The Bible Challenge | Faithful in a Faithless World Week 1

New year, new me…or at least that’s what we say every year. We make resolutions, we make plans, and all too often nothing really changes. Yet God promises something better—but how do we get it? Join us as Brian talks about the pathway to a different life in 2022.

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    Hey, happy New Year. I'm Kyle. This is Crossroads.
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    You know, we exist to guide and equip you
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    for the adventurous life that God made you for.
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    And that's not our idea,
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    that's actually a promise of Jesus.
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    In John 14:6, Jesus said,
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    "I am the way, the truth and the life.
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    Another place He described that life as the full life
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    or the abundant life.
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    But chances are there's a gap between
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    the life that Jesus promised you
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    and the life that you're experiencing. Why is that?
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    It's because of that verse.
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    You don't get the life of Jesus
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    without rooting yourself in His truth
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    and practicing His ways.
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    One of the most important ways of Jesus
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    is time spent with God.
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    It was actually His game changing life habit,
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    and it's the one that we're going to root ourselves in
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    as a community this year.
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    And our full belief is that as we do,
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    as we practice this way, our full belief,
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    our full prayer is that
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    we'll get the full life together.
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    - There is a way that leads to life.
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    It's not the paved path, well lit, well-traveled, known.
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    It's the ancient path, narrow, forgotten, wild.
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    Few are willing to walk it,
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    but those who do find what they've been searching for.
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    Be one of them.
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    Walk the way that leads to life
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    and find faith in a faithless world
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    this January at Crossroads.
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    - We're calling it the Bible challenge.
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    Really simply, it's reading the Bible
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    four or more times a week.
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    I'm going to tell you more about the how later on.
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    But first, let's start with the why.
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    Here's Brian.
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    - Hey, my name is Brian. Welcome to Crossroads.
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    Happy New Year.
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    You know, I think a lot of us probably have
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    some sort of physical goal,
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    physical challenge we're trying to do this year.
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    I have some of those as well.
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    Just a little interesting thing that happened to me
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    at the end of 2021, one of the things I do
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    for a workout is I do Peloton.
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    I never thought I'd like it, but it's actually not bad.
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    And if you're a Peloton user, you know the key thing
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    is the thing that's called output.
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    What is your average output,
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    the big number in the middle?
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    Basically over a span of a 30 minute class
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    I've not been able to get into
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    an average output of the 190s.
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    I thought that I was just stuck.
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    And then one day someone gave me some new ideas
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    and some new pushes, who was an instructor,
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    and I utterly blew away where I was before,
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    22% increased.
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    I went up to like, I think it was 224
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    or something like that average over 45 minutes.
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    Crazy, crazy, crazy.
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    That's what can happen when something new comes to you
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    and someone pushes you.
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    I want to be that person today.
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    I want to do something that is new for you,
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    and it's all around a challenge I want to give for you,
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    All of 2022, it is the Bible Challenge,
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    getting into the Word of God.
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    Now, why would I do that, you might ask?
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    Well, you might do it because everything
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    in your life will change if you do do it.
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    I'm pretty thankful for things God is doing in my life
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    and where I am right now.
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    I'm gosh, I'm 56 years old.
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    I've had the the same job for 26 years
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    and I've still have as much passion and energy
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    and good attitude as I ever have,
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    while other people I know have burned out
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    or fried out or rusted out.
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    And you don't want to know why?
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    I don't know what their situation was,
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    but I know my situation, I'm still cooking
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    and feeling good because I spend time with God every day
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    or as many days as I can get in.
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    I've got kids who never really went through
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    huge teenage rebellion.
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    My kids have been a joy to me
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    and we've had our issues for sure.
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    We definitely have had our issues, our moments.
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    My kids have been a joy to me.
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    My kids are adults right now.
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    And guess what? They actually like me.
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    They actually want to spend time with me.
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    They actually still as adults sleep over
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    at my house over Christmas, we vacation together.
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    You know why they do?
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    Because I think it's because their dad
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    is still having a fresh experience with God
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    and they want to be around their dad.
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    My relationships are rich.
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    I get a lot from my relationships
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    and I think people who are in friendships with me,
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    they get a lot for me.
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    Do you know why?
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    Because every day I try to hear from God,
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    and if I have something I can give to them, I give to them.
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    My marriage is still going.
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    We've had some very, very tough times,
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    and right now we are in our best times.
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    You know why we're in our best times right now?
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    My wife and I spend time with God
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    and we read His Word and I'm telling you,
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    this isn't a religious obligation you have to do,
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    this is a thing you want to do
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    if you want your life to get to a new place,
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    If you want to break through barriers
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    you thought you couldn't get through before.
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    Americans are not understanding the Bible.
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    Wwe don't read the Bible, we're frustrated with it.
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    I understand it, I get it.
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    Let me tell you what, what studies show right now.
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    If we take a look at three different groups of people,
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    some who just have zero interest in the Bible,
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    are never going to get there,
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    others who read it regularly,
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    and others they want to.
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    I'll refer to them as a movable middle,
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    but they're just not sure how to get there.
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    A high percentage of people
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    just don't know where to start.
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    Other people say the layout is difficult to navigate
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    or the stories are confusing,
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    or I can't find what I'm looking for,
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    or the language is difficult to relate to.
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    Some of us have a hard time to understand
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    the background of what I'm reading.
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    And basically what this means is
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    we're not excited at all about using the Bible,
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    and we say we don't have enough time.
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    Liar, liar pants on fire. Don't have enough time.
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    Oh, my gosh, don't have enough time.
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    How many of us have rotted teeth and go,
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    "Oh, you know, I just have enough time
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    to brush my teeth. I just -- I just don't do it."
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    We make time for something we believe in.
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    And I want today to help you believe
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    that taking up a Bible Challenge in 2022
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    is going to bless your life and be a great thing.
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    As I've looked into this and I've seen the studies,
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    if you get exposed to the Bible one time a week,
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    which you are right now, if this is your one time
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    you're getting the Bible all week,
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    you can expect nothing to change in your life.
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    You can have a good experience with me
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    or with Crossroads, maybe get something
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    that might give you a different perspective on the week,
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    but there's no holistic change that happens.
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    If you have to experience in the Bible,
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    maybe one here, maybe you listen to an audio tape
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    with the Bible is on it.
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    Maybe you actually open up the Bible, and read it yourself.
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    You do two or three, the results,
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    meh, not that big of a deal.
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    But surveys show that if you get into four times a week,
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    that's where dramatic results are experienced.
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    Feeling lonely drops 30%.
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    Your anger issues drop 32%.
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    Bitterness in relationships drops 40%.
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    Alcoholism drops 57%.
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    Sex outside of marriage drops 68%.
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    Feeling spiritually stagnant dropped 60%.
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    Viewing pornography dropped 61%.
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    Sharing your faith jumps 200%.
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    Disciplining others, which is
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    building spiritually into others, jumps 230%.
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    All of these things happen.
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    I think all of us would want these things.
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    All of them happen when we spend
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    a minimum of four times a week inside of the Bible.
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    That's what I want for you.
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    I don't want anything from you.
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    Crossroads isn't going to benefit
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    by you getting into the Bible more.
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    You're going to benefit. You are.
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    I don't read the Bible
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    because it's part of my job description.
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    If I left Crossroads and went to work
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    in corporate America, I could tell you
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    I would read the Bible just as often.
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    I wouldn't be studying for messages to give,
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    but my mornings would look the same
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    if I'm in this job or if I was in corporate America
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    or started my own business or whatever it was
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    or whenever I retire, it will look the same
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    because it's inside of the scriptures
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    where I get life and my life makes sense
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    and things go to another level.
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    I want to give you example of that.
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    Recently, I was in the Book of Revelation.
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    I've got to tell you, whenever Revelation comes up
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    in my Bible reading plan,
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    I always have bad attitude about it.
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    I'm like, Oh, really Revelation? Ugh.
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    It's the place where just crazy things happen,
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    freaky things happen.
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    It's the place where you know, there's monsters
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    and lamp stands and stars and antichrist
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    and Mark of the Beast.
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    All these things that are really ominous and wild.
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    Which is why when you're a new, young believer,
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    new young follower of Christ, as I was when I was 16,
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    it's why you're drawn to Revelation,
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    all the freaky stuff.
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    It's why I was around people who were in Bible studies,
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    invited me to Bible studies on Revelation.
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    I went deep, deep into it and then I just ended up
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    just not liking it at all because
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    there's so much stuff we don't understand
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    inside of Revelation.
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    It's this apocalyptic prophecy of the future,
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    and there's so much fear factors
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    that people bring into it who are into Revelation,
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    like mark of the beast.
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    You know the mark of the beast?
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    Well, today I've heard people say
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    the mark of the beast today is vaccines.
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    If you have a vaccine, then you're not --
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    If you don't have a vaccine and have a vaccine card,
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    they're not going to be able to travel
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    or you're not going be able to participate in the economy.
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    And so therefore, we shouldn't be a part of that
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    and you're going to have to have this mark,
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    all this kind of stuff.
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    I don't believe vaccines are the mark of the beast.
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    Maybe I'm just a little hardened because
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    I've heard about a few dozen of marks the beast
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    over the last several decades.
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    First one was barcodes.
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    Barcodes are the mark of the beast.
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    We're going to have to get a barcode on us
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    and it's going to go on our wrist.
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    And then you're not able to participate
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    in the world economy if you don't have a barcode.
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    And some people, you know, some people
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    don't have an arm, don't even have wrists,
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    so they're going to put theirs on the forehead
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    because you might not have a wrist,
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    but everyone's got a forehead or they're dead.
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    And so this whole thing about the barcode.
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    And we would choose, I know people
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    who would choose to go to grocery stores
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    back when you would go to a grocery store,
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    you could find grocery stores and in 1981
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    that had price tags on them on every item,
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    and there was like an 87 and a cent sign.
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    It's a sign that goes like a C
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    and a thing through the middle of it, not a barcode.
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    And people would choose grocery stores
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    that had that method of accounting versus barcodes.
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    They thought it was participation
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    in the market place.
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    Anyway, I regress.
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    All that to say I don't have a great, great attitude
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    when it comes to the Book of Revelation.
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    I should, I should, but I don't.
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    And that's what I get something out of it.
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    I get, whew, God just speaks to me.
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    So let me just read to you something I got recently
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    where God just rung my bell
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    and I'm feeling the positive benefits of it.
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    It comes the Book of Revelation 2.
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    There's seven different churches
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    that Jesus gives unique messages to.
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    One of them is the church at Ephesus,
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    and here's what he says. Here's what it says:
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    These are the words of him who holds
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    the seven stars in his right hand
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    and walks among the seven golden lampstands.
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    Starting to glaze over.
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    No idea what stars and lampstands are,
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    but let's keep going.
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    I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance.
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    I start to perk up, hard work and perseverance.
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    I think I've exhibited that.
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    Maybe God is speaking to me here.
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    I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people,
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    that you have tested those who claim
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    to be apostles but are not,
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    and I have found them false.
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    You have persevered and have endured hardship
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    for my name, and have not grown weary.
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    I think all of us have endured a level of hardship
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    in 2022 or, excuse me, in 2021 and 2020.
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    Are we growing weary?
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    And God is saying, "Hey, you haven't grown weary.
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    You're still doing the things that you should be doing?
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    And He continues:
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    Yet I have this against you:
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    You have forsaken the love that you had at first.
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    Ah, what does that mean: the love you had at first?
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    What was it like when you had your first love?
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    Maybe the first person you were intimate.
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    Maybe the earliest days, if you're married,
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    of your marriage.
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    There's something special about that season
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    and that person.
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    Jesus is saying in terms of first loves,
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    I'm your ultimate first love.
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    Remember when your heart was just ablaze
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    with passion for Me, Jesus might have said.
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    Remember when it didn't matter
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    what you might have read in the Bible
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    or someone told you was in the Bible,
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    you're going to do it no matter what,
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    you were going to storm the gates of hell
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    with a water pistol.
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    You heard about things that sounded difficult
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    to other people, but not you, because you were in.
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    That's the beautiful first love days.
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    And Jesus saying to some of us, "You've lost that,
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    you've lost that first love."
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    I've had people accuse me of losing my first love
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    many times over the last, you know, many decades.
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    And normally it's just a fear and bullying tactic.
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    I haven't lost my first love
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    in the last couple of years, but yet
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    there has been a waning of passion because
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    of all of the conflicts and all of the changes
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    and all of the animosity and all the things
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    that I have to do that I don't want to do.
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    All the things that I don't want to do that I have to do
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    and all of the redundancy and all that
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    and all of the negativity swirling around.
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    Yes, there has been a bit of a cloaking of the fire
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    in my heart for Christ, so I kept reading.
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    Consider how far you have fallen!
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    Repent and do the things you did at first.
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    When I read this I didn't feel like
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    I needed to repent like I was in sin.
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    But the thing that jumped out to me was:
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    do the things you did at first.
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    So I think about when I had a simpler faith
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    and when there was more fire in my bones,
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    what were some of the things that I did?
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    You see I'm reading right now out of
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    a Bible and devotional.
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    I, for the last many, many years,
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    many, many, many years, I've done my Bible reading
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    right here on this or in my, in my phone.
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    I'm in the Bible app or the Crossroads app
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    just about every day and I read the scripture,
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    the chapter that's in there.
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    And four or five days out of seven,
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    I'll post a devotional thought
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    and I read other people's devotional thought.
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    I have Bible software that's on this device
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    that I do reading and studying for message prep,
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    and I can go into original language here on this device.
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    I spend -- I consume the word of God
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    basically from here, and that's fine. That's great.
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    There's nothing less than here.
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    But this is not what I did at first,
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    it wasn't the first thing I do.
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    When I first came to know Christ I read out of paper,
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    actual fuddy duddy paper.
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    And so when I read out of paper,
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    it takes me back to my roots.
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    The earliest followers of Christ
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    when they heard the Word of God,
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    it was by people talking it in a public assembly.
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    That was the first thing that they would do.
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    And maybe for some when they had the printing press
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    and they were reading it, they had to go back
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    to hearing it spoken more often.
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    Some of us, maybe it's the very earliest thing
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    you're doing in your walk with Christ.
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    You've never read the Bible in the paper.
  • 00:15:38
    You've only ever read it
  • 00:15:40
    and this is how you know it from now.
  • 00:15:41
    Maybe, maybe in 20 years, holograms
  • 00:15:45
    or some kind of downloading in the metaverse
  • 00:15:48
    inside of our brain or something is going to happen
  • 00:15:50
    that'll be new revolution and very helpful
  • 00:15:52
    and people will want to do that.
  • 00:15:54
    But there may be something special
  • 00:15:56
    about the earliest days when we connected with God.
  • 00:15:59
    There's something special for me
  • 00:16:01
    in the earliest days of this.
  • 00:16:02
    I started thinking, I need to go back
  • 00:16:04
    and start reading the paper more, not only, but more.
  • 00:16:08
    I also realized in the earliest days
  • 00:16:10
    what I did is I actually had old paper
  • 00:16:13
    and a journal that I would write things in.
  • 00:16:18
    And so I've begun to do that more often,
  • 00:16:21
    and it's gotten things have gotten fresh for me
  • 00:16:23
    as I've done that.
  • 00:16:24
    It's like, these aren't things, by the way,
  • 00:16:28
    that are the thing that everyone has to do.
  • 00:16:31
    It's something that's actually worked for me.
  • 00:16:33
    And as I give you another example,
  • 00:16:35
    before I give you another example,
  • 00:16:37
    let me make sure you understand what I'm not saying.
  • 00:16:40
    I'm not saying that there are certain things
  • 00:16:43
    that you have to do or you cannot get to God.
  • 00:16:46
    In fact, if we look the next verse here
  • 00:16:48
    that makes it very, very clear.
  • 00:16:49
    It says this:
  • 00:16:51
    If you do not repent, I will come to you
  • 00:16:54
    and remove your lampstand from its place.
  • 00:16:56
    But you have this in your favor:
  • 00:16:57
    You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans,
  • 00:17:00
    which I also hate.
  • 00:17:02
    The Nicolaitans were this hyper religious group
  • 00:17:04
    that had a lot of rules that said
  • 00:17:06
    you had to do this, you have to do this.
  • 00:17:07
    If you don't do that thing, if you don't do that,
  • 00:17:09
    then you can't be close to God.
  • 00:17:11
    And the church at Ephisis was like,
  • 00:17:12
    "No, that's not how you get to God."
  • 00:17:14
    So God's saying, "Good, good.
  • 00:17:15
    Glad you're not falling into works."
  • 00:17:17
    I'm not saying right now the this is
  • 00:17:19
    the work you have to do, that using paper
  • 00:17:22
    is the work you have to do.
  • 00:17:23
    It's not the law that gets us there
  • 00:17:26
    or the practices, but there are certain practices
  • 00:17:29
    that when we do them, we get to another place.
  • 00:17:34
    - Hey, super quick interruption.
  • 00:17:35
    How quick, let's try 30 seconds.
  • 00:17:37
    I've got 30 seconds to tell you about giving starting now.
  • 00:17:40
    You know, this year, as Brian's been talking about,
  • 00:17:42
    we're making a clear push towards learning God's truth
  • 00:17:45
    and practicing God's way that leads to life.
  • 00:17:48
    And one of those ways is actively practicing generosity.
  • 00:17:52
    Generosity actively pushes back against a world
  • 00:17:55
    that tells us to be selfish and hold on to what's ours.
  • 00:17:58
    You know, whether you have a resolution, a new goal,
  • 00:18:00
    or you're open to trying something different
  • 00:18:02
    this new year, you can get started
  • 00:18:04
    by going to crossroads.net/give for more.
  • 00:18:07
    2022, best year ever.
  • 00:18:10
    How? Let's all do the Bible Challenge?
  • 00:18:13
    - Hello? - What is it, you might ask.
  • 00:18:15
    - I didn't even -- I didn't --
  • 00:18:16
    - It's this challenge to read the Bible
  • 00:18:20
    every week in 2022.
  • 00:18:22
    - That's a lot of pages, right?
  • 00:18:23
    - Here's how. Okay, first, you experience the weekend,
  • 00:18:26
    either in-person or online.
  • 00:18:27
    Every series will teach from a book in the Bible.
  • 00:18:30
    It's good news, it's inspiring and all that.
  • 00:18:32
    You'll love it. - I love -- I love good news.
  • 00:18:34
    - And then the Bible challenge really happens
  • 00:18:36
    in the Crossroads app.
  • 00:18:37
    Every day in the app, read from the Bible
  • 00:18:39
    and write a journal entry on what you learned.
  • 00:18:41
    The research says if you do it
  • 00:18:42
    at least four times a week,
  • 00:18:45
    you'll really start to see a difference in your life.
  • 00:18:47
    If you have a group, you'll find a weekly study
  • 00:18:49
    in the app based on the same scripture
  • 00:18:51
    for your group to discuss.
  • 00:18:53
    When you opt in, you also get a field guide
  • 00:18:55
    to help you understand the book even more.
  • 00:18:57
    - Oh, like I notebook, like a journal, like a GPS.
  • 00:18:59
    - And if you engage with the Bible in the app
  • 00:19:01
    at least once a week during a series,
  • 00:19:03
    we'll mail you a sticker to commemorate the milestone.
  • 00:19:06
    A little encouragement to keep it up.
  • 00:19:08
    - I love stickers.
  • 00:19:09
    - For real, the Bible Challenge will help you
  • 00:19:11
    find the best way through 2022. Get started today.
  • 00:19:16
    - Some of you've heard this from me,
  • 00:19:17
    you're doing this because I talked about it
  • 00:19:19
    a long time ago.
  • 00:19:21
    It's called the practice of a paste list.
  • 00:19:24
    It's when you take a little piece of paper
  • 00:19:27
    and you put it above your bathroom mirror.
  • 00:19:32
    And you put names on there, people you know
  • 00:19:34
    who you want to see come to know Christ,
  • 00:19:36
    and you want God to give you the opportunity
  • 00:19:38
    to share your faith with them.
  • 00:19:41
    It's called a paste list and you brush your teeth
  • 00:19:43
    and you pray for Lord, I pray for this person [garbled].
  • 00:19:48
    You're praying for them.
  • 00:19:49
    And then when you see someone come to know faith,
  • 00:19:52
    you cross them off the list because they've been pasted
  • 00:19:55
    and you put somebody new on there.
  • 00:19:57
    You keep a relationship with them,
  • 00:19:59
    but you keep praying for them.
  • 00:20:01
    I haven't had a paste list since I came into
  • 00:20:04
    the house that Lib and I moved into about 4 years ago.
  • 00:20:06
    We moved into a new house and I just haven't done it.
  • 00:20:10
    I haven't gotten around to it.
  • 00:20:12
    Gosh, I haven't done that.
  • 00:20:13
    I'm hearing people talk about their paste list
  • 00:20:16
    that they learned from me,
  • 00:20:17
    and I haven't had a paste list for several years.
  • 00:20:20
    So I put that up on my mirror and I've been doing that.
  • 00:20:25
    Crazy thing, crazy thing, two of my people
  • 00:20:26
    who are up on that in the last four days,
  • 00:20:29
    both of them, independent of each other,
  • 00:20:31
    both of them found themselves on my front porch
  • 00:20:36
    to ask me about something, to say something to me.
  • 00:20:39
    They've never been on my front porch before.
  • 00:20:41
    I didn't invite them over. I didn't strong arm them.
  • 00:20:43
    They just showed up.
  • 00:20:44
    Why? Because the spirit of God is moving,
  • 00:20:46
    because they're on my paste list,
  • 00:20:48
    because I'm praying for them in a fresh way,
  • 00:20:50
    in a way that was original.
  • 00:20:53
    See, here's the thing, friends,
  • 00:20:54
    if you want to get closer to God,
  • 00:20:57
    you've got to get closer to God.
  • 00:20:59
    And the Bible is known as the Word of God.
  • 00:21:02
    It's the way to hear from Him.
  • 00:21:03
    It's the way to do and know the things you have to do,
  • 00:21:06
    so you can feel His presence.
  • 00:21:09
    The first four books to the New Testament
  • 00:21:11
    are the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
  • 00:21:13
    They're known as the four authorized
  • 00:21:15
    biographies of Jesus, His core teachings,
  • 00:21:17
    His miracles are in there.
  • 00:21:19
    And as I go, when I read through those,
  • 00:21:21
    I counted up 41 different accounts of healing,
  • 00:21:24
    41 different times.
  • 00:21:27
    Actually not 41 different times, 41 times it's recorded.
  • 00:21:30
    Some of those times are recorded multiple times
  • 00:21:32
    throughout those four books.
  • 00:21:34
    Of the 41, 34 of them have the healing
  • 00:21:40
    instigated by the person who needed healing.
  • 00:21:45
    In other words, if Jesus were to come to your town
  • 00:21:48
    and heal some people, He wouldn't just go
  • 00:21:49
    to the local hospital and just start healing people.
  • 00:21:52
    If He was going to actually feed people,
  • 00:21:54
    He wouldn't just show up at the local homeless shelter
  • 00:21:57
    and start feeding people.
  • 00:21:58
    He didn't do that.
  • 00:22:01
    He would heal who sought Him out and who asked Him.
  • 00:22:05
    He would feed the person who was around Him
  • 00:22:08
    and exhibited a need.
  • 00:22:10
    34 out of 41 times, all those things happen
  • 00:22:13
    when someone instigates.
  • 00:22:15
    Of the remaining 7, there is often still something
  • 00:22:19
    the person has to do.
  • 00:22:20
    Like one time Jesus tells a person, step forward.
  • 00:22:24
    Step forward.
  • 00:22:26
    Another time He tells somebody to to go down
  • 00:22:29
    and bathe down at a certain pool.
  • 00:22:32
    They've got to do something physical.
  • 00:22:34
    Sometimes it's not even the person,
  • 00:22:35
    sometimes it's their friends,
  • 00:22:37
    as was the case in Mark 2, when friends
  • 00:22:39
    brought a paralyzed guy to come to see Jesus.
  • 00:22:42
    Or it's a centurion who's giving petition
  • 00:22:45
    for somebody in his household.
  • 00:22:47
    All I'm saying is this: For you to get to a new place,
  • 00:22:52
    you have to go to a new place, you have to act,
  • 00:22:54
    you have to put something in motion.
  • 00:22:57
    You're not going to get closer to God
  • 00:22:59
    and feel more of His power just passively waiting
  • 00:23:03
    and hoping He comes around.
  • 00:23:04
    You're going to have to repent.
  • 00:23:06
    You have to do the things you used to do
  • 00:23:08
    or do things that you haven't done
  • 00:23:10
    to be pushed to get a higher number.
  • 00:23:14
    We're trying to respond to you and your needs in 2022.
  • 00:23:17
    I want the best for you in 2022.
  • 00:23:19
    Crossroads doesn't get any advantage
  • 00:23:21
    of you reading her Bible more.
  • 00:23:24
    There's no way that benefits us
  • 00:23:26
    other than benefiting us by having more people
  • 00:23:29
    who are trending closer and closer to Christ.
  • 00:23:32
    So the Bible challenge is what we're calling 2022.
  • 00:23:35
    We're going to do a lot of creative things all year,
  • 00:23:37
    but we want to get you four plus times in your Bible
  • 00:23:41
    however you're going to explore the Bible
  • 00:23:43
    every single week.
  • 00:23:44
    The Bible is not just for religious scholars.
  • 00:23:48
    It's a huge thing for normal people, normal people.
  • 00:23:52
    The Bible is not an ancient textbook, it's not.
  • 00:23:55
    It's not a place where you have to go
  • 00:23:57
    and you have to read it because
  • 00:23:59
    you have to come up with the right answers
  • 00:24:01
    or else God's not going to like you.
  • 00:24:02
    No, it's not a textbook.
  • 00:24:04
    It's a collection of writings that all point
  • 00:24:07
    to the same thing that God wants:
  • 00:24:09
    a relationship with you.
  • 00:24:12
    And He wants you to walk closer and closer with Him
  • 00:24:15
    and have a more profound and powerful life.
  • 00:24:19
    The last verse I'll share with us,
  • 00:24:20
    the book of Hebrews 4:11-12. It says this:
  • 00:24:26
    Let us therefore strive to enter that rest,
  • 00:24:29
    so that no one may fall
  • 00:24:31
    by the same sort of disobedience.
  • 00:24:33
    For the Word of God is living and active,
  • 00:24:35
    sharper than any two-edged sword,
  • 00:24:37
    piercing to the division of soul and spirit,
  • 00:24:41
    of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts
  • 00:24:44
    and intentions of the heart.
  • 00:24:47
    Who wants to enter the rest of God?
  • 00:24:49
    I do. I want to enter the rest of God.
  • 00:24:52
    I do that by allowing this sharp object,
  • 00:24:56
    the Word of God that's sharper any double-edged sword
  • 00:24:58
    to fillet me open and lay me bare before God,
  • 00:25:02
    to cut certain things inside of me that I can see
  • 00:25:04
    that I couldn't have seen before,
  • 00:25:06
    to open me up to a fresh feeling of His Spirit.
  • 00:25:10
    That is what getting with the Word of God does,
  • 00:25:13
    it changes us and we want to push you
  • 00:25:17
    and enable you to change for your own benefit
  • 00:25:20
    and for the glory of God in 2022. Join us.
  • 00:25:25
    - The Bible challenge starts now.
  • 00:25:27
    There's actually two things you need to get started.
  • 00:25:29
    One is the Crossroads app.
  • 00:25:31
    It's free wherever you get your apps.
  • 00:25:33
    Inside is where you're going to read the Bible, and journal.
  • 00:25:36
    Just click right here in the scripture will open up
  • 00:25:39
    and you can journal on what you read.
  • 00:25:41
    Now, the best part about this app is
  • 00:25:43
    it lets us do this together.
  • 00:25:45
    In fact, four days a week or more,
  • 00:25:47
    you'll find me in here, Brian in here,
  • 00:25:50
    if you're part of a site, your community pastor in here,
  • 00:25:52
    all reading the same scripture together.
  • 00:25:56
    The second thing you need is this:
  • 00:25:58
    We're going to start in the Bible in the Book of Daniel,
  • 00:26:00
    and this is a commentary that we put together
  • 00:26:02
    about the book.
  • 00:26:03
    It's going to give you context in history
  • 00:26:05
    and really help you understand what you're reading,
  • 00:26:08
    when it was written, who is was written to,
  • 00:26:10
    all of that stuff.
  • 00:26:11
    The best part is it's also completely free.
  • 00:26:14
    And whether you're watching this in January
  • 00:26:15
    or you may be watching this in May,
  • 00:26:17
    it doesn't really matter when you watch it,
  • 00:26:19
    we'll send you a book for free.
  • 00:26:21
    Mail it to your house.
  • 00:26:22
    Just go to Crossroads.net/Biblechallenge.
  • 00:26:25
    By the way, when you do, that we'll have your name.
  • 00:26:28
    And what our team's going to be doing
  • 00:26:29
    is praying for you this year.
  • 00:26:32
    Now you wouldn't just adopt
  • 00:26:33
    a new, monotonous routine into your life,
  • 00:26:36
    but that you'd actually experience God this year.
  • 00:26:38
    Maybe last year was a year wracked with anxiety
  • 00:26:41
    and you never found the peace you wanted.
  • 00:26:44
    We're going to pray for you that this year,
  • 00:26:45
    as you engage with God and the Bible Challenge,
  • 00:26:48
    you'd find that peace.
  • 00:26:49
    Maybe last year you never found the hope
  • 00:26:51
    that you were after.
  • 00:26:52
    We're going to pray that this year you find it,
  • 00:26:55
    that you'd meet God
  • 00:26:56
    as we engage in the Bible Challenge together.
  • 00:26:59
    See you inside of the app
  • 00:27:01
    and we'll see you right here next week on Crossroads.

Jan 3, 2022 27 mins 12 sec

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