How Jesus Offers Us Direction and Belonging

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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads.

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And if you're watching this on real time,

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I want to say Happy Father's Day

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to all of my fellow dads out there.

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Whether you're learning to change a diaper

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for the first time, or like me, as a grandparent

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you don't have to change diapers anymore,

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or anywhere in between, I would encourage you

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to keep showing up, keep loving your kids

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as best as you know how. I'm Griff

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and I'm the Director of Community Development

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for our Crossroads Anywhere team.

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And I'm there to help people get connected.

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Just last week, I got to connect with some

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with Anywhere folks in Florida, in Fort Myers

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and Cape Coral, Sarasota, Tampa, Orlando,

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and for the first time in person in Jacksonville.

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So, just a shout out to all of our folks in Florida.

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But really, no matter where you are

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or what you believe, we're here to help you

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find community, whether that's online or in person,

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because we want you to truly belong to this family.

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So reach out to us, chat with us online,

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or email us at anywhere@crossroads.net.

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We'd love to hear from you and figure out

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how we can help you feel connected.

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You know, thinking about being a dad today,

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I always loved the times my kids

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would acknowledge me or thank me

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and just show up to say thank you.

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And what we're getting ready to do is

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do that with God, our Father in heaven.

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So yes, we're going to worship together online,

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even though that might seem strange to you.

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Psalm 100 says this:

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So no matter where you are right now,

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I believe that God wants to connect with you.

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He wants to speak with you.

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He wants to infuse you with hope.

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So let's lean in together and use this

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as a time to do that right now.

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- I love that song

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and I also love this next song we're going to do

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because I requested it.

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Yeah, it's a it's a bit of a throwback.

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It was popular several years ago, not so much anymore.

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But I asked for it because it really ties into

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really, well, what I'm going to talk about

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in a little bit: What does it mean to be lost?

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You know, today is... or this weekend is Father's Day

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and Juneteenth all wrapped up in one.

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Juneteenth, people didn't know they were free.

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They finally... slaves finally got word,

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figured out, you're free. Didn't know it.

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Like everyone got big, big, big, big deal.

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And yet Christianity is all about you can be free,

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and there is a Father who loves you

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and comes after you.

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That's what a good dad does.

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This song goes off of a passage

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in the Book of Luke chapter 15,

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where three times in a row, Jesus recognizes

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that God looks for things that are lost.

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It doesn't matter if it's one,

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doesn't matter if it's insignificant, He looks.

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If there's one sheep that is not found

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and 99 sheep are with Him,

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He leaves and goes to the one.

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If there's one coin He can't find,

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even if He has nine more, He goes to the coin.

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If there's two sons, He has one,

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but one's detached, one's disconnected,

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He looks and He runs after them.

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This is what God does for you.

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It's the good news.

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He knows where you are,

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He knows who you are, and He comes for you

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because you matter.

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If you're the only one, you would matter.

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That's the love of a Father that's come to set you free.

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You know, I get asked, what is the song, Reckless?

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What is this?

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Because for a lot of us, we live such passive lives.

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We don't do anything impulsive

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that we hear reckless.

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Reckless, that's your response? Are you saying God's reckless?

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You're saying He's irresponsible?

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You're saying He doesn't know what He's doing?

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No. I'm saying that when God moves, He moves.

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I'm saying that when God sees someone

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who needs love, He just loves.

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I'm saying when God sees a way to restore

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and redeem all of humanity by dying on a Cross,

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He does the reckless thing to His own welfare,

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which is the death of His own Son, and goes forward.

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That's how much He loves you.

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That's what He wants: to connect with you

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and be with you.

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And what's crazy and reckless about it is

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I don't deserve it.

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I don't know about you, I don't, I don't.

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God's not impressed with me.

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He's not impressed with my holiness.

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He's not impressed with my intentions.

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I don't stack up to Him, and yet He loves me.

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That's so reckless.

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It's so... It's so unworldly.

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It's so un-American what He does for us.

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He's so good. Come on and sing that again. Come on.

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- This is what He will do all for love.

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- The Bible makes it so clear, there is nothing

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that can separate you from the love of God.

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Romans 8 says nothing, no matter what in your mind

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thinks it separates you, makes you too far,

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makes you sit in the back instead of sit up front,

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or sit in the middle, or sit wherever you think you are.

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You are not too far from the love of God.

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He comes after you with passion, with life to give.

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So I pray to You, Jesus.

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I pray to You and just say thank You.

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Thank You for Your love.

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Pull me closer to You.

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Teach me more about it,

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because it's hard to receive it at times.

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Make my heart open to Your love.

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I thank you, Father.

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I pray all this in your name, Jesus. Amen.

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You can make your way back to your seats

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if you want, but hey, before you grab a seat,

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you know one of the smallest ways...

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or you can grab a seat. I confused you there.

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I said, go back to your seats. And then I didn't...

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You can grab a seat. Grab a seat.

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You get comfortable. There you go.

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You good now? That's my bad. It's on me.

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Hey, you know, one of the ways

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that we respond to that love, and it's a small way,

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I'll be honest, it's a small way, but it's costly,

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is through financial giving.

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Like, I give of my money because He's loved me radically.

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And if you want to do that with us,

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you can do that at Crossroads.net/give.

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So glad you're here.

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- I don't know if you've ever been lost before.

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It's terrifying, actually,

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if you know what's going on,

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it's a horrible, horrible sensation.

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We're looking for several weeks at what it means.

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The gospel. The gospel means good news.

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And to help us understand this good news,

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there's a bunch of different metaphors

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in the Bible that relate to us.

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So, there are the poor who recognize

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that we are the poor in in spirit.

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There are the orphans.

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There are those who are strangers or aliens.

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We feel like we're strangers and aliens.

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God adopts us. God brings us in.

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These are all good news.

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And the last metaphor we're going to look at

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is the metaphor of being lost, or as I may say,

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actually being disconnected.

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Let's pray before I do anything else. Okay?

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God, I want us to see You in a fresh way.

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I want us to maybe feel You in a fresh way.

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I want us to be able to just be overwhelmed

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with Your love and the plan that You have for our future.

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Help me to talk about that.

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Help me to be clear.

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Help me to be on point

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with what You want said to Your people.

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Thank You, God, for the privilege it is

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to talk about transcendent, meaningful things.

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I don't take it for granted.

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And I pray these things according to

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the character and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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Well, today I'm going to tell you

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one of my favorite stories in the Bible.

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I love this story.

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And I'm going to start with the end in mind.

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The end of it comes from the book of Luke 19:10,

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where it says, Jesus says Himself, the Son of Man,

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it's how He refers to Himself in this situation.

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The Son of Man comes to seek and save that which is lost.

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Seek and save that which is lost.

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This is good news. This is good news.

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Good news is not a Bible word.

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The word gospel is good news.

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It's not a Bible word.

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It was a word that was around in secular society.

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It just meant good news is coming.

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And I'm here to tell you,

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if you've ever felt alone,

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if you've ever felt disconnected,

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if you've ever felt on your own,

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if you ever felt like it's only up to you

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and no one else, good news, that's not true.

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Because you can be connected, you can be found.

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The problem with this phrase of being lost,

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like, the lost, the lost, the lost

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is we don't really understand

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in our current cultural context.

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In fact, in our current cultural context,

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it's very negative.

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Like, no one wants to be called your lost.

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"Dude, you are lost."

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"No, I'm not. No, I'm not."

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No one wants to be called, said they're lost.

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I grew up in a school where there wasn't

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really any physical bullying that took place,

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but we were kids, we were, and we're people.

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And people like to judge other people and laugh at each other.

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And looking back on it, maybe we did

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a little bit to one guy that we knew.

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His name was Albert, and Albert was...

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he talked a little different.

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He was just... he was just a little odd.

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You know, the kind of people

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he's just a half bubble off, one of those kind of guys.

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And he used to chew the end of his eraser off his pencil.

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He chewed his eraser off,

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and then he'd stick it in sideways his mouth

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and keep chewing it.

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And so we called him Albert Alligator Pencil Chomper.

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That's what we called him.

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We actually had a phrase for it, a song for it.

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Albert Alligator Pencil Chomper.

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Albert Alligator Pencil Chomper.

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We had that Albert Alligator Pencil Chomper.

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And we would talk about Albert, we would just say,

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"Man, that dude he is...

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That dude is lost. He is just lost."

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And that meant to us, like, out of touch, strange, weird.

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It wasn't a complimentary term.

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I knew a guy when I was doing football

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in high school, and you would go in and do two a days during the summer.

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And everybody on the football team

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would start with the same white sweatshirt,

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long sleeve sweatshirt under your pads,

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doing two a days in Pittsburgh humidity in August.

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Not fun.

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And you wanted to impress the coaches

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and do well enough that you would advance.

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And if they saw you progressing,

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they would give you an orange mesh shirt.

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And then if you got up to like starting level,

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they would give you a black mesh shirt.

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One guy we knew, his name was Steve.

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I don't think he really liked football that much.

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I know he didn't like being uncomfortable too much,

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so he kept making up injuries.

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At least it seemed like he kept making up injuries

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because he just wanted to be around

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the football field and he would just be

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on the side, always with an ice pack on him.

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And we started to notice this.

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Finally we just started said, "Hey, Steve,

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maybe someday you'll get an orange ice pack.

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Maybe someday you'll get a black ice pack."

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And we would say, "Man, Steve,

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that dude is just lost. He's just lost."

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It wasn't wasn't a complimentary term.

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So when we hear Jesus says, "I've come to seek

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and save that which is lost,"

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our natural reaction is going to be,

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"Well, that's not me. Lost is weird.

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Lost is loser. Lost is has no other options.

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Lost is just strange."

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That's not what Jesus is talking about.

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I want to propose a different word for us

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to consider that might explain you,

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or at least would have explained the way you have been,

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and would explain a way to identify

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and understand many other people. Let's read it.

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The story comes from Luke 19, and here we go.

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Jesus was the greatest show on earth.

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Wherever Jesus went, people wanted to be there

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because He was the greatest speaker

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the world has ever known.

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He was also the greatest healer the world has ever known.

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He was a miracle worker.

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People knew this, people saw this,

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and it was spreading all over the place.

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And so when He showed up someplace,

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everybody showed up.

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He was just planning on going to Jericho.

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Well, what do you know?

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The greatest show on earth comes to Jericho,

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and the crowds and the throngs come.

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One of these people is Zacchaeus.

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Zacchaeus is a wee little man.

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A wee little man was he.

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That's a song that, like, every Sunday school plays.

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You know, Zacchaeus is gonna be pretty ticked off

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when some of you get to heaven

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and you've been calling him a wee little man.

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No man, no man wants to be called a wee little man.

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Now he is short, he goes on the shorter side,

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and there's some social dynamics that are happening here.

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He's a tax collector.

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That means, as the text said, he's rich.

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And it also means he's hated.

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The Jews were under oppression from Rome,

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and Rome knew in order to get the money,

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you had to follow the money trail.

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And the way to follow the money trail

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is to have somebody who told you

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how business worked in Israel,

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who knew the businesses, who now knew

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how the money was flowing.

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So they would hire Jews to help them collect taxes.

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Zacchaeus was one of those people.

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And so the Jews hated him.

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The people in this town would have hated him.

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They would have been staying away from him

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with all that they could.

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And so, Zacchaeus, he's not going to...

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he's not going to just fight through the crowd

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to get to the front of the crowd.

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He can't see Jesus because he's a short guy,

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as the text says, and he's not going to be able

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to fight through the crowd to get to the front,

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because there's going to be too many people

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who are going to want to give him

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an elbow to the face because he is hated.

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He is not wanted.

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So he thinks that he has it down

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and he goes and he gets up a tree

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to see what's going to happen.

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Now Zacchaeus is very successful

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and Zacchaeus is lost.

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Well, what do you mean? I thought Los was stupid.

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I thought it meant that you were...

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No, what lost means, I think it's the better word.

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I think if Jesus came and gave us

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this verse today in our current vernacular,

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I don't think He would say lost.

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I think He would actually say he's disconnected.

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He's not connected with God.

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He's out of sync.

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I don't like being disconnected.

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I'm not talking about

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I don't like not being on social media.

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I love not being on social media.

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I'm not talking about I can't put my phone away.

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I can put my phone away.

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What I mean is, I hate being disconnected,

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meaning I hate being lost.

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And when I'm lost, what that means is,

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if I'm in a situation where it's possible

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that nobody knows where I am

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and I can't find my way out,

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I start to get a bit freaked out about it.

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So, therefore I spend money so that doesn't happen.

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I have this little device, as you all may have.

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We probably have used this device for anything,

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for nothing more than the GPS. Right?

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Being able to find where we are going.

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It's a big, big deal.

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But for me this isn't good enough.

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What if my battery goes dead?

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What if I am in a place that doesn't have cell phone service?

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I've heard recently that Apple is going to have

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legitimate GPS on these phones, the new iteration.

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Maybe it's out right now.

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That's awesome. That's great.

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But I tell you what, this isn't good enough for me

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because when I go hiking, when I go hunting,

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when I go motorcycling in the backwoods,

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when I do different things, I'm free.

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So I... let me tell you,

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I don't want to be disconnected.

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So I've got a watch that has GPS capabilities on it.

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And I love it, I love it.

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I have another GPS.

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I told you I have issues, I have problems.

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I have another GPS that I only use on my motorcycle.

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The right size of my motorcycle when I'm riding,

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getting around. There it is.

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I have another one for my truck

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when I'm overlanding. Yes, this is amazing.

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It's freaking awesome. It's great.

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Everybody in my party, actually,

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where they are on the road, it pops up on the road.

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You can see where they are.

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And doesn't matter if I have no cell phone service or not,

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it collects the connects to Glonass

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and all kind of stuff up there.

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So I'm going to make sure I know where I am,

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I'm not lost.

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And then and then when I'm hiking, when I'm hiking,

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when I'm hunting in the backwoods away from everything,

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and I can't carry a big thing like that,

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I have this little guy.

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This little guy is awesome.

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It's called a mini inReach Mini and it connects,

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I can send text messages through it,

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through the satellite, and I can see where I am.

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And if... I was practicing this talk earlier

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and a friend of mine on staff said,

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"Yeah, yeah, you really don't like being disconnected."

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Pulled it up on on her phone like,

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"Hey, are you getting this? Can you get this?

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Do you see me? Do you see me? Do you see me?"

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So that's that's the way it is.

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It shows where I am in the map, where it is,

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where it's going. I don't want to be lost.

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It's a horrible idea.

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And I don't think any of us do either.

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But being lost really comes about

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because we're disconnected.

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We're not connected where we need to be.

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We're not in sync.

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1 in 5 of us have never used a paper map.

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That's crazy. 1 in 5 of us.

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61% of us use a GPS at least once a week.

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Just trying to make sure I get to where I'm going,

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trying to make sure I know where I'm going.

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17% of us couldn't get where we're going without a GPS.

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In fact, neuroscientists are telling us this,

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that because we're so dependent on our phones

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and getting places, there's portions of our brain

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that are no longer operating because

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we're not learning how to find our way back place

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or develop our sixth sense of sense of direction.

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We're losing a piece of us, and it's because

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we're all terrified of being lost.

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We're terrified of being disconnected.

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I went out to Oregon.

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I'm going to talk about this in a little bit.

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I'll do a deep dive on it, on a cattle drive recently.

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So I was going out there.

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I had to go to the airport to get there,

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and I went in the restroom.

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And they've got these tracts,

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Bible tracts on the urinals that feed into

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the fear of you being lost and being disconnected.

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Now, I got to tell you, you know, I like the Bible.

00:34:28

I just don't like reading the Bible on a public urinal.

00:34:32

That's just not my thing.

00:34:33

I just... I don't know how many people

00:34:38

have come to know Jesus

00:34:39

reading and peeing at the same time.

00:34:41

I'm just not sure.

00:34:43

Especially reading the kind of verses they put up there.

00:34:46

It's, you know, it's mostly fear, doom and gloom

00:34:49

kind of stuff that's trying to feed into

00:34:52

the idea that you're lost.

00:34:56

I love the heart and attitude of somebody saying,

00:34:58

"I want to help somebody else," I love that.

00:35:01

But most of us just aren't ready

00:35:03

to admit that we feel lost.

00:35:04

We don't feel lost.

00:35:05

That's not a spiritual condition

00:35:07

that we're willing to identify with.

00:35:10

But maybe we could identify with disconnection.

00:35:13

I don't feel connection with God.

00:35:16

This is Zacchaeus. He has a disconnection.

00:35:19

He has a disconnection in culture.

00:35:21

Culture does not understand him.

00:35:23

Culture does not like him.

00:35:24

He also has a disconnection with God.

00:35:27

Disconnection leads to isolation.

00:35:32

When we're disconnected, we isolate ourselves

00:35:36

and this is not good.

00:35:38

When you start to understand that

00:35:40

most people you bump into feel disconnected,

00:35:45

you can start to have heart

00:35:46

and empathy for your fellow man.

00:35:49

Most people feel this way.

00:35:50

I'm telling you, if you want to crack the code

00:35:52

on human behavior, this is it,

00:35:54

that we feel alone and isolated because we have

00:35:58

a disconnection from God and a higher purpose

00:36:00

and a higher meaning.

00:36:01

This is why there's road rage.

00:36:03

This is why there's judgmentalism.

00:36:06

This is why there is backbiting.

00:36:08

We're trying to protect ourselves

00:36:10

until someone bites our back.

00:36:13

This is why there's polarization.

00:36:16

We feel disconnected and we feel like

00:36:18

others don't like us, because there's just

00:36:20

a lack of connection, specifically with God,

00:36:23

that then permeates to other people.

00:36:26

When you understand this,

00:36:27

you can start to have empathy with somebody.

00:36:29

This last week, I had a delivery guy came

00:36:31

and dropped off a grill at my house.

00:36:33

And I was helping him get the grill up

00:36:36

and everything, and I just felt a...

00:36:38

I felt a connection with this guy for some reason.

00:36:40

I could sense, maybe it was just

00:36:42

I was getting ready for this talk

00:36:43

and thinking about these things and praying

00:36:45

and studying these things.

00:36:46

And so I was just more in sync with people

00:36:48

and where they were.

00:36:49

And so I started talking with this guy,

00:36:50

and I learned he had a really difficult, difficult past.

00:36:54

And we had a little bit of conversation.

00:36:56

And then as I was leaving,

00:36:58

I was turning around from his truck,

00:37:00

I just I felt the Spirit of God just prompt me,

00:37:03

say, "Brian, you need to do something different here."

00:37:06

So I turned around and I said to him,

00:37:10

"Hey, are you okay if I pray for you?"

00:37:13

And he said, "Yeah, sure."

00:37:14

And he went to drive away.

00:37:16

I said, "No, no, no, no, no, no.

00:37:18

I mean, like, no, I'd like to, like, pray.

00:37:20

What can I pray for you right now?"

00:37:22

And he said, "Well, I really feel like

00:37:25

I'm in a dead end job and not going very far.

00:37:29

And I just, I just need to see

00:37:31

where I'm going to have a better job."

00:37:33

I said okay. I put my hand on him, prayed for him.

00:37:37

And it seemed to mean something to him.

00:37:39

In fact, I told him about Crossroads.

00:37:41

He lives down in Florence.

00:37:42

"Hey, dude, if you're here today

00:37:44

at Crossroads Florence, welcome.

00:37:45

You are not alone. Great to have you."

00:37:48

There's a [applause] Yeah, very cool.

00:37:51

But I could tell it was a connection.

00:37:53

And he's just an example of the way

00:37:56

most of us feel isolated who knows me.

00:38:01

This is the way that Zacchaeus felt.

00:38:04

There was an isolation. He didn't understand it.

00:38:08

Let's look at the next verse, 19, verse 5 and following.

00:38:11

And when Jesus came to the place.

00:38:13

He's walking along, Jesus is walking along,

00:38:15

the greatest show on the earth.

00:38:16

The crowds are coming.

00:38:18

And here ahead is Zacchaeus, up the sycamore tree.

00:38:22

And so the crowds are making their way

00:38:25

as Jesus is walking and talking, healing,

00:38:27

praying, whatever He's doing.

00:38:46

And received Him joyfully.

00:38:49

I mean, you can imagine this.

00:38:51

Zacchaeus goes from a place of people hating him

00:38:54

and wanting to elbow him

00:38:55

and him needing to stay away from people,

00:38:57

him disconnected people, to now being called out

00:39:01

in front of everybody by the hero of the day

00:39:04

and him coming down the tree.

00:39:07

He had to be terrified at first

00:39:08

when Jesus looks at him and says, "Zacchaeus."

00:39:10

He had to be up there going, "Oh my gosh!

00:39:14

Jesus is Jewish.

00:39:16

He's going to humiliate me in front of everybody.

00:39:18

This is going to be horrible."

00:39:21

And Jesus gives him the greatest compliment

00:39:23

you can give in an ancient culture,

00:39:26

the gift of community

00:39:27

and he invites Him over to his house.

00:39:29

See, we feel so isolated in our country.

00:39:31

We don't invite anybody over our house.

00:39:34

It's... we're so isolated.

00:39:36

We've lost the ability to even invite

00:39:37

somebody over to our apartment.

00:39:39

We've lost the ability to cook a meal for somebody.

00:39:41

We don't understand what hospitality is.

00:39:45

So this seems really crazy to us.

00:39:47

Again, it's because we're so isolated

00:39:49

and so disconnected.

00:39:50

That is part of the reason why

00:39:52

there's so much mental illness, so much suicide.

00:39:55

We're not living life right.

00:39:57

We're not living life the way

00:39:59

that God has designed it to be lived.

00:40:02

And Zacchaeus goes from stark terror of,

00:40:05

"Oh no, I'm busted!" To now Jesus says,

00:40:08

"I'm going to come over to your house."

00:40:10

He invites them over, because this is an honor.

00:40:12

"I'm going to come over to your house."

00:40:13

And Jesus goes... Zacchaeus thinks, "Oh, my gosh."

00:40:16

He scurries down because

00:40:18

he's feeling a connection with Him.

00:40:22

I think what Jesus is saying here,

00:40:24

"The Son of Man comes not just to seek

00:40:26

and save that which is lost.

00:40:28

The Son of Man comes to seek and save

00:40:30

that he or she who is disconnected from Me,

00:40:33

he or she who feels isolated from Me."

00:40:37

Isolation is terrifying.

00:40:43

I met a guy a year and a half or so ago

00:40:47

and a big cattle guy, like massive,

00:40:51

like massive acreage, number of ranches

00:40:53

in three different states.

00:40:55

And this is a picture of him.

00:40:57

This is from about ten years old this picture.

00:41:00

No question if you watch Yellowstone,

00:41:02

I have no doubt at all Taylor Sheridan

00:41:04

based Yellowstone off of this guy.

00:41:06

And I can't tell you his name because

00:41:08

he would defriend me, like, he hates any publicity.

00:41:11

But that's his right hand man. His name is Brett.

00:41:14

I actually call him Rip

00:41:15

because that's what he looks like if you've ever seen Yellowstone.

00:41:17

So when I first met him

00:41:20

and struck up a friendship with him, I finally did.

00:41:22

I said, "Man, one of my goals in life

00:41:25

is to do a cattle drive, a legit cattle drive.

00:41:28

I would love to come out, give you free labor.

00:41:31

I would love to do it. I'm pretty hearty.

00:41:33

I can work hard. I'm okay."

00:41:35

He says, "Well, yeah, you are.

00:41:38

You are a bit tough, but, you know,

00:41:40

you wouldn't be much help.

00:41:41

We just... You'd just be...

00:41:43

We'd be babysitting you as an Easterner."

00:41:45

That's what he calls me.

00:41:46

"We'd be babysitting you as an Easterner."

00:41:50

I was like, "Oh, such a lost loser," is what I felt like.

00:41:55

And I said, "Okay, I don't know how to rope cattle,

00:41:58

I don't... I've ridden a horse several times.

00:42:01

I'm not a maestro on it, I haven't.

00:42:03

Yeah, okay. Okay, fine."

00:42:04

Well, something happened to him where

00:42:06

a few months ago something changed his mind.

00:42:08

And he texted me and my friend Steve,

00:42:10

who we were with him initially, and he said,

00:42:12

"Hey, if you're if you're really serious about it,

00:42:14

you can come to this one branding we're doing."

00:42:16

He does like 45 brandings all over the place.

00:42:19

He's got ranches in three different states.

00:42:22

And so we go out and I see Bible tracks

00:42:25

at the urinals on our way out.

00:42:26

It's a very educational trip.

00:42:28

And we go out and now, okay, here we go.

00:42:31

Now, I know talking about this,

00:42:32

I know I get your emails,

00:42:34

I know we have vegans at Crossroads.

00:42:36

God bless you.

00:42:37

And then we have vegans who like

00:42:39

to get up in my grill all the time.

00:42:40

I know I bother you, I know I do.

00:42:42

I eat meat, I hunt, I kill, I know, I know, I know.

00:42:46

So, trigger warning here.

00:42:47

I'm serious, trigger warning.

00:42:49

I'm going to show something here that's going to bother you.

00:42:51

If you've ever, though, been a person who

00:42:53

eats protein, like, have you ever had a hamburger,

00:42:57

you have a steak, meat sauce in your spaghetti.

00:42:59

It all comes from cows that have

00:43:02

a ranching experience.

00:43:04

There's no cattle cattle factories.

00:43:08

It's not like chicken factories

00:43:10

or it's not like you know, the mass fisheries. No.

00:43:13

These are all cows out in the open, fenced in.

00:43:16

And there's still legit cowboys that have to go

00:43:19

and herd them to different patches of land

00:43:21

and then bring them in.

00:43:23

There's two bad days in a cows life.

00:43:24

Every day in a cows life is a great, amazing day,

00:43:26

except for two: their last day and then branding day.

00:43:31

So, I was there on branding day.

00:43:33

I did some branding.

00:43:34

I also did multivitamin behind the back shoulder.

00:43:38

I did that.

00:43:39

I also did immunizations in each shoulder.

00:43:42

They also do a branding. I did the branding.

00:43:44

I didn't do the castration.

00:43:45

I would love to... there's a whole message on castration.

00:43:48

There really is.

00:43:50

It was... it rocked my world.

00:43:51

In fact, if you subscribe to my letter

00:43:54

at BrianTome.com, my email,

00:43:55

you're going to get that email if you haven't already.

00:43:58

And there's a whole teaching on how

00:44:03

the castration is similar to

00:44:05

how we are castrating males today.

00:44:07

In fact, if you ever subscribed to my email list,

00:44:09

you want to do that.

00:44:10

I have different teachings come out

00:44:11

that don't ever make the stage.

00:44:13

You can do that at BrianTome.com.

00:44:14

We'll get you hooked up and we'll send you that article.

00:44:16

Anyway, all that to say, here's a little snippet.

00:44:19

Here's a little snip before I tell a story

00:44:21

of what I experienced.

00:44:26

[cows mooing]

00:45:00

- Yes, yes, I do chew tobacco,

00:45:02

unless, in case you're wondering. Yes.

00:45:04

And that was intense.

00:45:06

That second one, I didn't quite get him the first time.

00:45:08

First one doesn't seem to bother him,

00:45:10

but if you have to go back to make sure

00:45:12

the mark is clear, the second one bothers them.

00:45:13

So, I felt bad about that.

00:45:15

But that's what we did and the whole time.

00:45:19

But first you've got to gather the cattle

00:45:21

who are lost, who are disconnected,

00:45:24

who are dispersed all over the place.

00:45:26

I mean, they know where they are.

00:45:27

They're not worried about it,

00:45:29

but they're disconnected from the herd

00:45:30

and from from meaning and purpose.

00:45:32

So, we go out one day and we have a bunch

00:45:34

of cowboys that go over in this side of the land,

00:45:36

and a bunch of cowboys will go over

00:45:38

on this side of the land, and then me and the owner

00:45:41

come up the middle, and there's these rolling hills

00:45:44

that go up and down like this,

00:45:45

and we're meeting them up.

00:45:47

We're trying to drive them all up to a fence line,

00:45:49

drive them across, through the fence line

00:45:51

into another pasture, shut the gate

00:45:53

where there's more fresh grass. Okay?

00:45:55

So, we're going, we're going.

00:45:57

And the owner and I, my friend, are going

00:46:00

and he says, "You know, we've got some rolling hills over here.

00:46:03

There could be some cows down there.

00:46:05

Why don't you go down and check it,

00:46:08

check out, make sure it's okay

00:46:09

and kind of drive them up.

00:46:10

Just walk them up. Drive them up."

00:46:12

I said fine, they're herding animals,

00:46:13

so when they see a herder they're, like,

00:46:15

"Oh, we got to get out of here. Okay, fine."

00:46:17

And this is day three, so I was getting

00:46:19

better at my horsemanship

00:46:20

and they were incredible, incredible horses.

00:46:22

So I go off from him, I head down this hill

00:46:26

and I get out of eyesight of him.

00:46:28

In fact, I'm out of eyesight

00:46:30

and out of communication.

00:46:31

I have no GPS device on me.

00:46:33

I have no device at all.

00:46:35

And I get outside of any communication,

00:46:37

no visual signs.

00:46:39

I have no idea where I am

00:46:40

and I can't see anyone and no one can see me.

00:46:42

And I remember they keep saying

00:46:46

that there are rattlesnakes.

00:46:49

And I'm going down this steep hill on this horse

00:46:53

and thinking, "Man, this would be,

00:46:56

if I was a rattlesnake, this is exactly

00:46:57

where I would be, right here.

00:46:59

Like that rock, right?

00:47:00

That's exactly where I would be."

00:47:01

And I kept thinking, "If a rattlesnake pokes out

00:47:05

and scares this horse, this horse is rearing up.

00:47:07

And as good as I've gotten,

00:47:09

I've never done a hi ho silver on a horse.

00:47:11

If this horse rears up, I am going down

00:47:15

and no one will know where I am.

00:47:17

And I can't tell anyone where I am."

00:47:20

I felt utterly helpless and completely disconnected

00:47:26

and completely fragile and vulnerable.

00:47:31

Never, actually... I don't get scared.

00:47:34

It was maybe the most scared I've ever been in my life.

00:47:37

It's just utterly, for me, terrified. Terrified.

00:47:41

This is what it's like

00:47:44

if you feel like you're alone

00:47:47

and there is not a God who has your back,

00:47:50

there's not a God who doesn't care for you

00:47:53

and chase you down and is aware of you

00:47:56

and has a purpose for you and has love for you

00:47:59

and has second chances for you.

00:48:01

When we believe that these things

00:48:03

are all old bygone fairy tales

00:48:06

from previous religious generation

00:48:08

and there's not a living God today,

00:48:10

we are going to feel isolated

00:48:12

and we are one step away from being desperate.

00:48:15

Desperate.

00:48:18

Isolation, disconnection leads to desperation.

00:48:23

When Zacchaeus is coming down,

00:48:27

look at the reaction of everybody else in verse 7.

00:48:37

Jesus, oh, grumble, grumble, grumble.

00:48:41

Hey, let's all, let's do this.

00:48:44

Everyone say just, just say grumble five times.

00:48:47

Just go say it right now. Just go.

00:48:48

[community grumbling]

00:48:51

Yeah, that's what's happening. [grumbling].

00:48:53

That was kind of fun. Seriously, you too.

00:48:55

One. Two. Three. Go. [grumbling]

00:48:59

He's going grumble.

00:49:00

He's going to be the guest of the house of a sinner.

00:49:03

He's going to hang out with the sinner.

00:49:06

He's going to hang out with somebody

00:49:07

who we don't like.

00:49:09


00:49:10

who has a different moral code than we do.

00:49:12


00:49:14

who makes more money than we do.

00:49:16


00:49:17

who does things that we don't like.

00:49:20

See, we're all... we're all for the love of God,

00:49:23

so long as He doesn't love those people. Right?

00:49:27

So long as it's not the ones that bother us.

00:49:30

No, God loves those people

00:49:32

and those people would be surprised

00:49:34

that God loves you too.

00:49:37

This is what's going on.

00:49:40

They can't believe that Jesus is lowering Himself,

00:49:43

to connect Himself, connect Himself

00:49:47

to a guy that we don't like.

00:49:50

There's not a single person that God doesn't love.

00:49:54

Seriously. Not a single person God doesn't love.

00:49:57

Doesn't like our choices.

00:49:58

There not a single person God doesn't love.

00:50:01

I can just start naming out all of them,

00:50:03

not a single person.

00:50:05

There's not a Joe Biden supporter Jesus doesn't love.

00:50:09

There's not a Donald Trump supporter Jesus doesn't love.

00:50:12

There's not a heterosexual Jesus doesn't love.

00:50:14

There's not a homosexual Jesus doesn't love.

00:50:16

There's not a white person Jesus doesn't love.

00:50:17

There's not a black person Jesus doesn't love.

00:50:19

There isn't a Mexican person Jesus doesn't love.

00:50:22

There's not a millionaire, a billionaire Jesus loves.

00:50:24

Yeah, Jeff Bezos, loves him.

00:50:27

There's not a crack smoking person on welfare

00:50:32

that Jesus doesn't love.

00:50:34

Jesus wants to be connected to everybody.

00:50:37

He comes to seek and save that which is lost.

00:50:41

That's the reckless love of God,

00:50:44

reckless and open and going forward.

00:50:49

And He sees and He knows that we're desperate.

00:50:52

We have it.

00:50:59

When we're desperate the reason we're desperate

00:51:01

is because we don't have all the things that God brings.

00:51:06

It's not just that when God comes to us

00:51:08

we can have a personal relationship with Him,

00:51:09

but there's all the things that God brings.

00:51:12

There's a presence of a power that's greater

00:51:14

than you that He brings when He connects to you.

00:51:18

There is a personal reassurance that God gives you

00:51:21

that when you make a mistake, it's like,

00:51:23

"No, you're okay."

00:51:24

There's a personal word that God can give you.

00:51:25

I mentioned one, doesn't happen all the time,

00:51:27

but when I was walking away

00:51:28

from that delivery truck, I know God well enough

00:51:30

that I sensed God say to me like,

00:51:32

"Brian, go back and talk to that guy, pray for that guy."

00:51:34

And when I do that, and I saw his response,

00:51:36

I'm like, "Oh, God's with me.

00:51:37

I'm connected with God. He gets me.

00:51:40

He's using me."

00:51:42

There's a peace that passes all understanding,

00:51:45

even when you're in financial turmoil,

00:51:47

even when your marriage is falling apart,

00:51:49

even when you haven't gotten into the school

00:51:51

that you want to get into,

00:51:52

even when you can't find a date,

00:51:54

even when people call you Albert Alligator Pencil Chompler.

00:51:59

There's a peace that passes all understanding.

00:52:03

That's the power.

00:52:05

This isn't... the reason I'm so excited

00:52:07

to get people connected to Jesus

00:52:08

isn't because I want everybody to think like me.

00:52:11

It's, like, I don't know how you do without Him.

00:52:14

I don't know how I'd do it

00:52:16

when my wife went in for a stroke. I don't know.

00:52:18

I would've never got through that

00:52:20

if I didn't have Jesus as a backstop,

00:52:23

being connected to Him.

00:52:24

I don't know how you deal with life's traumas

00:52:26

and difficulties.

00:52:27

I was just talking with somebody

00:52:28

in a horrific situation just the other day,

00:52:31

horrific, like, death situation.

00:52:33

They said, "I don't, I don't know,

00:52:35

I don't know how people do it."

00:52:36

I said, "I know and you know what? They don't.

00:52:39

Some make it through, but man, there's a lot more

00:52:42

scars than we can possibly imagine."

00:52:45

There's there's a cost to when we're on our own.

00:52:48

What did we think would happen

00:52:51

as we have a culture have encouraged people

00:52:54

to walk away from the faith,

00:52:57

only see God as an impersonal force,

00:52:59

only see Him as a higher power?

00:53:01

What do we think would happen when many people,

00:53:04

not all, many who are philosophers,

00:53:05

just like to have mental masturbation

00:53:08

and be second thinkers with people

00:53:10

and try to sow seeds?

00:53:11

What do we think as we went down that path

00:53:14

and people actually got disconnected

00:53:15

from a source of hope, what do we think would happen?

00:53:18

Did we really think suicide would go down?

00:53:21

Did we really think happiness would go up?

00:53:23

Did we think mental illness would thrive

00:53:25

if we always, "Oh, so I am on my own.

00:53:28

Oh, so I am my own with really no help other than me.

00:53:30

Oh, that makes all the difference in the world.

00:53:32

I guess I'm good now."

00:53:33

Of course not.

00:53:34

We're seeing the signs of disconnection

00:53:37

all over our culture,

00:53:39

and maybe you are all over in your life.

00:53:41

Let's not talk about out there. Let's talk about you.

00:53:44

Do you feel that?

00:53:45

Do you feel disconnected from God?

00:53:47

Do you feel like there's something

00:53:49

that could be different,

00:53:51

but you're up in a tree just watching from afar?

00:53:59

Verse eight, Zacchaeus comes out of tree.

00:54:07

It's interesting he calls him Lord.

00:54:09

It's fascinating, like that.

00:54:10

It's not Jesus, he calls Him Lord.

00:54:24

Zacchaeus may be calling the bluff of everybody.

00:54:26

Everybody might have assumed

00:54:27

he was a swindler, cheating people.

00:54:30

Maybe he gives this call, "If I've cheated

00:54:32

on anybody form a line, I'll payback four X."

00:54:36

Maybe he's doing that to just say,

00:54:39

"You all think I've been jacking you, jacking you around.

00:54:42

No, I'm not, I'm not.

00:54:44

If I have, though, form a line get four X.

00:54:46

And then he says, "I'm going to give half

00:54:48

of everything I have to the poor, half,

00:54:51

everything to the poor.

00:54:53

It's really, it's, I mean, it's in the text.

00:54:56

I got to talk about this.

00:54:57

I find this fascinating.

00:54:59

This didn't... this wasn't after Jesus

00:55:02

gave a message on giving.

00:55:05

There wasn't any giving context.

00:55:07

He just comes out with this half, half everything.

00:55:11

He gives away half of his income.

00:55:14

Jesus isn't telling you to give away half your income.

00:55:16

He's not telling you to sell everything

00:55:18

and give to the poor. Really.

00:55:19

But, Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus does this.

00:55:25

If you aren't giving, it doesn't...

00:55:29

Not being generous doesn't mean you will be disconnected.

00:55:36

Not being generous doesn't mean

00:55:38

that God will disconnect you,

00:55:40

but it is only the connected people

00:55:45

who are ever generous.

00:55:46

Disconnected people always have a reason not to give.

00:55:49

Why? Because they feel alone and isolated

00:55:52

and God doesn't have my back.

00:55:54

You know all the reasons

00:55:55

why I can't give to Crossroads, all that.

00:55:57

I understand a lot of those,

00:55:59

there's a lot of abusive things out there.

00:56:00

All the reasons you can't give to

00:56:02

so and such poverty organization

00:56:03

because I don't know what they're doing.

00:56:05

I understand there's a necessary due diligence,

00:56:07

but those questions nearly always come

00:56:10

from people who are alone and disconnected.

00:56:13

Because when you give away power, which is money,

00:56:16

you are trusting that there is power that has your back.

00:56:19

You can only ever give if you feel connected to God.

00:56:24

Not giving is what people do

00:56:26

who don't feel connected to God.

00:56:28

They may have the right Christian beliefs.

00:56:30

We may go to church.

00:56:31

We may even have fire insurance.

00:56:36

But we don't feel connection with God.

00:56:39

There's no sense that God has my back.

00:56:42

It's a big, big deal.

00:56:44

Lack of generosity is the first, I think,

00:56:47

the most obvious way to find out

00:56:49

what you really believe.

00:56:51

Because if generosity doesn't come easy to you,

00:56:54

then you feel isolated and desperate and detached

00:56:58

from a power source that loves you

00:57:00

and can provide for you.

00:57:02

And that's the powerful thing

00:57:03

of what Zacchaeus does here.

00:57:05

It's crazy what he does.

00:57:08

This is why Jesus then says this.

00:57:19

There it is. He says, "He's a son of Abraham.

00:57:23

And today salvation has come."

00:57:25

Look at this guy he's operating.

00:57:27

He hasn't buyed his... buyed his... bought his...

00:57:29

buyed, bought.

00:57:31

He hasn't bought his way into heaven

00:57:32

by his generosity.

00:57:33

But Jesus looks at this act of generosity

00:57:36

shows that your heart is now connected with God,

00:57:39

and you are trusting with God.

00:57:42

It's so good when this happens.

00:57:43

There's nothing that's more exciting about it.

00:57:46

Nothing.

00:57:49

Last thing: Disconnection.

00:57:50

Disconnection leads to separation.

00:57:55

Disconnection leads to separation.

00:57:56

In other words, ultimate permanent separation.

00:58:00

This is what hell is.

00:58:03

Hell is ultimate permanent separation.

00:58:06

Hell is God's justice system.

00:58:09

There isn't perfect justice here on this earth,

00:58:11

but God sets the cosmos right by there being

00:58:14

a place called hell where injustice is handled.

00:58:19

Injustice gets handled right here and now

00:58:21

by giving my life to Christ

00:58:23

and allowing Jesus's death to cover me

00:58:26

so I don't have to die,

00:58:27

or my injustice gets handled in hell

00:58:30

where I pay for myself.

00:58:32

And how do I pay for myself?

00:58:33

I pay for being away from God,

00:58:35

which is people go to hell.

00:58:36

God doesn't send us to hell.

00:58:38

People go to hell because that's what they want.

00:58:40

They want themselves. They don't want God.

00:58:42

If someone doesn't want God here, why do we think

00:58:45

they would want God in the afterlife?

00:58:48

God giving us what we want.

00:58:50

But what happens is you lose

00:58:52

all the blessings of God that even people

00:58:55

who don't believe in God get to have.

00:58:57

There's blessings of God here.

00:58:58

There's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness.

00:59:02

These are the fruit of the Spirit in the Bible.

00:59:05

And there's a system there.

00:59:07

And there's some of those in all of our lives,

00:59:10

because God is here and God is present.

00:59:13

But when we're in a place where there is no God,

00:59:16

then there is no love, there is no joy,

00:59:19

there is no peace, there is no patience,

00:59:22

there is there is no joy, there is no laughter.

00:59:25

As much as I used to love blasting out AC/DC

00:59:29

and on the Highway to Hell.

00:59:31

I still love that song. It's awesome.

00:59:32

Don't tell anybody I said that.

00:59:35

Actually, I just told you so I guess everybody knows.

00:59:37

I still love that song.

00:59:38

When I listen to it, I have to, like, remember,

00:59:40

I remember as great as the song is,

00:59:42

like, they're so, so wrong, so, so wrong.

00:59:45

You think you're going to have fun in a place

00:59:48

where there's none of the goodness of God?

00:59:51

Yeesh. No. Because any camaraderie you have

00:59:54

with your party friends, that's all gone

00:59:55

because you're going to have pure isolation.

00:59:58

Any sense of good feeling you have,

01:00:00

no, that's that's gone because you get darkness.

01:00:02

You get darkness.

01:00:03

Hell is the altered separation.

01:00:06

And that's why Jesus comes to save us, to seek us.

01:00:10

And we don't like talking about this in our culture.

01:00:13

In typing out my notes here I was trying to

01:00:17

deal with it and type it up and I couldn't.

01:00:19

Every time I would write hell in my Google document,

01:00:22

it would change it to H-E apostrophe L-L, he'll.

01:00:26

You know, he'll do it, he'll do this.

01:00:28

And I kept, I realized Google doesn't recognize hell.

01:00:32

I literally can't type hell without Google saying,

01:00:35

"No, no, no, you don't want that work.

01:00:37

You don't want that word. You don't want that word."

01:00:39

Try it, try it. We don't want that word.

01:00:43

We don't want that life, I understand it.

01:00:46

But that's God's justice system.

01:00:49

That's that's how it works.

01:00:50

That's how He ultimately sets things right.

01:00:54

Now, there are three kinds of people in here today:

01:00:59

Those who can count and those who can't.

01:01:06

There's three kinds of people there.

01:01:08

First kind of person is a person

01:01:10

who knows all the things to know.

01:01:13

They've heard this story many times,

01:01:15

they understand, and yet you still can't identify

01:01:18

anybody you shared your faith with.

01:01:21

Yet there's still never been somebody

01:01:23

who you've invited someplace, you've taken a risk on

01:01:28

and you've gone cold. You've gone cold.

01:01:31

It's just...

01:01:34

And I'll just ask you, what's going cold?

01:01:36

Have you lost the ability to connect with

01:01:39

the plight and the tension and the difficulty

01:01:43

that many people have who are not connected to God?

01:01:46

And then there's people in here

01:01:47

who walk and live in that.

01:01:49

In fact, there's people in here

01:01:50

who have people in here because you asked people here.

01:01:53

And you're like, "Man, I remember when I was lost.

01:01:56

I remember it. I remember when I was disconnected.

01:01:59

I remember when I felt like was I was on my own,

01:02:02

and it was horrible.

01:02:03

And I didn't even know it was horrible

01:02:05

until I gave my life to Christ."

01:02:07

And then there's people in here.

01:02:08

You came in here not knowing what you came in here for,

01:02:11

and here's why you came in here,

01:02:13

because Jesus says there in verse ten,

01:02:16

"The Son of Man came to seek and save

01:02:18

that which was lost."

01:02:19

He came here today for you.

01:02:22

He came, this whole service was for you

01:02:25

to come to receive Him

01:02:27

and to be eternally connected to him.

01:02:31

I'm going to pray for you and then we're going to...

01:02:35

Then we're going to go to a place

01:02:37

and we're going to hear the words of the Savior

01:02:39

over all of us.

01:02:41

So, God, I pray for those of us

01:02:42

who are going to get connected right now

01:02:44

for the first time, Jesus.

01:02:45

Jesus, for those of us, we just say to you,

01:02:48

"I want You in my life.

01:02:51

I want to be connected to You.

01:02:54

I asked You to forgive me

01:02:56

and fill me with Your Holy Spirit.

01:03:00

I vow to work as hard as I can

01:03:03

to be connected to You the rest of my life. Amen."

01:06:10

- He loves, you know. He loves you.

01:06:12

I mean, He really loves you.

01:06:14

He said He came to seek and save that which is lost

01:06:16

because He loves you.

01:06:18

He made a bold, reckless move unto abandonment

01:06:24

to give His life for you.

01:06:26

Oh, it's overwhelming His love.

01:06:28

It's mesmerizing. It's cataclysmic.

01:06:30

It's indescribable. It's unfathomable.

01:06:33

It's undiscernible.

01:06:34

As much as I talk and think about it,

01:06:37

I still don't understand it.

01:06:39

That's the song is about.

01:06:40

Why don't we stand and let's end our end with this song.

01:07:25

- We'll sing it again.

01:09:53

- Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.

01:09:56

But one more really important thing before you go,

01:09:59

if you're part of Crossroads,

01:10:01

but you're not part of a physical campus,

01:10:03

we want you to come to Anywhere Weekend,

01:10:06

July 19th through 21st.

01:10:08

We know it can be challenging

01:10:11

to be part of an online church,

01:10:12

that it can sometimes feel lonely.

01:10:15

Well, this weekend is built to encourage you,

01:10:18

to fill you up and connect you with other people

01:10:21

just like you that are part of Crossroads Anywhere.

01:10:24

I remember going last year

01:10:26

and even as we were setting up,

01:10:28

I met a guy that kind of looked familiar

01:10:31

and we were doing something together.

01:10:33

And then he just asked me out of nowhere,

01:10:34

"Hey, how is your daughter doing?"

01:10:37

And I was blown away.

01:10:39

Two months earlier, I had shared

01:10:41

a prayer request for her in our online community.

01:10:44

And then he tells me he's been praying for her

01:10:47

every day for two months,

01:10:49

and just wanted an update on how she was doing.

01:10:52

Are you kidding me? That was amazing.

01:10:55

And that's when I knew Anywhere Weekend

01:10:57

was going to connect people in real ways

01:11:00

and real relationships.

01:11:01

And it really has been amazing this year

01:11:04

to see how those connections have lasted

01:11:07

from last year's Anywhere Weekend.

01:11:09

So, we want you to check it out

01:11:11

at crossroads.net/anywhere,

01:11:14

and we will see you hopefully in July.

01:11:17

So happy Father's Day and happy Juneteenth.

01:11:21

If you don't know what that is,

01:11:22

maybe you should check it out and learn about

01:11:24

some of the lesser known struggles

01:11:26

we've had as a country,

01:11:27

and be able to celebrate our progress.

01:11:30

And we'll see you back next week.

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