The Good King | The Good God Journey Week 3

America isn’t real big on “kings.” In fact, we don’t like authority of any kind—we don’t want to be told what to do…like ever. So what do we do when the Bible describes God as a Good King? Today, Brian talks about how submitting to God’s authority can be good and can bring us the power we’re missing in our lives.

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    - We have some of God's goodness planned today
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    for everybody, don't we?
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    - Yeah, we do. Welcome to Week 3 of the Good God Journey.
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    We've got a little bit of happiness in this van
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    because you know how we do.
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    Ready, Kyle? - Show us!
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    - We have so much happiness. I know. Oh.
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    - Wheelbarrow, get in the wheelbarrow.
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    - Look at that, hi, baby. Hi.
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    We lost some. I'm going to get them.
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    - A pile. Get in there.
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    Yeah, we got plenty of room. Here we go.
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    [indiscernible}
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    OK, so we're going to go spread some of God's goodness
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    to people with some puppy petting. Let's go.
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    - Would you like to pet a puppy today? - Yes.
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    -That's Minnie. She's very sweet.
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    - She's so sweet.
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    You're spending a little bit of joy.
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    - Come on. This way. Come on.
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    - Hi, would you like to pet a puppy.
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    - We have cute ones and cuter ones.
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    - Yeah, we do.
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    - We've got a fluffy one.
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    Look, they're the same size.
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    - Can I pet a puppy? - Yeah, you can.
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    Of course you can pet a puppy. Can you say hi?
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    - Stay.
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    - Hi, would you like to pet a puppy.
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    - Here you go. Minnie, no. Luna, no.
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    Would you like a wheelbarrow of puppies?
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    - Play nice.
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    - I think we're doing great.
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    - Yeah, we are.
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    -Oh, please, pet a puppy.
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    Do you guys like puppies?
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    - Yeah. - You do? You like puppies.
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    Would you like to pet a puppy? That's Minnie.
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    - That's so sweet.
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    - And Luna. Yeah.
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    - Oh, yeah, they are.
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    - What we've learned is that everyone likes puppies,
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    but puppies don't like wheelbarrows.
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    - No, they don't.
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    - It's an important thing to know about life, apparently.
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    - That was so much fun and so incredible.
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    Man, aren't puppies just good?
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    - There's something just amazingly good about them.
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    - Yeah, they're incredible. - You were so good.
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    - Today we're going to be talking
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    about God as a good King.
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    Let's get started.
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    - Is God good?
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    Is He good on day one of working from home?
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    How about day one 180?
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    Is God good when school is online?
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    Is He good when your business is struggling?
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    Is He good even one when everything in the world
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    makes you want to scream, "Good God, what is going on
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    and where are You?"
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    That's a fair question and actually a great prayer
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    because we believe there is a good God with good answers.
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    - Hey, I'm Brian.
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    Welcome to Week 3 of the Good God Journey.
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    We're looking at how in the Bible,
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    when you open it up there's a double helix strand
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    that comes up out of the Bible showing two huge roles
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    of God: the role of Father and the role of King.
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    And when we don't see Him as both of these
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    we will misinterpret what He's doing
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    and what He says as not being good.
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    I'm in a place right now where very few people
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    have ever get to, it's a castle.
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    It's a real live legitimate castle,
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    except I'm not in France, our budget isn't that big.
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    I'm in Kentucky, yeah, I'm a Kentucky.
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    And, man, I'm in America.
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    That's right, America. I love America.
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    Many people will call it 'Merica.
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    I love America.
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    There's no place else I'd rather live on God's green earth.
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    And I also recognize that there's things
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    inside of our culture that make it difficult
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    for me to understand the God who is.
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    Our culture is about democracy.
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    Our culture is about everybody doing
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    whatever you should be able to do.
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    Our culture is about we have a say on what our leaders do.
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    And that's good. I think that works well for us.
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    It works better than many of the king models
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    we have across the world right now or the dictatorships.
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    But those are flawed people with flawed motives.
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    And the Bible shows God as a King
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    who is overseeing a kingdom.
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    Every kingdom has a king.
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    Every king is an authority.
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    And if you and I don't recognize God as King of our life,
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    we will not have the life that we need to have,
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    we'll not understand God,
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    and we'll be frustrated repeatedly.
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    God is a King
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    who has His Kingdom's best interests at heart.
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    And I want us today to learn to give control to that King,
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    to give our life to that King.
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    In the book of Matthew 6:9,
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    it's well known as the Lord's Prayer.
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    Jesus taught us how to pray. He says this:
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    That's a great, great passage.
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    And we see a bunch of things happening there.
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    One of them is this double helix strand comes up.
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    Jesus says our Father. Our father.
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    Actually, the word that he uses there
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    or that's use there in the Greek is Abba,
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    which can be translated daddy.
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    Daddy, hey, daddy, to talk to your Heavenly Father.
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    Daddy had that kind of familiarity and warmth.
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    And that daddy also has power and authority.
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    He is a King.
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    It talks about a Kingdom
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    and He is the King of that Kingdom.
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    Kings are foreign concepts for us.
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    We don't understand them.
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    We've run away from them.
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    In American history ran away from our king
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    way back when in England because we wanted to be on our own.
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    And many of us still run away from God today.
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    His Kingdom requires us being in alignment with Him
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    if we want our life to work.
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    A number of years ago, that really great movie,
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    The King's Speech came out.
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    It was about King George, the king of England,
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    during World War II.
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    And he had a speech impediment
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    and he was trying to get some coaching
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    on how to mobilize and motivate the kingdom of England.
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    And his daughters just loved him.
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    There was just a tenderness there.
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    They would come up and they would sit on his lap
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    during the movie and they would play with him.
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    It was a daddy/daughter relationship
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    that was really beautiful.
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    And then he comes out to give his speech
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    and they see him in all of his king regalia
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    and they stop
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    and they curtsy,
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    because they realize that their daddy is the king.
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    He can't be reduced to just the warmth guy,
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    he's also a power guy.
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    Friends, you and I have to have this.
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    We have to have a sense of confidence around God
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    that He cares for us, He loves us.
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    And we have to have a sense of reverence
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    that He is an authority.
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    He is a King that has an agenda He's working.
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    He's got things that He's doing that we can't understand.
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    And when we get that, we can start to see that He's good.
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    And the more we rebel against it,
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    the more will struggle with His goodness.
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    - Man, I know that submitting to God as a good King
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    can feel weighty, but it's so good.
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    There's goodness waiting on the other side,
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    no matter the area of your life, your finances included.
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    - Absolutely.
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    And giving is one of the ways that we can submit to God.
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    He wants us to do that.
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    - Which we get, this is not a commercial to get your money.
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    If you're new to church, you're just checking out God,
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    this is not for you.
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    But if you're somebody who wants to take the step
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    to say to God, "I trust You as my good King,"
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    then don't miss out on His goodness. This is for you.
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    - Absolutely. You can do that right now
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    by going to Crossroads.net/give
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    or text Crossroads to 313131.
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    - This week, our friend Chuck got to catch up
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    with one of his friends who's experiencing
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    more of God's goodness
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    through learning to submit to Him as a good King.
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    - I'm great. How are you?
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    Doing all right.
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    - Thanks for having me.
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    - How would you describe yourself
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    as a young man, early teen, as it relates to faith
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    and your relationship with God?
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    - My mom always had me in church.
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    You know, going to church my whole life,
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    I knew God was real, but, you know, those desires
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    and temptations kind of -- they take over.
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    And you start living a way that you know is not godlike.
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    So there was always a check in my spirit to say,
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    "Oh, you're doing wrong," but you kind of bypassed that.
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    I didn't see God as a King.
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    I think that's where my life took a dramatic turn
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    when it came to my relationship with women.
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    In simple terms, I went hog wild.
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    You know, seeing -- growing up,
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    seeing some of the men cousins, you know,
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    with my family being from New Orleans is a big party city.
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    And, you know, you got uncles and cousins
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    and they're living the Mardi Gras lifestyle.
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    And, you know, I learn from them guys.
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    And it just became almost like a habit for me.
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    And it was really destructive when I look back.
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    When I got to UC, there were times, you know,
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    a young lady came up to me at the food court
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    and found out she was a cheerleader.
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    That night I went out with the whole cheerleading team.
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    There was a few guys that would come over
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    from Cincinnati Christian University
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    that they were so solid in their faith.
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    I mean, they didn't have girlfriends.
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    They didn't go out.
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    They were really strong.
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    I went back to my roots: I need God.
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    But what does that look like?
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    Because you start to form these habits,
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    especially for me with women, it was like
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    it was always this on my mind.
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    And Got spoke clearly to me and said,
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    "You have to learn how to be single
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    before you can be faithful."
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    So I think those examples of God
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    putting those young men in my life as examples
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    is something else like, "I want that."
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    And this was the path of submitting to God as King.
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    As I progress and started coming to Crossroads,
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    met John, he took it to a whole other level.
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    I never submitted it to anybody, especially a man.
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    So once we got closer, he started learning my struggle.
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    - And and particularly your struggle with women.
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    - Yes. You know, I remember a moment we're shooting pool.
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    A young lady comes up to me
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    and he comes wraps his arm around me like,
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    "Yeah, he can't talk to you."
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    I'm like, "I'm a grown man, John." Right?
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    But looking back, you know, those type of moments
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    frustrated me in the moment because I'm like, "I'm grown."
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    But he was really trying to put me in a rhythm
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    of being single and knowing who I am
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    and trying to prepare myself for a wife and family one day.
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    He brought me into his family.
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    There were times I would stay the weekend there.
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    So that was my first time
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    really seeing a Christian family interact.
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    It was really like a two year period
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    that I really went into a safe place.
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    Sometimes -- I'm not saying submitting to him
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    or submitting to God was easy.
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    It came with some turbulence.
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    - Right, right.
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    - But when I look back,
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    it helped me become who I am to today.
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    I went from being a broken individual
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    that didn't have a purpose,
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    didn't have a destiny in life,
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    something I was pursuing,
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    thinking only about me to submitting to God as King
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    and then having fruit in my life.
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    I know what friendship looks like.
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    Friendship is family.
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    You know, I have fruit in my life
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    from my relationship with my wife.
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    I have two awesome kids.
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    And it's given me a purpose in life.
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    And I know my destiny is one day to be with that King,
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    but I am working very hard
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    to submit to that King in this journey now
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    so I can not only have fruit in my life,
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    but leave a legacy for fruit in my kids' life.
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    - Isaiah 6:1 says:
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    The Lord, the King it says is high and lifted up,
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    high and exalted, He is the highest King of all Kings.
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    My most stark image of royalty was the pictures and images
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    from when Lady Di was married to Princess Charles
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    and she had that that gown,
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    that train on the end of her wedding gown
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    that went all the way down the aisle at Westminster Abbey.
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    It was the kind of train that only royalty could afford.
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    Isaiah has this vision of God in His holy throne room
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    as King and he's like, "Oh, the throne,
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    it fills the temple."
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    It's like in front of his face.
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    It's not just all the way down the aisle.
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    It's filling the whole thing.
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    What's being said here?
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    In ancient customs, whenever a king
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    would conquer another king, he would go to that king
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    and cut off the train of his robe
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    and he would attach it to his train showing,
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    "Your kingdom is now my kingdom.
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    I beat you. You're under me."
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    So God has so many victories,
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    He has so much possessions,
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    He has so much territory
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    that it fills the entire entire place.
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    And Isaiah not only sees this massive robe
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    with the victories of God,
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    he also see these angelic beings, the seraphim.
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    They've got two wings that are fluttering around,
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    they've two wings that are that are covering their face,
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    they've got two wings that are covering over their feet.
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    This is a far cry from the Hallmark angels that we know.
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    You know the kind I'm talking to about,
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    those fat little white babies with suction cup darts
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    that try to make people fall in love.
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    It has nothing to do with what God's angels are.
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    God's angels are His sentries.
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    They're there to serve His bidding.
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    And these angelic beings are awesome.
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    And why would they have wings covering their face?
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    Do you know why?
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    Because they aren't fit to look into the face of the King.
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    They have to cover themselves because
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    they say to one another, "He's holy, holy, holy."
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    Holiness means distinct,
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    it means other than, it means of your own category.
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    And they keep saying that to God, "You're different,
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    You're distinct, You're different, You're distinct."
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    We like to think of God as just my, He's my buddy.
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    He's my homeboy. God's my copilot.
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    He's the big guy in the sky.
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    He's, you know, all these things.
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    Yeah, maybe He is big.
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    Yeah, maybe you've got a good relationship with Him,
  • 00:17:09
    but hey, man, He's a King.
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    He is God, He's not down on our level.
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    That's why they're covering their face.
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    His glory and splendor and otherness is so beyond them
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    that they've got to cover their face.
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    I think this is where Steven Spielberg
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    really got it right with Raiders of the Lost Ark.
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    Remember that old movie?
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    They open up The Ark of the Covenant
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    and the Spirit of the Lord comes out
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    and melts off the Nazi's faces.
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    Awesome seeing Nazi faces melted.
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    God bless America. That is amazing stuff.
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    Steven Spielberg maybe had this right because
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    as a person with Jewish heritage,
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    maybe he understood this passage.
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    In modern American Christendom,
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    we have all these worship songs that are --
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    Some of them are just like lovey-dovey, sappy stuff to God.
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    Like, "Oh, I want to gaze into your face.
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    I want to touch your face. Oh, I love you."
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    Let me tell you something,
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    no one has ever seen the face of God.
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    You don't ever want to see the face of God
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    because you will die, you'll freaking die.
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    Angels can't see the face of God.
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    They're covering their face.
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    You have prophets in the Old Testament,
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    the best they can get is they get placed
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    into a cleft of a rock and God passes back side by them.
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    He is different. He is distinct.
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    He is above. He is beyond. He is a King.
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    And they flutter about covering their feet as well,
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    because the feet were signs of unholiness, of being common.
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    We still see that today in the Middle East.
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    They will insult people by throwing their shoes at people.
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    George Bush had throw shoes thrown at him
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    by Middle Easterners.
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    They were trying to say, "The feet is common.
  • 00:18:49
    It's unholy stuff. We're insulting you."
  • 00:18:51
    When Saddam Hussein's statue came down,
  • 00:18:54
    countrymen of Iraq were taking their shoes
  • 00:18:56
    and smacking him in the face, his statue in the face,
  • 00:18:59
    showing, "That we're putting our uncleanness on you,
  • 00:19:02
    or in other words, our normalness on you."
  • 00:19:05
    God is above, He's beyond.
  • 00:19:08
    Let's keep going.
  • 00:19:09
    Check out some other crazy things that are happening here.
  • 00:19:12
    It says that the threshold's shook.
  • 00:19:16
    Things were shaking with the holiness of God.
  • 00:19:19
    And when Isaiah sees all this, he says, "Ho, whoa,
  • 00:19:24
    woe is me. Woe is me.
  • 00:19:28
    I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips."
  • 00:19:34
    God is a daddy who we can crawl upon us in His lap
  • 00:19:36
    and we can get comforted
  • 00:19:39
    and we can have closeness and unity, absolutely.
  • 00:19:44
    And He's a King and He's above and beyond.
  • 00:19:49
    And when you see Him, you will be undone.
  • 00:19:53
    This is a prophet, this is an Old Testament prophet
  • 00:19:56
    that he is undone when he sees God, it totally crushes him.
  • 00:20:03
    I think we're losing some of the awe and mystique of God.
  • 00:20:06
    We're trying to make Him so understandable
  • 00:20:08
    and so inoffensive that we losing the holiness,
  • 00:20:12
    the grandeur, the awe, the mystery,
  • 00:20:16
    the power of God, the utter power of God.
  • 00:20:21
    These angels go and they take a burning coal
  • 00:20:26
    and they (sizzle sound effect)
  • 00:20:28
    They singe Isaiah's lips taking away the impurity.
  • 00:20:35
    Now, what Isaiah is experiencing here,
  • 00:20:38
    he isn't just experiencing God.
  • 00:20:40
    He's also experiencing a renewed calling
  • 00:20:43
    for what God wants his life.
  • 00:20:44
    That's what I want from you.
  • 00:20:45
    I want you to have a renewed calling
  • 00:20:48
    for the things that God wants to do in your life,
  • 00:20:52
    the things that the King wants to use you for in His Kingdom.
  • 00:20:57
    We talked about this last week.
  • 00:21:01
    And let's use this triangle in a different way.
  • 00:21:07
    These are the three points of our relationship with God.
  • 00:21:10
    Last week we talked about what it was like
  • 00:21:12
    to have God as a Father.
  • 00:21:14
    The Father, you remember, gives us our identity
  • 00:21:18
    and out of our identity comes our works.
  • 00:21:20
    Well, similarly, we have a King.
  • 00:21:25
    The King gives us our authority,
  • 00:21:31
    that's a big word to spell upside down.
  • 00:21:34
    I hope I spelled that right.
  • 00:21:36
    The King gives us our authority
  • 00:21:39
    and out of our authority comes our power.
  • 00:21:45
    If you've ever felt like you lack power,
  • 00:21:47
    like you lack zeal, that you lack the resources
  • 00:21:51
    to get done what you need to get done,
  • 00:21:53
    what God wants you to be done, it might be because
  • 00:21:58
    you're not allowing the King to give you His authority.
  • 00:22:04
    And out of that authority comes our power.
  • 00:22:07
    I heard a former executive from --
  • 00:22:10
    A senior executive with a Japanese auto manufacturer
  • 00:22:16
    speak a long time ago.
  • 00:22:17
    And he tells the story of when Japanese cars
  • 00:22:23
    were really coming into power.
  • 00:22:25
    Americans were buying more and more of them, of course.
  • 00:22:27
    Why? Because they were really superior vehicles
  • 00:22:30
    back in the '70s and '80s.
  • 00:22:32
    And he, as a senior official with this automotive company,
  • 00:22:39
    received somebody from the president's cabinet.
  • 00:22:44
    And that person was saying, "Look,
  • 00:22:47
    this is what the president would like to do with,"
  • 00:22:48
    I don't remember what it was, taxes
  • 00:22:50
    or with how you're manufacturing or tariffs or whatever.
  • 00:22:54
    The president was wanting to level the playing field
  • 00:22:56
    and do something about America getting undercut
  • 00:22:59
    and not selling as many cars.
  • 00:23:01
    And so as they were talking about this the Toyota guy
  • 00:23:04
    said, "Whoa, you don't -- you don't understand.
  • 00:23:07
    You don't understand."
  • 00:23:08
    And the guy from the cabinet cut him off and said,
  • 00:23:10
    "Hold, whoa, you don't understand.
  • 00:23:13
    I represent the power of the presidency.
  • 00:23:17
    You don't understand I represent the power that
  • 00:23:20
    influences and sets laws in which you're doing business.
  • 00:23:26
    You will listen to me."
  • 00:23:28
    That's what they did.
  • 00:23:29
    What happened?
  • 00:23:30
    That guy was operating under the authority
  • 00:23:34
    of the President of the United States,
  • 00:23:36
    and out of that he had power with what he was saying.
  • 00:23:40
    When I started to realize that God has unique power,
  • 00:23:43
    when I slot myself under His Kingship,
  • 00:23:46
    when He gives me authority, that's when
  • 00:23:48
    some really powerful things started to happen with me.
  • 00:23:51
    It changes everything.
  • 00:23:53
    Some time ago I was ready to go on stage
  • 00:23:56
    speaking at a camp, one of our camps.
  • 00:23:58
    I think it was man camp I was speaking at.
  • 00:24:01
    And that week before I just had a --
  • 00:24:03
    I had a bad week. It was a bad week. I did--
  • 00:24:06
    I don't remember exactly what that week,
  • 00:24:07
    but I remember feeling like I had disqualified myself
  • 00:24:12
    with things that I had done that week.
  • 00:24:13
    I wasn't really walking close with God.
  • 00:24:15
    I was just going after my own agenda, not His.
  • 00:24:18
    I remember being convicted over that
  • 00:24:21
    before I got up on stage and I realized,
  • 00:24:23
    "Oh my gosh, I can't -- I can't do this.
  • 00:24:25
    This is -- I'm not I'm not qualified to do this."
  • 00:24:28
    And I sensed God say to me very clearly, he said, "Brian.
  • 00:24:34
    I qualify you. You don't qualify yourself, I qualify you."
  • 00:24:39
    And when I got up on stage, I remember giving
  • 00:24:43
    one of those just magical talks
  • 00:24:45
    where I just felt like it was God Himself
  • 00:24:47
    working through my mouth because I was operating
  • 00:24:50
    under His authority and His power.
  • 00:24:52
    I've been really blessed to have a hand in seeing
  • 00:24:59
    a number of literal, physical, miraculous healings,
  • 00:25:03
    seeing people healed of things that God used,
  • 00:25:08
    was it my prayer?
  • 00:25:09
    Was somebody else who prayed earlier than day, later on?
  • 00:25:11
    I don't know, but there's just a number of them,
  • 00:25:16
    a whole bunch of people who had infertility issues
  • 00:25:19
    and couldn't get pregnant.
  • 00:25:20
    And I put my hand on their bellies and prayed,
  • 00:25:22
    and they would tell me it was that day when we conceived.
  • 00:25:26
    People who had eye conditions and couldn't see a monitor.
  • 00:25:29
    And the next -- the next literally minute
  • 00:25:31
    when they went out to the atrium they could see a monitor.
  • 00:25:33
    People who had nerve damage in arms.
  • 00:25:35
    It's just a bunch of things.
  • 00:25:36
    I'm not captain televangelist health and wealth thing.
  • 00:25:39
    I'm not, I'm just humbled to have been able to be used
  • 00:25:43
    by God however many times to see crazy things happen.
  • 00:25:50
    And it happens not because I have some technique
  • 00:25:56
    that makes crazy things happen.
  • 00:25:58
    By the way, it's called a miracle.
  • 00:26:00
    It doesn't happen all the time.
  • 00:26:01
    If it happened all the time it wouldn't be called miracle.
  • 00:26:03
    It would be called good things you can do
  • 00:26:05
    to get what you want.
  • 00:26:06
    No, a miracle happens rarely
  • 00:26:08
    and it's something that God does.
  • 00:26:10
    But the reason I think it's happened as much as it has
  • 00:26:13
    is because I recognize God has given me authority
  • 00:26:17
    and I don't just have to beg for things.
  • 00:26:19
    He's given me authority as I come under His Kingship,
  • 00:26:24
    and that gives me power to do the things He's asked me to do.
  • 00:26:29
    You're not a --
  • 00:26:30
    You're not a weak, groveling little orphan heart that
  • 00:26:32
    has no resources if you have a relationship with Jesus.
  • 00:26:35
    No, you're not.
  • 00:26:36
    You're under the authority of a King
  • 00:26:39
    who has vast, endless resources.
  • 00:26:42
    But you have to ask yourself,
  • 00:26:44
    "Am I under His authority, under his kingship?"
  • 00:26:48
    This is why baptism is critical.
  • 00:26:51
    Baptism is when somebody chooses to lower themselves
  • 00:26:57
    under the ways of God and they get baptized.
  • 00:27:02
    They get dunked in water,
  • 00:27:04
    they die to all of their old stuff.
  • 00:27:07
    And when they come back up out of the water,
  • 00:27:09
    they come with the authority of the King
  • 00:27:11
    because they've lowered themselves underneath God.
  • 00:27:15
    We're going to have an opportunity for you to do that
  • 00:27:16
    later on this journey.
  • 00:27:17
    I meet people who just don't feel comfortable baptism,
  • 00:27:20
    "I don't want to."
  • 00:27:21
    Why don't you feel comfortable baptism?
  • 00:27:23
    I'll tell you why, it isn't because you feel like
  • 00:27:25
    you're going to be embarrassed
  • 00:27:26
    if you're wet in front of people.
  • 00:27:28
    That may be part of it.
  • 00:27:29
    At the heart of it is you don't want
  • 00:27:32
    to lower yourself underneath God.
  • 00:27:35
    At the heart of it is you don't want to submit yourself
  • 00:27:39
    in a humbling situation where you go under the water
  • 00:27:45
    signifying that you have died to your own stuff,
  • 00:27:48
    died your own self, died your own ways
  • 00:27:50
    and you're giving your life to God.
  • 00:27:53
    Every great person in the New Testament portion of the Bible,
  • 00:27:56
    every single one has been baptized.
  • 00:28:00
    It's a decision they made.
  • 00:28:01
    Not their parents made for them, though I think
  • 00:28:03
    there's something about infant baptism, dedication.
  • 00:28:06
    I'm not anti that.
  • 00:28:07
    I baptized my kids, little ones,
  • 00:28:10
    but all of them, in and of their own will
  • 00:28:13
    need to come to a place where they lowered themselves
  • 00:28:17
    before the King.
  • 00:28:18
    And when you do that,
  • 00:28:20
    you lower yourself beneath His throne.
  • 00:28:25
    This is a key, pivotal moment.
  • 00:28:28
    For everybody who would have a life
  • 00:28:31
    that goes on a different trajectory,
  • 00:28:32
    a life underneath God,
  • 00:28:33
    a life where you start to see that He's good,
  • 00:28:36
    a moment where you bow before the throne,
  • 00:28:41
    where you put yourself in humility under His authority.
  • 00:28:45
    That is not my seat.
  • 00:28:48
    This is the place where we start to feel His goodness.
  • 00:28:53
    The place where life starts to get good
  • 00:28:56
    because it's in proper order.
  • 00:28:58
    There's God and there's me.
  • 00:28:59
    God, me, God, me.
  • 00:29:02
    When I came on this set today, I saw that.
  • 00:29:06
    And I was like, "Oh, man. I want to -- I want to --
  • 00:29:09
    I want to get on that.
  • 00:29:10
    Where do you get a throne like that?
  • 00:29:12
    EBay friends. eBay has it all.
  • 00:29:14
    That's where you get a throne like that.
  • 00:29:15
    But I'll tell you, as much as I want to sit on that throne
  • 00:29:19
    and while there's nothing special
  • 00:29:20
    about this physical object,
  • 00:29:22
    I don't want to sit in the throne because
  • 00:29:24
    I don't want to delude myself at all to believe
  • 00:29:27
    that I am King,
  • 00:29:29
    that I am somehow this hyper authority for men.
  • 00:29:32
    And here's the problem.
  • 00:29:34
    There are people in churches right now,
  • 00:29:38
    with us right now, you might have all the good beliefs.
  • 00:29:41
    You might be able to answer multiple choice
  • 00:29:43
    on who Jesus is, maybe even got baptized through this.
  • 00:29:46
    You're on this freaking chair every day.
  • 00:29:48
    You're on this chair all the time because
  • 00:29:49
    you're living your life the way you want to do it.
  • 00:29:51
    You think what you want to think.
  • 00:29:53
    You spend money on what you want to spend money on.
  • 00:29:55
    You sex the way you want to sex.
  • 00:29:57
    You talk the way you talk.
  • 00:29:58
    And then you verify and validate it. Why?
  • 00:30:01
    Because you are king, you're just giving lip service.
  • 00:30:05
    So long as you're on the throne of your own life,
  • 00:30:09
    your life cannot be good.
  • 00:30:12
    So long as you're on the throne of your own life,
  • 00:30:15
    you are usurping the power of God
  • 00:30:17
    and you're inviting Him --
  • 00:30:20
    You're inviting Him to not show you goodness.
  • 00:30:23
    You're inviting Him to go to war with you.
  • 00:30:26
    Do you want to go to war with God?
  • 00:30:28
    Some of us, you've been at war with God.
  • 00:30:30
    That's why life hasn't been working out.
  • 00:30:31
    I'm not saying, "Hey, you're a bad person."
  • 00:30:34
    I'm saying, "Here's a key.
  • 00:30:35
    This could be good news for you, because
  • 00:30:36
    now you know why things aren't working,
  • 00:30:39
    because you're not under the authority of the King
  • 00:30:42
    and there's not a power to your life that comes forth."
  • 00:30:47
    When I'm down in my appropriate posture before the King
  • 00:30:52
    there are riches that are available to me.
  • 00:30:58
    There are things that I couldn't have otherwise.
  • 00:31:03
    There is -- there is an inheritance that comes
  • 00:31:07
    to those who know God as my Dad and my King.
  • 00:31:13
    There are future blessings that are stored up
  • 00:31:17
    for those who are down on their knee before God.
  • 00:31:22
    And until you can take this posture,
  • 00:31:26
    there's just things in life that will not pop your way.
  • 00:31:28
    And I'm not saying everything in life is going to be easy.
  • 00:31:31
    I'm not saying everything in life is going to be great.
  • 00:31:33
    But I'm saying what's easy and great
  • 00:31:35
    is coming under the Kingship of God
  • 00:31:37
    and things just make sense this way.
  • 00:31:44
    This week you're going to get one of these these coins.
  • 00:31:48
    It's got two sides to it, Good Father and Good King.
  • 00:31:54
    This is a device to help you in your spiritual walk,
  • 00:31:57
    to help you connect with God on both --
  • 00:32:00
    In both of these spheres or both of these realms.
  • 00:32:04
    You can pray to God as your King.
  • 00:32:06
    You can pray to God is your Dad.
  • 00:32:08
    Sometimes helps me to be very specific
  • 00:32:10
    in one of those roles when I do that.
  • 00:32:13
    Maybe if I'm feeling defeated,
  • 00:32:15
    if I'm feeling unloved,
  • 00:32:17
    if I'm feeling rejected,
  • 00:32:18
    maybe I want to go to my dad and say, "Dad,
  • 00:32:22
    would you help me sense your pleasure?
  • 00:32:25
    Would you just comfort me?
  • 00:32:26
    I want to crawl up in your lap?"
  • 00:32:29
    Sometimes if I'm feeling like I'm not worthy,
  • 00:32:31
    I don't have the ability, I don't have the strength,
  • 00:32:34
    I go to my King and say, "Lord."
  • 00:32:36
    That's what it means for Him to be King, He's Lord.
  • 00:32:39
    Not just savior who saves us, He's Lord.
  • 00:32:42
    "Would you give me your power to do what you want me to do?"
  • 00:32:47
    Think of that when you have this coin.
  • 00:32:49
    Maybe you want to do things in your personal time with God,
  • 00:32:51
    your prayer time.
  • 00:32:52
    Maybe you want to pray to God as King.
  • 00:32:56
    "God, I submit to you right now the urges
  • 00:32:59
    that I've been feeling and I can't control.
  • 00:33:01
    I submit them to you because they are Yours."
  • 00:33:04
    Or, "Father, I recognize Your goodness in my life.
  • 00:33:10
    Thank you for adopting me."
  • 00:33:11
    Use that in your time with God
  • 00:33:13
    or use that just as a memory device
  • 00:33:15
    as you go about your day.
  • 00:33:18
    God being King is all through the Bible
  • 00:33:21
    from the beginning to the end.
  • 00:33:22
    At the very, very end of the Bible in Revelation 4,
  • 00:33:27
    here we have a vision of the future.
  • 00:33:30
    And they're still saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the King."
  • 00:33:35
    We've got these 24 elders.
  • 00:33:37
    We're not sure exactly who those folks are,
  • 00:33:39
    but they've got their crowns and they come
  • 00:33:41
    and they cast their crowns down at the throne.
  • 00:33:43
    Why do they have crowns?
  • 00:33:45
    They have crowns because God has given them authority and power.
  • 00:33:48
    A lot of people with us have authority and power.
  • 00:33:50
    Whatever it is, governmental authority and power,
  • 00:33:52
    business authority and power,
  • 00:33:54
    family authority and power.
  • 00:33:56
    We recognize that all those things are things
  • 00:33:58
    that God in His Kingship has given us.
  • 00:34:01
    But they all pale in comparison to His Kingdom
  • 00:34:04
    and they cast it down and say, "You are worthy."
  • 00:34:09
    The best way for us to cement today
  • 00:34:12
    is to be down on our knees,
  • 00:34:14
    casting our own crowns before Him
  • 00:34:16
    and telling Him He is worthy.
  • 00:34:19
    Let's tell Him that right now.
  • 00:34:22
    God, You are not just worthy, not just holy,
  • 00:34:26
    but You are my ultimate authority.
  • 00:34:29
    I put myself under You.
  • 00:34:32
    I yield to what You say and Your commands,
  • 00:34:35
    not what I say and my desires.
  • 00:34:38
    Thank You for being a patient King
  • 00:34:40
    and for being a good King.
  • 00:34:42
    I recognize you as that today
  • 00:34:45
    and I pray these things in your name, Jesus. Amen.
  • 00:43:39
    - Thanks for singing with us today.
  • 00:43:40
    If you like that music, great news,
  • 00:43:42
    you can listen to it throughout your week.
  • 00:43:44
    It's available on Apple Music, Spotify,
  • 00:43:46
    wherever you get your music.
  • 00:43:47
    - We are so glad that you are here along with us
  • 00:43:50
    on this Journey. You're right in the middle of it.
  • 00:43:52
    Do not give up!
  • 00:43:53
    To make sure that you're getting
  • 00:43:54
    the full Journey experience, please be sure
  • 00:43:57
    to download the Crossroads Anywhere app.
  • 00:43:59
    - It's got amazing stuff in there.
  • 00:44:00
    There's individual work for you.
  • 00:44:01
    There's group guides for you.
  • 00:44:02
    Thousands of people are doing it every single week.
  • 00:44:05
    You don't want to miss out.
  • 00:44:06
    And if you have any questions about the Journey,
  • 00:44:08
    about how to do it, Crossroads, anything,
  • 00:44:10
    we would love to answer those for you.
  • 00:44:12
    Go to Crossroads.net, click the chat button,
  • 00:44:14
    we would love to talk with you today.
  • 00:44:15
    - It's been awesome hanging with you all.
  • 00:44:17
    We can't wait to see you next week.

Oct 17, 2020 44 mins 40 sec

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