Our Foundation | Rock Solid Week 2

“I have questions and I really don’t like the answers.” Ever felt that way? Yeah, us too. What happens when the faith you’ve known seems to be crumbling beneath you, and you’re just left with more and more questions? You’re not alone—and there’s more hope than you might think. Join us today as Kyle talks about how our questions can point to a more honest picture of God.

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    - Today we're tackling a phenomenon that's making
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    national headlines and hitting close to home.
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    It's called deconstruction.
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    It's a disassembling of
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    previously held beliefs about God.
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    And let me make this crystal clear right up front,
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    Crossroads is a safe place and it's a judgment free community.
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    And if you're in this space of
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    deconstructing, you are in the right place.
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    In fact, before I go any further,
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    if I can help you with this issue or any other
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    in my life, this is my actual email address.
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    Email me and I will respond back to you.
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    See, at Crossroads we're a new kind of church,
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    a community that you can join no matter where you live
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    or what you believe.
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    Stick around at the end of this video for more on that.
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    Well, there are plenty of people upset about deconstruction
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    and loads of articles and videos railing against it.
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    This isn't that, because it turns out that deconstructing
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    is also deeply unsettling
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    to the people experiencing it for themselves.
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    I mean, just think, what if one day you woke
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    up and you no longer believed, like, any of it.
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    That God's real, that faith is possible,
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    that you have a purpose in life.
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    What if the faith that once felt like the rock solid foundation
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    under your feet just washed out
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    like sand pulled out in the tide?
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    This is happening everywhere,
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    but there's actually two outcomes.
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    See, some people question their beliefs,
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    deconstruct them, and they never stop.
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    It's like somebody who sets out to remodel a house,
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    rips out the kitchen, then the bathroom, then the roof,
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    then the walls and the foundations
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    until there's nothing left but a hole in the sand
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    and a pile of rubble by a dumpster.
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    Others, and I put myself in this camp,
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    question their beliefs, deconstruct them,
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    and actually end up with more faith and a richer life.
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    It's like a house remodel.
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    We deconstruct what was there, usually something
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    that was built a long time ago
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    in order to build back something better.
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    I, in my life, have deconstructed
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    pieces of old beliefs.
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    In fact, I'll tell you about some of those in a few minutes,
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    and I've actually found a richer life in a deeper faith.
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    I've also personally seen friends shipwrecked
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    who end up at the other end of the spectrum,
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    not with a better life, but with an emptier life
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    and the tragic loss of joy, hope, and faith.
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    So what determines whether you end up
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    with a stronger faith or none at all?
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    I think it all comes down to
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    which kind of God are you seeking?
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    And there's actually two types of
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    God that people go looking for.
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    One of them will absolutely fail you.
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    The other will lead to life.
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    Now I'm going to unpack those two types of gods
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    and the faith behind them in just a few minutes.
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    But I need to make this clear,
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    I believe deconstruction is a practice
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    that God actually wants for all of us.
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    He wants us to question, search, and ask,
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    and find better beliefs than the
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    one we built our life on right now.
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    In fact, I'm willing to bet that there are some things
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    God wants to deconstruct about how you currently
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    understand and interact with Him, and me too.
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    This episode is going to give you the framework
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    to take apart the false beliefs
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    and end up with more faith, more joy,
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    and greater confidence in God's existence
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    and goodness towards you.
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    This episode is for you if you've
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    ever wanted a stronger faith,
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    or if you've had increasing doubts,
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    or if you have friends or family who are deconstructing,
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    it's going to help you understand what's happening,
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    why and what I believe God intends.
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    By the way, at the end of this video,
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    we'll be taking communion together.
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    Communion is this ancient practice
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    that usually involves bread and wine.
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    But if you don't have bread and you don't have wine,
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    don't worry, just grab something to drink
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    and something to eat,
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    and we'll do this together at the end.
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    For now, I want to pray for us before we go any further.
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    God, would You be with us
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    and would You reveal Yourself to us today,
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    Your truth, who You really are?
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    We want deeper faith, a richer life.
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    Give us that. Amen.
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    Now the thing about deconstruction is it's not new.
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    It's been happening for as long as Christianity has existed.
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    In fact, Jesus actually predicted it would happen
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    in one of his most famous parables.
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    Maybe you've heard this before.
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    It's from Matthew 7:24, it says,
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    Now hang with me for a second on this, hang with me.
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    I like Jesus and what He teaches,
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    but can I be honest for a second?
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    This metaphor of the rock and the sand
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    is kind of dumb, right?
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    I mean, this sand is kind of obviously not this.
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    By the way, plastic, real rock, plastic, real rock.
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    Okay, now we've got that.
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    This is obvious, right?
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    This sand right here, that's sand,
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    there we go, is very different from this, right?
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    I mean, who would intentionally
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    build their life on sand?
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    Nobody.
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    Was He -- I think that Jesus is actually talking
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    about something a little bit more nuanced here.
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    See, because nobody sets out and anchors their life
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    into something unstable.
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    But many of us unintentionally end up
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    anchoring ourselves to this kind of sand,
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    the kind that's been compacted together over time,
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    the kind that looks like it's rock,
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    which is what this is, this is a paver,
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    literally sand smashed together.
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    See, the problem is, Jesus says the winds will come,
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    the rains will come, and they'll beat on that.
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    And when they do, it breaks.
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    It doesn't actually hold up.
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    Now, the winds are questions and doubts.
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    They're the things that Jesus says will come our way.
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    And I want to be clear, He says, the key is
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    to sink deep foundations into the rock, not the sand.
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    And the rock is His words.
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    Now a great question to ask then is:
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    which words, Jesus?
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    Now here for sure, I think Jesus is saying,
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    "Build your life on all of My words."
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    But I also think there's something more specific,
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    if you look just before this in Matthew 7.
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    Just a few verses earlier, Jesus says this:
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    Jesus says, "Found your life on My Word.
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    In My Word is this. Seek Me."
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    God says, "Seek me.
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    Ask Me a million questions and never stop."
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    That's how you drill into the rock.
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    That's how you get there.
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    See, asking questions about God is good. It isn't.
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    And maybe you just need to hear that today.
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    Do you know what a group
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    that discourages question asking is called? A cult.
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    If you encounter a group like that run,
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    literally run away.
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    See, at Crossroads, we welcome questions.
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    One of the hallmarks of our community
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    is the lack of needing to believe
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    certain things to belong.
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    We actually say that we major on the majors
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    and we minor on the minors.
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    You can go to our website
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    and read our statement of beliefs.
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    It'll take you three and a half minutes.
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    Why? Because there's mystery and wonder in God.
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    That's what we're going to unpack today.
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    And it's amazing, you can build your life on Him.
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    Jesus says, "Ask Me questions. Ask Me questions.
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    Build your life on seeking Me. Ask away."
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    You know the question that's been haunting me lately,
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    probably the same as you, where do eels come from?
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    Where do they come from?
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    My wife, just a few weeks ago, she literally
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    she walked downstairs in the morning, like pre-coffee,
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    and she just hit me with this question
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    out of the blue, no warning.
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    She goes, "Hey, where do eels come from?"
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    And I was like, "Um, maybe you skipped like science
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    and health class in the fifth grade.
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    I can tell you where eels come from.
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    When a when a mommy eel and a daddy eel
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    love each other very, very much,
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    and they're married, obviously,
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    then they do a special like eel hug situation.
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    And then nine months later, a baby eel is hatched,
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    possibly born, not really sure.
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    The point is, it's easy.
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    Did you skip fifth grade?"
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    Here's the thing, do you know that scientists
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    actually don't know where eels come from?
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    No, it turns out all that we know about eels
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    is that old eels get this, I promise, is true.
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    You can Google this.
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    Old eels swim out to the Bermuda Triangle,
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    which is also called the Sargasso Sea,
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    and then baby eels swim back.
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    That's all we know. It's a complete mystery.
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    There's actually some scientists now who believe
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    that all eels in the entire world
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    are actually the same species,
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    just at different life stages.
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    Like they're a saltwater animal,
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    and then they become a freshwater animal,
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    and then a saltwater animal again.
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    But no one knows. It's a complete mystery.
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    Now what if I told you that because of
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    all this mystery and unanswered questions about eels
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    that I've decided that I no longer believe in eels.
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    After all, my fifth grade understanding
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    of health class and science or whatever,
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    it can't answer my new questions.
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    And get this, even the world's leading experts on eels
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    actually have more questions than answers.
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    So I'm out. I'm out on eels, everybody.
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    This is the day I announce it.
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    No more eels for me. I'm done.
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    See, this is exactly how many of us treat faith
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    and why we lose it.
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    See, we stop seeking God and fifth grade
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    and then life happens when we're 25
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    and our fifth grade faith utterly fails us.
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    And yes, I don't mean this harshly,
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    but of course it does. Of course it does.
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    You weren't meant to keep that fifth grade faith.
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    You weren't meant to have a fifth grade faith at 25,
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    and you aren't meant to have a 25 year old faith at 55.
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    See, every deconstruction begins with
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    a question that we can't answer
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    with our current knowledge of God.
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    Sometimes it's a question that hits us in the face
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    after the failing of a spiritual leader.
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    Like, "Man, how can somebody who says
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    they follow a loving God act with such hatred,
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    such abuse, such selfishness?"
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    Sometimes it's a question
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    that comes from a scientific insight.
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    You know, "How can I trust the reliability of the Bible
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    when its own account of the creation story
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    disagree with each other?"
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    Which, by the way, they do Genesis 1 and 1.
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    How do you reconcile this with what you're learning?
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    But see, rather than digging through the tough questions,
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    rather than trying to advance our faith,
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    advance our understanding, we just give up.
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    It fails my fifth grade understanding. I'm out.
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    Hey, back the message in just a second, but first,
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    I want to try something really quick.
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    I'm going to talk about giving for only 30 seconds
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    and explain why it matters. Go.
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    So in Philippians 4:19, it says,
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    "When we're obedient to give back to the Lord,
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    He is faithful to supply all our needs."
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    And I know at the end of the year a lot of people give
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    and other people think giving is all about like
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    I give to get.
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    But that's not it at all.
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    See, the fundamental basis behind tithing
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    is simply showing God that we're submitting to Him.
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    The best way to expose that submission
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    is by using our money.
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    The Bible talks about money in correlations to our heart.
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    And that's what it is all about, our hearts.
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    If you want to show your heart, if you want to take a step
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    and say yes to God in this way,
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    go to Crossroads.net/give.
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    Do you remember when you were a kid
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    how you asked a million questions,
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    how you ask whatever you were honestly wondering.
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    You probably pestered your parents,
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    your favorite word was probably why, why, why, why, why, why.
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    That's my kids' favorite question.
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    It gets very annoying.
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    Well see what happens for most of us as we age
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    is that we learn the rules.
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    We know which questions are okay to ask
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    and which questions to avoid.
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    And then slowly, somewhere we just
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    stop asking the big questions altogether.
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    In the early '90s NASA commissioned a study.
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    It was just trying to measure creative potential
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    of scientists and engineers.
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    So they started with a diverse group
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    of 1600 preschoolers, and they followed them.
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    Now, fascinatingly, they found that 98% of preschoolers
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    were actually considered creative geniuses.
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    This is incredible.
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    So they follow the same group, but they found
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    that a grade school only 30% of those same children
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    were still considered creative geniuses.
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    By high school was only 12%.
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    And by adulthood, only 2% were considered geniuses.
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    So, what happened?
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    Well, they found that they tried to memorize
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    textbook answers in school
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    instead of following the curiosity
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    that comes from a great question.
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    They were inadvertently trained
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    through their childhood education
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    to just memorize answers, not ask the questions.
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    You know not coincidentally, there's a story
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    where Jesus was talking about what type of
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    person of faith is the greatest.
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    How do you have the greatest faith ever, Jesus?
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    And this was His answer, Matthew 18:3, He said:
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    This is it, this is the critical fork in the road
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    that will determine whether you gain faith
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    or whether you lose it entirely.
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    See, many of us learned in church growing up,
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    just like in school, to memorize the answers,
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    don't ask the questions.
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    We inadvertently learn faith in the first kind of God,
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    the textbook God.
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    And I have to tell you, the textbook God will fail you.
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    He's sand, just compacted together to look like rock.
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    The textbook god is a list of formal answers to memorize.
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    He's sort of like a spiritual professor,
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    just kind of waiting to judge the correctness
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    of all of our answers to the important questions.
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    Now just which questions are important
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    and exactly what the right answers are
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    is much debate about that in the theological world
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    because rather inconveniently, the Bible
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    doesn't actually have an annotated list of all of them.
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    In fact, it turns out the Bible
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    actually isn't a list of answers at all.
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    It's a collection of messy stories
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    about a lot of messy people over thousands of years
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    who never quite get the answers right at all.
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    But God seems to love them anyway.
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    So, why do people follow the textbook God?
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    Why did they do this?
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    The answer is because it's safe, it's easy.
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    There's no real struggle or wrestling involved.
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    You just pick an edition that you like
  • 00:15:06
    and then you stick with it.
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    You just kind of try to survive your entire life
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    mentally agreeing to the same set of questions.
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    And if you can do that at the end of your life,
  • 00:15:14
    you get the really nice mansion in heaven.
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    That's kind of the idea, right?
  • 00:15:17
    But here's the problem with the textbook God.
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    While he's neat, while he's easy to understand,
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    while he's nice and orderly, he's also uninspiring.
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    There's nothing to him, he's uninteresting.
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    He's not transcendent. There's no mystery.
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    There's no wonder.
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    And because of that, there's no power beyond your own.
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    See the textbook god lacks all of that.
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    He will fail you because those answers aren't complete.
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    They can't contain God.
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    The good news is there's another God to seek,
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    the God that I believe in, the God that I think is real,
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    the transcendent God.
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    He's not the textbook God, he's the transcendent God.
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    And he's only found through a lifetime of seeking,
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    just like Jesus said, "Seek and you will find."
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    But here's the thing, don't seek for a while and stop.
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    No, no, seek and never stop.
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    This is actually how all of the ancient hearers
  • 00:16:09
    of this faith spent their entire lives, seeking God.
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    David, you might have heard him in the Old Testament.
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    He was the guy who defeated Goliath.
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    He was King David.
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    He said that his greatest ambition in life
  • 00:16:20
    was to seek God, to ask so many questions
  • 00:16:23
    that he might just one day
  • 00:16:24
    get to understand more about him.
  • 00:16:27
    Psalm 27:4 said:
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    David says, "If I have everything I could have
  • 00:16:45
    of everything there is to pursue, the one thing
  • 00:16:48
    that I want is to seek God."
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    I'm telling you, if God seems flat to you right now,
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    if God seems uninteresting, boring, two dimensional,
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    it's time to start asking more questions.
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    And not just the easy ones, not the simple ones,
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    not the ones that are that are just kind of safe
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    and sanitary, but the real questions.
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    The ones that I know that you have.
  • 00:17:12
    The questions like, "God, when that thing happened,
  • 00:17:14
    where were you?
  • 00:17:16
    God, how come I can't reconcile
  • 00:17:18
    these two things together? Help me understand."
  • 00:17:21
    Ask him the real questions
  • 00:17:23
    that transcend your understanding
  • 00:17:25
    and allow room for the transcendent God.
  • 00:17:29
    Don't clean them up.
  • 00:17:31
    Don't ask sanitary questions.
  • 00:17:33
    But here's the thing, don't ask them half heartedly
  • 00:17:36
    and expect to find answers.
  • 00:17:38
    You have to put in the work.
  • 00:17:40
    It's a lifelong pursuit.
  • 00:17:41
    It's not a momentary thing.
  • 00:17:43
    Proverbs 2:3-5 says:
  • 00:17:57
    Then, see, you need to look for it
  • 00:17:59
    as if it's hidden treasure and it was worth
  • 00:18:02
    putting in all of the effort required to find it.
  • 00:18:05
    A lifelong pursuit.
  • 00:18:07
    See, I promise, because God promises,
  • 00:18:10
    it will be harder than Googling an instant answer.
  • 00:18:13
    And I know as humans, especially right now
  • 00:18:15
    in this age of instantaneous information,
  • 00:18:17
    we are deeply and increasingly uncomfortable
  • 00:18:20
    with answers that take time to find.
  • 00:18:22
    We are uncomfortable with mystery and wonder
  • 00:18:25
    and transcendence.
  • 00:18:26
    We have to know now, and that's killing faith.
  • 00:18:30
    And please hear me.
  • 00:18:31
    I'm not saying -- I'm not saying, not saying
  • 00:18:35
    to check your brain at the door when you seek God.
  • 00:18:38
    I don't think this means you have to be
  • 00:18:40
    shallow minded and naïve.
  • 00:18:41
    What a cruel trick that God would be playing
  • 00:18:44
    if you wanted us to stop our brains,
  • 00:18:46
    the brains that He made that are naturally growing
  • 00:18:49
    and maturing and getting more logical.
  • 00:18:51
    What I am saying is follow that increasing logic.
  • 00:18:55
    Just for a second, doesn't it make sense that
  • 00:18:58
    if there were an omniscient superintelligence,
  • 00:19:01
    that that Superintelligence would vastly exceed
  • 00:19:04
    my mental capacities and understanding?
  • 00:19:07
    And as such, wouldn't it be reasonable to conclude
  • 00:19:10
    that while there would be pieces
  • 00:19:12
    of this transcendent God that I could understand,
  • 00:19:14
    He wouldn't fit neatly into a textbook,
  • 00:19:16
    that there would be many more things
  • 00:19:18
    that would exceed my capacity,
  • 00:19:20
    many more questions than answers?
  • 00:19:22
    See the textbook faith and the textbook god
  • 00:19:25
    will fail you, but the transcendent God never will.
  • 00:19:29
    He never will.
  • 00:19:31
    Now, how do you seek that sort of God?
  • 00:19:33
    What are we getting at here?
  • 00:19:34
    There's only one way: it's humility.
  • 00:19:38
    It's humility, it's the thing I think maybe
  • 00:19:40
    we're lacking more than anything in our modern world.
  • 00:19:42
    And the court of humility is the capacity to not know,
  • 00:19:47
    to seek and to allow room
  • 00:19:49
    for more than you can understand, for the mystery,
  • 00:19:51
    for the wonder, for the transcendence.
  • 00:19:53
    I remember a number of years ago we had a person
  • 00:19:57
    we were working with at Crossroads,
  • 00:19:58
    kind of like almost in like a consultant sort of way,
  • 00:20:01
    helping us with some stuff.
  • 00:20:02
    And this person was brilliant, super smart.
  • 00:20:04
    They were great.
  • 00:20:06
    But Brian noticed something
  • 00:20:08
    that he called out in a meeting once.
  • 00:20:10
    So this person had no ability to say, "I don't know."
  • 00:20:14
    Whenever we ask them anything about God, about life,
  • 00:20:17
    about how church works, about cooking,
  • 00:20:20
    about, I mean, literally anything,
  • 00:20:22
    they always had an answer.
  • 00:20:23
    I remember Brian in a meeting saying,
  • 00:20:25
    "You know, I think it's time to stop working with him."
  • 00:20:28
    We said, "Well, why?"
  • 00:20:29
    He said "Anybody who is unable to say, 'I don't know, '
  • 00:20:33
    is a person we can't trust."
  • 00:20:36
    I contrast that with an experience I had
  • 00:20:40
    in Turkey and in Greece.
  • 00:20:41
    I got to take this trip studying the life of Paul,
  • 00:20:44
    who navigated through those countries,
  • 00:20:46
    with one of the world's leading archeologists
  • 00:20:49
    and theologians,
  • 00:20:50
    a guy named Bob, who's become my friend.
  • 00:20:52
    And I remember being there and asking Bob
  • 00:20:54
    all these questions.
  • 00:20:56
    And Bob, this brilliant guy, the guy who could say,
  • 00:21:00
    "I know the answer, I have the answer."
  • 00:21:02
    Bob, who has spent decades upon decades
  • 00:21:04
    on the ground studying scripture in its context.
  • 00:21:07
    You know one of Bob's phrases he said
  • 00:21:09
    more often than anything else?
  • 00:21:11
    He said, "I don't know. That's a really good question."
  • 00:21:15
    And I think about that and I think we need more Bobs.
  • 00:21:19
    More of us need to have this ability to say,
  • 00:21:22
    "I don't know," and not feel like we're failing at faith.
  • 00:21:26
    And let me just say to you clearly,
  • 00:21:27
    in case you need somebody to say it to you directly,
  • 00:21:29
    if you have some "I don't knows,"
  • 00:21:32
    if you have some unanswered questions,
  • 00:21:35
    you're not failing at faith.
  • 00:21:36
    I think you're finding the real God.
  • 00:21:37
    If you're finding the God who transcends
  • 00:21:39
    your understanding, what you're exercising is humility,
  • 00:21:41
    and that humility is key.
  • 00:21:43
    See, it's the opposite of pride.
  • 00:21:45
    Pride is saying, "I know all the answers.
  • 00:21:47
    I have all the answers. They're all correct.
  • 00:21:49
    I know them. Please don't question them."
  • 00:21:51
    This is actually the biggest thing
  • 00:21:53
    that had to be deconstructed in me,
  • 00:21:55
    that God has had to take out of me on my journey
  • 00:22:00
    is the idea that God is a list of answers
  • 00:22:02
    and I can know them all.
  • 00:22:04
    I used to listen to a show, like a radio show,
  • 00:22:06
    called the Bible Answer Man.
  • 00:22:08
    It was a show that people would call in
  • 00:22:10
    and ask questions about this thing or whatever,
  • 00:22:11
    and the guy always had an answer.
  • 00:22:13
    And I thought that'd be pretty cool.
  • 00:22:14
    And I noticed something about me.
  • 00:22:16
    So, I had a knack for explaining stuff to people
  • 00:22:19
    in a way that made sense.
  • 00:22:20
    It would show up in group projects.
  • 00:22:22
    In high school and in college and my fraternity,
  • 00:22:25
    I was put in leadership positions
  • 00:22:27
    and was asked to explain things.
  • 00:22:28
    Even teach things at work this showed up.
  • 00:22:31
    People started to ask me to teach the Bible.
  • 00:22:33
    It was a great feeling because I have the answers. Whoo.
  • 00:22:37
    But somewhere in it, I started to lose God.
  • 00:22:41
    I lost the mystery and the grandeur
  • 00:22:43
    and the transcendence of God.
  • 00:22:44
    He became a list of answers.
  • 00:22:46
    He became a sermon outline, a video script.
  • 00:22:49
    He became an email to give a tight answer to.
  • 00:22:53
    What ended up happening is that God just felt
  • 00:22:55
    small, like flat, two dimensional.
  • 00:22:59
    You see a god who can be contained in my mind
  • 00:23:01
    and my own understanding,
  • 00:23:03
    it turns out he's not that big.
  • 00:23:06
    And I actually had to step back from that
  • 00:23:08
    and deconstruct the false belief that had been
  • 00:23:10
    in the background of my faith for decades
  • 00:23:12
    because it no longer worked.
  • 00:23:14
    Like a kitchen remodel, I had to rip it out
  • 00:23:17
    and return to scripture for the true design
  • 00:23:19
    to build back something better.
  • 00:23:21
    And you know what I found?
  • 00:23:22
    I found a better God, the transcendent God,
  • 00:23:25
    the God who is thankfully, thankfully way bigger
  • 00:23:30
    than my ability to understand and categorize Him.
  • 00:23:33
    See, when I went looking for Him, hunting for Him
  • 00:23:35
    like silver and hidden treasure, I found Him
  • 00:23:38
    and you can too.
  • 00:23:40
    But you have to understand who you're going to find.
  • 00:23:43
    This is how God describes Himself, His transcendence,
  • 00:23:46
    Isaiah 55:
  • 00:24:01
    God says this actually many places in scripture.
  • 00:24:04
    Romans 11, he says:
  • 00:24:19
    God is very clear.
  • 00:24:20
    He says, "Listen, I love you,
  • 00:24:23
    but I'm so much bigger than you.
  • 00:24:26
    I'm so much more than you can possibly understand."
  • 00:24:28
    Listen, has God become a list of correct answers to you?
  • 00:24:31
    Have you lost the mystery of God?
  • 00:24:35
    Here's good news:
  • 00:24:36
    you will never get to the bottom of God.
  • 00:24:39
    It's amazing news.
  • 00:24:40
    See if you can understand God, you're Him.
  • 00:24:43
    I don't know about you, but I want a transcendent God
  • 00:24:46
    because there's things in my life
  • 00:24:48
    that I need to be transcended.
  • 00:24:50
    There's problems that I don't know how to solve.
  • 00:24:52
    There's roadblocks that I keep hitting
  • 00:24:54
    over and over and over again.
  • 00:24:56
    And I don't want a god who has my understanding.
  • 00:24:58
    I need a god who goes beyond me,
  • 00:25:01
    a god who transcends me.
  • 00:25:02
    Because if there's a transcendent God,
  • 00:25:04
    maybe He can transcend my life.
  • 00:25:06
    Maybe He can take me to a new place.
  • 00:25:09
    The key question for you to consider:
  • 00:25:11
    Do you want to live in a world of airtight answers,
  • 00:25:15
    or are you open to the mystery, the transcendence,
  • 00:25:19
    the power, and the wonder of God?
  • 00:25:23
    If you have a bucket called "God"
  • 00:25:26
    and your questions don't fit in that bucket,
  • 00:25:29
    don't throw out the bucket, get a bigger one.
  • 00:25:32
    That's what I'm saying.
  • 00:25:34
    See, when Jesus came no one could imagine a god
  • 00:25:37
    who would come and sacrifice himself for them all.
  • 00:25:41
    Gods demanded sacrifices from people.
  • 00:25:44
    They didn't sacrifice themselves for people.
  • 00:25:46
    But Jesus transcended their understanding of God.
  • 00:25:53
    He said, "I'm not asking for something from you,
  • 00:25:55
    I have something for you. I have something for you.
  • 00:25:58
    I'm the guy who transcends everything
  • 00:26:01
    you've ever thought, everything you've ever imagined,
  • 00:26:03
    every limitation you've ever put on your life.
  • 00:26:06
    I transcend all of that. I came for you. For you."
  • 00:26:12
    This is the act we remember in communion.
  • 00:26:15
    And there's something here that is mysterious,
  • 00:26:18
    that is powerful, that is transcendence,
  • 00:26:21
    that maybe you've lost.
  • 00:26:24
    I want to take communion together with you right now,
  • 00:26:27
    so go ahead and grab something to eat
  • 00:26:29
    and something to drink.
  • 00:26:32
    Now, as we take communion, I want to put up
  • 00:26:34
    some of the verses that describe this transcendent God,
  • 00:26:37
    the two that we just looked at and some more.
  • 00:26:39
    I want you to read these words as you take communion,
  • 00:26:42
    remembering who God is, how much bigger He is than you,
  • 00:26:47
    and why that is fantastic news.
  • 00:26:51
    Specifically, I want you to call to mind
  • 00:26:52
    the situation in your life, I know you have one,
  • 00:26:55
    where you need God to transcend
  • 00:26:58
    what you think is possible.
  • 00:27:00
    I want you to hold that in your mind.
  • 00:27:01
    As you take communion, just tell Him,
  • 00:27:03
    "God, I believe You are the transcendent God
  • 00:27:07
    and that You can transcend all of my understanding,
  • 00:27:11
    all of what I think is possible."
  • 00:27:14
    A communion involves two things: the bread and the wine.
  • 00:27:17
    When Jesus did this, it was the Last Supper.
  • 00:27:19
    It was literally the last meal
  • 00:27:20
    He ever had with his disciples on Earth.
  • 00:27:23
    And he took the bread that had been on the table
  • 00:27:25
    and He broke off a hunk of it and He held it up
  • 00:27:28
    and went way past what they could understand.
  • 00:27:29
    In the moment they had no idea what He was talking about.
  • 00:27:32
    He said, "This is My body which is broken for you.
  • 00:27:37
    Every time you gather,
  • 00:27:39
    I want you to do this and remembrance of Me."
  • 00:27:44
    This is the body of Christ,
  • 00:27:46
    the food you're holding in your hand,
  • 00:27:48
    it's the body of Christ broken for you.
  • 00:27:50
    Let's eat in remembrance of Him.
  • 00:28:08
    As I'm eating, I'm just thinking about the spots in my life,
  • 00:28:10
    because I have them just like you do,
  • 00:28:12
    where I need the transcendent God.
  • 00:28:15
    I'm just asking God to show up in those spots,
  • 00:28:18
    and I'm praying to the same thing for you.
  • 00:28:21
    And after He took the bread, Jesus grabbed the wine.
  • 00:28:25
    He took it a step further.
  • 00:28:27
    He said, "I know this makes sense to you,
  • 00:28:29
    but you've got to trust me. You've got to trust me.
  • 00:28:31
    I know you can't see what's about to happen.
  • 00:28:33
    I know you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow,
  • 00:28:35
    but I do.
  • 00:28:37
    I'm going to give up My life for you.
  • 00:28:38
    I'm going to sacrifice Myself for you."
  • 00:28:40
    He took the wine and He said,
  • 00:28:42
    "This is My blood shed for you,
  • 00:28:45
    when you gather together,
  • 00:28:47
    drink this in remembrance of Me."
  • 00:28:50
    The thing you're holding, the drink you're holding,
  • 00:28:52
    this is the blood of Christ shed for you.
  • 00:28:54
    Drink it and remember His power.
  • 00:29:14
    God has power that goes past you.
  • 00:29:17
    He has understanding that goes past you.
  • 00:29:20
    And that power is for you.
  • 00:29:24
    Right now, we're going to sing this song together
  • 00:29:26
    as an act of worship.
  • 00:29:27
    I encourage you to let the video continue to play
  • 00:29:30
    and to sing with us.
  • 00:29:31
    The song is called On, the Power,
  • 00:29:34
    and it's about the transcendent God.
  • 00:29:36
    Let's sing together right now.
  • 00:31:44
    - I hope this is something you found helpful today.
  • 00:31:46
    I definitely encourage you to share this
  • 00:31:48
    with your friends who are wrestling with deconstruction.
  • 00:31:50
    Again, if you have any questions, you can email me.
  • 00:31:52
    We're not a TV show. This is a community.
  • 00:31:54
    If you're looking for next steps, we have a couple.
  • 00:31:56
    First is our World Changing Summit on November 3rd.
  • 00:31:59
    And we have a Prayer Night November 4th.
  • 00:32:00
    If either of those interests you,
  • 00:32:02
    you can go to online.crossroads.net for more.
  • 00:32:05
    I'll see you next week on Crossroads.
  • 00:32:09
    - My name is Alex, and I own where we are right now,
  • 00:32:12
    Iron sharpens Iron Gym here in Cincinnati, Ohio,
  • 00:32:15
    - And I'm Alison
  • 00:32:16
    and I've been coming to Iron Sharpens Iron for 4 years.
  • 00:32:19
    - In 2015, I was sitting in the room
  • 00:32:22
    at Oakley Crossroads and they announced the food drive.
  • 00:32:25
    And I had the idea that I want it to fill a box.
  • 00:32:28
    I didn't know if I would be able to.
  • 00:32:29
    And then I had the bigger idea of saying,
  • 00:32:31
    "Well, maybe people at the gym would like to do that."
  • 00:32:34
    I remember standing in the lobby mulling it over,
  • 00:32:36
    saying, "Okay, I think I think we can fill five boxes."
  • 00:32:39
    It didn't turn out that five was all that crazy
  • 00:32:41
    because we ended up filling 20 boxes.
  • 00:32:43
    So fast forward a few years, we wanted to do 75 boxes,
  • 00:32:47
    and that year we went well over 100.
  • 00:32:49
    You know, just this past year, our goal was 200 boxes,
  • 00:32:53
    and we ended up filling 220 boxes.
  • 00:32:56
    And it shows me that if we're willing to
  • 00:32:59
    just open up and invite, God will bring people in
  • 00:33:02
    and fill the right people in
  • 00:33:03
    to help you achieve your goal.
  • 00:33:05
    And He'll probably do what He does best
  • 00:33:07
    and blow you away and go past it.
  • 00:33:09
    - I've been involved in the Thanksgiving Food Drive
  • 00:33:11
    for quite some time now, and I used to contribute
  • 00:33:14
    and take a box at service.
  • 00:33:16
    And sometimes in my life I wasn't able
  • 00:33:18
    to fully contribute to that box financially.
  • 00:33:21
    And when I start coming to the gym
  • 00:33:23
    and I saw what Alex was doing,
  • 00:33:25
    I jumped right in on that.
  • 00:33:27
    I went to Aldi and I had the intention
  • 00:33:28
    to fill two boxes.
  • 00:33:31
    And as I'm sitting in the parking lot,
  • 00:33:32
    I had the idea to put it out on my Instagram Story
  • 00:33:36
    to contribute $.45 for a canned good.
  • 00:33:39
    So I went in and started shopping
  • 00:33:40
    and within a matter of 30 minutes,
  • 00:33:43
    I had about $200 in the account
  • 00:33:45
    and this just snowballed throughout the whole week.
  • 00:33:48
    And then we get to $1600
  • 00:33:50
    and that evening I get a phone call and she was like,
  • 00:33:54
    "How much have you raised?"
  • 00:33:55
    And I was like, "We're at $1600."
  • 00:33:57
    So she tells me on the phone
  • 00:33:59
    her and her husband matched the funds.
  • 00:34:00
    By day three or so when I could no longer shop
  • 00:34:05
    any more than I possibly was already doing,
  • 00:34:08
    I reached out to my Instagram followers again
  • 00:34:11
    and said, "Hey guys, I need your help now
  • 00:34:13
    to get these canned goods to Alex in a timely fashion."
  • 00:34:17
    So I started what I was calling shop and drops.
  • 00:34:20
    I was allocating money to groups of people
  • 00:34:22
    doing all the shopping for me,
  • 00:34:24
    and then we'd meet here at the gym
  • 00:34:25
    and drop everything off.
  • 00:34:27
    - The gap is where often I see God show up.
  • 00:34:30
    So when we step out and we say,
  • 00:34:32
    "I know that there's no way I can do this,
  • 00:34:35
    the only way it's going to happen is if You show up,"
  • 00:34:38
    that's where your faith grows.
  • 00:34:39
    That's where your community grows.
  • 00:34:41
    And that's where the story is told.
  • 00:34:43
    - Thanksgiving Food Drive is community for me,
  • 00:34:47
    and it has been over the last two years,
  • 00:34:50
    getting together, seeing how the community provides,
  • 00:34:53
    and seeing what we can do each year.
  • 00:34:56
    And then on top of that,
  • 00:34:57
    just blessing as many families as possible.
  • 00:34:59
    - CFD for me is a chance to step out in faith
  • 00:35:02
    and to put myself a little bit lower
  • 00:35:06
    on the list of priorities
  • 00:35:07
    and put some other people
  • 00:35:09
    a little bit higher than myself.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend Follow-Up. The questions below are for the weekend of Nov 6 & Nov 7 2021.

  1. If you could remodel something about your home, what would it be? What would you change?

  2. Which God have you been following recently: the “Textbook God” or the “Transcendent God”? Why do you think you’ve been following that one?

  3. Read Matthew 7:7-8. God is delighted in us pursuing him. There isn’t a question too tough for God to handle. Share when you asked God for something specific or, if you have never thought to ask God, share why you haven’t.

  4. Read Matthew 27:24-27. When we pursue God our faith will start to be built on a foundation of rock instead of sand. What questions, that transcend your own understanding, can you ask God this week? How can you actively seek God?

  5. Now close your time in prayer. Here’s an example: “Lord, thank you for revealing yourself to us. Give us the desire and the courage to seek you, to chase after you. Help us discover the fear of you and the knowledge of you that transcends our own human understanding. We need you, the real you, and we want to know you better. Amen.

More from the Weekend

Read John 1:14. At Crossroads we’re about the power of God who transforms lives. Everyday we’re getting outside ourselves trying to make a difference in the world. One way we do this is partnering with organizations who literally are changing the world everyday. If you want to jump in and start giving risk free, you can try the 90 day tithe test here.

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Nov 7, 2021 35 mins 18 sec

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