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00:00:04
I am touching a snake
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00:00:06
and I am not afraid.
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00:00:09
Our world is toxic
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00:00:11
and we're experiencing
the side effects:
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00:00:13
fake news, social
media, influencers,
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00:00:16
conspiracy theories,
cancel culture.
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00:00:19
There is a cure that
leads to freedom,
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00:00:21
and that's what we're
going to explore today.
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00:00:26
- Hey, I'm Kyle.
- I'm Hannah.
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00:00:28
-Welcome to Crossroads.
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00:00:29
You're joining us
for the first week
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00:00:30
of a brand new
series called The Cure.
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00:00:32
- Yes, and this is
an important series,
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00:00:33
because it's no secret that
our world is overwhelming,
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tiring, sometimes exhausting,
and borderline toxic.
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- It is, and in just a
minute you're gonna hear
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00:00:41
from our senior pastor,
Brian Todd, who is going
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00:00:43
to talk about how we
can address those toxins,
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what to do about them.
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- Yeah, and how to move forward.
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But first, honestly, he's
on a journey for the cure.
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00:00:50
Where on the journey to
find the cure for those toxins.
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That's what Kyle
and I are here for,
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00:00:54
that's why we're
dressed like this,
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it's why we're ready to go.
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- And we're going to
look in the typical places
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where everybody else looks.
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We're going to
look at the places
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that no one's looking
at all to find the answers.
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- Got to go above and beyond.
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We might even win
some prizes, some award.
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This is how serious this is.
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So, Kyle, where
do we start today?
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- We're going to start
in a place that I think
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is one of the most
overlooked places
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for the cure in the world.
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- Okay.
- Birdwatching. So just get --
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- Okay, birdwatching.
- I've got binoculars.
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I packed some in
the bag there for you.
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- Nice, thanks, dude.
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- Get these things
out and you're going
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to look up in the
trees and anything --
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- Kyle, there's none in here.
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- Is there a hole in the
bottom? I don't know.
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- Whatever, it's fine.
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00:01:29
- So you've got
great eyesight though,
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00:01:30
just looking in trees,
we're going to find the birds.
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If it looks like the
cure, tell me first,
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- Okay.
- Just look up in there.
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- Do you know
what it looks like?
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- Something.
- There.
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- Okay. You stay
there, I'll get it first
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just because I just want
to get it first. Okay, right.
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But actually I'm
going to need --
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I'm going to need
a boost from you.
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- No.
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- If you could just
-- I'm almost there.
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I'm almost there. I
was almost there.
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Okay, you got it.
- That's fine.
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- What have you got?
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- I don't know. What
are we looking at?
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Oh, self help books. Yeah.
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The answer, this is
where everybody looks.
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- So is this the cure,
like we found it? Is this it?
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- Yeah, definitely.
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The birds probably
left the for us up there.
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- This feels like not right,
like maybe there's more.
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If it was this easy
and self help-y,
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wouldn't everybody
do it and wouldn't it work
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00:02:15
and we would not
be on this journey?
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- Right. We probably
wouldn't need all these books,
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00:02:19
there'd probably
be like one book.
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- One book. Okay.
- Right.
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- So maybe Brian
Tome knows the answer
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Yeah, so check in with him.
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- Yeah.
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- Deep in the South African
wild, the black mamba snake
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is one of the
deadliest in the world.
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The snake's fangs act
like a hypodermic needle,
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injecting venom
quickly and efficiently.
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It only takes two drops of venom
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to spread toxic poison
throughout the bloodstream.
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Luckily, if you act
quickly, there is a cure
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and you can survive.
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First, a tourniquet
is used to stop
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the spread of the
poison through the body.
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00:02:51
Next, oxygen and
respiratory support is given
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because the heart
and lungs are weakened
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from the spread of toxins.
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Finally, the antidote
to the venom
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is injected directly
into the bloodstream
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to neutralize and eventually
overcome the poison
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that is being spread.
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Now, while few
of us will actually
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ever encounter a black mamba,
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maybe even more
dangerous are the toxins
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we encounter every day.
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Navigating our current
reality can feel like
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a dangerous and
terrifying jungle
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full of snakes ready to bite.
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And just like a snake's venom
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travels through our bodies
and attacks our organs,
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00:03:25
the poisons of racial injustice
and polarizing politics
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00:03:28
that assault us
in our news feeds
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00:03:30
and social media
accounts can quickly spread
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00:03:32
through our minds
and hearts to damage
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00:03:34
and shut down our
healthy thoughts, beliefs,
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emotions and actions.
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The good news is
that while deadly,
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there is actually a cure to
everything toxic in our lives,
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an antidote within our
reach that will restore
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health and vibrancy to
our minds and hearts.
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Just like treating a
deadly mamba bite,
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we can cut off the
poisonous polarization
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that is penetrating our
souls by turning away from sin
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and towards the
cure of forgiveness.
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When our bodies and
souls are shutting down
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00:04:02
under the stress of daily
life, we can fill our lungs
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with life sustaining
support from the Bible,
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the Word of God.
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00:04:09
And when it feels
like our broken hearts
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00:04:11
will never heal and
there is no hope,
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00:04:13
we can inject ourselves
with the truth of God,
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the antidote that will
neutralize the poison
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affecting our entire world.
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00:04:25
- Have you noticed
how toxic our culture is?
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I mean, we are so
unhealthy and the problems
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just keep magnifying
and multiplying.
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We're going to help you
understand that today.
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And when you understand it,
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you can actually
get to a better place.
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00:04:40
I'm here inside of a
zoo slash nature center
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slash green house,
and it's indicative of
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the thing we're talking about,
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which are the toxins
that are in our culture
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and sometimes the
physical actually mirrors
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and can tell us something
about the spiritual.
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One of the toxins
I've had in my body
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or the problems I've had
with my body is a bad back.
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For most of my life,
about once or twice a year,
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00:05:08
I'm going through
my life doing my thing,
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00:05:09
all my back muscles,
my lower back muscles
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just go (sound
effect) they tense up
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00:05:14
and they go (sound
effect) and I go bam,
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00:05:15
I fall down face
first on the ground.
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00:05:18
I've been known to be
curled up in a fetal position,
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one time naked on the floor
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of an athletic
gymnasium locker room.
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00:05:25
It was very humiliating, awful.
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00:05:26
You've never lived
until you've had to have
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00:05:28
a grown man help you
put on your own underwear.
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00:05:31
Difficult, tough stuff.
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00:05:33
And I would live in
fear of this problem,
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00:05:36
this toxicity in my back
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00:05:38
because I didn't know
what was going on.
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00:05:41
Then finally, I started
learning what was going on.
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00:05:43
I learned that my muscles
of my core were undeveloped.
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00:05:46
I learned that I had a vertebrae
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that was out of alignment.
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00:05:49
I heard about what chiropractors
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like to know as
subluxation and through
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a friend of mine who is a
chiropractor, Paul Baker,
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00:05:57
I got on a completely
different path.
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It's now been years since
I've had a massive back issue.
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00:06:03
It used to be once
or twice a year
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I'd be down and
out and I'd be in bed
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00:06:06
and I couldn't even
roll over in bed.
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I started to understand
the problem.
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When I understood the
problem, I could fix it.
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00:06:16
And even if I couldn't fix it,
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00:06:18
just knowing what the
problem was helped me.
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We have toxins in our
culture that we are exposed to
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that are creating
massive problems,
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not just for our culture,
but for us personally.
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How do you get
exposed to toxins?
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Well, there's a number
of different ways.
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You can ingest it,
you could swallow it,
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food, drink, some
other substance.
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You just take it into your body.
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Another way this
happens is by contact.
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We touch something
and we get those toxins.
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Or inhalation, we just (sniffs),
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we get it through
the air, which is why
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so many of us are using
these lovely, beautiful things.
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All of these contaminants,
these mites, these germs,
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these organisms get into us
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00:07:03
and then we become
toxic ourselves.
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There's a toxin that's in
our culture, it's in our lives.
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00:07:11
And that toxin, we
don't want to talk about it.
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00:07:15
We don't like to say the word.
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We don't understand the word.
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00:07:19
It's such a misused or
unused word in our society
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that we have the hair
on the back of our necks
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00:07:28
stand up when we hear
it because it sets us off.
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I'm going to use it anyway.
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00:07:31
I'm going to use it anyway,
because I want to help you.
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I want to help us to see it.
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00:07:35
And when you
understand this thing,
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your life will change,
honestly, it will.
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00:07:39
Your perspective will change.
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00:07:40
You will be able
to get to be healthy.
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00:07:43
It's until you understand COVID
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00:07:45
that you can understand
how to be healthy.
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00:07:47
And it's not until you
understand, here it is: Sin.
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00:07:51
Sin, not a four letter word,
a three letter word, sin.
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00:07:56
It's not until you
understand the toxin of sin
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00:08:00
that's in the air, that's
on the things that we do,
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00:08:03
that we ingest, that you can
ever have an understanding
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of what our problem is and
how to get to another side.
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00:08:10
That's what we're talking
about for the rest of our time.
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00:08:14
- Here at Crossroads,
we believe the church
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00:08:16
is about making a
difference in the world.
-
00:08:18
- Yes. And you
can get in the game
-
00:08:19
to support health care workers
-
00:08:21
by hand writing notes
of encouragement,
-
00:08:23
as well as participating
in a supply drive.
-
00:08:25
That can happen via
drive through drop off
-
00:08:27
or an Amazon wish list order.
-
00:08:29
And we're doing this
kind of stuff all the time.
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00:08:31
So we don't want you to
miss out on an opportunity.
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00:08:34
- At Crossroads we GO.
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00:08:35
In every community right now,
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00:08:37
health care workers are
feeling tired and forgotten,
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00:08:40
which is not okay.
- Yeah.
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00:08:41
- So we're launching
Fuel for the Fight,
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00:08:43
a way to refuel and refresh
our health care professionals.
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00:08:47
And we need you.
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00:08:48
- To participate, you can
visit Crossroads.net/GO
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00:08:52
to get in the game.
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00:08:53
- Another way to get
in the game is to give.
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00:08:55
Have you ever heard the phrase
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00:08:57
"put your money
where your mouth is"?
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00:08:58
That's because our
money really shows
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00:09:00
what we actually care about.
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00:09:02
Like a lot of mine
goes to my kids,
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00:09:04
like a whole lot of it.
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That's because
I really love them
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00:09:07
and it's worth
it, or so I'm told.
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00:09:10
- And you know
what? In the same way,
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00:09:11
my relationship with
God, it's a priority.
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00:09:14
And by giving,
specifically tithing,
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00:09:16
which is the first 10% of
my income to the church,
-
00:09:19
God puts my money to work
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00:09:21
and does things that I
could not imagine on my own.
-
00:09:23
- Explore why we do this,
where the money goes,
-
00:09:26
and how to give it
Crossroads.net/give.
-
00:09:30
- Now we're going to
keep looking for the cure.
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00:09:33
So let's pick back
up with Brian.
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00:09:37
- I want you to find a
cure for the toxic problems
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00:09:40
that you and I
find ourselves in.
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00:09:41
To do that, we're going to
have to go all the way back
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00:09:44
to patient zero,
who had it first.
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00:09:47
We've got to go all the way back
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00:09:48
to the Bible's first book,
The Book of Genesis.
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00:09:51
We're in the book of
Genesis 3, here's what says:
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00:10:28
God creates this beautiful
paradise, if you will,
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00:10:31
for them to live in and eat
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00:10:33
all the beautiful
fruits and vegetations
-
00:10:35
and have all kinds of freedom.
-
00:10:36
He says, "There's one thing,
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00:10:37
I don't want you eating from
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00:10:39
the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil."
-
00:10:43
Why is that?
-
00:10:45
What's going on there?
-
00:10:47
It's hard to say what in
Genesis is actual literal
-
00:10:49
and what is metaphorical,
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00:10:52
and I don't want to get
into all that right now.
-
00:10:54
But why knowledge
of good and evil?
-
00:10:57
I think it's because
you don't have to have
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00:11:01
any knowledge of evil,
because there is no sin.
-
00:11:03
There's no evil at all.
-
00:11:04
But as soon as you rebel
-
00:11:06
and as soon as
you're about yourself,
-
00:11:08
you're going to open up a
whole Pandora's box of problems.
-
00:11:11
And the way this
box gets opened up
-
00:11:13
is there is a person
with the personality
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00:11:16
who's known as the evil
one or the devil or Satan.
-
00:11:19
Woo, booglie words.
-
00:11:20
And he starts talking to Eve
-
00:11:23
and he comes in the form
of right here, a serpent.
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00:11:27
Yes.
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00:11:29
Look, I am a man.
-
00:11:31
I am touching a snake
and I am not afraid.
-
00:11:34
Actually, I am kind of afraid.
-
00:11:36
I don't like snakes.
-
00:11:38
I believe the only good
snake's a dead snake.
-
00:11:40
I'm sorry. It's just a metaphor.
-
00:11:41
I've never actually
even killed a snake.
-
00:11:43
I'm sorry. I don't
want to hurt you.
-
00:11:44
I know you're a wonderful snake.
-
00:11:46
I know you've never sinned all.
-
00:11:48
I know you're beautiful.
-
00:11:49
Everything at the
Cincinnati Zoo is beautiful,
-
00:11:51
but snakes just kind
of, they just oogi me out.
-
00:11:54
There's probably a lot
of people like me, right?
-
00:11:56
- Oh, yeah.
-
00:11:57
- You go along and you
go eat some field mice
-
00:11:59
or something like that.
Thank you very much.
-
00:12:01
- Thank you.
-
00:12:02
- He's a sweetie,
he is. (cringes)
-
00:12:05
Trying to put my man
face on here, but it's tough.
-
00:12:08
It's nonetheless
very, very tough.
-
00:12:09
But that serpent gave
Adam and Eve the options
-
00:12:17
that they hadn't
considered, which is:
-
00:12:19
rebel against God, do
what you want to do.
-
00:12:22
And this opens up toxins
that's unleashed in our culture.
-
00:12:28
Back in the days when
people were homesteaders
-
00:12:30
or out in the prairies,
when you had a problem
-
00:12:32
in your life, you
had the problem.
-
00:12:35
You had to find the cure.
-
00:12:37
You had to look inside.
-
00:12:38
You couldn't blame
the government
-
00:12:41
that the water
wasn't coming in right.
-
00:12:43
You couldn't blame
community council.
-
00:12:45
You couldn't blame people
on the right or on the left
-
00:12:47
because you're there
in the middle of nowhere,
-
00:12:51
homesteading,
farming, whatever was,
-
00:12:52
and your problems were yours.
-
00:12:53
Well, now today, with social
media and media blown up,
-
00:12:56
we have all kinds of
people we can blame on.
-
00:12:58
"Well, it's the
right. It's the left.
-
00:13:00
It's this person, that
person. It's these."
-
00:13:02
And everyone is a victim.
-
00:13:04
No one ever
actually looks internal
-
00:13:07
when bad stuff happens.
-
00:13:10
And yet bad stuff is happening
-
00:13:11
and actually it has to happen.
-
00:13:13
I'm a big movie guy. I
like watching movies.
-
00:13:16
But the hardest part
of any movie for me
-
00:13:18
is the very beginning,
because at the beginning
-
00:13:20
is when the bad stuff happens,
-
00:13:21
it's when the
tension takes place.
-
00:13:24
It's when the
murder takes place.
-
00:13:27
It's when the divorce happens.
-
00:13:28
It's when the sexual
assault happens.
-
00:13:30
And you almost want
to turn away sometimes.
-
00:13:32
You go, "Oh, I don't want to --
I don't want to watch that."
-
00:13:34
But you realize, this
is where the tension is.
-
00:13:38
All the story hangs
on that tension.
-
00:13:42
The beginning of the Bible,
-
00:13:43
we have the tension
that's coming out of sin.
-
00:13:46
Sin is the default.
-
00:13:49
Sin is the default mode
within which we operate,
-
00:13:51
which causes us to
blame people on this side,
-
00:13:54
blame people on that side,
-
00:13:56
and not see that I
have a sin problem.
-
00:13:59
Where I live is a sin problem.
-
00:14:02
And until you understand
this, until you get this,
-
00:14:05
you can't get
forward in your life
-
00:14:06
because you are clueless.
-
00:14:10
I'm a bit of a history buff,
-
00:14:12
IN World War II,
-
00:14:14
which was an unbelievable
moment in world history,
-
00:14:19
two characters that I think
are relevant for us today,
-
00:14:22
there's one, Neville
Chamberlain.
-
00:14:24
He was the ambassador
of Germany for England.
-
00:14:27
And he just refused to
see the sin in Germany.
-
00:14:31
He refused to see
the sin in Hitler.
-
00:14:34
He just kept thinking
that things will get okay.
-
00:14:37
"We're misinterpreting.
We're misunderstanding.
-
00:14:40
Things can't be that bad.
-
00:14:41
We don't have to
actually fight here.
-
00:14:43
We don't actually
have to exert ourselves.
-
00:14:45
It's going to be okay.
It's going to be okay."
-
00:14:47
And of course, it wasn't okay
-
00:14:49
and he's a historical
laughing stock
-
00:14:51
because he was
dumb, he was deluded.
-
00:14:53
He didn't understand
that sin is present.
-
00:14:56
Another key figure was FDR.
-
00:14:58
Obviously on the other
side of the prospect,
-
00:15:00
the a hero in World War II.
-
00:15:01
But in the beginning, he
struggled to understand it.
-
00:15:05
This comes out in his memoirs
-
00:15:07
and some of the other
things that he's written
-
00:15:09
and people have
written about him.
-
00:15:10
That at the beginning
of World War II,
-
00:15:12
when the atrocities
were coming out,
-
00:15:14
long before he spearheaded
America getting in,
-
00:15:17
he didn't understand this.
-
00:15:19
How in the world
does this happen?
-
00:15:22
He was a liberal humanitarian,
meaning he believed
-
00:15:27
that human beings
were endlessly evolve
-
00:15:30
and be better and nicer,
-
00:15:31
and everything was
going to take care of itself.
-
00:15:33
And yet all that he saw in
Germany was blowing that up.
-
00:15:38
He couldn't get it.
-
00:15:40
Finally, somebody
turned him on to
-
00:15:42
the works of Soren Kierkegaard,
a famous Lutheran pastor,
-
00:15:46
who helped him
understand the presence
-
00:15:50
and pervading influence of sin,
-
00:15:52
that helped him to
get in touch with reality,
-
00:15:54
that helped him to
spear his leadership
-
00:15:56
to get America going
to a different place.
-
00:15:58
You and I have fallen in a
pit and we cannot get up.
-
00:16:02
And it is our default mode.
-
00:16:04
We are broken.
-
00:16:05
I've got a lot of collar
bone right here that floats.
-
00:16:08
If I had this jacket
off, you could see it.
-
00:16:09
It floats here because I
had a motorcycle accident
-
00:16:13
and just it just
pops up. So it floats.
-
00:16:15
It also affects why I
can't do many pushups.
-
00:16:19
Chuck Mingo recently beat
me in a push up contest.
-
00:16:21
It's only because of
this thing right here.
-
00:16:23
I would beat him into applesauce
if I didn't have this.
-
00:16:27
Anyway, this thing.
-
00:16:29
And it's helpful when
I take a look at the --
-
00:16:34
What's the word I'm looking for?
-
00:16:35
The X-rays and I
see the thing floating,
-
00:16:37
I go, "Oh, that's
right, I'm broken."
-
00:16:39
And knowing that my default
condition is brokenness
-
00:16:42
actually helps me.
-
00:16:44
Your default condition,
when you understand
-
00:16:45
your default
condition is sinfulness,
-
00:16:47
it actually will help you.
-
00:16:49
Facts are your friends,
embrace them, they're real.
-
00:16:52
I bought a hunting
backpack recently,
-
00:16:54
which is a bit of
a different thing.
-
00:16:56
You put all of your stuff
in normal backpacks,
-
00:16:58
but then the whole
backpack itself unclips
-
00:17:00
and falls away from the frame
-
00:17:01
and the frame you
can pack all the meat
-
00:17:04
of the animal that
you've just killed.
-
00:17:06
And I had this
backpack and I went on --
-
00:17:09
I'm doing these training hikes.
-
00:17:10
I'm going to Idaho
to hunt an elk again.
-
00:17:14
Hopefully I can see one
-
00:17:15
and have some
meat in the freezer.
-
00:17:17
But I was noticing
as I was hiking,
-
00:17:19
this shoulder was
really bothering me
-
00:17:21
because with all the
weight was on this.
-
00:17:23
And I realized, "Oh, I
understand the problem.
-
00:17:25
I know the problem
that helps me solve it."
-
00:17:28
So I adjust my straps.
I made -- I can't remember
-
00:17:31
if I made this one low or
higher, or this one lower,
-
00:17:33
but but I adjusted them
and evened out my weight.
-
00:17:36
When you know that you
have a problem, and that is sin,
-
00:17:40
it helps you to
get your life going
-
00:17:43
back in the right direction.
-
00:17:45
Cornelius Plantinga
in a book entitled
-
00:17:48
The Way Things Ought to Be
-
00:17:50
or Not The Way Things
Should Be, something like That.
-
00:17:52
He says this. He says:
-
00:18:12
And we do this because
it is our default mode.
-
00:18:16
But the problem is, sin
has infected our minds,
-
00:18:20
our hearts, our
attitudes, our actions,
-
00:18:23
our filtering mechanism to
the point where it's deceptive.
-
00:18:26
Sin is deceptive.
-
00:18:28
We don't even
see it in ourselves.
-
00:18:30
We maybe see it in other people,
-
00:18:33
but we can't see
it in ourselves,
-
00:18:35
refuse to see that we are toxic,
-
00:18:38
that we are part of the problem,
-
00:18:40
that we are infected
and affected by it.
-
00:18:44
And James 3:16 it says that:
-
00:18:55
Why do we have such
disorder in our culture,
-
00:18:57
in our lives?
-
00:18:58
Because we have selfishness
and we can't even see it.
-
00:19:03
We have selfish ambition.
-
00:19:05
We're driven to do things
-
00:19:06
that we shouldn't
be wanting to do
-
00:19:07
and have things that we
shouldn't be wanting to have.
-
00:19:10
And it causes us
to not honor God.
-
00:19:12
And we can't even see it
because we're deluding ourselves
-
00:19:15
that somebody
else is the problem.
-
00:19:17
No, I'm the problem.
-
00:19:19
The sin in me is the problem.
-
00:19:22
I'm trying not to define
all the isolated mistakes,
-
00:19:25
and I'm really not
willing to make this
-
00:19:27
an individual
thou shalt not talk.
-
00:19:29
I'm not trying to run
through things and say,
-
00:19:31
"Feel really bad
that you do this."
-
00:19:33
I'm not trying to say,
"And here's the sin
-
00:19:35
that preachers love
preaching against."
-
00:19:37
I'm not into that today.
-
00:19:38
I'm just trying to
help us understand
-
00:19:40
the cosmic goop of sin
that we've been born into
-
00:19:44
and that courses
through our veins.
-
00:19:47
And some of us, even that
we get bothered by it, because
-
00:19:49
we think, "Oh, but that's
why I don't like the Bible.
-
00:19:52
What? Why? Why would I
have to be held accountable
-
00:19:56
for Adam and Eve
and what they did?
-
00:19:58
If I've inherited this, why
does it still affect me?"
-
00:20:02
Sometimes it's
just not about you.
-
00:20:03
I know you think
it's all about you.
-
00:20:05
It's not all about you.
-
00:20:07
Sometimes there's
just spiritual realities
-
00:20:08
we have to wrestle
with and embrace.
-
00:20:13
Adam and Eve did things that
-
00:20:16
you and I would
have done anyway.
-
00:20:18
If we were in their place, we
would have done it anyway.
-
00:20:20
And those things
are in the atmosphere,
-
00:20:24
they're in the ecosystem.
-
00:20:25
I'm in a physical
ecosystem right now,
-
00:20:27
but they're in the spiritual
ecosystem that we live in.
-
00:20:31
And in that ecosystem,
unlike this ecosystem
-
00:20:34
that's very, very healthy
-
00:20:35
and it's dripping
with condensation
-
00:20:37
because it's really beautiful.
-
00:20:39
We live in a spiritual
ecosystem that is destructive
-
00:20:42
because sin is destructive.
-
00:20:46
It destroys us and
it is destroying us.
-
00:20:50
That's why we're
doing this series
-
00:20:51
and that's why we need
to see the spiritual truth.
-
00:20:54
It's not by accident that
everything is coming apart.
-
00:20:57
It's because that's
the way things function
-
00:21:00
when we keep
listening to the serpent.
-
00:21:03
God gives words to the serpent,
-
00:21:06
He gives words to the serpent,
He gives words to the woman,
-
00:21:09
He gives words to the man
-
00:21:10
after this sin is unleashed
-
00:21:12
inside of the
environment of the Earth.
-
00:21:15
And I want us to see
what He says to them.
-
00:21:17
First, He says to the
serpent, who was Satan,
-
00:21:19
he says this:
-
00:21:30
God seems to indicate here,
-
00:21:31
the Bible seems to
indicate that the reason
-
00:21:33
why some of us are
freaked out by snakes
-
00:21:35
is that there is
a natural enmity
-
00:21:37
we have towards
us and that creature.
-
00:21:41
And that creature
or that evil, if you will,
-
00:21:44
keeps trying to come up
and snap at us and bruise us
-
00:21:48
and bruise us, but
eventually there is going to be
-
00:21:51
a person who comes
out of Eve's DNA,
-
00:21:54
and his name is Jesus,
who's going to actually
-
00:21:57
crush the head of
evil and to crush it.
-
00:22:00
And He declares
this, is what God does.
-
00:22:03
And in these things,
He's explaining to us
-
00:22:06
how sin has affected our world
-
00:22:08
and then how God is going
to sort of, He steps back.
-
00:22:11
He steps back some
of his protections
-
00:22:13
in the world that are
there, and He allows sin
-
00:22:16
to have more reign
that's in the world.
-
00:22:18
So He says to the
woman, he says:
-
00:22:31
So the reason why we
have pain in our world
-
00:22:33
is because of sin
has brought pain,
-
00:22:35
and specifically
pain wasn't always
-
00:22:37
supposed to be
present in childbirth.
-
00:22:40
And we have painful
childbirth now because
-
00:22:43
it reminds us of
the effect of sin.
-
00:22:45
And we have male
female like relationships
-
00:22:48
all the time that are a
tension with one another.
-
00:22:51
And God says this
is part of the curse
-
00:22:53
of the sin that's
come into the world.
-
00:22:54
And then to Adam, he says:
-
00:23:17
We have funerals where we say
-
00:23:20
ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
-
00:23:22
It comes from this
part of the Bible
-
00:23:25
reminding us that we
will all eventually die,
-
00:23:28
but we weren't created to die.
-
00:23:31
We were created to live forever,
-
00:23:33
but death is a curse
as a result of sin
-
00:23:36
that's here in this
ecosystem right now.
-
00:23:40
And there's also a
curse of fruitless labor.
-
00:23:43
When we labor in the field,
-
00:23:45
we have thorns and
thistles and weeds
-
00:23:47
that pop up in our beds,
-
00:23:48
in our gardening beds
that we're trying to do.
-
00:23:50
We have little
bacteria that come
-
00:23:52
and eat at our tomatoes,
causing fruitless labor.
-
00:23:56
If we call on somebody in sales,
-
00:23:59
we don't get the sale
when we should have
-
00:24:01
gotten the sale because
something weird happened,
-
00:24:03
because some thorn
in the corporate system
-
00:24:05
popped up and kept
us from having the sale.
-
00:24:07
This is called fruitless labor.
-
00:24:09
Labor isn't the curse.
-
00:24:11
Fruitless labor is the curse.
-
00:24:13
And we see all hell
literally breaks --
-
00:24:16
All hell literally
breaks loose on earth
-
00:24:19
and in culture, and is still
breaking fourth right now.
-
00:24:22
Adam and Eve go from having
-
00:24:24
wonderful communication,
wonderful intimacy
-
00:24:27
to broken communication
and broken community
-
00:24:30
and lack of intimacy.
-
00:24:31
They start covering
themselves up with leaves
-
00:24:34
because they have a sense
of shame over one another.
-
00:24:37
Their next generation,
their offspring,
-
00:24:38
one offspring kills another.
-
00:24:42
We're still living in the stew
-
00:24:45
that was created for
us way back when,
-
00:24:47
and we're actually adding to it,
-
00:24:49
we're actually
putting more sin in
-
00:24:52
the longer we refuse to see this
-
00:24:55
and respond accordingly.
-
00:24:58
We don't even know what we want.
-
00:25:00
We don't understand
spiritual reality.
-
00:25:02
Consumers don't always
know what they want.
-
00:25:04
If you want to
make a lot of money,
-
00:25:06
here's how you
do it in business.
-
00:25:07
You don't give
somebody what they want,
-
00:25:09
you give somebody what
you know that they need,
-
00:25:12
but they don't even
know that they want.
-
00:25:16
That's what history
tells us as far as
-
00:25:18
invention and
making a lot of money.
-
00:25:20
Nobody wanted a smartphone.
-
00:25:24
If you go back, and I'm old
enough to remember this,
-
00:25:26
when the whole smartphone
thing started coming up,
-
00:25:28
people said, "We've
learned this lesson,
-
00:25:30
when it comes to technology,
-
00:25:32
there needs to be
single use devices.
-
00:25:34
The more you try
to have a device do,
-
00:25:36
the less effective
it's going to be."
-
00:25:38
And what you know, Steve
Jobs and Apple figured out,
-
00:25:41
we realize, "Oh, of
course I want that.
-
00:25:43
Of course, I want to
know instantaneously
-
00:25:44
what the weather is in
Hong Kong. Of course I do.
-
00:25:47
Of course, I want a
calculator and my newspapers
-
00:25:50
and to be able to text
and emails and phone calls
-
00:25:53
and of course, of course I do."
-
00:25:55
No one thought
they did, but we do.
-
00:26:00
And the iPad came out,
which I'm using right now,
-
00:26:04
you see, my sin
makes me not want
-
00:26:06
to tell you this little secret.
-
00:26:08
But there's this really
funky little prompter monitor
-
00:26:12
that has an iPad that's
throwing up a mirror image
-
00:26:14
that I can actually
read my script
-
00:26:17
and actually look
directly at you,
-
00:26:18
and you don't think
I'm even doing it.
-
00:26:20
You think I'm really smart and
really that well thought out.
-
00:26:23
No, I'm not really.
-
00:26:24
I just took a lot of notes
-
00:26:25
and you can't tell I'm
looking at the notes or not
-
00:26:27
because I'm looking at the iPad
-
00:26:29
that's right in front
of the camera lens.
-
00:26:30
But I remember when the
when the iPad came out,
-
00:26:34
people were going, "Oh,
my gosh, that's ridiculous."
-
00:26:36
People called it the iFad.
-
00:26:39
"What do we need some
bigger version of this for?
-
00:26:43
The iFad?"
-
00:26:45
Until many of us start
using it, we're like,
-
00:26:47
"Oh, this thing is freaking
awesome. It's awesome."
-
00:26:49
Steve Jobs knew what
we wanted and needed
-
00:26:53
before we knew what
we wanted and needed.
-
00:26:56
Somebody in authority, somebody
envisioned had to see it.
-
00:26:59
God, as the ultimate authority,
-
00:27:01
God with the vision
has seen what we need,
-
00:27:04
He's seen our sin problem,
-
00:27:06
even if we're not
willing to see it.
-
00:27:09
That's what His vision is
-
00:27:12
and we're trying to get
that vision inside of all of us.
-
00:27:15
The Book of Romans 1:29
and following, it says that:
-
00:27:42
those who practice such
things deserve to die,
-
00:27:45
they not only do them,
-
00:27:48
but they give approval to
those who practice them.
-
00:27:52
Man, if you want to be approved
-
00:27:54
in our culture of toxicity,
-
00:27:57
just be sinful and watch
how people approve of you.
-
00:28:00
Just say the most
libelous things on Twitter
-
00:28:04
you possibly can see how
many people applaud you.
-
00:28:07
Just be as indignant as possible
-
00:28:09
and just see how
open minded you are
-
00:28:13
in not allowing your
kids to have any rules
-
00:28:15
and boundaries and
never disciplining your kids
-
00:28:17
and actually chuckling when
your kids are disobedient,
-
00:28:20
and just watch your
people approve of you.
-
00:28:22
Just watch how it is the
people who are greedy
-
00:28:25
and consume only
about themselves
-
00:28:27
and think only about themselves,
-
00:28:29
how they're constantly
defending, "Oh, you deserve it.
-
00:28:31
Oh, yeah, you should.
Good for you.
-
00:28:33
You should buy another
car on more credit
-
00:28:36
even though you're
in deep debt right now.
-
00:28:37
Good for you,"
-
00:28:39
because that's what
our culture does.
-
00:28:41
We applaud sin, we applaud it
-
00:28:44
and we applaud people who
applaud sin and encourage it.
-
00:28:50
Now, despite all I've said,
there's good news here
-
00:28:53
because even though while
I've tried to set the stage
-
00:28:56
for all the stuff being wrong,
-
00:28:57
all this stuff
actually killing us,
-
00:28:59
and it is killing us, it is.
-
00:29:02
You can deny this.
-
00:29:03
You can't deny
that it is killing us.
-
00:29:05
It's killing our culture.
-
00:29:06
It's killing you.
-
00:29:07
It's killing your relationships.
-
00:29:09
It's killing your levity,
your lightness, your joy
-
00:29:13
when we refuse to be
forgiving and we're bitter,
-
00:29:17
when we refuse to understand
and we're judgmental,
-
00:29:20
when we're refusing to put
any guardrails around ourselves
-
00:29:24
and say no to ourselves ever.
-
00:29:26
When we refuse to
do that, we get hurt.
-
00:29:30
The good news
is is there is a cure.
-
00:29:33
And over the coming
weeks, we're going to speak
-
00:29:36
directly to some of the
most damaging results
-
00:29:39
of the fall, the toxic
things that are around us.
-
00:29:43
Things like shame.
-
00:29:46
Things like fear.
-
00:29:49
And we're going to see
that the umbrella cure
-
00:29:51
for all of this is another
word we don't like.
-
00:29:53
We don't like the word sin.
-
00:29:55
I don't care if you
like COVID or not,
-
00:29:57
you've got to wrestle with it.
-
00:29:58
It is here and it is real.
-
00:30:00
And we don't like sin.
We've got to wrestle with it.
-
00:30:02
It is here. It is real.
-
00:30:03
And in other word
we don't like at all
-
00:30:05
is the word that is the cure,
it's the word repentance.
-
00:30:11
It's a word that means
I'm going this way,
-
00:30:14
I'm going the way that
everyone else is going,
-
00:30:17
I'm going the way of sin.
-
00:30:19
I'm going the way of approving
-
00:30:21
of those who
practice such things.
-
00:30:23
I'm going the way of me
being the center of my universe.
-
00:30:26
I'm going the way
of getting mine
-
00:30:28
and judging people who are not.
-
00:30:30
I'm going and what
we do is repent,
-
00:30:32
we go (brakes sound
effect) it's a turn.
-
00:30:34
It's a turn. It's a
change of direction.
-
00:30:37
I change. I change my mindset
-
00:30:41
and I change my body
-
00:30:44
and I go in a
different direction.
-
00:30:49
The cure includes
turning from the toxicity
-
00:30:53
and going a different direction
-
00:30:57
while God sends me a Savior,
-
00:31:01
something I didn't
know that I needed,
-
00:31:03
something I didn't
know that I wanted,
-
00:31:05
who isn't a fad. He's a Savior.
-
00:31:09
Out of Mary's DNA and
Eve's DNA, who crushes,
-
00:31:15
who crushes the
head of the evil one,
-
00:31:18
who crushes him in
an astonishing way
-
00:31:22
that no one saw
coming, He crush him
-
00:31:24
by stretching out
His arms on a Cross
-
00:31:27
and taking the pain of
the toxicity on His back,
-
00:31:33
on His shoulders, and loving us,
-
00:31:38
and laying down His life for us
-
00:31:40
so that we could have
the opportunity to repent.
-
00:31:42
Friends, there's going
to be a lot in this series
-
00:31:44
that are going to be very
hard for you to listen to.
-
00:31:46
There's going to
be a lot of things
-
00:31:48
that are complicated
that's going
-
00:31:49
to be hard for you
to stay focused on.
-
00:31:51
And that's part of the
problem in our culture.
-
00:31:53
We've dumbed and
numbed ourselves down
-
00:31:55
to not be able to follow
a line of reasoning,
-
00:31:58
to not be able to follow truth,
-
00:31:59
to not be able to
do the hard work
-
00:32:01
of understanding the
toxicity in our culture.
-
00:32:04
And this is it, and it is real.
-
00:32:06
And if you get it
and you turn around,
-
00:32:08
I'm telling you your life
is going to be different.
-
00:32:11
I want that from you
and you want that for you.
-
00:32:15
Let me pray for you right now.
-
00:32:16
God, I thank You for
being clear and giving us
-
00:32:20
things in Your Scriptures
that are so clear.
-
00:32:23
I know all of us have
something to turn from
-
00:32:27
because all of us
have these toxins in us
-
00:32:29
and around us and
we don't want them.
-
00:32:31
We ask Your forgiveness
for falling prey to them.
-
00:32:35
Jesus, we want to ask
You to come in and help us.
-
00:32:39
We give our life to You.
-
00:32:41
We ask Your forgiveness.
-
00:32:43
We ask You fill
us with Your Spirit
-
00:32:45
and with your grace.
-
00:32:48
We want You and Your
ways and the beauty,
-
00:32:51
the transcendency, and
the purity that follows. Amen.
-
00:33:00
You know, once our
mind engages on this,
-
00:33:02
it's really good to
engage our heart on it
-
00:33:04
before we engage our limbs
-
00:33:06
when you're done
with this broadcast.
-
00:33:08
We're going to engage
our heart with this
-
00:33:10
by singing together
and worshiping together.
-
00:33:13
Let's do that right now.
-
00:44:22
- Hey, thanks for joining us.
-
00:44:23
I hope you've gotten something
-
00:44:25
that's going to
impact your life.
-
00:44:27
Don't miss next week when Alli
-
00:44:28
is going to talk to us
about The Cure for Shame.