Wisdom = Go

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- Hey, I'm Andy, and today on Crossroads,

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we're talking about wisdom.

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Not the kind of wisdom that social media offers,

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but real, lasting, godly wisdom.

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What is it? How do we get it?

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And what makes godly wisdom different from worldly wisdom?

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Now that and more in just a little bit.

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But first, we're going to start off our time with music.

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Now, I heard about a medical research study

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that happened recently that I want to fill you in on.

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They actually found that the most effective thing

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that we could do to decrease our stress responses

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and actually our cortisol levels was by a simple posture

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that you and I can do any time, any day.

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And it was just to stand for a few minutes

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like this with our hands raised.

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And isn't that interesting that this is

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the same posture that we often take when we worship God,

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when we say, "God, I'm not in control right now.

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You are in control. I surrender"?

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And what if over the next couple of minutes

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you said that same thing to God.

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You said, "God, even in the midst of the crazy things

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that are in front of me or the uncertainty.

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Man, I want to take a few minutes to say,

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God, I surrender. You're in control."

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I've got my own ways in which I'm doing that right now.

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My whole family, we've been living out of suitcases

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for six weeks now, waiting for a whole construction thing

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that's over time and over budget, and it's insane.

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So for the next few minutes, I'm going to be saying,

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"God, I trust you. You are in control. I surrender."

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And I'd love for you to do that too

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over whatever challenges

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or uncertainties are in front of you.

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- That's our prayer today, that the Lord

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would lead us in love to those around us.

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Welcome to Crossroads. [cheers]

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Come on. My name's Eric.

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And I'm so glad to be here with you, so glad.

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We got some friends here with us today.

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Y'all, the Anywhere fam is here.

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Can we give it up for the Anywhere folks?

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They're normally watching online and they're here in the room.

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So glad you're here.

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I just wanted to say I love you.

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You know, and I'm not just talking to Anywhere folks,

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I'm talking to all of you. I love you.

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I love you because God loves you.

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I love you because you're special in His eyes.

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I love that He's brought us all here for a reason.

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You thought you just came to a service today.

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You thought you were doing a Christian thing

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this morning by getting up.

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No, God wants to have an encounter with you.

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That's why you're here.

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And so we're going to spend some time worshiping Him.

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So why don't you stand on your feet right now?

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We're going to continue singing this song,

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Building our Life, our intention,

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our affection on the one who deserves it.

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Let's sing this together.

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Celebrate the goodness, the work of the Lord.

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God, you're faithful.

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It's songs like that that just remind me

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that there's nothing in this world that I need more than You,

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that there's no other place I can go

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to be filled up in the right way than at Your feet,

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God, in your presence.

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That you're so good. You're so faithful,

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you're so consistent.

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You're always showing up for us, always,

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even in the moments that we don't see it,

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even in the moments that we don't feel it.

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Sometimes You're showing up for us for the future

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that's going to happen for the next thing that's coming.

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God, you're stepping into our lives

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and you're doing the work now

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that we might not always be able to see right at the moment.

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But God, we just say thank you for what You're going to do.

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We thank you for the ways that You're making,

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the paths that You're opening up,

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the doors that You're opening right now.

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We thank You because You're a good Father

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and You know exactly what we need,

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when we need it, and you give it to us.

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There's nothing that we want for,

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there's nothing that we're lacking because

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we are children and because You love us.

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So, Lord, we say thank you.

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Thank You for your presence

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and thank You for moments of worship

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to remember exactly who you are.

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It's in Your Son's name we pray. Amen.

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- Hey, if you live in the Cincinnati

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or northern Kentucky area, you should totally check out

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the world impact experience.

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But it's not about coming to a church,

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it's about going and being the church.

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Because we believe that's what Jesus did,

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He went to those who were in need

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and He went to those who were hurting.

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And we just want to follow His example.

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I've been to India, South Africa, Nicaragua, Japan

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and more on adventures with Crossroads

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that grew my faith and my understanding

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of what it means to follow Jesus.

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And I want that for you too.

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We actually have two trips coming up

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that are special invite to our Anywhere community

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where people like you watching from all over the country

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and the world will be traveling to Puerto Rico

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and to South Africa this year.

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There are too many bored and boring Christians out there,

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so take a risk this year and go some place.

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Now there's tons of things going on around Crossroads

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and we go because we believe that's what God asks us to.

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And we also give because we believe

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that's what God asks us to do.

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We believe that God owns everything.

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He created the earth and everything in it,

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including you and me and everything we have.

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So we use what God has given us in ways that honor Him.

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And in doing so, we operate more in line

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with how we were created.

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The Bible teaches in James 1:17

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that every good and perfect gift is from above.

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So I recognize that all the good things in my life

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are there because God put them there,

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not because I put them there.

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And I get to operate out of gratitude

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with the resources that he's entrusted to us.

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Maybe you're new to church and to Crossroads,

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and you might just not be ready for this right now

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or actually be a little bit suspicious,

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or maybe you've just been waiting to join the team

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of faithful givers who make things possible around here.

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Whether you're suspicious or whether you're ready to jump in,

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the next step is the same:

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head to crossroads.net/give for more info

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around how we spend money

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and how we invest in world change all over.

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Now, today's all about wisdom,

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so let's learn more and check in with Kyle right now.

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We all want a life that works.

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We buy books, we listen to podcasts,

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and we follow gurus who promise the secret to what we crave:

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a life full of meaning, connection, fun and adventure.

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We look to those who have done well before us

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and we ask ourselves, How can I get some of that?

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We seek knowledge and understanding,

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but we need something deeper:

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we need wisdom.

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The Bible gives us a path to wisdom

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laid out in three Old Testament books,

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often called The Wisdom Literature.

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job are the roadmap

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to understanding where godly wisdom comes from

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and what God has to say about how to live our lives well.

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- Well. Hey, good morning, everybody.

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My name is Kyle, if we've never met before.

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It's been a great weekend to be part of Crossroads so far.

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We got the Crossroads Anywhere crowd with us.

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If you're at another site, you might not know that yet.

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We've celebrated them here in Oakley already.

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We've got about 300 people from around the country

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who call this church home who are here with us.

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And I just want to say welcome.

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We're so glad you're with us.

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We got to go to the Reds game together.

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You might have been there and met somebody

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and you were like, "I just met a person from Florida

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and they said, they're part of Crossroads.

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How does that work?"

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That's the kind of church that we are.

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It's been a great weekend.

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Brian threw out the first pitch,

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threw a strike, way to go, BT. Never doubted you for a second.

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That was so great. So great. [laughter]

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Crossroads Dayton, Crossroads Dayton,

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you went to the Dayton Dragons game.

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That's basically all of our Reds players were there,

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like 18 months ago.

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So that's super great. That's so good.

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We're in this wisdom series.

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If you're just joining us and you're like,

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"I don't know who Brian is,

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I don't know what Crossroads Anywhere is,

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I don't even know what the Dayton Dragons are.

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I'm so confused right now."

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It's okay. It's okay. We're glad you're with us.

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You're joining us, so you know,

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in the last part of a wisdom series.

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We got this week and next week.

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We've been looking at the wisdom literature in the Bible.

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That's what that video just talked about.

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Primarily that's Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes

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from the Old Testament.

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And today we're asking, what does it look like

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to find and apply God's wisdom to the most complex problems

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and issues in our life, in our world,

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the ones that we're like, I have no idea how to handle this?

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You ever have a situation like that in your life?

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Maybe you have one right now.

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I did just a few weeks ago.

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I was supposed to actually start this whole wisdom series,

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kick off the whole thing.

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I was so excited about it.

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And then I got sick and Paco had to fill in for me.

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Any of you remember that?

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By the way, Paco, great job. Thank you.

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You did amazing, amazing, amazing.

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I don't know what you would say if someone was like,

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"Hey, in like, I don't know, basically two hours,

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can you go talk to tens of thousands of people

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about the Bible, just kind of off the cuff?"

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And he was like, sure.

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What he said was amazing, amazing.

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Now, that week, you know, I got sick.

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But you don't know what happened before.

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What happened before it was this complex situation

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where I was, like, I'm in over my head.

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I do not know what to do.

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Now to understand, I got to back you up a little bit

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all the way to the Flying Pig Marathon.

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My wife runs a marathons.

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She ran the Flying Pig

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and in the Flying Pig she had hip pain, had to stop running.

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That's not really great.

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We took her to the doctor the next day,

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and they diagnosed her with a fractured hip.

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That's bad.

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Said she's on crutches for six weeks, which is really tough.

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If you've ever been an adult on crutches, you know this,

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but you basically can't carry anything.

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You can't take cups of water or coffee to the couch.

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You can't do anything, so it's just really rough.

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Now, the week before I was supposed to teach,

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that's the Sunday, the week before,

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on the Wednesday, she was supposed to get off crutches.

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She was going to go back to the doctor,

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as they had told us six weeks ends on Wednesday.

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And so on the Monday before that Wednesday,

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we decide now is the right time to get a puppy.

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Allow me to help you for a minute.

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If in your life you're thinking,

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"Is now the right time to get a puppy?"

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No, no, it is never,

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it is never the right time to get a puppy, ever.

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Unless you're like, "I want a toddler with teeth

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that's faster than me."

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It's basically a puppy.

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Now I'm like, I got two days.

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I can handle Monday to Wednesday.

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I can handle the puppy by myself. Right?

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All I got to do is make it to Wednesday.

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But on Wednesday, Sarah goes back to the doctor

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and they say, "Actually, four more weeks on crutches."

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[laughter]

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I know you feel so bad for me, right? Rough.

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Thursday night, Gracie wakes up sick.

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She's puking in the middle of the night.

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I'm up all night with her.

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Friday, I think we're okay. I think we've passed it.

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I'm working on my message. I'm getting ready.

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Saturday morning hits and within about an hour,

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Ben, Eli, and Sarah all start just erupting.

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Just -- that's all I can --

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It's like -- It's like barfenheimer,

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you know, if it was a movie, just explosions.

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I don't know what to do. I'm doing my best, right?

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I got, I got the dog peeing on the carpet,

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I got three people puking.

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So this is what I did.

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I don't know -- this is what I did.

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I was like, "Sarah, you're upstairs.

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There's a bathroom up there.

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You can crutch your way as fast as you can to that."

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That's the best we got. You know?

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"Eli, you can have the middle floor.

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There's a bathroom there."

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My only request, this will matter later,

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do not puke on the couch.

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Make it off the couch. Make it to the toilet.

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That's all. That's all I ask.

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And then, Ben, I put Ben in the basement.

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There's no bathroom down there.

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So I found a red bucket and I gave it to him.

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And I said, I'll be by every once in a while to empty it.

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This is that bucket.

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I took this picture yesterday.

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It's by the hose because I'm planning on cleaning it out

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someday.

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Now, I think I'm handling it,

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like, I think I'm managing it, right?

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Like, doing the barf and then the puppy pees on the rug

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and I clean up the puppy stuff and I'm doing all this stuff.

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And then about 6:30, Eli has to puke.

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And so he jumps off the couch

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and he makes it about a step and a half

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and then it just boom.

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But he doesn't stop, he just keeps running.

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30ft. A trail is just blazed.

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It's horrible.

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The dog starts trying to eat it.

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I'm like, "No, why did I get a puppy?"

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So I get the paper towels, they're out.

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I get the bath towel.

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I'm just trying to clean it up, you know?

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And I get the -- the dog,

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and I finally get it cleaned up about 7, 7:30.

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And I stand up and I'm like, "Okay, I think I made it.

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Oh, no. Oh."

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And then it happens, just erupts. Awful. Awful.

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Now, the question I've gotten asked the most

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when I tell this story to people who don't want to hear it,

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which is the only kind I've found so far, is,

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"Kyle, was it like, was it like both ends?

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You know, was it like both ends?"

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was.

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Now you might be sitting there going,

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"What does that have to do with wisdom, exactly,

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the series that we're in?"

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First, couple things.

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One, maybe when you're thinking

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is it the right time to get a puppy?

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The answer is no. Don't get a puppy ever.

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Two red buckets really work in a pinch.

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And three, if you're ever sick

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and you need someone to fill in, you at work,

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call Paco because that worked for me. Okay?

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And then lastly, I know that there are places in our lives,

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right, we all feel this way, in over our heads.

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I don't know what to do. I don't know how to solve it.

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And for a lot of us, those places in those situations

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are much more serious and long lasting

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than a bone that's going to heal or a stomach bug

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that you're going to get over in a few days.

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There issues that you've been wrestling with for for weeks,

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for months, sometimes for years,

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there are these big problems, the complex places,

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the places where we go, "God, if You have wisdom

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and I can have some, I was sure would like it

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in this situation in my life, the complex ones."

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There's kind of two types of these as by the way.

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There's the external complexities in the world

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that we as the church are actually called to.

00:31:54

I don't know if you knew that.

00:31:55

It says it this book.

00:31:56

If you haven't picked one of these up yet, definitely get it.

00:31:59

It's super, super cool, super interesting.

00:32:00

And I love what it says right inside the cover.

00:32:03

It says, "Why we go: when it comes to solving

00:32:06

the big problems of injustice, poverty and exploitation,

00:32:09

people often think that someone else will step in.

00:32:13

Congrats, your name is someone else."

00:32:17

This is what God says to the church.

00:32:19

He says these massive, complex problems

00:32:21

that governments can't solve,

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that no one knows how to deal with,

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that's actually your business to go run after.

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It's like, whoa, how? How would I do that?

00:32:31

And then there's the internal ones,

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the ones that are inside of our lives,

00:32:35

inside of our homes. You know?

00:32:37

From what career should I choose,

00:32:40

what college should I go to,

00:32:41

what major should I pick to

00:32:42

who should I date to

00:32:44

how do I know when to get married,

00:32:45

how do I know who the right one is to

00:32:47

what do I pick for a career,

00:32:48

is it time to switch careers to

00:32:50

should I have kids,

00:32:51

how do I parent a 2 year old, what about a 12 year old,

00:32:53

what about my 16 year old who's dealing with

00:32:55

problems I've never dealt with in my life?

00:32:57

How do I handle these situations?

00:33:00

And I find these are the places where we get stuck in life.

00:33:05

We can end up paralyzed not knowing what to do

00:33:08

because the complexity is just overwhelming

00:33:11

and the world's not helping us with this.

00:33:13

See, the world is actually an increasingly complex

00:33:16

and constantly changing place,

00:33:17

and it hasn't always been that way.

00:33:19

The world's always been somewhat complicated,

00:33:21

and sociologists are starting to recognize this

00:33:23

and explain it this way.

00:33:25

They say complicated is kind of like a car engine.

00:33:28

You know, there's lots of parts, but it's understandable.

00:33:31

You could become a mechanic

00:33:32

and you could get how it works together.

00:33:34

This gear turns this one,

00:33:35

and it has this predictable kind of pattern to it.

00:33:38

And so if there's a problem, you can diagnose the problem

00:33:40

and you can figure out what to do, how to solve it.

00:33:43

But that's not the world anymore.

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Now, the world is complex.

00:33:46

It's so interconnected that when you pull on one thread,

00:33:49

it pulls on 100 others. We know this.

00:33:51

Think about the gas pump for a minute.

00:33:55

At the gas pump, why are gas prices the price they are?

00:33:57

Well, it's because there's a Russian dictator

00:33:59

who's invading a country none of us could place on a map

00:34:01

only two years ago.

00:34:02

The Saudis started a golf league

00:34:04

and there might be a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico

00:34:06

next week, maybe, we're not sure. Right?

00:34:10

There's this interconnected, complex world.

00:34:14

One of my favorite thinkers on leadership

00:34:16

is a guy named General Stanley McChrystal.

00:34:18

He led the joint task force in the war in Afghanistan.

00:34:20

And that was kind of the tipping point

00:34:22

where warfare went from complicated to complex.

00:34:25

'50s, '60s, '70s, '80s it's complicated,

00:34:28

but somewhat predictable.

00:34:29

We get to this point and because of technology

00:34:32

and communication ability, all of a sudden

00:34:34

it's wildly unpredictable.

00:34:36

And so he wrote this book called Team of Teams,

00:34:38

kind of giving leadership lessons on how to think about,

00:34:41

understand, come to terms with and deal with this complexity.

00:34:44

He wrote this:

00:35:13

Isn't it interesting so many more of us

00:35:16

now feel stuck in some of these big questions:

00:35:18

What's my purpose in life, what career should I pursue,

00:35:20

who should I marry than ever before,

00:35:22

despite the fact that we have more access

00:35:25

to expert knowledge than ever before.

00:35:27

You can go on YouTube and watch videos until you die

00:35:29

about any topic you want to know about.

00:35:32

You can read articles, you can access data,

00:35:34

you can sort through all of it.

00:35:36

Yet many of us are still stuck in these places and problems.

00:35:41

Now, in contrast to this increasingly complex

00:35:43

and constantly changing world, the Bible presents

00:35:47

never changing incredibly simple wisdom.

00:35:51

Here's an example from the Book of Proverbs.

00:35:53

This may be the most famous Proverb,

00:35:55

certainly in the top 5 or 10.

00:35:57

Proverbs 3:5-6:

00:36:07

Now, the unchanging part is pretty, pretty clear, right?

00:36:10

I mean, that hasn't changed in 3000 years

00:36:12

since it was written in Job, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs,

00:36:15

all about 3000 years old.

00:36:17

In fact, the newest wisdom in the Bible,

00:36:19

the stuff that Jesus said, the stuff in the New Testament,

00:36:21

that's 2000 years old, hasn't changed at all since.

00:36:26

That means it doesn't know about our modern culture.

00:36:28

It doesn't know about

00:36:29

the current geopolitical environment.

00:36:30

It doesn't know about Twitter or Threads or TikTok.

00:36:33

It doesn't know about democracy, capitalism,

00:36:36

postmodernism, Post Malone,

00:36:38

nothing, knows nothing about them.

00:36:41

It's unchanging, but did you also know how simple it is?

00:36:46

It's incredibly, incredibly, radically,

00:36:49

ridiculously even, simple.

00:36:51

In the advertising world,

00:36:53

there's this kind of common knowledge

00:36:56

about seven words or less.

00:36:57

And the idea is if you want to get your message communicated,

00:37:00

your brand promise to people,

00:37:02

you have to communicate it in seven words or less,

00:37:04

your slogan, your billboard, whatever.

00:37:06

If you use more than that,

00:37:07

that proves people will just ignore your message.

00:37:09

It has to be seven words or less.

00:37:12

And so I was curious with Proverbs,

00:37:14

how many words is the average proverb?

00:37:16

I skipped one through nine,

00:37:18

because that's kind of like the introduction to Proverbs.

00:37:20

They're not really structured the way that

00:37:22

the classic Proverb chapters are.

00:37:23

So I took Proverbs Chapter 10,

00:37:25

a classically structured Proverb chapter,

00:37:27

and I counted the words.

00:37:29

And guess how many words the average Proverb has.

00:37:33

No, not seven. It's actually 16.3.

00:37:37

And then I remembered something though,

00:37:39

the Bible wasn't written in modern English,

00:37:42

it was written in ancient Hebrew.

00:37:44

So I went back to the ancient Hebrew and I counted again.

00:37:48

And guess how many words the average Proverb

00:37:51

has in its original language? 6.85.

00:37:55

It's fascinating. It's so, so simple.

00:37:59

And a reasonable question to ask, reasonable question.

00:38:03

Isn't it foolish to rely on such simple, unchanging wisdom

00:38:08

when facing the problems of the modern world

00:38:10

are increasingly complex, constantly changing world?

00:38:14

Isn't that silly?

00:38:16

And then to bring this up because

00:38:17

I think this is how it feels to us.

00:38:19

And so it's worth vocalizing that feeling,

00:38:21

vocalizing that question because we just tend to ignore it

00:38:25

when it feels so simple.

00:38:27

As a pastor, I get to counsel people from time to time.

00:38:29

They'll come to me with problems and questions.

00:38:31

And by the time you get to me, it's not like a low level,

00:38:33

"Like, hey, man, I was just kind of casually wondering about."

00:38:36

It's like, "My life's on fire.

00:38:38

I don't know what to do in this situation. What do I do?"

00:38:41

And and they always start with that.

00:38:42

They're like, "I just have no idea

00:38:44

what God would want me to do."

00:38:45

And can I tell you that almost 100 times out of 100

00:38:48

when I sit down with them, yes, they do. They do.

00:38:53

I rarely ever give them insight into the Bible

00:38:55

they haven't heard before, they already know it.

00:38:59

It's just so simple that they're discounting it,

00:39:02

completely overlooking at it.

00:39:04

Today I have one goal, which is to convince you,

00:39:06

hopefully, that God's unchanging, simple wisdom

00:39:10

is actually the only thing that can give you stability

00:39:13

and help you through

00:39:14

the most important challenges of your life.

00:39:16

It's the only thing.

00:39:18

You can think about it like an ice skater.

00:39:20

You watch the Olympics, you know the ice skaters.

00:39:22

They rotate fast and fast around

00:39:23

and around and around and around and around.

00:39:25

And you're like, how do they possibly stay upright?

00:39:29

Well, the trick is you pick a simple, unchanging spot

00:39:32

to focus on and you don't take your eyes from it.

00:39:36

And no matter what happens,

00:39:37

what craziness swirls around you remain balanced.

00:39:40

That's the wisdom of God for us.

00:39:42

That's the wisdom of God.

00:39:44

See, the myth of wisdom, I think, is that

00:39:46

wisdom equals the ability to understand complexity.

00:39:50

That if I were truly wise, I would be able to look at

00:39:53

an issue in my life, understand every angle,

00:39:55

analyze everything, get all the expert inputs,

00:39:58

put it all together, put it into a math formula,

00:40:00

and somehow know exactly what to do.

00:40:02

The thing that I'll not just be happy with this year,

00:40:04

but two years from now, three years from now,

00:40:06

five years from now.

00:40:07

That's what wisdom is: understanding complexity.

00:40:10

Well, not in the Bible, that's not what it is.

00:40:14

In Matthew Chapter five Jesus gives

00:40:16

the longest section of wisdom uninterrupted

00:40:19

that He ever gave, or at least that we have recorded.

00:40:21

It's called the Sermon on the Mount.

00:40:23

And sermon is a little bit misleading because

00:40:25

it makes you think that it's kind of one themed thing,

00:40:27

you know, 45 minutes, an hour,

00:40:30

I don't know how long on one topic.

00:40:31

That's not what it is.

00:40:33

I actually think it's Jesus giving us His Proverbs.

00:40:36

It lines up really well with the way Proverbs are structured.

00:40:39

It's kind of like little nuggets of wisdom

00:40:41

after little nuggets of wisdom, just thing after thing.

00:40:45

It's a lot of His most classic teaching

00:40:47

that's 100% original to Him is in this one section,

00:40:50

the Beatitudes: blessed are the poor in spirit.

00:40:53

The idea of being salt and light,

00:40:55

the call to go the extra mile, to love your enemies,

00:40:58

to not judge, to not worry.

00:41:00

The call to follow the narrow way versus the broad path,

00:41:03

and a whole bunch more.

00:41:04

There are all kind of packed in there.

00:41:06

And not coincidentally, at the end of this whole section,

00:41:09

Jesus goes directly to the main contrast

00:41:13

of all Wisdom Literature, which is the wise versus the fool.

00:41:17

So the Bible sets out this picture.

00:41:18

It says, we will, you and I, end up either as wise or as a fool.

00:41:22

There is no middle ground.

00:41:24

No, there's nothing here.

00:41:26

And I think most of us wish that that was the case.

00:41:29

Most of us, we don't want to be a fool,

00:41:31

but we're not necessarily willing to do

00:41:32

what it would take to be wise

00:41:34

because of the high call of the Bible.

00:41:36

And so we just try to land here, but that's not an option.

00:41:39

You will become one or the other.

00:41:40

This is how Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:

00:42:12

Jesus says the dividing line between the wise and the fool

00:42:15

is not the person who's understands all complexities,

00:42:18

the person who's done the detailed analysis,

00:42:20

researched everything thoroughly, gets all of it,

00:42:23

considered every angle. That's not it.

00:42:25

And it's not the person who treated these statements

00:42:27

love your enemies as like book titles.

00:42:30

Oh, what an interesting idea to explore

00:42:32

at a later time with more depth.

00:42:34

He says it's the people who took what He just said

00:42:37

and actually apply them,

00:42:39

actually start trying to do them.

00:42:41

See, the wisdom of God is often times seven words or less.

00:42:44

In fact, in my life, when it's come to those key moments,

00:42:47

I can say I've never heard more than seven words, ever.

00:42:52

And I've waited.

00:42:53

God, are you going to give me more?

00:42:55

No, not until you act on these.

00:42:57

This is the wisdom of God in the Bible.

00:43:00

And if that seems backwards, why would God equip us

00:43:02

to confront this complex world

00:43:03

and this complex problem with that simple wisdom?

00:43:06

Isn't that backwards?

00:43:08

I would say yeah, it's totally backwards, totally backwards.

00:43:12

But should we expect anything else from the God who said,

00:43:14

"If you want to be first, you got to be last"?

00:43:16

The God who says,

00:43:17

"If you want to save your life, you've got to lose it"?

00:43:19

The God who looked at the world and said,

00:43:21

"This place needs rescued."

00:43:22

And rather than send some giant warrior

00:43:25

sends a baby born in a barn in a nowhere place,

00:43:29

in a nowhere corner of the world.

00:43:30

That's the God of the universe,

00:43:32

He confounds the wise of this age.

00:43:33

And He says, "If you want to enter into My Kingdom,

00:43:36

you've got to become like a child."

00:43:39

I took my kids to Kings Island recently,

00:43:41

the amusement park up north of here.

00:43:43

And they'd never been there before.

00:43:45

That's that's my bad as a dad. I was just dragging my heels.

00:43:47

So we finally, finally took them there.

00:43:49

And I made them this deal, right?

00:43:50

I was like, "Hey,

00:43:51

whatever roller coaster you want to go on,

00:43:53

whatever ride you want to go on, I will go on it with you."

00:43:56

For the record,

00:43:57

I have no personal need to ride any of these things.

00:43:59

I did that once in my life.

00:44:01

It was great. I'm over it now, you know?

00:44:03

And so we go in there and they immediately see this new ride.

00:44:07

It's called the Sol Spinner.

00:44:08

Have you heard of the Sol Spinner?

00:44:10

Okay, So it's like a carousel, it goes around,

00:44:14

only if it went a billion miles an hour

00:44:17

and also vertical instead of horizontal.

00:44:19

It's like you take a roller coaster,

00:44:20

cut off everything but the loop

00:44:21

and then just do the loop again and again

00:44:23

and again and again and again.

00:44:25

It's like that, you know?

00:44:26

And they're like, "That one. We want to ride that one."

00:44:29

I was like, "Oh, okay.

00:44:30

I would like some more information

00:44:33

about it first, actually.

00:44:35

It's brand new, you know, how do we know it's safe?

00:44:38

It's got -- maybe maybe we should just kind of,

00:44:40

you know, let's watch some people ride it first

00:44:42

and see about -- do they look happy? You know?"

00:44:45

That's what I was thinking.

00:44:47

But my kids are like, "Let's get in line. Let's go, let's go."

00:44:51

See, I think a lot of us are in this spot

00:44:53

as adults where we want more information.

00:44:55

There's this massive temptation to balk

00:44:58

at the simple wisdom of God until we know more.

00:45:02

But I just want to warn you about something.

00:45:03

If you're waiting to act in your life, I

00:45:05

don't know what that complex situation is,

00:45:07

I don't know if it's get married or not get married.

00:45:09

I don't know if it's switched careers or not.

00:45:11

I don't know if it's go on the trip, don't go.

00:45:13

I don't know what it is for you, but I'm telling you,

00:45:15

if you're waiting for complete information

00:45:17

before acting on the simple wisdom of God,

00:45:19

you will never, ever get it. Ever.

00:45:22

The Bible has a promise about knowledge.

00:45:25

It comes in 1 Corinthians 13, it says:

00:45:31

Prophesy means our ability to look

00:45:33

beyond this moment into the future,

00:45:36

our ability to see that is partial right now.

00:45:50

Paul, who wrote this, he says, "Look, a time is coming

00:45:53

when you will have full knowledge.

00:45:55

How awesome is that?

00:45:56

It's just not going to be in this life.

00:45:59

So don't wait for it."

00:46:01

That's why the Proverb says

00:46:03

trust in the Lord with all your heart

00:46:06

and lean not on your own understanding.

00:46:09

In all your ways submit to Him.

00:46:10

He will make your paths straight.

00:46:13

Is there anything in that Proverb sound like

00:46:15

make sure you understand every angle,

00:46:17

make sure you've done your homework?

00:46:20

You know, I think that's how we treat it.

00:46:21

We would like to know more before we move,

00:46:23

but God kind of says

00:46:24

you're not going to know more until you move.

00:46:27

This is the story of me coming to Crossroads

00:46:29

and this is the story honestly, of people

00:46:32

who I respect in their life, who've made big decisions,

00:46:34

who've gotten through complexities

00:46:36

and have a life that I would want

00:46:37

all have these common stories in their life

00:46:40

where they say they reached a moment

00:46:41

where the simple wisdom of God

00:46:43

would almost be compelling them to take a step

00:46:46

that felt like stepping off a cliff.

00:46:49

In the moment of decision was will I step or not?

00:46:52

Will I trust in the Lord with all of my heart,

00:46:54

or will I lean backwards on my own understanding?

00:46:58

This is the story of me coming to Crossroads

00:47:00

years and years ago.

00:47:01

I had a great corporate career and a great path plan for me,

00:47:04

but I felt like God was telling me

00:47:06

literally move to Cincinnati. That's it.

00:47:09

And I was like, Cool. That's the start of a conversation.

00:47:12

Why? To do what?

00:47:17

And as I prayed about this, as I sat on it,

00:47:19

the sense I got from God is,

00:47:21

"I'm not going to tell you what until you go where.

00:47:24

I gave you enough to get moving.

00:47:25

Go, get there. You'll figure it out."

00:47:27

And so I told people in my life, wise counsel,

00:47:29

I said, "Hey, this is the call that I'm feeling.

00:47:31

I think I'm supposed to go into the ministry.

00:47:33

I think God's saying, quit my job, move to Cincinnati.

00:47:35

What do you think?"

00:47:36

They were like, "Yeah,

00:47:37

that sounds like the right thing to do."

00:47:39

And I was like, "Okay, maybe I said something wrong.

00:47:43

I don't have a job there.

00:47:45

I don't know what I'm going to do there."

00:47:47

That was the moment. Move, go.

00:47:51

And I had to decide will I step off the cliff, or not?

00:47:57

Do I trust God, or will I lean back on my own understanding?

00:48:03

When I taught my kids to swim, I took them to my parents pool.

00:48:05

They have like a classic kind of diving board

00:48:07

that goes out, you know?

00:48:08

And I would take them all to the end of the diving board.

00:48:11

I put them on the diving board,

00:48:12

and then I would get in the water like this

00:48:14

and I go, "Okay, just jump, Go ahead."

00:48:18

And all of them did the same thing.

00:48:19

Maybe your kids, they'd walked to the edge

00:48:21

and they were like, "Okay, actually, Dad,

00:48:23

a couple of questions first.

00:48:24

Just -- Just checking. So you're going to catch me?"

00:48:28

Yes. I'm totally going to catch you.

00:48:30

"You're not going to let me go underwater?"

00:48:32

I will sure attempt to not let you go underwater.

00:48:34

If you do a little bit, I'll pull you right back up.

00:48:36

It's going to be just fine.

00:48:38

"Okay. Okay.

00:48:40

I just want to review that one more time.

00:48:42

You're going to catch?"

00:48:43

Like, it was just like that every time, right?

00:48:45

This hesitancy.

00:48:46

And I think about some of us in this room,

00:48:47

we're in that moment of our life

00:48:49

where we're on the end of the diving board

00:48:51

and God is in the water like, "kay, come on, let's go."

00:48:54

And we're like, "Ah, I got a couple of questions.

00:48:59

Just -- I just want to make a couple of questions for you."

00:49:02

And it can feel like isn't this wise? You know?

00:49:06

Isn't it wise to make sure that we really are

00:49:10

supposed to follow these directions of God?

00:49:13

Isn't it wise to wait on the Lord? That's in the Bible.

00:49:16

And it is.

00:49:17

It's actually in the Bible all over the place.

00:49:19

But I'll tell you as I've been researching

00:49:21

and digging into this and talking to other pastors,

00:49:23

I've yet to find a single place where

00:49:24

there's an example of somebody in the Bible

00:49:27

who God calls to wait until they get more information.

00:49:30

You won't find that scene.

00:49:32

What you will find are verses like this one

00:49:34

in Isaiah 40:31, it says:

00:49:46

See, the word wait in Hebrew is Qavah,

00:49:48

and it doesn't have connotations of stillness.

00:49:51

It actually has connotations of activity, of motion.

00:49:53

There's this forward leaning anticipation

00:49:56

and excitement in it.

00:49:58

Henri Nouwen is a famous Dutch Catholic theologian

00:50:01

who wrote about this concept of waiting.

00:50:03

And he says the best picture for understanding it

00:50:05

is actually the trapeze in the circus.

00:50:08

So one day the circus came to town.

00:50:09

He saw the trapeze act and he was like,

00:50:11

"Man, this is really cool. I want to understand it."

00:50:13

And so he befriended the guy who ran the troupe,

00:50:15

a guy named Rodleigh,

00:50:17

and just ask him questions about how it works.

00:50:19

And Rodleigh told him in the trapeze act there's two roles.

00:50:22

There's the flyer, the person who jumps,

00:50:24

and then there's the catcher.

00:50:26

This is their conversation:

00:51:09

The flyer does nothing, you just wait, you jump,

00:51:13

you hope with outstretched hands.

00:51:15

God, would you catch me?

00:51:18

If you have yet to have a moment in your life

00:51:21

where it's felt like that,

00:51:23

"God, I'm following you in this, I think, I hope,"

00:51:27

then you have yet to experience the fullness of faith.

00:51:30

There's more for you. You have yet to move.

00:51:33

There's wisdom of God that could compel you forward.

00:51:36

Job 11, one of our pieces of Wisdom Literature says:

00:51:44

That picture, the same exact picture.

00:51:46

And if you think about that, that in motion

00:51:49

kind of I'm waiting for you to catch me

00:51:51

and get me moving thing,

00:51:53

all of a sudden Isaiah 40:31 reads differently.

00:52:04

God says, If you'll trust me,

00:52:06

if you'll take the leap, I have a promise for you,

00:52:09

either you're going to fly,

00:52:11

you're going to run, or you're going to walk.

00:52:14

He says, for some of you, if you'll trust me,

00:52:16

if you'll take the leap, I will catch you in mid-air

00:52:18

and I will enable you to fly right over that problem.

00:52:20

You will be amazed how fast it passes.

00:52:23

You'll be amazed how fast I get you through it.

00:52:25

Others of you, you're not going to fly over it.

00:52:27

That's not what I have for you.

00:52:28

But when I catch you in motion,

00:52:30

we're going to set you down and you're going to

00:52:32

run right through that thing like a bulldozer.

00:52:35

He says others of you, you won't be able to fly over it.

00:52:37

You're not going to run through it.

00:52:39

But I promise I will catch you.

00:52:41

I will set your feet firmly on a straight path

00:52:44

and you will walk through it and you will not stumble.

00:52:47

This is the promise of God to the wise.

00:52:51

This is the God I want to connect to you, the wise.

00:52:55

See if you're doing something and following God in wisdom,

00:52:57

it's going to feel like foolishness to the world,

00:52:59

but it's wisdom to God. It's wisdom.

00:53:03

That verse doesn't say:

00:53:22

It doesn't say that. It doesn't say it.

00:53:26

You know, I got to talk at one of our college nights,

00:53:29

a few of them at Uptown back in the spring.

00:53:32

And it was such amazing interactions.

00:53:34

And some of them I just did open Q&A.

00:53:36

Hey, just ask me anything.

00:53:37

And a lot of the questions you get from college students

00:53:40

are the things you might expect,

00:53:41

these kind of big questions. You know?

00:53:43

What should I major in?

00:53:45

And I don't know if I should stay here

00:53:46

and how do I know what job to pick?

00:53:48

And I've been dating this person

00:53:49

and I don't know if we should get married or not.

00:53:51

And how do you know?

00:53:52

And what's my purpose in life?

00:53:53

All these monumental, complex issues, right?

00:53:57

Then one kid at the end of it,

00:53:59

he asked me this question that I love.

00:54:00

He said, "How do you know

00:54:03

that you're making the right decision?"

00:54:05

I said, "Oh, man, that's a -- that's a great question.

00:54:08

You don't. That's the life of faith.

00:54:14

It's not called certainty for a reason."

00:54:16

See we think that what we want is we want wisdom

00:54:18

to be insurance against the need for faith.

00:54:21

That's what we want.

00:54:22

I won't need faith,

00:54:24

I won't ever be in that vulnerable position

00:54:26

where I trust God to catch me because

00:54:27

I'm just going to have enough wisdom

00:54:29

that I'm going to see it from every angle.

00:54:30

I'll be certain of the right course of action,

00:54:32

and then I'll move. I won't need any faith.

00:54:34

That's not what wisdom is.

00:54:36

And if that's how you live your life,

00:54:38

you will never, ever follow God.

00:54:39

And I'm just telling you, you will miss out on Him.

00:54:43

You'll miss out on the beauty and the wonder

00:54:44

and the adventure of Him.

00:54:46

God's call is to go before we know everything. Go.

00:54:51

You won't have all the information.

00:54:53

You've got to move anyway.

00:54:55

As a church, I think that's been one of our strengths, actually.

00:54:59

And if I'm honest, it probably is what

00:55:01

drew me to Crossroads most in the first place.

00:55:03

I saw a church who was acting, who was going.

00:55:07

As a college student I had heard about

00:55:08

the Aids epidemic in South Africa,

00:55:10

which at that time was this giant humanitarian crisis.

00:55:12

It was this big thing.

00:55:13

No one really knew how to deal with it.

00:55:15

Churches weren't doing a great job.

00:55:16

It was scary because if you caught the disease,

00:55:18

it could still kill you at that point.

00:55:20

It was this this massive thing.

00:55:22

But when I read my Bible, which I started doing

00:55:25

more seriously as a college student,

00:55:26

I came across this one passage that was

00:55:29

somewhat frustrating, but also convicting to me.

00:55:32

In the passage, Jesus said,

00:55:34

"Love your neighbor as yourself."

00:55:35

It was five words.

00:55:37

And then these really complex thinkers, the Pharisees,

00:55:40

who had studied every word and interpretation

00:55:43

and all this stuff, were like, "Hey, we got a question for you:

00:55:45

Who is my neighbor? Right?"

00:55:48

And Jesus is like, your neighbor, basically --

00:55:51

this is my interpretation --

00:55:53

anybody you know that needs help. That's it.

00:55:56

And so I felt this conviction of wanting to help,

00:55:58

wanting to do something. I didn't know everything.

00:56:00

I didn't know how to help. I didn't know what to do.

00:56:02

But then I heard about Crossroads,

00:56:04

who was building the largest privately funded Aids hospice

00:56:06

and sending 300 people on the first ever Go Trip

00:56:09

to help open it, and I went.

00:56:11

This is a picture of me and Sarah on that first ever Go Trip

00:56:14

from years and years and years ago. Amazing.

00:56:17

And to say this trip changed my life is an understatement.

00:56:21

When we went on this trip, she was Sarah Lord.

00:56:23

Five months later, she was Sarah Ranson.

00:56:25

That's how significant that trip was in our marriage story.

00:56:29

I didn't know that. I couldn't plan that.

00:56:31

If I was drawing a straight path for my life,

00:56:33

I would have never put that in there.

00:56:35

I would have never guessed.

00:56:36

I just went and I followed God.

00:56:38

That's it. That's the life of faith.

00:56:40

And in the summer of 2021, our board asked me

00:56:43

to go to the border of the US and Mexico border

00:56:47

and see what was happening,

00:56:48

check out the border crisis, similar to that situation.

00:56:51

See if there's anything our church could do to help.

00:56:53

Now, I knew nothing.

00:56:55

I had very little information to go on. This is how little.

00:56:59

I got to the airport, I got through security,

00:57:02

got to my gate, got out my phone

00:57:03

and Googled border crisis question mark.

00:57:06

You know, I'm trying to make sure no one else sees me.

00:57:08

Yeah, I need know a lot about this.

00:57:11

I get down there and everyone uses the same word

00:57:15

that we've been talking about today: complexity.

00:57:17

It's so complex. It's so complex. It's so complex.

00:57:19

And it really is. You know?

00:57:21

When I was down there, I talked to

00:57:22

the assistant director of the Rio Grande Valley District,

00:57:26

which is the most heavily trafficked,

00:57:27

by far, section of our border.

00:57:29

I went on a patrol with border agents.

00:57:31

I took a ride in the Rio Grande with armed guards,

00:57:34

watch the cartel shuttle people across the river,

00:57:36

talked to migrants on both sides.

00:57:38

And it was, it's very complex because

00:57:40

you have all these parties with all these agendas

00:57:42

meeting in this one place.

00:57:43

And in the middle of it all, though,

00:57:46

were the people, like Anna, who I met

00:57:49

in a migrant camp in Reynosa, Mexico.

00:57:52

Anna was a pharmacist in a Central American country,

00:57:56

and the cartel moved into her town

00:57:58

and started to exploit her, small at first.

00:58:00

"Hey, you need to pay us to keep you safe."

00:58:02

And then every month they'd step it up,

00:58:04

pay a little bit more, pay a little bit more,

00:58:06

until she was giving them everything.

00:58:07

And the point at which she was giving them everything,

00:58:09

they came to her and they said, "You need to give us more

00:58:12

or we will kill you and your entire family."

00:58:13

And she's like, "I don't have any more."

00:58:15

And they said, "We'll be back next week."

00:58:18

And so Anna did what you and I might do.

00:58:19

She didn't want to leave. This was her home.

00:58:22

She packed up and she fled north

00:58:25

with her seven year old daughter in tow.

00:58:27

By the way, the only way she could pay to get north

00:58:29

was to sell her body.

00:58:31

Painful. Horrible. Right? Devastating.

00:58:36

And when I talk to people like Anna, I just got angry.

00:58:40

Why isn't government doing anything?

00:58:42

They could do something.

00:58:43

The Mexican government,

00:58:44

these people on Mexican soil, they could do something.

00:58:46

The US government,

00:58:47

they could send supplies across or something.

00:58:49

I don't know. What about business?

00:58:50

There's plenty of money in business

00:58:52

on both sides of the river.

00:58:53

Why can't somebody do something to help them?

00:58:55

Or what about the Red Cross? Why aren't they here?

00:58:57

I just got -- I just got angry.

00:59:00

Then in His wisdom, God put those five words

00:59:03

back into my head: Love your neighbor as yourself.

00:59:07

And then six more words: It is your job, not theirs.

00:59:11

That's it. That's it.

00:59:14

And so our team who went to investigate.

00:59:16

We came back with this conviction, not the knowledge.

00:59:19

Not the knowledge on what to do.

00:59:21

Not all of the information gathered, not even close to it,

00:59:25

but a conviction that what it would mean to follow God

00:59:28

would be to step into this problem and see if we can help.

00:59:31

And so for the past couple of years,

00:59:33

that's what we've been doing, just looking.

00:59:35

How can we help? Could we do this? Could we do that?

00:59:37

And I'm so pleased to tell you that

00:59:39

we've relooked at some of our work

00:59:40

in those Central American countries where people flee from

00:59:43

and we've determined that what those folks really want,

00:59:45

this is what they'll tell you in those migrant camps,

00:59:47

is they don't want to leave home,

00:59:48

just like you don't want to leave your home.

00:59:50

They want to stay.

00:59:52

And so we said, man, the thing we could start with

00:59:54

is how do we make home a place to never have to leave?

00:59:56

How could we invest where they are?

00:59:58

And so we've been looking at that with Nicaragua,

01:00:00

work we've had going for a while.

01:00:02

And I'm so pleased to announce to you

01:00:04

that we're adding a new country, Guatemala. Check this out.

01:00:16

- So some people might be wondering why Guatemala?

01:00:19

This part of the world known as the Western Highlands

01:00:22

is one of the most afflicted areas

01:00:24

with poverty in the entire world.

01:00:27

See, this area is full of, not just any type of poverty,

01:00:30

but systematic and generational poverty.

01:00:32

And one of the things that

01:00:34

combats that type of poverty is education.

01:00:36

See, when you are living in poverty,

01:00:38

you don't have access to education,

01:00:39

you don't have good jobs, and you don't have

01:00:41

really a way to get out of

01:00:44

that systematic and generational poverty.

01:00:47

And so we've partnered with an organization

01:00:49

down here in Guatemala

01:00:50

that is looking to change that narrative.

01:00:51

See, 1 in 3 Guatemalans are illiterate,

01:00:54

and that number actually used to be

01:00:56

2 in 3 Guatemalans are illiterate because

01:00:58

we know that when folks have education,

01:01:00

when people have access to education,

01:01:02

when people have access to technology,

01:01:04

they can have better careers, they can have better jobs.

01:01:06

And we can change the narrative

01:01:08

of this generation of poverty that exists here.

01:01:10

We're coming alongside an organization that wants to go.

01:01:13

And Crossroads is so excited to be a part of that going

01:01:16

because we know that we really can change the world.

01:01:19

And so our partner down here is doing things

01:01:21

like handing out books.

01:01:23

Students are going to school on scholarship

01:01:25

and learning more and more each day,

01:01:27

and they're getting more and more access

01:01:29

and they're taking that access and not only

01:01:30

are they're giving it to their families,

01:01:32

but they're raising families with this newfound intelligence,

01:01:35

with this newfound education.

01:01:37

And it's changing Guatemala.

01:01:39

And we cannot believe that we get to be a part of it.

01:01:41

And I'll tell you what, some of the work

01:01:43

that we've been doing has not been easy.

01:01:45

It's been hard. It's been a little bit intense.

01:01:47

And maybe if you come here,

01:01:48

you'll see how intense some of the situations are.

01:01:51

But it is powerful.

01:01:52

It's powerful to see what folks can do when they come together.

01:01:55

It's powerful to see what people can do when they have access.

01:01:58

And it's powerful to see what we can do

01:01:59

when we come alongside someone

01:02:01

who's already doing something great.

01:02:02

And we're going to do it great, too,

01:02:04

because we believe God has empowered us

01:02:05

to change the world.

01:02:53

- I don't know where in your life

01:02:55

God's calling you with wisdom.

01:02:56

Maybe it's to another country,

01:02:58

maybe it's to go on a trip,

01:02:59

or maybe it's an internal issue in your life.

01:03:02

Maybe He's calling you to the trouble in your marriage

01:03:05

to finally do something about it.

01:03:07

Maybe He's calling you to get closer to your kid,

01:03:09

that one who you just don't connect with at all.

01:03:12

Maybe He's calling you to rethink your career choices.

01:03:15

I don't know what it is, the big, complex problem.

01:03:18

I just promise He's going to send you into it

01:03:20

with simple instructions.

01:03:24

Now, I know there may be one last objection you have.

01:03:26

You might be going, "Kyle, I get it.

01:03:28

I'm not going to know everything.

01:03:29

And God's not really going to be okay with me just waiting,

01:03:32

knowing something, but not doing anything with it.

01:03:34

That seems obvious.

01:03:35

But, Kyle, I don't have what I need.

01:03:38

I don't have what I need to repair my marriage.

01:03:41

I don't have what I need to help my 16 year old with a problem.

01:03:44

I just don't understand.

01:03:45

I don't have what I need.

01:03:46

I can't. I can't do it.

01:03:48

What do you say to that?"

01:03:51

I'll tell you what Jesus said in Luke 10

01:03:53

He sent out 70 disciples.

01:03:55

It's the first time He sent a big group of people

01:03:57

to go tackle the problems in the world.

01:03:59

Here were His instructions, Luke. 10:3::

01:04:10

Jesus says, "Hey, I'm sending you out into danger.

01:04:13

If you sense that part, If fear is going,

01:04:16

'Whoa, that looks dangerous.' You're right.

01:04:18

In fact, it's lambs among wolves.

01:04:20

It's worse than you thought.

01:04:22

Therefore, don't take any money.

01:04:25

Don't take a backpack full of supplies.

01:04:27

Don't take any shoes."

01:04:29

And this isn't Ohio, Kentucky dirt, by the way.

01:04:32

You know, soft, rich soil, grass between your toes.

01:04:35

This is Israel.

01:04:36

Snakes, scorpions, rocks like razor blades.

01:04:39

Don't wear shoes, just get going.

01:04:42

Why in the world would He do that?

01:04:46

It's because He's trying to train them

01:04:48

to get used to never having what they need,

01:04:51

ever, when they follow Him.

01:04:53

See in your life, the situation God's calling you to,

01:04:56

the place He's saying, "Step into my wisdom,

01:04:59

as simple as it may be.

01:05:01

You will not have what you need."

01:05:03

When he says it's time to go,

01:05:04

you'll look around and go, "I don't have everything."

01:05:06

He'll say, " That's cool. Let's go, let's roll."

01:05:08

And if in that moment you try to say to Him,

01:05:10

"God, I don't have the money

01:05:11

it would take to fix this situation."

01:05:13

He'll say, "That's okay."

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