TEAM | Win This Year: Week 4

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- My name's Lena Schuler.

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We are closing out our series today: Win This Year.

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And if you're joining us for the very first time,

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we actually have a fun way for you to win something right now.

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You may have seen Yeti or Bigfoot,

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kind of our mascots in the midst of the branding of the series.

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And they've been competing all series long.

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And they're going to go into a competition right now

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in a stupid, funny 30 second video.

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You could choose who you think is going to win: Yeti or Bigfoot

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and be entered to win a whole Yeti Prize pack.

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I know you want that cooler and those tumblers.

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And so if you text Yeti or Bigfoot to 313131 right now

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whoever you think is going to win this competition.

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If you're right, you'll be entered in to get the prize pack

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and actually win something at the beginning of 2020.

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I believe you can do it.

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Let's see who wins.

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- Wins This Year with Bigfoot and Yeti.

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This week's competition: A foot race.

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I'm seeing a whole lot of pushing.

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These guys are wild animals.

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No, really? They are not domesticated in any way.

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And they're off.

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Yeti, he takes the early lead.

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Whoa! Bigfoot slams Yeti right into the ground.

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Apparently that's allowed.

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And the winner is BIGFOOT!

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MINGO: Bigfoot for the win.

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Hey, I hope you picked Bigfoot.

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I'm Chuck Mingo and thanks for being with us today.

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We're talking about how to win.

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And today is all about team.

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A little bit later in the service,

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we're going to have communion together.

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So right now, wherever you are, grab something you can eat,

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something you can drink, so you can participate

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in that part of the service with us.

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And here's what I know is true: No one wins alone.

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That's the stakes we're talking about today.

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And so if you're looking for a place to find team,

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one place where you'll find it is on a GO Trip.

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Check this out.

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TOME: A GO Trip is about going.

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Going outside your comfort zone.

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Going to a new place.

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Going beyond normal.

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Going where you want to go instead of where you've been.

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Your normal life is getting you as far as you can go

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and where are you going right now?

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You're going the way of normal.

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If you want to go further than you are right now,

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you have to go outside of what you're comfortable with.

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And that is the role of GO Trips, they're beyond normal.

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They stretch you, they push you,

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they give you actual capacity.

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Muscles you didn't have beforehand

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that now can take your normal life beyond the normal.

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And you get to help people.

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You get to take on actual physical problems

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and make a difference in somebody else's life

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and the trajectory of their family and their village.

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People you encounter will be changed because

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you stepped out and you went on a GO Trip.

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Let's go.

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JUSTIN: Let's go is right.

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Does that get you pumped up?

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It gets me excited.

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Hey, my name's Justin.

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Welcome to the weekend here at Crossroads.

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And in 13 days, my wife Sarah and I, go on our first GO Trip.

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First one ever. We can't wait.

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You know what I know about our trip

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and what I noticed in those videos -- or in that video?

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No one goes alone.

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Did you notice that?

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No one on that trip or those trips was alone.

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And so I wonder for you, if you were going on a GO Trip right now,

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if you were headed out on a big trip or big adventure,

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do you have two or three people in your life

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that you would text right now to say,

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"I want to go on a big trip with you?"

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You've got two or three people?

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If not, I think you're in the right place today

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because today is all about team.

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See, we want you to win and we know lone wolves do not win.

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We only win because of the team around us.

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So if you've paused on that, and go,

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"I don't know if I've got two or three people,"

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well then you're in the right place.

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And we can help you out today.

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That's what we're talking about today.

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You know, one of the things we don't do alone around here is sing.

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We sing together.

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So if you're at home or online, turn it up, join with us.

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Whatever you do believe or don't believe about God,

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you're in a good place and we want you to engage with us in this time.

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So if you're in the room, let's stand together

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and let's sing together.

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JUSTIN: Sing of why we can sing in victory.

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MINGO: We're gonna have a chance now to take communion together.

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And if you're joining us online,

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I just want to give you some spiritual context

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for what it is we do when we do this.

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You know, in the book of 1 Corinthians, it says this:

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You know what?

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This song that we're singing right now tells a story.

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It tells a story that we can easily forget.

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The story is that I was desperate for a Savior.

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My life was not going the way of life and freedom.

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And thankfully, God loved me enough,

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He loved you enough to come.

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And Jesus came and lived the life that I can never live.

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He died the death that I deserved,

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so that I could have in relationship with Him,

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that kind of life, a living hope.

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And so whatever you've gathered to take communion,

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if you're a follower of Jesus, it is right to remember this story.

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And one of the ways we do that

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is we take something that represents bread.

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I've got Belvita Cranberry Orange.

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It really doesn't matter what you bring, but that's what I've got.

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I've got a Lacroix here because the Bible says

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whenever you eat in remembrance of this story,

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whenever you drink in remembrance of this story,

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you're retelling it to yourself.

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You're proclaiming the Lord's death, the source of our living hope.

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So whatever you have with you I want to encourage you

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to take that bread, cracker, whatever it is,

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and eat that right now in gratitude

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for the broken body of Jesus on your behalf.

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And in the same way I want you to drink in honor

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of the spilt blood of Jesus,

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who was willing to spill His blood for you and for me

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so that we can have a living hope.

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Let's drink together in celebration of who Jesus is

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and what He has done for us.

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You know, this is the way that we retell this story.

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This is a way we remind ourselves of what it means

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to have a living hope in Jesus.

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So as we continue to sing, we sing to a God who is alive

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and a God who has given us a living hope.

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- I love the line in that song:

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Hallelujah praise the one who set me free.

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You know, as I sing that, it helps me believe that even deeper.

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And one of the ways that I actually tell God that I believe

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that He has set me free is I do anything I can

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to combat the grip of the money on my life.

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You know, whether we like to admit it or not,

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money has a grip on most of us.

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And one of the ways that we can say,

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"No, I really am operating in the freedom that Jesus offers is

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I actually want to be free with my money

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and I want to give it away.

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More specifically, I want to give it to God.

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I want to give Him the tithe, the first 10% of my income."

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And so there's a whole group of people at Crossroads

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who over the last 90 days have participated in the tithe test.

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Who said, "I know that God says in His scripture

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to put Him to the test on this topic of money

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and give away the first 10% to the church

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and see what He does in my own personal life and your own life.

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And so if you've been participating in the tithe test

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over the last 90 days, I want you to know that your God sees you

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and He's proud of you.

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And I sincerely hope that you've experienced

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His favor over these last 90 days.

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I've been praying that for you.

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And maybe you want to operate in the freedom that Jesus offers

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and you want to try the tithe test for the next 90 days

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or just find out more about what that is and what that means.

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You can head to Crossroads.net/give

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to find out more

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on the topic of giving and to sign up to participate

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in the 90 day tithe test today.

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Well, next week is a really, really big week for our church

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because for the last 20 years or so

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we've been doing the Super Bowl of Preaching.

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It's Super Bowl weekend.

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You're probably going to sit on your couch

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or your friend's couch and watch the game

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or the commercials, if you're like me.

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And we want to start your day off right on Sunday

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and we want you to experience fun and laughter

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and a little bit of football in the midst of church.

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So here's what you're gonna get.

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Next week is unlike any other weekend of church

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that you'll experience online or in one of our Crossroads locations.

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The entire service is set up like the Super Bowl.

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So you have players and teams and a halftime show

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and commercials and some really good, insightful teaching

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in the midst of it.

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I can guarantee that you'll laugh.

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I can guarantee that you will walk away

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with a new insight about your life or about God.

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And it's something that you're not going to want to miss.

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And so join us next week for the Super Bowl of Preaching.

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You could head to Crossroads.net/SuperBowl

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to find out more about that

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and to see if that's happening at a location near you

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or join us right here online.

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It's gonna be a ton of fun, but we want to give you

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a little bit of insight into how our four players,

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our four teaching pastors: Alli, Chuck, Brian and Kyle

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have been preparing for this year's Super Bowl of Preaching.

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Check it out.

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- So what is the Super Bowl of Preaching, you might ask?

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Well, its just friendly competition among four preachers.

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We won't beat you over the head with a Bible.

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We'll just share what we can.

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It's a real pick me up.

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The goal is to have a good time at church

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and hopefully nobody gets hurt.

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It's just a safe place to have some fun

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and here's some truth, right, Pickles?

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What's that? Oh, no, no football whatsoever.

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The Super Bowl of Preaching.

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Ridiculous, also possibly life changing.

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I don't even like dogs. I said no dogs.

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We're done here.

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Go on. Go on, Pickles.

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TOME: It's coming up next week.

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I cannot wait to pound Chuck Mingo into submission.

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He's going to be a piece of salami by the time I'm done with him.

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It's going to be amazing.

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It is going to be amazing for sure. I can't wait.

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It's one of my favorite things every year.

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You know, we live in a very divisive society,

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but everyone celebrates the Super Bowl,

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who don't even watch football all year long.

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So I'm excited to see that and excited for a good Super Bowl.

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Hey, we're talking about winning.

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We're closing off our series on winning today.

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And I know a lot of us haven't made New Year's resolutions

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and we're kind of going, "Man, it's kind of the end of January,

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it may be too late to make some."

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Hey, here's a new idea.

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It's actually the beginning of the Lunar New Year.

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That's right. The Lunar New Year.

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So if you've been inspired to win at something

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and set a new resolution, you can still do that.

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I'm going to pray right now to get us ready

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for our very last section on this winning series.

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Let's pray before I say anything else.

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God, You are so patient with us.

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Some of us have been winning.

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Some of us feel like we're losing.

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All of us, though, we're in a place

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where we want You to do something for us.

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We're here today, God, right now,

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because we want more than what we have right now.

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I don't think we're here out of religious obligation.

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We're here because we want to understand You

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and understand our life more.

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I pray that You would help me make sense of those issues

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and that You'd help me to be clear and in line with Your truth.

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Thank you, God, for the blessing it is to talk about some of these things.

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And I pray these things according to character

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and identity of Jesus.

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Amen.

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So big idea today is this:

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You can only win by being relationally connected.

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That's the only way you can win.

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Book of 1 Corinthians 9:24, we've looked at this series,

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it say: Don't you know in a race all the runners run,

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but only one gets the prize?

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Run in such a way as to win, to get the prize.

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We should all want to have the most impactful life possible.

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We should all want to do well in life.

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In every area of our life we should want to win.

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And big idea today is the only way that we can win

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or there's a bunch of ways that go into winning,

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that's why we've had a four-part series.

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But today is if we're not relationally connected, we cannot win.

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We need one another.

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I interact with folks who say,

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"Well, I'm kind of a lone wolf kind of person."

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And I say, "Well, you mean you're somebody who dies early

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and isn't as big and as strong as you'd like to be?

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Because that's what a lone wolf is."

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Anybody works with wolves, and I've learned this

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from somebody who works with wolves says

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the lone wolf is smaller than all the other wolves

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because wolves need a pack to hunt elk or deer and pull them down.

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They're smaller and they die earlier than all other wolves.

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So wearing as a badge of courage,

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"I'm kind of a lone wolf kind of person,"

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is actually admitting that we're going to lose,

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that we're not going to be strong.

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The Nation of Israel as we've been looking at

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is led by the person of Joshua.

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And he takes them over the Jordan River

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to the place that's the Promised Land.

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And they start winning victories to actually secure their Promised Land.

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Before they actually cross over the Jordan River,

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which didn't Chuck do an amazing week last week on it?

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He did a great week.

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I thought it was a great, great talk on the Jordan River.

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The last win he's going to have because the next week

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it's all going downhill because he will lose next week.

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But nonetheless, right before they go cross over the Jordan River,

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the leader, Joshua, gives a pep talk.

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He gives a vision talk to all the Nation of Israel.

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He tells them, be strong and courageous,

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because what's on the other side of that body of water

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is your future.

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Be ready to push yourself, he says.

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Be ready to do things you're uncomfortable with because

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it's about time for us as a country to win,

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is in essence what he says.

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After he gives this pep talk,

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here's how the people mirror this back to him

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that he's relationally connected with.

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Joshua 1:18,they say:

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So as Joshua tells them to be strong and courageous,

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they said to him, "Hey, dude, you be strong and courageous too.

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In fact, if someone isn't strong and isn't courageous,

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if somebody is bad mouthing you,

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somebody isn't on board the mission.

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We got this one covered, Joshua.

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We will kill them dead right here.

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We got them. We will kill them."

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Man, now let me be real clear before we go any further.

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I'm very confident God's not asking anybody in here to kill anybody.

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I want to really, really clear of that.

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In fact, there may be very rebellious people at Crossroads

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who don't like things I say.

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Let me save their life right now.

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Do not kill them. Do not do that for anyone.

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God is ask anybody in here to kill anybody.

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I'm very confident of that.

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But what I really like about this,

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in this moment of sort of redemptive history is

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I like we see an element of team,

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an element of relational connectedness.

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And that is your problem is my problem.

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The thing that's bothering you, it bothers me

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and therefore, I'm gonna fix it.

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We have a staff here at Crossroads

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and we participate in a staff survey

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and a bunch of other organizations do as well.

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And we're benchmarking ourselves against them

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and learning from them and maybe them learning from us as well.

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And most years we do really, really well.

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We get recognized in the local papers kind of being

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in the top four organizations our size

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or the top three or something like that.

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Well, you know some years we don't do really well.

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And oftentimes when we're not doing well,

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it's because there's a lot of this.

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"Well, that leader up there."

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"Well this person down here."

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They're they're kind of pointing around saying

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those people in to fix that thing and they need to just --

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Whenever there's doing a lot of this, there's never a lot of this.

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There's never a lot of relational connection.

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There's just that pointing thing.

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And what I'll say to staff,

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if we have one of those years that's bad, I'll say,

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"Hey, look.

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I'm looking to see who it is that's going to fix the problem.

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Where's the mighty men and women

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that want to do something about this?

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Because no more points for pointing out problems.

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Only points for solving problems.

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Only points for being the person that sees something

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and gets it done and fixes it."

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This is the beautiful thing about

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where the Nation of Israel is right now in this era

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is they're saying, "Hey, we're all in this together.

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And Joshua's problem is my problem.

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My problem is Joshua's problem."

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This is incredibly foreign to us in our world today.

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We are in an increasingly individualistic and isolated culture

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and the more individualistic we become

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and the more isolated we become,

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the less we can be in tune with God and the less we can win.

00:27:06

Person after person in the Bible is connected with a team,

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starting with God Himself.

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He's known as the Triune God, God in one and three persons.

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God, the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

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He's connected in one.

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We see God creates not a person, but a people:

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Adam and Eve to be relationally connected.

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I'd love to go into deep details

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on all of these things right now, I just can't.

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I'm just giving you an overview.

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Noah and his family builds an ark.

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They've got a mission. They've got a point they're doing.

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The person Abraham, him in his household

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and people who are connect with them,

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they start and are the beginning of the Nation of Israel.

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We have Jesus and the twelve disciples.

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We've got Paul and Silas and Barnabas

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and a whole book in the Bible called The Book of Acts,

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which is the acts of all these people who are relationally connected.

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Every person that does heroic things in the Bible is connected,

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has made the choice to be on a team with somebody else.

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And here we are today in 2020, America

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and the first big idea I want us to understand is

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that if you want to be relationally connected,

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you're going to have to make a counter-cultural choice.

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If you want to have a sense of belonging and oneness

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with other people and be on a team,

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you're going to have to make choices

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that are counter to the way our culture is going.

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Because everything in our culture is splitting us apart.

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Everything our culture is causing us to be lonely.

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We are arguably the loneliest generation in the history of America.

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Maybe in the history of the world.

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All ancient cultures were communal cultures.

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This thing that Joshua says and people saying,

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"Hey, we'll kill people that come against you."

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That's an ancient communal thing that says it's a we thing,

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whereas our culture is a me thing.

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And everything about our culture is about exalting me

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and not thinking about something else.

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Everything that's happening in culture and happening in media

00:29:04

and happening in technology, it's all fraying us.

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Technology never brings us together.

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It only frays us and that's coming after we thought

00:29:13

that social media would bring us together.

00:29:15

We now know that social media divides us

00:29:17

more than it brings us together.

00:29:18

Yes, it's nice to be able to be in touch

00:29:20

with the people we graduated high school with

00:29:21

and there's some positive things there.

00:29:22

By the way, I'm very pro media.

00:29:25

Very, very pro technology.

00:29:28

You have to understand the pull of that is

00:29:30

to cause me to be isolated from you and from my neighbors.

00:29:35

Let's go back in the history of America

00:29:38

and let's just talk about where we've come as a culture

00:29:41

and where we're going as a culture right now.

00:29:43

There was a day where it was virtually impossible

00:29:46

for you to have any entertainment at all in your house.

00:29:49

We had an agrarian culture.

00:29:52

Americans had their own gardens or their own crops.

00:29:56

And they would go and they would work it as a team, as a community.

00:30:00

And they would come in the house

00:30:02

and they would play checkers with somebody else.

00:30:04

Or the only way to be isolated and have entertainment

00:30:08

was to actually read a book.

00:30:10

But we were actually together with one another all the time.

00:30:14

And then a new piece of technology came along to give us entertainment.

00:30:17

It was the radio.

00:30:18

And what did we all do?

00:30:19

We all like sat around the radio and looked at it

00:30:24

as one community.

00:30:26

Now, I wasn't around back then because

00:30:27

I'm getting older and longer in tooth .

00:30:29

I wasn't around back then, but I've seen these pictures.

00:30:32

That's what we did.

00:30:33

We were we were with one another listening

00:30:37

because we were always relationally connected.

00:30:40

And then the TV comes along.

00:30:43

Yeah, I remember when the TV comes along.

00:30:45

It's wonderful.

00:30:47

At least the color TV.

00:30:48

I was around when the color TV became available.

00:30:51

And that's actually a picture of an old television

00:30:54

in case you're wondering, "What is that up there?"

00:30:55

Yeah, that's one. That was original television.

00:30:58

We actually had one like that in my basement

00:31:00

that was black and white.

00:31:02

And then we had a color TV that my parents bought

00:31:05

was 19 inch RCA, 19 inches.

00:31:09

We thought we were like rich.

00:31:11

Now it's basically the size of an i-Pad.

00:31:12

Right?

00:31:14

This is back in the days when you -- It was a chore.

00:31:17

You used to burn calories watching TV

00:31:19

because you had to get up and go like this.

00:31:23

And then you'd have to go back down and sit.

00:31:25

And it didn't actually matter that you had to get up

00:31:29

and change the station, because you only had

00:31:30

like three options, three or four options.

00:31:33

But everybody would sit around the TV and watch it.

00:31:37

And you would have shows that Hollywood

00:31:40

and everybody would try to figure out what kind of show

00:31:41

can we get that everybody can be together and watch?

00:31:46

I remember my parents were like not up for it at all

00:31:48

for me being on the old black and white TV downstairs

00:31:51

and them being upstairs.

00:31:52

I was like, "Why can't I be on the black and white

00:31:54

watching the Lone Ranger

00:31:55

and you upstairs watching Lawrence Welk?"

00:31:58

No, it wasn't going to work.

00:31:59

Like it was anathema to them --

00:32:01

That means they didn't like it --

00:32:02

to have two parts of the family in different rooms

00:32:05

having some entertainment because we're supposed

00:32:07

to be together doing this in one place.

00:32:10

Then, of course, we get to multiple streaming platforms

00:32:13

that we have right now, not just in different rooms.

00:32:15

Shoot, we're in the same room streaming different things

00:32:19

on different devices.

00:32:21

And we have as a result, we have fewer cultural touch points.

00:32:25

We used to have water cooler talk.

00:32:28

Like people would go to a water cooler and they would talk.

00:32:32

Now we all bring our own individual waters

00:32:34

because by Fiji water is better than the water cooler at work.

00:32:37

And not only that, when we go to the water cooler

00:32:39

we're not even sure what to talk about anymore.

00:32:41

We used to go to the water cooler at work and go,

00:32:42

"Hey, did you see The Office episode last night?"

00:32:44

"I did."

00:32:45

You would watch The Office

00:32:46

just so you had something to talk with people about.

00:32:50

Now we can't even tell people what we're watching,

00:32:51

like, "How far are you?" "I'm at the part --"

00:32:53

"OH, I can't -- don't tell me any more."

00:32:55

So we can't even talk about the things we're watching anymore

00:32:58

because we're all individually isolated,

00:33:01

bingeing it for ourselves and it's not communally.

00:33:04

By the way, I like bingeing.

00:33:06

I'm pro bingeing.

00:33:07

I'm pro-technology.

00:33:08

I'm not anti any of the things I've said.

00:33:12

All I'm trying to do is help us understand is

00:33:14

if you want to be relationally connected,

00:33:16

you're gonna have to stand against the cultural tide

00:33:19

that's dividing us.

00:33:20

Friends, there's a reason why suicide is on the increase

00:33:25

and going up.

00:33:26

It's because we're isolated and lonely.

00:33:29

Every person in here, every person streaming right now,

00:33:31

I know you know somebody who killed themselves

00:33:33

not too long ago and it's awful.

00:33:36

However, long ago was.

00:33:38

It was awful.

00:33:40

And there was a day growing up when I didn't know anybody

00:33:44

or knew anybody who knew anybody who committed suicide.

00:33:47

Not the way it is anymore.

00:33:50

We weren't diagnosing people with mental illnesses

00:33:53

decades ago because we didn't know.

00:33:55

So people weren't getting diagnosed.

00:33:57

There's a rise in mental illnesses

00:33:58

because now we're appropriately diagnosing.

00:34:01

And there's also some people who are acting out

00:34:04

in a mentally ill way, not because of brain chemistry,

00:34:07

but because of loneliness.

00:34:10

Because when we're not connected with other people,

00:34:12

talking with other people, the worst of ourselves comes out.

00:34:18

Dark parts of our life come out.

00:34:21

This is not good for us and all I'm trying to do

00:34:25

is help us be aware of what's happening in culture,

00:34:28

how it's dividing us and go --

00:34:30

I'll go to another area here: Pornography.

00:34:33

Why is pornography so destructive?

00:34:36

It's not just because Jesus says

00:34:38

we shouldn't lust after somebody in our mind

00:34:40

that we're not married to, that is wrong.

00:34:43

It's also because pornography trains us to be selfish lovers.

00:34:49

It actually equips us to have sex with ourselves

00:34:53

without any other human being.

00:34:55

And actually, for the younger generation of Americans

00:34:59

is disincentivizing young males from actually asking women out.

00:35:04

This is a real thing.

00:35:06

You can go to any sociological sociology class

00:35:08

in any major university in the land

00:35:11

and they'll spend a good two weeks talking about

00:35:14

the changes in sexuality and how our technological advances

00:35:19

are creating machines and sex bots for ourselves

00:35:23

to the point where it's gonna come at 2050

00:35:25

more human beings are going to be having sex

00:35:27

with their our own personalized computerized

00:35:30

doll thing equipment than actually being with a real person.

00:35:33

That's the estimates because we're becoming more and more isolated

00:35:38

and more and more inwardly drawn

00:35:40

and more and more depressed

00:35:42

and more, more defeated because we're not meant to be that way.

00:35:48

And I'm telling you right now, I don't care about

00:35:49

all the things I just mentioned.

00:35:51

I don't care how many of them you're doing right now,

00:35:52

how many have done the past.

00:35:53

It's not about that.

00:35:54

It's about saying where you are right now.

00:35:56

Do you want to win?

00:35:57

If you want to win, you're going to have to get

00:35:59

to a different place relationally

00:36:00

to get different attitudes, different practices,

00:36:04

to be with real live flesh and blood people,

00:36:06

to talk to real life flesh and blood people, to laugh,

00:36:10

to maybe even kiss a real life flesh and blood person.

00:36:16

There's something about us, we need people.

00:36:18

We need to be relationally connected.

00:36:20

It's spiritually hardwired into our DNA by God.

00:36:25

And when we don't have those relational ties

00:36:30

our life simply doesn't work.

00:36:32

Now, the Nation of Israel, they get over the river as a team,

00:36:37

the Jordan River as a team.

00:36:40

They then go and they have their -- Chuck talked about last week.

00:36:43

Then they then go and have their first battle

00:36:46

as a team against Jericho.

00:36:47

We talked about that, as a team.

00:36:50

And God tells them you're to destroy this city

00:36:53

and you're to destroy everything that's in it.

00:36:55

You're not to not to keep that fine gold things

00:36:58

and silver things. God says those are mine.

00:37:01

Bring them to me and they're gonna be part of

00:37:02

the future tabernacle or temple

00:37:04

and all the sort of holy accessories in there

00:37:06

that will be melted down.

00:37:08

And they do this.

00:37:09

They have these accomplishments.

00:37:11

Then they go to their next battle, their next battle

00:37:14

against Ai, A-I, also known as the Amalekites in this,

00:37:18

who are represented in this city

00:37:20

and they're on a roll and they lose.

00:37:25

They lose.

00:37:26

This is where we're going to pick up this story, Joshua.

00:37:28

7:5-7, it says this:

00:37:36

That means the people felt like losers, that's what that means.

00:37:52

This is the pain of losing.

00:37:54

It should cause us pain when we lose anything.

00:37:58

I don't care from playing a grandchild in Candyland,

00:38:02

I want to win.

00:38:05

I won't cheat to win, but if I lose, I don't like it.

00:38:09

Vince Lombardi said, "Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser."

00:38:12

This is what's happening with Joshua and the rest of people,

00:38:16

they're used to winning here.

00:38:18

They're like crossing Red Seas and God's doing miracles.

00:38:23

And they're crossing into -- the walls.

00:38:26

And all of a sudden they lose and they don't like it at all.

00:38:30

And I hope you never like losing, whatever it is.

00:38:34

I hope you never like not being able to close a sale.

00:38:37

I hope you never like not fulfilling a resolution you made

00:38:41

versus going, "You know, I didn't make it. Whatever."

00:38:43

I hope you never like losing

00:38:44

when somebody around you is hurt because of your words.

00:38:47

I hope you never, ever, ever get okay with not doing well.

00:38:54

Joshua is not and it says this:

00:39:10

He's feeling so bad about his loss, he's saying,

00:39:12

"Man, maybe you shouldn't have crossed that river at all.

00:39:15

It was great having a victory at Jericho.

00:39:16

But man, this loss is hurting so much,

00:39:19

maybe we should've just stayed there.

00:39:23

Verse 10: and the Lord said the Joshua, "Get up, you weenie boy."

00:39:29

That's actually what says in the original Hebrew,

00:39:31

it says Wienie Boy, windiest boyous, I think is what it says.

00:39:58

So Joshua goes, "Oh, there's a reason.

00:40:01

There's a reason. There's a reason why we're losing here."

00:40:05

The very clear instructions God had given to them,

00:40:09

someone or someones chose to ignore those instructions

00:40:17

and to steal and take what was God's

00:40:20

and to bury it inside of their own tent.

00:40:25

And so a God tells Joshua, doing what He does.

00:40:28

He picks one of the tribes and He's just calls,

00:40:32

"Um, the tribe of Judah."

00:40:33

All the tribe of Judah, he gets all the Nation of Israel,

00:40:35

the tribe of Judah, they all stand forward.

00:40:37

And he says, all right, I want the the clan of such and such.

00:40:41

So little smaller unit inside of that t ribe.

00:40:44

And those people stand up.

00:40:45

Ok. And then of the family of this.

00:40:47

And that little family gets up.

00:40:49

And then the guy inside that family.

00:40:51

Is there an Achan in the family?

00:40:53

And Achan steps out.

00:40:56

Now, it's interesting.

00:40:57

Is God supernaturally inspiring Joshua

00:41:00

to kind of funnel things down like this boom, boom, boom?

00:41:04

Or is it there's somebody in every tribe,

00:41:08

there's somebody in every family

00:41:10

that has stolen the consecrated things?

00:41:13

So maybe he's just going, it's just Russian roulette.

00:41:15

It doesn't matter who, there's going to be somebody

00:41:17

from every tribe and every clan and every family.

00:41:20

So he just calls them out and he's using them an example.

00:41:23

We don't know, but it's interesting to surmise.

00:41:25

But nonetheless, all of Israel's standing there.

00:41:29

And there's Achan who's right there and he's caught red handed.

00:41:35

So it says in verse 19:

00:41:47

He says, "I did it. I got some stuff.

00:41:51

It's buried underneath the carpet in my tent."

00:41:53

They go and check out his tent.

00:41:54

They pick up the carpet.

00:41:55

They bury it, sure enough, there's all the stuff.

00:41:58

Joshua 7:25:

00:42:13

The reason why the Nation of Israel has lost

00:42:16

is because they are all relationally connected.

00:42:20

And somebody inside of the team violated one of God's principles

00:42:26

and then they all lost.

00:42:29

All of them lost.

00:42:31

And as a result Achan gets stoned.

00:42:32

This isn't the feel good kind of stoned that we have today.

00:42:36

This is old school stoning with hard objects hitting you and killing you.

00:42:42

This is critical to understand.

00:42:44

You need to understand, the day that I do something

00:42:48

that is really outside of God's bounds,

00:42:51

who gets hurt by that?

00:42:54

All of y'all, all of y'all.

00:42:57

In fact, all of us all are hurting one another

00:43:00

all the time when we're doing something

00:43:02

outside of what is winning before God.

00:43:05

And our isolated, individualistic culture does not see this

00:43:10

because in our cultures it's all,

00:43:11

"Well, me, it's me and whatever I'm doing.

00:43:13

It's all about me and me and me, me, me.

00:43:15

No, we're all connected here.

00:43:17

We all affect one another.

00:43:19

And to deny our relational connection

00:43:21

is to deny the effects of our sin on one another

00:43:24

and also the effects of our victories on one another.

00:43:29

This is what's happening in this Nation of Israel.

00:43:31

And as soon as they deal with Achan and he gets stoned,

00:43:35

they start winning.

00:43:36

Now I know again, here we are.

00:43:37

We have a hard time with this because

00:43:39

we're so enlightened in America, were so enlightened

00:43:41

like, "Oh, how can the God of the Bible endorse stoning?"

00:43:44

I let God speak for himself on this.

00:43:46

This is just what happened generations ago

00:43:47

and in an ancient communal culture this is not a big deal.

00:43:50

This is only a big deal at our hyper insulated,

00:43:55

individualistic, narcissistic culture

00:43:57

where we don't want to take leadership of anybody

00:43:59

and we don't want slot ourselves under God at all.

00:44:01

I am God. We don't say that, but that's exactly how we act.

00:44:04

Only in our cultural context do we have these doubts of,

00:44:07

"Well, why would this happen?"

00:44:08

We have problems with this because

00:44:10

we don't know what it's like to be relationally connected.

00:44:13

to do something for the good of the community.

00:44:15

We don't know what it's like to be held accountable

00:44:17

because somebody else is hurting because we did wrong.

00:44:21

Again, God's not asking you to stone anybody,

00:44:24

nor for you to get stoned in either way you want to look at that.

00:44:26

He's not.

00:44:28

I'm just saying, the reason we struggle with this

00:44:30

is because we are spiritually losing,

00:44:33

because we don't understand relational connectedness.

00:44:37

Do you know who's on your team?

00:44:40

The second big idea: Identify who is on your team.

00:44:44

The Nation of Israel knew what tribe they're part of,

00:44:47

what family they're part of, what nation they were a part of.

00:44:51

Do you know who is your team?

00:44:53

I don't mean just broadly, I'm an American.

00:44:55

But who is your team?

00:44:56

Who is it that calls you when they're struggling?

00:44:58

Who do you call when you're struggling?

00:45:00

Who calls you to celebrate when they had a pay increase?

00:45:04

Who do you call to celebrate?

00:45:06

And who do you call to brag on yourself

00:45:08

that you got a pay increase?

00:45:09

Who's on your team?

00:45:10

Who is it that you're sweating with?

00:45:11

Who is it that you're laughing with?

00:45:13

Who is it that you're weeping with?

00:45:14

Who is it you're hugging with?

00:45:16

Who is that? Do you know who your team is?

00:45:21

Most of us don't know teams.

00:45:22

The only thing we know about teams is what we remember from sports

00:45:25

or from the thespian club we were part of in high school

00:45:27

or some such thing.

00:45:28

Those are wonderful, those things are wonderful,

00:45:31

but those are teams that start and end

00:45:33

and have not that great of a trophy to endure.

00:45:37

But the relationships we have,

00:45:38

that as a trophy that will endure for a long time.

00:45:42

I'm inspired by sports because there's so much in sports

00:45:46

that relates to what I understand about life.

00:45:48

Recently, Jimmy Johnson, who was the coach

00:45:51

for the Dallas Cowboys when they won two Super Bowls

00:45:54

and is also a commentator that's very, very well respected.

00:45:59

Recently he got a surprise

00:46:00

while he was doing his commentating

00:46:02

by somebody from the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

00:46:05

Here it is.

00:46:07

- As we welcome you to the Visa half time,

00:46:08

I've got a full house here on the football field.

00:46:11

But there's always room for one surprise guest,

00:46:14

especially when is this man coming in right now

00:46:17

from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Dave Baker.

00:46:20

- Good to see you. Good to see you.

00:46:22

- How are you doing?

00:46:23

- Good. Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer.

00:46:29

- Oh, boy.

00:46:32

- On behalf of the Pro Football Hall of Fame

00:46:35

and all those fans that are watching

00:46:36

and all of us who love this game.

00:46:39

- Let me do this.

00:46:40

- Thank you, Coach, for all you've done for the game.

00:46:43

Thank you for all you're gonna do for the game.

00:46:45

Thank you for the history that you've made

00:46:47

and the lives that you've impacted.

00:46:50

Thank you.

00:46:51

It's my great honor to tell you

00:46:53

that you're going to be the 328th Hall of Famer

00:46:56

[cheers & applause] into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

00:46:59

And your legacy is going to be in Canton, Ohio, forever.

00:47:03

Congratulations, Coach .

00:47:08

- The only thing I can think of is

00:47:11

all the assistant coaches that have worked for me,

00:47:14

all the great players that have played for me.

00:47:18

They're the reason I'm here.

00:47:20

And they're the reason I can't talk.

00:47:23

[gasps]

00:47:25

- Are you all right?

00:47:26

- Where's your breather?

00:47:32

- This is so special to me,

00:47:34

because when you put in the work that we put in,

00:47:40

it's nice to know people appreciate it.

00:47:45

TOME: That's cool stuff. That was --

00:47:47

They kept going to Troy Aikman,

00:47:49

the one who was his quarterback with him when they won Super Bowls,

00:47:52

that's the guy with the --

00:47:53

who was kind of getting teary well up in the booth.

00:47:55

And notice what he did there.

00:47:57

He -- all he could do was name all people

00:48:00

who he was on the team with: assistant coaches, players,

00:48:03

because winners are always relationally connected.

00:48:06

They know it's not because of their own efforts.

00:48:09

It's a team thing.

00:48:13

I'm on a number of different teams.

00:48:15

One team I'm on includes a guy who has his own business

00:48:21

and he came into a bit of a pickle.

00:48:25

Unexpected things happened financially, couldn't meet payroll.

00:48:28

And I've been trying to encourage him and walk him through that.

00:48:32

And he said I could share our recent texts over

00:48:35

because I thought this is exactly a way to be a good teammate.

00:48:39

Here's what I said to him.

00:48:40

I said, "Hey, how are things with you in the business?"

00:48:43

He says, "Oh, much, much better.

00:48:44

I trimmed down the team.

00:48:46

I paid back my parents."

00:48:47

He had to get a loan for his parents to meet payroll.

00:48:49

"We're in a great spot.

00:48:51

I can't thank you enough for being there and praying for me."

00:48:53

I said, "That's so encouraging. Thankful that you can breathe."

00:48:56

It goes on and he says this:

00:49:17

He's saying, "I would have just done this on my own before."

00:49:20

And he would have lost before.

00:49:22

But he's come to a place spiritually where he's willing

00:49:24

to open up and let people in and share some difficulties,

00:49:27

and he's getting the benefit of that.

00:49:30

This is the way it works, friends, I'm telling you.

00:49:32

This is how we win.

00:49:33

We win by letting people into our life.

00:49:36

We win by getting into somebody's life.

00:49:39

And we do that not just because we want to be relational,

00:49:41

but we want to get stuff done

00:49:43

that we couldn't get done if we were on our own.

00:49:45

This the third and biggest idea today, last idea.

00:49:47

We need to work towards a team goal.

00:49:50

Not the goal of just being relational, though that's a good goal.

00:49:53

But for many of us, we want to be a people where

00:49:55

Where are we? Where are we going?

00:50:00

Amazon Prime, Sunday, January 26, as in now,

00:50:05

we're streaming Phantom Lake, Quest for Phantom Lake.

00:50:08

And we're excited about how this is looking.

00:50:10

And it's all about a group of people going for a goal,

00:50:15

a goal of getting someplace they couldn't go

00:50:17

and for sure they wouldn't go on their own.

00:50:20

This the last short little snippet we will show

00:50:23

of what's about to stream on Amazon Prime.

00:50:25

And it's all as this team gets ready

00:50:28

to cross a Jordan River of sorts,

00:50:31

to cross an obstacle that is just before

00:50:34

the final ascent to Phantom Lake.

00:50:39

I am Lego over first half,

00:50:40

Hopefully I have no problems getting over.

00:50:42

This is about controlled speed.

00:50:45

Controlled speed.

00:50:46

Just like [sound effect] keep the throttle on and your --

00:50:51

Every time your tires come on one of those big rocks,

00:50:54

it's going to slide off to the left and right.

00:50:56

Just be ready for that. Just keep your throttle on.

00:50:58

Just tractor on through it.

00:51:00

Your suspensions are great.

00:51:01

You'll be fine.

00:51:02

If you can convince yourself that you will be fine

00:51:04

and to keep momentum, then you'll be fine.

00:51:07

If not, your bike goes down in the water, big freakin deal.

00:51:10

You go down in the water. Big freakin deal.

00:51:11

It's the softest landing you can have.

00:51:13

There's no reason you should have any fear here.

00:51:16

All right, I'll go first.

00:51:31

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

00:51:39

Hey Dave, remember, and anybody else that remember,

00:51:42

you know, that speed.

00:51:43

As soon as you hit that water, it's deep enough,

00:51:46

you're going to slow down.

00:51:48

So, you know, you probably want to go

00:51:50

a little faster than you think

00:51:51

because you slow down like really fast.

00:52:02

Are you all right, Dave?

00:52:03

DAVE: Yeah. TOME: OK.

00:52:04

DAVE: It's on my foot, but I'm good.

00:52:05

TOME: All right. Good.

00:52:07

Good approach.

00:52:08

You know, you did that right, it's just sometimes you get a bad rock.

00:52:12

DAVE: Yep.

00:52:15

TOME: Those can be tough.

00:52:17

DAVE: Yeah.

00:52:18

TOME: Keep that head up, Chuck.

00:52:20

Keep that head up. Keep that head up.

00:52:24

Keep your eyes up, not down.

00:52:27

Keep them up.

00:52:39

OH, my gosh!

00:52:41

Like a boss.

00:52:43

He went for that.

00:52:45

Who said Chuck Mingo was conservative?

00:52:53

Oh, my gosh.

00:52:56

Oh, man.

00:52:57

Who said Chuck was conservative?

00:52:58

Who said you're conservative?

00:53:01

My gosh, dude.

00:53:03

MINGO: Yes!

00:53:04

TOME: Man, you freaking crushed that thing.

00:53:07

My word.

00:53:10

My word. Way to go.

00:53:13

Way to go.

00:53:20

And wait till you see what happens next.

00:53:24

There was an amazing sense of team there

00:53:27

because people knew this is where we're going,

00:53:30

this is why we are doing what we're doing.

00:53:32

And this is where the Nation of Israel had broken down.

00:53:36

I mean, some of them, or at least Achan

00:53:38

like got messed up on the goal.

00:53:39

The goal is to get to the Promise Land and honor God in the midst.

00:53:43

The goal isn't to get whatever I can get for myself.

00:53:47

And whenever you have someone in a team

00:53:49

that gets fuzzy on the mission,

00:53:51

you have a team that's going to be destroyed.

00:53:53

You have people that

00:53:54

are not going to be thriving spiritually here.

00:53:58

Here at Crossroads, we're a team.

00:54:01

We're a team. And what's the goal?

00:54:02

What is it we're going after?

00:54:07

That's what we do:

00:54:10

And I like when I do my thing here well

00:54:13

and people are encouraging to me.

00:54:14

That's awesome, but to be really clear, that's not winning.

00:54:18

I like when we have a lot of people in our buildings.

00:54:21

I hope that we have more people Super Bowl than we ever had before.

00:54:24

To be clear, having a lot of people

00:54:26

there for Super Bowl is not winning.

00:54:28

It could be. It's not winning.

00:54:29

What is winning?

00:54:30

When we get people who are disconnected with God,

00:54:33

connecting with people who are growing with Christ,

00:54:35

growing with Christ and together as a team,

00:54:39

we're changing the world.

00:54:41

That and only that is winning.

00:54:43

Not good sermons, not high attendance numbers.

00:54:47

It's that, that's what's winning.

00:54:49

So I'm so excited about what we're able to do in Puerto Rico.

00:54:52

We've sent $50,000 down.

00:54:54

You know, there's a 6.3

00:54:55

Richter scale earthquake

00:54:57

that happened there, 6.4

00:54:58

rather.

00:55:00

They had 2300 homes eliminated.

00:55:02

We sent down a big check of $50,000 to our partners

00:55:05

to start working and our Masters of Disasters Team

00:55:08

that's been trained, is going to build that.

00:55:11

And that sounds like that's a lot of money.

00:55:12

That a lot a lot of people.

00:55:14

It's going to make a huge, huge difference.

00:55:16

I'd tell you what, you could take our slice of Crossroads,

00:55:19

the number of who we have, and those statistics

00:55:22

and put that slice, or anybody who shows up at a Bengals game

00:55:26

for anybody who shows up at all the movie theaters.

00:55:29

And those numbers will far outpace any other segment of society

00:55:33

because it's something we're trying to win in.

00:55:36

It's something we're trying to go after.

00:55:40

We're not content to simply play church and have nice music

00:55:44

and have interesting sermons.

00:55:45

No, that's not winning.

00:55:46

That's good. I'd rather have that an awful music

00:55:49

and uninteresting sermons, but that's not what winning is.

00:55:53

That's not what getting to the place where God wants us.

00:55:56

We can never be okay with losing in areas.

00:56:00

And to be clear, there's things that go on at Crossroads

00:56:02

that we're losing in.

00:56:03

And what are we losing in?

00:56:04

It's always dependent on how that sub team is doing in those areas.

00:56:09

We always want to come up against that

00:56:11

and we want to help people because

00:56:13

that always represents people who aren't being helped

00:56:15

and people who are hurting.

00:56:18

Last little verse, by the way, Phantom Lake is starting stream.

00:56:22

I got tell you this, please.

00:56:24

I'm going to ask you a favor.

00:56:26

Watch it, watch it.

00:56:27

Watch the whole thing.

00:56:28

Even if you watch the first five minutes

00:56:30

and you think it's awful.

00:56:31

Just go read a book and keep it going.

00:56:34

Because the algorithm of Amazon Prime looks to see

00:56:37

how many people start it

00:56:38

and how many people have finished it.

00:56:39

And then it will bump up into people's feeds

00:56:41

so people can discover it.

00:56:42

Right now no one is going to discover it.

00:56:43

You're going to have to search for it

00:56:44

and then you can discover it.

00:56:45

But the more of us that do that, the more people can see it

00:56:48

and be blessed and be helped spiritually.

00:56:50

That's why that's there.

00:56:52

The win is to help people spiritually

00:56:54

who are never going to be inside of a church.

00:56:58

The very last verse I'm going to look at,

00:57:01

it's at the very end of the book of Joshua.

00:57:02

There's been a lot of intense things that happened.

00:57:04

I wish this series was ten weeks long.

00:57:06

But here's sort of the culminating button on the entire book.

00:57:10

It comes from Joshua 24:15.

00:57:14

And Joshua says this:

00:57:16

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord,

00:57:20

meaning like you don't want to do that, that's awful for you.

00:57:38

"You don't want to serve the God I'm going to serve,

00:57:41

but you're going to serve one of them.

00:57:44

Then he says this: But as for me and my house,

00:57:47

me and my team, will serve the Lord.

00:57:51

I'll tell you what, you are going to serve somebody, friends.

00:57:54

You're going to.

00:57:55

Every single person serves somebody, something, some entity.

00:57:59

Every single one of us has our heart given over to something.

00:58:02

And that thing is either going to help you win

00:58:05

or you're going to lose.

00:58:07

I'm just telling you right now as your pastor,

00:58:08

if that thing isn't God, you will lose.

00:58:11

You will utterly lose, the right God, the ultimate God,

00:58:14

Jesus Himself, you will lose.

00:58:18

It's only a matter of time because God has created you

00:58:22

to be in relationship with Him,

00:58:24

and He wants you to be in relationship with others.

00:58:27

That is winning.

00:58:28

Let me pray for you.

00:58:29

God, I ask that You would help us to internalize these things

00:58:33

and not just internalize them, but externalize them,

00:58:36

to get outside of ourselves, to do these things,

00:58:41

to be connected and to serve You with all of our heart,

00:58:46

with all of our mind, all of our soul, all of our strength.

00:58:48

God, thank You for enabling us to win

00:58:52

and giving us instruction to bring that to pass.

00:58:54

I pray these things according to the name of Jesus.

00:58:57

Amen.

00:58:59

- You need a team and a group at Crossroads

00:59:03

could be your winning team this year.

00:59:05

My life looks radically different because of the teams

00:59:08

that I've been on in the midst of groups at Crossroads.

00:59:12

All it is is a group of people going after God

00:59:15

and growing in your friendship together intentionally.

00:59:18

And it happens to be really fun along the way.

00:59:21

And I want that for you.

00:59:22

I want you to win this year in the midst of a team

00:59:25

and a group can help you do that.

00:59:26

So check out Crossroads.net/groups

00:59:29

to find a group near you or group in person.

00:59:32

Or better yet, right now apply to be a leader of a group

00:59:36

so other people can get on a winning team with you

00:59:39

or chat with us on the Crossroads website.

00:59:40

We'd love to help get you started.

00:59:42

And you're not going to want to miss

00:59:44

the Super Bowl of Preaching next week.

00:59:46

Join us online or at a location near you.

00:59:48

We'll see you next week.

	Worship	4:41
	Community Life	15:56
	Message	20:16

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