33

- We're not grading only on riding ability.

00:32:36

There's a whole range of things that we're looking at.

00:32:38

- Getting another five out of six is...

00:32:47

- So we have three votes for Bradley and three votes for Randy.

00:32:50

Everybody gets two vote.

00:32:52

You can double up somebody or even split it.

00:32:56

And we're looking for two spots.

00:33:08

Ok. I think this is our crew, guys.

00:33:12

This is our list of riders.

00:33:16

Let that sink in. Was does that feel like?

00:33:26

- From this point out, I'm your contact.

00:33:30

We're actually going to go to my favorite place

00:33:32

in the whole world, Phantom Lake.

00:33:35

It's called Phantom Lake for a reason.

00:33:37

It will be the hardest riding you will have done in your life.

00:33:43

Not everyone here is gonna get there.

00:33:45

You could have mechanical breakdown, emotional breakdown.

00:33:49

You could be physically just like, "I, you know, I can't do it."

00:33:53

We're not just trying to have it all have a good adventure.

00:33:55

We're trying to have something that's going to tap

00:33:58

into something physically for you,

00:34:01

that's going to tap into

00:34:02

the real life adventure you have back home.

00:34:05

I want you to get to Phantom Lake.

00:34:32

- I want Brad in the back

00:34:35

and I want the two ladies in front of him.

00:34:36

We're going to see if we can get you guys synced up at all.

00:34:39

Then whatever order you want to go in in front of that, that's fine.

00:34:42

I'm going to change up our order as time goes on,

00:34:44

as I kind of get a sense of, you know,

00:34:46

where our riding skills are,

00:34:48

how we're riding, all that stuff.

00:34:50

God, I thank You for the adventure You invited us into.

00:34:54

Thank You for the day we're going to have.

00:34:56

Thank You that we don't have rain today.

00:34:58

I thank You for the courage of everybody here.

00:35:00

And God, just put Your grace on this ride,

00:35:02

this trip, everybody's life.

00:35:04

Help us to enjoy each other, enjoy You

00:35:07

and enjoy an amazing week-long adventure.

00:35:10

I pray these things according to Your name.

00:35:12

Amen.

00:35:13

Our first day and our first goal, Telluride.

00:35:16

Sshould be an easy day.

00:35:17

Six hours of riding on the highway.

00:35:19

Very same, very predictable.

00:35:21

Should be a piece of cake.

00:35:22

Here's where it all starts, boys and girls.

00:35:25

Every person on a bike is a self-contained unit.

00:35:29

They're not getting any help.

00:35:32

They are carrying their own water, their own food,

00:35:35

and all of their supplies.

00:35:38

This is the way adventure riding works in the real world

00:35:42

and you could do this.

00:35:44

I feel like a father figure with these folks.

00:35:48

I've got more knowledge than they do.

00:35:50

I've got more experience on this trail and they do.

00:35:53

I've have more nights out camping than they do.

00:35:55

So while they're not of my own DNA

00:35:58

and I'm not carrying them financially like many dads do,

00:36:02

I definitely have a role of nurturing them

00:36:04

and protecting them and pushing them.

00:36:08

- We can see the rest of the riders.

00:36:10

I see maybe 400 yards ahead of us or something.

00:36:14

- Keep a lookout for David on the side of the road.

00:36:18

Somebody messed with the bike since I left it and --

00:36:19

- Do you have any gas?

00:36:20

- I think I need a little gas right now to get me to

00:36:29

a station and then I want to put dry gas in because I don't want to...

00:36:32

- I'm a little anxious about

00:36:36

what God might have to strip out of me

00:36:39

and I feel like that may happen on this trip.

00:36:42

I'd really like to know what it is

00:36:44

so that I can prepare for it, right?

00:36:51

- What should be an easy start turns into a cluster really fast.

00:36:55

We've got a guy who's got gas tank issues and fuel issues.

00:36:59

We've got Sarah who stalls on the middle of the highway.

00:37:03

We've got people who are getting separated and lost.

00:37:05

They're ending up in downtown Denver,

00:37:09

tens of miles away from where I am having a beer.

00:37:12

I'm about to lose my freaking mind.

00:37:21

- You might be happy.

00:37:22

It's very frustrating for me to even watch that right there.

00:37:26

Hardest trip I've ever done.

00:37:28

And I'll tell you why it's frustrating because

00:37:31

whenever you're trying to get to a new place,

00:37:34

it is always frustrating.

00:37:37

Staying where you are never has any X factors

00:37:40

and there's never any frustration.

00:37:42

But when you want something new,

00:37:45

when you want something different.

00:37:46

If you want something different for 2020, get ready for frustration.

00:37:52

This is why I say you've gotta want it.

00:37:55

What is it that you want?

00:37:58

Not, not what is it you think you should want.

00:38:00

Not what is it you think God wants you to do?

00:38:02

That's fine. That's one answer to that.

00:38:04

But what is it that you want?

00:38:08

What is the barrier between you and that?

00:38:12

That barrier is a psychological barrier.

00:38:14

That's what the Jordan River was.

00:38:17

It was a barrier that represented over there is

00:38:19

the Promised Land and we've never been there before.

00:38:22

All the normal people said, "We've never been there before."

00:38:25

Joshua says this to them

00:38:26

as they're camped right there on the edge.

00:38:30

He says:

00:38:45

Now this is really interesting here:

00:38:48

Take possession, giving you to possess.

00:38:52

This is called the Promised Land.

00:38:54

It's not the promised gift.

00:38:57

I hear people say, "Oh, I hope God gives me this in 2020.

00:38:59

I hope God gives me that in 2020."

00:39:01

I hope he does, too. I hope he does, too.

00:39:03

God's not going to give you 40 pounds of weight loss.

00:39:08

He's not going to give that to you.

00:39:10

God's not going to give you a more intimate marriage.

00:39:14

He's not going to give that to you.

00:39:16

He's not going to give you more knowledge and wisdom.

00:39:20

He's not going to give you that.

00:39:22

When God gives them the Promise Land, what He does is

00:39:24

He gives them the permission to fight for the Promised Land.

00:39:28

He gives them permission to go and get uncomfortable.

00:39:31

So He's giving you the ability if you want it

00:39:35

to lose 40 pounds, but you have to win at it.

00:39:40

He's giving you the ability and the freedom

00:39:43

to have a more intimate marriage, if you're married,

00:39:45

but you're going to have to fight for it.

00:39:48

You're going to have to bite your tongue more often.

00:39:50

You're going to have to do things

00:39:51

the other person wants to do more often.

00:39:52

You're going to have to try things up different sexually in the bedroom.

00:39:55

You're going to have to.

00:39:57

You're not just going to go, "Oh, behold a better marriage,"

00:39:59

it never works that way.

00:40:02

If you want to expand your mind,

00:40:04

you're going to expand your reading time

00:40:07

and you have to want it.

00:40:09

Just going, "Well, I guess I should have a book reading goal this year."

00:40:11

You'll never hit it. Never hit it.

00:40:14

You've got to want it.

00:40:16

You've got to want the knowledge that books might bring to you.

00:40:19

This is big.

00:40:21

This is really big.

00:40:23

In Exodus 3, when we go back to where this whole journey started:

00:40:39

I know their sufferings.

00:40:42

So He hears their suffering while they're in bondage back in Egypt.

00:40:46

Okay? But that doesn't mean that He's going to

00:40:50

just allow them to walk into the Promised Land.

00:40:54

That's a fight that they're going to have to have.

00:40:56

And the question is whether or not they want it.

00:40:58

And the truth is, every last person

00:41:00

except for two people in that entire generation didn't want it.

00:41:03

Joshua and Caleb, they're the only ones who want it.

00:41:04

No one else wanted it, and so none of them got it.

00:41:08

I'm not telling you what you should want.

00:41:10

I'm not telling you what goals you should say.

00:41:12

I'm just saying this:

00:41:15

Don't set a goal for something you don't want.

00:41:18

Be honest with yourself and honest with God.

00:41:21

And then when you do set that goal, you do set that goal,

00:41:25

That's the second thing: Brace for a fight.

00:41:31

I hate the first week of January in the sense that

00:41:34

when I go to the gym it's always crowded.

00:41:37

I just posted on my Instagram just what looks like,

00:41:40

you know, like all these machines.

00:41:41

They're just like taken up.

00:41:43

Like there's normally nobody there.

00:41:45

That's what the first week of January looks like at the gym.

00:41:48

This was the second week of January looks like at the gym.

00:41:52

Like there's nobody there.

00:41:54

It's because people thought that I should workout.

00:41:57

I thought I should do it, but they didn't really want it.

00:42:00

And then soreness came and the schedule didn't cooperate

00:42:04

and we just stopped.

00:42:06

Everything, every single thing that's worth fighting for,

00:42:11

every single thing is going to be difficult.

00:42:15

Every single thing you want to win it,

00:42:18

you want to win it because you're not winning right now.

00:42:19

Why aren't you winning it right now?

00:42:21

Because you haven't won the fight right now.

00:42:24

There is a fight that's ahead for whatever the victory is.

00:42:27

If you want increased trust with your kids, there's a fight.

00:42:31

If you want to get married, it's a fight.

00:42:34

If you want to rise in the ranks of your company, it is a fight.

00:42:39

The Nation of Israel is being told by Joshua, "Prepare for this fight."

00:42:44

When I was at the gym most recently,

00:42:47

there was a couple of guys that were talking

00:42:49

and they were talking in a way that I couldn't understand.

00:42:52

They were speaking in Spanish.

00:42:54

It reminded me of all of my failed resolutions around speaking Spanish.

00:43:00

And the reason I failed that resolution

00:43:02

is because I didn't want it bad enough.

00:43:04

I didn't want it.

00:43:06

As I'm having more and more people talk around me

00:43:10

that I can't understand them, I'm starting to want it more.

00:43:13

I'm not ready to make it a new goal yet

00:43:14

but I'm starting to want it more.

00:43:15

I wanted to know what these guys were saying.

00:43:17

I wanted to pitch in the conversation --

00:43:19

See? Feliz Navidad?

00:43:26

So I tried to pitch in a little bit,

00:43:27

but see I'm noticing something I want

00:43:30

and I've got to brace for a fight of losing vocabulary

00:43:33

if I'm actually going to declare it.

00:43:35

Joshua 1:14-15:

00:43:45

No one's ever been armed before.

00:43:47

No one's ever fought hand-to-hand combat before.

00:43:50

This is brand new skills and brand new territory.

00:43:54

until the law gives rest to you and your brothers as he has you.

00:43:58

And they also take possession of the land.

00:44:00

Take -- take possession of the land --

00:44:03

that the Lord your God is giving them.

00:44:04

There's none of this, "Well, I'm just going to let go and let God."

00:44:07

It doesn't work that way.

00:44:08

The Bible never says let go and let God.

00:44:12

The Bible says take possession of it,

00:44:13

if it's something God is okay with you having.

00:44:28

Joshua said, "Hey, you've got to take it.

00:44:29

If you want, you've got to take it and we've got to do it as a team.

00:44:32

So if you get your piece of land, this tribe over there,

00:44:35

well, let's come back and let's fight the other people here.

00:44:37

Let's do this as one, but let's brace ourselves for a fight."

00:44:43

I'm not just talking, by the way,

00:44:45

about just things like weight loss or something else.

00:44:48

I'm talking about also things like your walk with God.

00:44:52

Did you ever consider that there is a fight in your walk with God?

00:44:55

There's a fight to feeling and sensing God.

00:44:58

There's a fight involved in trying to stay sharp with God.

00:45:03

Book of Philippians 2:12 says:

00:45:11

It could also say: Fight for your salvation.

00:45:15

Work it out with fear and trembling.

00:45:17

What does this mean?

00:45:19

Well, there's three distinct periods of being saved,

00:45:22

that is being delivered from something that we can't handle,

00:45:26

delivered from our own flesh, from our own desires,

00:45:29

from our own sinfulness,

00:45:30

being delivered from that into relation with God.

00:45:33

I was saved, I am saved, and I will be saved.

00:45:38

I was saved, age 15, 16 when I knelt down

00:45:41

and I asked Jesus into my life at a camp.

00:45:44

I am saved right now.

00:45:45

That's my identity.

00:45:47

And I will be saved in the future

00:45:49

because there's things I'm wrestling with right now

00:45:50

I'm not delivered from.

00:45:51

There's hang ups I have, there's whatever.

00:45:53

It's a fight. It's a fight.

00:45:56

If I want to get closer to God this year, it's going to be a fight.

00:46:00

I'm going to have to work it out.

00:46:01

I'm not just going to sit back and wait for God

00:46:03

to dip His sweet sugar finger in my life.

00:46:06

I've got to work it out.

00:46:08

And to do that, to work it out, to fight,

00:46:11

I've got to use unconventional weapons.

00:46:14

We have to use unconventional weapons.

00:46:16

Unconventional weapons of warfare

00:46:18

are the weapons you normally don't use,

00:46:20

that's why they're unconventional.

00:46:22

Whatever you do, all of us have weapons that we use right now,

00:46:24

those are conventional weapons of warfare.

00:46:26

Those are the ways that you're accomplishing your to do list now.

00:46:29

Those are the ways that you are having a life that matters right now.

00:46:35

Those are the ways you have ends meet at the end of the month

00:46:38

or whatever you have right now.

00:46:40

I'm assuming we're all doing halfway decent.

00:46:43

There's some some things are happening here with us.

00:46:45

You're getting that and good for you, good for all of us.

00:46:47

Good for all of us.

00:46:48

The conventional weapons that we're used to,

00:46:51

but the unconventional weapons are the weapons

00:46:53

that we haven't picked up yet, the ones that we haven't used,

00:46:55

the ones that we're a little little uncomfortable using.

00:46:58

That's why we're not winning, because we don't have our whole arsenal.

00:47:02

There's listening skills, weapons we've got to develop.

00:47:04

If you want to increase your relationships,

00:47:06

you've got to develop the weapon of empathetic listening,

00:47:09

not persuasive speaking.

00:47:12

Right?

00:47:13

In The Book of Joshua 3:5:

00:47:21

Consecrate yourselves, tomorrow the Lord will do wonders before you.

00:47:25

Consecrate yourself is a way that you set yourself aside

00:47:30

for different means, that's what consecrate means.

00:47:32

You set yourself apart from where you are right now.

00:47:38

Set it aside, and actually use using old school language,

00:47:40

you set yourself unto the Lord.

00:47:43

You set yourself up to be used by Him to be a tool in His hands,

00:47:48

but you make a decision I'm not going to stay here

00:47:52

where I've been here.

00:47:53

No, I'm going to lift myself.

00:47:55

I'm going to elevate myself.

00:47:56

I'm going to step out and consecrate myself unto the Lord.

00:48:01

It's not our stick-to-it-iveness that is a weapon

00:48:05

That's fine, that's a good weapon.

00:48:06

We'll talk about that next week.

00:48:08

The ultimate one when you set yourself aside

00:48:11

for God to do in you what you can do on your own,

00:48:13

but you make an intentional choice,

00:48:15

say I'm going to set myself apart unto him.

00:48:18

God doesn't just deliver you from addiction.

00:48:20

He delivers you because you set yourself unto Him

00:48:24

as the higher power and you go to war with

00:48:27

the things they're trying to kill your life.

00:48:31

You go to war with them.

00:48:35

This is the way it is for all of us in every single area of our life,

00:48:39

the main weapon is ourselves and different habits,

00:48:43

different attitudes that we want to do, that we want to use.

00:48:48

The third thing -- the fourth things, excuse me,

00:48:50

the last thing is that we need to get a guide.

00:48:55

We need to get a guide.

00:48:56

So when we have vision, go back where we were.

00:48:58

Vision: It talks about I'm looking for,

00:49:02

I'm understanding what is it I want?

00:49:04

What do I want?

00:49:07

I'm bracing for a fight.

00:49:09

That's what vision is.

00:49:10

You're going to fight for that thing,

00:49:12

not to have a daydream about a thing.

00:49:13

I'm fighting that thing and I'm going to try new things.

00:49:17

And all this is such an unusual territory.

00:49:20

All of this is so, oh, what's the word I'm looking for?

00:49:24

It's so discombobulated, foreign.

00:49:28

It's just awkward that we need somebody

00:49:31

who's been where we are to help us go there.

00:49:33

We need somebody walking with us.

00:49:35

The Nation of Israel has always had a guide.

00:49:36

God, obviously, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, they've had guides.

00:49:41

And you're going to have to have actual people

00:49:44

that are with you that are helping you and guiding you.

00:49:50

A couple months ago, I ordered this new bumper and a winch

00:49:54

for the front of my truck, because when Lib and I go out camping,

00:49:56

we get in some places where there is no tow truck going to get out to us.

00:50:00

So you have to be able to little self recovery.

00:50:02

So this is really, really heavy, heavy and weighty.

00:50:05

They couldn't deliver it.

00:50:06

The mailman or U.P.S.

00:50:08

So I've got to go down to this trucking facility

00:50:10

and pick this up with my truck.

00:50:11

So I go there. It's kind of crazy.

00:50:13

I've been one of these things, all these boxes everywhere.

00:50:15

And it's like an army of forklifts, (sound effects)

00:50:20

buzzing all over the place.

00:50:22

I just sat there like mesmerized.

00:50:23

This is amazing.

00:50:25

Went into the office, told them what my order was.

00:50:28

Say, "We'll get a guy who will get it for you."

00:50:30

So, I'm sitting there.

00:50:31

And sure enough, eventually, 10 minutes later

00:50:33

this forklift guy comes down and he goes, "Is this for you?"

00:50:35

I said, "Yeah, it's for me."

00:50:36

He said, "I'll meet you down at the bottom of the ramp."

00:50:37

Good, I go down there, pull my truck around.

00:50:39

He said, "I need you to sign this paper,"

00:50:42

and we're trying to find pens.

00:50:44

So, I have some time like to interact with him

00:50:45

while we're trying to figure out this stuff.

00:50:47

OK, we get it all handled, open up the gate of my truck.

00:50:51

He goes up and he puts it in, loads this heavy thing

00:50:54

in with a forklift, backs back out, I close the gate.

00:50:57

I give him back his papers and his and his pen.

00:51:00

And I go to I go to walk back up to the --

00:51:03

walk back up to get in the door.

00:51:04

And as soon as I like put my hand on the door handle,

00:51:11

I'm like God talks to me, I'm like, Mmm.

00:51:14

You know what that's like.

00:51:16

When God talks to me, and especially this environment,

00:51:18

there's this thought that comes out of nowhere

00:51:21

that I wasn't planning on having this thought,

00:51:23

it was nowhere near my mind.

00:51:25

It comes and it's like that's the kind of thing

00:51:27

that Jesus would like to say.

00:51:30

That's the kind of thing He would approve of.

00:51:31

And so I got to think, OK.

00:51:34

Is that..?

00:51:35

Is there any reason I wouldn't do that?

00:51:37

No, there's no reason I wouldn't do that.

00:51:38

Let's make an aggressive move.

00:51:40

So I go, hmmm.

00:51:42

I walk back, I go back to this guy, and I said,

00:51:45

"Hey, man.

00:51:46

Maybe do some of this.

00:51:48

You've got to put airbags around it.

00:51:50

You've got to make your self seem as weird -- as unweird as possible.

00:51:55

Maybe that was wrong.

00:51:57

Maybe I had pizza that was bad and stale yesterday

00:52:00

and now it's causing something.

00:52:01

So I come back, I go, "Hey, man.

00:52:05

I think God wants me to tell you, I think He wants you know,

00:52:09

He hasn't forgotten about you.

00:52:14

This guy's eyes immediately go red, immediately like that.

00:52:18

He starts crying.

00:52:21

He says, he goes, "Are you a Christian?"

00:52:25

And I said, "Yeah, I am."

00:52:29

He said, "I got baptized in 2006 and, man,

00:52:33

life has not been good."

00:52:36

I said, "Well, He just told you right now,

00:52:40

he's not forgotten about you."

00:52:43

He goes, "Thanks, man." "No problem."

00:52:44

So I'm patting him on the shoulder, I'm trying to patch him up.

00:52:47

I go back and get my truck and away we go.

00:52:49

And I don't know if that guy has anybody in his life.

00:52:54

I don't know where he goes,

00:52:56

if he goes anyplace for any sense of help or inspiration.

00:52:59

I just want to tell you right now,

00:53:01

I would love to be a personal guide for everybody, every.

00:53:05

I know this: I can't be a personal guide for everybody,

00:53:07

but I and anybody who's ever on the stage

00:53:10

will be a guide for you, will be a guide.

00:53:11

We have one of the greatest years planned at Crossroads that I can remember.

00:53:15

It's going to be an amazing year.

00:53:17

We're going to look at emotions.

00:53:19

How do you actually control your emotions

00:53:23

and not have your emotions control you?

00:53:25

It's going to be an amazing year that way.

00:53:27

We're going to look at stuff like

00:53:29

what does it actually mean to be a Christian?

00:53:31

Because there's most of us in here really have no clue.

00:53:34

Most of us don't have any clue.

00:53:36

We're going to look at that.

00:53:37

What are the key spiritual power principles

00:53:41

that set somebody aside, who sets themselves on to Jesus?

00:53:45

What does that look like in our life?

00:53:47

We're gonna look at the difference between Father and King.

00:53:50

God's a father and He's a king.

00:53:52

Most of us have an outage in one of those areas.

00:53:54

We're going to look at that stuff.

00:53:55

We're going to deal with the election.

00:53:57

Yes, this is going to be the most divisive election in our time.

00:54:01

I don't know, this could be the most important election of our lives.

00:54:03

Everyone always says it's the most important election of our lives.

00:54:05

I have no idea if it's going to be the most important or not,

00:54:06

but I do know it's the most divisive and most of us need help.

00:54:10

We need guided.

00:54:11

And I want to encourage you, I want to plead with you,

00:54:14

where will you go this year to get any sense of guidance

00:54:18

that is spiritually rooted?

00:54:20

If you're around a group of people every week

00:54:23

at a Crossroads site or with a ground of Crossroads folks

00:54:26

trying to dig in, where will that --

00:54:28

Who will fight with you?

00:54:30

Who will fight for you?

00:54:31

Who will guide you?

00:54:33

Tell your friends, "If you don't change something this year,

00:54:36

you will not have a different 2020 than you did in 2019.

00:54:40

I want you to win.

00:54:43

God wants you to win."

00:54:46

The Book of Proverbs 20, it says:

00:54:53

That means you and I, we need to prepare our lives.

00:54:56

We need to fight to win in our lives.

00:54:58

We need to ready our lives for battle, but at the end of the day,

00:55:04

God is going to do something only He can do

00:55:06

because there's certain X factors that He controls that we don't control.

00:55:09

But one thing is for sure, if you do not ready your horse for battle,

00:55:13

there will not be victory.

00:55:15

Both of those go hand in hand: ready the horse for battle

00:55:18

and there is victory that belongs in the hands of God,

00:55:22

and He wants His people, He wants you to win this.

00:55:27

Do you it?

00:55:28

Do you want it? Do you want it?

00:55:30

You have one life, one life?

00:55:32

You have one shot at 2020.

00:55:35

Consecrate yourself, friends. Consecrate.

00:55:37

Set yourself aside.

00:55:38

Set yourself side to have a life that's above the fray.

00:55:41

Set yourself aside to not be normal, to not be average,

00:55:44

to not settle for same old, same old.

00:55:48

Win this year, win, do this.

00:55:52

God, I thank you for giving us permission to live our lives,

00:55:57

to go after things, and for being a God who fights for us

00:56:02

and gives victory.

00:56:03

I give you this year, we all give you this year.

00:56:06

We pray uniquely that this series sets us up

00:56:10

for this decade of our life

00:56:11

and we pray these things according to the name of Jesus.

00:56:16

Amen.

00:56:17

- So where do you want to win this year?

00:56:20

I believe God wants to show up in that spot.

00:56:23

You can head to Crossroads.net

00:56:24

and chat with us

00:56:25

if you want prayer this week

00:56:27

or you've got questions that you'd like some help answering.

00:56:30

And don't forget to download the Crossroads Anywhere App

00:56:33

and connect with me personally on the app

00:56:36

and so many others who are part of our church

00:56:38

in the midst of prayer and scripture and great content this week.

00:56:41

We'll see you next week for week 2 of Win This Year.

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