The Strength We Need | Thrive This Winter Week 2

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The best way to watch Crossroads Church

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is on your smart TV,

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because that's where your family hangs out.

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And plus, taking a break

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from your phone and tablet feels good.

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Download the Crossroads TV app on your smart TV

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and your TV becomes your church,

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your community,

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your new rhythm,

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your "I finally went to church this week."

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Set a time to experience church on your TV.

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Download the Crossroads TV app.

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It'll give you the boost

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you and your family need for your week.

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Winter's coming [bird chirps] cold, long, dark...

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and it's going to be amazing.

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Get yourself a shot in the arm of encouragement.

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Just survive? Hibernate?

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No way!

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God wants you to thrive this winter

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and we'll show you how.

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A new weekly series from Crossroads.

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Check it out by downloading the Crossroads app

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on your smart TV or at Crossroads.net.

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- Hey, everyone, and welcome

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to the second week of Thrive This Winter.

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I'm Hannah and I'm here with my buddy Justin

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who is a worship leader. Thanks for joining us.

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- Glad to be back.

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- Yeah, you're doing a great job.

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Today Brian is going to be talking to us

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about physical strength and spiritual strength.

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And you might be like, "What, I'm out.

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I don't want to hear that."

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But let me tell you, they relate.

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And he's going to give us some scripture

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and some practical messages to help us

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figure out how those two things correlate.

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Speaking of strength and being strong, you know,

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Justin, I'm really I'm feeling the scarf game.

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It's strong today. It's looking great.

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- Yeah, you're feeling it.

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- I'm feeling it, it looks good.

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- I am not feeling it. - Oh, OK.

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- I'm not a scarf wearer. - OK.

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- I'm wearing the scarf because

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someone off camera here just said,

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"Hey, it's a winter series.

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You should have a scarf on.

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So you will you put a scarf on?"

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I said I don't know how to put a scarf on

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and they wrapped me up in this scarf.

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I don't even know how to take it -- beards

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- Are you feeling the pressure?

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- Yeah, beards, scarves, they don't match, man.

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- It's OK, you can take it off. It's good.

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- How's this? - Good.

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- So I'm thriving now and we want you to thrive,

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so let's hear what Brian has to say.

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- Hey, great to have you with us.

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Welcome to Thrive This Winter.

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My name is Brian Tome and we're gonna talk

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about how to thrive this winter.

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It's coming up, it's on us already, 2020 winter.

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Hey, let's go all the way back to spring of 2020.

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Do you remember when people said, "Hey,

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hey, this coronavirus thing,

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it's not going to go away in a couple of months.

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It could go all the way through the year,

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all the way into the next flu season and winter.

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"Oh, please." At least I did, like, "Oh please."

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What do you know, those pundits, they were exactly right.

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And now they're saying -- now they're saying

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that we're going to be in this through all of 2021.

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And I'm less prone to dismiss them

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and tell them they're idiots.

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Now I'm realizing that you guys were right before

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you're probably right again.

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Can we all just give our reaction to it?

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Well, what does that make us feel like?

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It makes us feel like let's give a good old 2020 scream.

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[screams]

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You wished you could do that in a gymnasium, didn't you.

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My own little gymnasium.

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I can do whatever I want in my gym.

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It's not my gym, actually.

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It's actually the YMCA's gym.

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You know, it's fun to stay at the YMCA.

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You can have a good time.

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You can hang out with the boys. It's fun to stay at the Y.

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You remember that song?

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The YMCA actually has a fascinating history.

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It actually is Young Men's Christian Association.

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Now, today, you don't have to be young to come here.

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You don't have to be a man to come here.

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You don't have to be a Christian to come here.

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You just need to associate with general physical health.

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But the very earliest formation,

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why the YMCA was started by a bunch of missionaries

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who saw the link between our spiritual health

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and our physical health.

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Actually, the the Y in the YMCA

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is a triangle turned upside down, which is

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there are 3 points for overall holistic health:

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my mentality, my spirituality, and my physicality.

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They believe when we bring all those things together

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we could be more godly, be closer to God,

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and have a better functioning life.

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Who wants that? I know I want that.

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And I know this mission

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actually comes from the Bible itself.

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It says in the Book of 1st Timothy 4:7:

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Godliness, I believe, is the totality of our life

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becoming more and more like a training our bodies,

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training our physicality is incredibly important,

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but we're really concerned about

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the holistic aspect of our lives as human beings.

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But today we're going to focus

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on the aspect of our physicality,

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which is actually part of our spirituality.

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Here we are past the quarantine 15,

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it used to be called the quarantine 15.

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For many of us, it's actually the COVID 19.

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Weight just keeps adding on and adding on.

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This is not good.

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We're in wintertime and some of us are going,

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"Oh, my goodness, it's wintertime.

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I'm really going to go to pot physically now."

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You don't have to you know, you don't.

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You know, in winter for many of us,

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it's a time for us to retreat to our houses,

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stream more,

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just kind of hunker down under our blankets,

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have some soup, have some eggnog.

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Just keep packing on the L-B-Ss

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because it's going to be hidden by a sweater anyway.

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In the process, we get more depressed,

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we struggle more, we feel more detached from God.

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I talk with friends who live in the Great North,

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in Minnesota, those places.

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They say, "You guys have it all wrong.

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You guys retreat from the winter.

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We embrace the winter.

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The only way you can deal with winter

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is to get out into it.

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So we do hockey. We do ice skating.

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We do skiing, cross-country skiing,

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ice fishing, snowshoeing.

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You've got to get out into it."

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There's something when your body is moving,

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that you feel closer to God. Why?

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Because believe it or not,

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God actually created our bodies

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and He's created our bodies to move.

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And when we're not moving

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and when we're not physically strong,

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we're not going to be able to be spiritually strong.

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I want you to be spiritually strong.

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I want you to be godly.

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I want to help you today.

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And to do that, we're going to have to talk

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about these things, these bodies that God gave us.

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It doesn't matter what shape you're in right now,

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it doesn't matter what you're doing,

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Hey, let's just all grow from where we are right now.

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Oh!

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- Umm, you know, he was really excited about that,

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and I'm excited.

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- Very proud of himself.

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- But I do think that I don't know if he made it.

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So let's -- actually let's get some rerun of the footage.

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Can we get a retake?

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What does that call on TV?

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- Review - A review, okay.

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We're getting a review.

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Right now, everyone, get into the booth, review.

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- He's so excited. - He's so excited.

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- He's proud of himself. - Yeah, he definitely thought

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it was like nothing but net situation right there.

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- Except it was just nothing, literally nothing.

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- Yes, nothing. No net, no rim.

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- Barely net. - Nope.

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- I coach first and second grade girls.

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Brian, I'd like to invite you to the next practice.

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We'll give you some help, give you some tips.

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- That's all right.

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You know while his basketball skills

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may seem a tiny bit questionable,

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Brian does have some good points for us to look into.

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But before we do that, if you're practicing

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the spiritual discipline of giving

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or you want to partner with us

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by spreading this message of hope to more people,

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you can do that right now.

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- And you can do that like I do at Crossroads.net/give.

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Before we hear more from Brian,

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let's hear Jen's story about her journey

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toward physical and spiritual strength.

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- I believe that when we are strong

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physically, mentally and spiritually,

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we can thrive in any situation.

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God had brought me through some places

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where I had always siloed my health

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and my spiritual life

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and my mental health in different silos.

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I trained for a half marathon,

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and in the midst of that training,

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I just met God in a way in that

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when I would hit walls with distances

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that made me recognize, wait a minute,

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He wants to be a part of all of this.

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He just rocked my world in a way that

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I recognized they're actually all intertwined

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and He designed us to have that happen

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and He wants to be part of it all.

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When I recognized that, other women

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started seeing something happening in me

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and they were asking me lots of questions.

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And the person who owns the gym

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that I'm currently working at, he recognized

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women were coming to the gym with me.

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And he just asked me if I'd be interested

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in leading a group for women.

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And I at first was like, no, no.

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Then I just felt like God was saying,

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"No, I want you to do this."

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And it has been one of

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the most life-changing experiences I've ever had.

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And I have watched God show up in ways

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that have blown me away,

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seeing women recognize their strength,

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their power when they're together in community

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and when we're all fighting to be healthy,

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we want to be who God created us to be.

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And when we're healthy, we can do that.

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It's a way to work out the things that

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we want to be able to do on a daily basis

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and build muscle memory, not just physically,

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but mentally and spiritually.

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I think strength looks different in everybody.

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We'll look at the group and you might point at

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one person and be like, "That person is really strong."

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But the person next to them might have

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this spiritual strength that makes them a giant.

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One is encouraging the other person

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to push through physically and get to a new place.

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The other person is challenging

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that person's thought process.

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"Capture your thought.

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Remember, God says you're enough," that kind of stuff.

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And those strengths, when they come together,

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all we can do is get stronger.

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It's iron sharpens iron, that's what happens.

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If we want to be healthy,

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there is going to be a small cost in the beginning

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or maybe a large cost in the beginning,

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but the benefit outweighs the cost immensely.

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If we want to say to God,

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"I want to do whatever You call me to do,"

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I don't ever want Him to call me to do something

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and my health be the roadblock to me doing that.

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I want to be able to run when He says run.

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When my kids want to play with me,

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I want to be able to play.

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I don't want to be too tired.

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When my husband wants to go for a walk with me,

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I want to be able to go out and walk.

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When I have friends who need me,

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I want to be able to drop what I'm doing

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and run to them and have the energy to do that.

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The only way we can do that is if we pursue

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our health on a regular basis and make it a priority.

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God gave us the body, we need to take care of it.

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We need to recognize it as a tool to use

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for the things He calls us to.

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When we pursue equally our mental

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and our spiritual and our physical health,

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and we keep them all strong,

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it doesn't matter what's happening around us.

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It doesn't matter if it feels like

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the world is blowing up around us.

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If we are rooted in truth

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and we have muscle memory in our physical strength,

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our mental strength, and our spiritual strength,

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we can get through anything.

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And there's some strength that we have

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in the midst of that that enables us to thrive.

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And I've seen it,

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and I don't ever want to lose that hope.

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- 48, 49, 50.

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Oh, man.

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I didn't do 50, I'm sorry,

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but actually I've got a real warm spot for exercises.

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Let me say this before we start, or go any further,

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I know there's a lot of shame

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as relates to physical fitness.

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I know a lot of us have already checked out.

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We're already gone. It's like, "Oh, my gosh,

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I don't want to talk about my body.

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I don't want to talk about the physical,"

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because we feel defeated.

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We feel like we don't measure up.

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We feel like we can't do it.

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I understand that, I really do.

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I'm not trying to get any of us to be CrossFit athletes.

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I'm not trying to get any of us to run a marathon.

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I'm just trying to help us to see

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that the physical is spiritual.

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That's all I'm trying to get us to,

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just maybe a step. Just hang with me.

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Just maybe a step to see that the physical is spiritual.

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It became a spiritual thing for me

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when I would go out and play basketball

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and I realized that my body was decaying.

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For my whole life, my body did whatever I wanted to do,

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whether it was play football

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or in high school I did a little boxing,

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whatever it was, my body was always there for me.

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And then at age 35,

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running up and down the basketball court

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wasn't enough anymore and I just started gaining weight.

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I started losing energy at the end of the day.

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My back was going out again and again and again

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and I said, "Ho, ho, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

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I can't -- I can't live this way.

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I've got to do something to keep myself moving and going.

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I've got to raise my game.

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I've got to elevate my game."

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I saw that how I would take care of my body

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would actually tell God

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how I was taking care of one of His blessings.

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My body is one of His blessings.

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Now, I want to make sure that we understand

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that your physical fitness, it is a spiritual issue.

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If we go way back centuries and millennia,

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we see within Christendom some really bad understandings

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about the physical or physical properties

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and about the spiritual.

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Go all the way back to Plato way, way, way, way back.

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Plato believed, Platonic philosophy was such

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that this workout bench is a physical workout bench.

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But there's no value in this, no value in this,

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really there's a spiritual realm

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in which the pure workout bench is.

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And we need to want that pure workout bench.

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This is actually nothing.

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Now, I'm not trying to pick a fight

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with an intermural Christian squabble. Not at all.

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Just want to point out some of the history

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of the Catholic Church or communion for many Catholics,

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that comes out of this platonic thought

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where there is the spiritual, which is the highest,

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but something physical represents it.

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So that's why for many Catholics, the Eucharist,

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the mass, the wine and the bread is a physical thing,

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which literally is what's actually in the spiritual.

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It's also why many ancient monastic orders

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would beat themselves, flog themselves over their sins.

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What they're trying to say is my physical body is nothing,

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my physical is worthless.

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It's the spiritual. I'm going to beat this.

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And I just want to tell you, friend, that's not true.

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It's just not true.

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Your physical being is worthy.

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I want to give you some scriptures today

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to help you see this.

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In the book of Genesis 2:7 it says:

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If our physical bodies were nothing,

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then God wouldn't have created our physical bodies.

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But He does and then He breathes spirit into our bodies.

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Jesus pre-existed long before Christmas ever happened.

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Jesus existed as God

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and He comes and He takes physical form.

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If physical form isn't worthy,

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then God wouldn't have come and taken physical form.

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That's what John Chapter 1:14 says:

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The Son comes down and takes on physical properties.

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God takes on physical properties.

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And you know what Jesus does

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while he's walking through the earth?

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One of the things He's doing is

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He's physically healing people,

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He's physically touching people and helping people.

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He's not saying, "Oh, well, you're sick,

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your body's sick.

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Well, the body doesn't matter."

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He doesn't do that.

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He comes and He heals people, He blesses people.

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I actually went through

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the entire New Testament multiple times.

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I am a pastor, I kind of read it for a living.

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But Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,

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the four authorized biographies of Jesus.

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I've read them a bunch of bunch times.

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One time I went through it and I just

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counted up all the miracles that there were,

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all the different miracles that were in there.

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And Jesus would see somebody lying on the ground

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and they would reach out to Him and He would heal them.

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I'll do wonder -- I do want --

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There's so many so much cool gear in here.

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Like I'm trying to keep -- I'm trying to keep focused,

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but I can't do it. It's just -- it's just too fun.

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He sees people and He heals people 41 times,

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41 times I've counted.

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Now some of those miracles or duplicates,

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some of them are like, I'm not sure it's a miracle.

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I counted 41.

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Here's the thing, of the 41 miracles,

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34 of them happen

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when somebody instigates the behavior,

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when somebody comes forward to Jesus.

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Of the remaining 7, there's still often something

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like the person has to go down

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and wash off in the pools of Siloam,

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like in John Chapter 9,

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or a person has to step forward

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in the book of Mark Chapter 3.

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But again and again and again and again and again

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it's Jesus seeing people's faith and stepping out.

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One time it's a bunch of guys that bring

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a paralyzed guy who is on a mat.

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They carry him on a mat.

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They come to Jesus and it says,

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"When Jesus saw their faith,"

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that's in Matthew 9, also in the book of Mark,

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"When He saw their faith, He healed them,"

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He healed that man.

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We'd like to think that, well, if Jesus came to my city,

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He'd maybe go to the local hospitals

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and just walk up and down the aisles,

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the hallways of the hospital in the ICU units

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and would be going like...

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No, He wouldn't do that, He wouldn't do that

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because that's not what He did when he came.

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He waits to see who wants it.

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He waits to see who will take a step.

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He waits to see who's going to come forward

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because they physically --

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They physically do something that says,

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"I want something different for myself spiritually."

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I'm not wanting you to become body beautiful

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and workout seven days a week.

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I'm just asking you maybe this winter

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there's just a step you can take.

00:19:53

Maybe this winter it's as simple as

00:19:56

going on a walk three days a week.

00:20:00

Maybe this winter it's as simple as do

00:20:03

as many push ups as you can during a commercial break.

00:20:07

Whatever it is, do something with God

00:20:09

that just shows Him, "I'm going to try

00:20:11

something different physically, because God,

00:20:13

I want to get to a different place spiritual."

00:20:15

The spiritual can be seen as there is

00:20:17

the spiritual and then there's the physical.

00:20:19

It can also be seen as since God's blessed me

00:20:21

physically, that's a spiritual thing.

00:20:23

That's just a good thing.

00:20:24

Now, having said that, the second big idea today

00:20:28

is I want us to just recognize that

00:20:29

the physical can also be delusional.

00:20:33

It can be just very stressful coming into

00:20:38

a place like this because you don't measure up.

00:20:40

As I said all my earlier life, I was lifting,

00:20:44

I was into bodybuilding,

00:20:45

I was into just this weird stuff, man,

00:20:47

I just really was.

00:20:49

And when I came to Christ

00:20:52

and then when I started growing spiritually.

00:20:55

Oh, when I started growing spiritually

00:20:57

so let's call it about like 21, 22,

00:21:00

going to a different level.

00:21:01

I started to get really convicted that

00:21:03

all of the exercise that I was really up on doing,

00:21:06

they were all bicep -- Bicep and curls. You know?

00:21:11

They were all this.

00:21:12

Why is it this kind of stuff?

00:21:14

It's because everyone wants pythons, right?

00:21:18

Everyone wants to be able to put on a gun show.

00:21:21

It was all chest work.

00:21:24

And why was it all that?

00:21:26

It was all that because it was narcissism.

00:21:30

It was a way for me to actually look good.

00:21:33

It wasn't a functional thing, it's a way to look.

00:21:36

So I felt convicted about that,

00:21:37

so I'm just not going to lift anymore.

00:21:38

I'm not going to do that.

00:21:39

Much to my peril because as I said, I hit the wall.

00:21:44

But we've got to be really careful

00:21:46

if we're just doing something physically

00:21:48

so we'll look better, we're being deluded.

00:21:52

How many times have you ever needed

00:21:54

to curl something up like this?

00:21:55

Not many.

00:21:56

When's the last time you actually were on your back

00:21:59

and you need to press something above?

00:22:02

When's the last time that happened?

00:22:04

Probably -- Probably never. Right?

00:22:07

But we're drawn to that because we want to look good.

00:22:11

And there's nothing wrong with looking good,

00:22:12

but there's something wrong when that is our goal

00:22:16

instead of God being our goal.

00:22:18

In Men's Journal, they talked about this recently.

00:22:22

Men's Journal is one of the many magazines

00:22:24

that's out there, and actually

00:22:26

women are way, way ahead of men.

00:22:29

Women have had pressures put upon you

00:22:33

that us men are only now beginning

00:22:35

to understand and live with.

00:22:38

It's well documented.

00:22:39

Back in the '70s Cosmopolitan magazine,

00:22:42

the Barbie doll just put images out there

00:22:44

of what a woman's supposed to look like,

00:22:46

what she's supposed to dress like,

00:22:48

the physique she's supposed to have

00:22:51

that 99 out of 100 women just can't meet.

00:22:56

And it's a crushing, crushing burden to women,

00:22:59

utterly crushing.

00:23:00

Well, women were ahead of the game,

00:23:02

at least the marketing department

00:23:03

was ahead of the game and putting a burden

00:23:05

on women that you couldn't bear.

00:23:07

And now it's finally come to men.

00:23:10

Men's Journal, Men's Health.

00:23:11

It's like every cover has got some guy

00:23:16

with a 8 pack, a 6 pack, whatever.

00:23:18

And by the way, they're not the strongest.

00:23:20

Any of us who've binged Alone, which is amazing,

00:23:24

Alone 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, amazing. Amazing.

00:23:27

We all now know if you want to be strong,

00:23:29

if you want to live,

00:23:30

you better darn well have some fat on you.

00:23:32

Great. You look great in a pool?

00:23:33

You get in the real world, you freaking die.

00:23:35

You will die. Utterly die.

00:23:38

"Oh, you look so good, .2% body fat." Yeah.

00:23:41

And you're going to die as soon as there's a food crisis.

00:23:44

In Men's Journal they say this:

00:23:45

A desire to change your weight or physique

00:23:48

is often what spurs the desire to exercise.

00:23:51

But if you're exercising solely to burn calories

00:23:54

or "earn" your meal -

00:23:56

or you engage in compensatory exercise because

00:23:59

you ate too much earlier or the day before,

00:24:03

that's a sign of obsessive behavior.

00:24:06

Some men even suffer from body dysmorphic disorder,

00:24:10

a condition where you have

00:24:12

a severely distorted perception

00:24:14

of your weight and shape.

00:24:15

It's incredibly dangerous for your mental

00:24:18

and physical health

00:24:19

if you're never satisfied with your performance,

00:24:22

the way your body looks or how you're progressing.

00:24:26

Guys, women, we've got to say enough.

00:24:30

It's not about -- It's not about fitting

00:24:34

the image that somebody else says we need to have.

00:24:36

It's about being strong.

00:24:38

It's about being functional.

00:24:39

I got in the gym more because

00:24:40

I wanted to function at age 35 and and way, way past.

00:24:44

We have to recognize as we get engaged

00:24:47

in physical stuff, we're just going to be

00:24:49

coming up against potential danger scenarios

00:24:52

of falling into the way that

00:24:54

the very shallow world wants to think,

00:24:56

which is ignoring our mentality,

00:24:59

ignoring our spirituality,

00:25:00

and exalting our physicality.

00:25:03

Clues we see of this in the Bible through and through.

00:25:05

One of them is King David, before he becomes a king,

00:25:09

God comes to a prophet.

00:25:10

His name is Samuel and says, "OK,

00:25:12

go over to this guy's house, Jesse.

00:25:14

And there's a bunch of guys there who are his sons

00:25:18

and one of them is going to be the next king."

00:25:21

And here's what he says to Samuel

00:25:22

looking at these physical specimens.

00:25:24

1 Samuel 16:7:

00:25:40

Samuel is drawn to make the next king

00:25:43

be the largest and strongest in the house of Jesse.

00:25:46

And it's not him.

00:25:47

He goes the next largest and strongest,

00:25:49

and it's not him.

00:25:50

And he goes to the next, it's not him.

00:25:51

He finally finds it's the smallest

00:25:53

and the weakest, physically speaking,

00:25:57

David, the shepherd boy.

00:25:58

You know, some of the most powerful people I know

00:26:02

are out of shape.

00:26:04

Some of the people I admire the most

00:26:07

don't work out four days a week.

00:26:12

It's one thing to be physically fit,

00:26:13

it's another thing to be spiritually fit.

00:26:17

Physical fitness and strength is important.

00:26:19

That's why we're doing this.

00:26:20

But I'm just telling some of it's danger, danger.

00:26:22

Danger, Will Robinson.

00:26:23

Here's another verse of the New Testament

00:26:25

that talks about what it's like to be

00:26:27

fixated always on the outside. 1 Peter 3:

00:26:49

Now this is spoken to women,

00:26:52

but it's just as applicable for men as well.

00:26:55

He's saying, "Hey, don't be so into

00:26:57

what your earrings are that you're fixating on that

00:27:01

instead of fixating on

00:27:02

what you're putting inside of your ears."

00:27:06

Don't be so fixated on how your body looks

00:27:10

as much as you're fixated on how you look to God.

00:27:14

Don't be don't be so fixated

00:27:17

on what clothes you're wearing.

00:27:19

Have you ever noticed, like there's some people,

00:27:21

like you never see them in the same clothes twice.

00:27:23

Weird, like really weird.

00:27:25

They're spending a lot of time thinking about that.

00:27:28

God would have us think about how is it

00:27:30

that we are clothed with the body of Christ,

00:27:33

we're clothed with the identity of Christ.

00:27:37

There's nothing wrong with having earrings,

00:27:40

nothing wrong with having nice clothes.

00:27:41

There's nothing wrong with having

00:27:43

a chiseled body like mine. I'm kidding?

00:27:47

No, I'm very thankful that

00:27:49

I don't have to show my skin here, by the way.

00:27:53

Nothing wrong with that.

00:27:55

It's just a matter of what your passion,

00:27:57

what you're looking for.

00:27:58

Do not be deluded by this world

00:28:00

that would tell us everything is about

00:28:01

how you physically look and what you can physically do.

00:28:03

Just recognize there's a new place for you to go to.

00:28:06

God cares about your body.

00:28:07

He wants you to care about your body.

00:28:11

Third big idea is this: The physical is practical.

00:28:17

Now, this is an exercise

00:28:20

I've been doing more of recently,

00:28:21

and I really don't like it.

00:28:24

Like I don't like it.

00:28:25

Most of us never have a problem getting motivation

00:28:29

to work out your chest and biceps.

00:28:31

But man, like these suckers, oh, my gosh, lunges.

00:28:37

I've been doing more and more of these recently.

00:28:42

And the reason I've been doing more and more

00:28:45

is because I have a practical goal

00:28:48

I'm trying to get ready for,

00:28:50

there's something I'm training for.

00:28:56

If I wasn't wanting to be more strong

00:28:58

and had a thing that I was working on,

00:29:00

I wouldn't do these.

00:29:04

What am I doing?

00:29:06

Well, I just got an elk tag.

00:29:13

Oh, my gosh. I got an elk tag.

00:29:18

Now, those of us who are hunters know that's a big deal.

00:29:21

Elk are not just bigger versions of deer.

00:29:25

They are these monstrous entities

00:29:30

that don't live in Ohio where I live.

00:29:32

And it is incredibly competitive

00:29:35

to get permission to hunt an elk,

00:29:38

to get a tag, to get a license.

00:29:40

So fortunately -- I can't believe I said fortunately.

00:29:44

But fortunately, the State of Colorado

00:29:48

has had awful wildfires,

00:29:50

which is obviously not a fortunate thing.

00:29:51

It's a bummer thing because God cares

00:29:54

about the physical planet

00:29:56

and He cares about you physically.

00:30:00

But because of these wildfires,

00:30:03

people who could have hunted elk

00:30:07

and had tags are choosing not to

00:30:09

and they're not picking up their tags

00:30:11

or they're turning them in.

00:30:12

There's just some available.

00:30:14

So I just found out about this like, you're kidding.

00:30:17

Made a bunch of phone calls.

00:30:19

My son and I got elk tags. It's amazing.

00:30:22

And we've talked to some people

00:30:24

who know some about this,

00:30:25

"Like, where are you going to go?"

00:30:26

"We're going to go out in the National Forest

00:30:28

and we're going to find something

00:30:30

and we're going to hunt for it."

00:30:32

"You're never going to be able to do that.

00:30:34

You've got to go to private land.

00:30:36

You've got to go to on--"

00:30:38

Some guy tried talking me into going to this

00:30:40

fenced private land where I could take down an elk.

00:30:45

A bull elk would be $15,000.

00:30:47

What?! What?! Freaking crazy. What?!

00:30:50

That was supposed to be a good deal.

00:30:53

Zero interest in that.

00:30:55

I like the hunting more than I like the killing.

00:30:58

I like taking my truck and setting up camp

00:31:03

at about 10,000 feet elevation,

00:31:07

in the dead of winter, by the way,

00:31:10

hiking 10 miles, setting up on a mountain top

00:31:15

or on a ridgeline and glassing it out,

00:31:17

binoculars, scopes, trying to find where they might be

00:31:22

and then getting in place to take your shot and then --

00:31:27

And then having to come 10 miles or so back to camp

00:31:32

and hauling 400 pounds of meat that you're going

00:31:36

to have to do multiple trips in a backpack.

00:31:39

That's what I'm interested in.

00:31:41

That's why I'm interested in physical fitness,

00:31:43

because I want to experience this life.

00:31:46

I don't want things to be just so easy

00:31:49

that there's no gratification to it.

00:31:52

But I had to practically be ready

00:31:56

for the things God wants me to do.

00:31:59

Some of us,

00:32:00

we can't roll around the floor with our kids.

00:32:04

It's all right, you've got time.

00:32:05

You've got time, just just take a step forward.

00:32:09

Try something new, take a walk every night,

00:32:12

do something different.

00:32:14

Some of us, we were constantly tired.

00:32:19

We don't have any energy because

00:32:21

we haven't kickstarted our metabolism.

00:32:23

We haven't gotten our juices flowing

00:32:25

because our physicality impacts our mentality.

00:32:30

It impacts our spirituality.

00:32:33

I actually believe when I'm working out

00:32:36

it is as important to God

00:32:39

as it is when I'm sitting in silence

00:32:41

just trying to hear His voice.

00:32:44

I do these exercises so I can have

00:32:46

a functional, practical, capable, strong life.

00:32:53

There was an old time writer

00:32:56

who I ran across this quote,

00:32:57

he was an old English professor.

00:32:59

Man, I thought what he said was really interesting.

00:33:01

He says this:

00:33:50

I'm just trying to get us moving, guys.

00:33:52

Just take a step, this winter physically engage.

00:33:56

This winter, go to a new place, try something new.

00:34:00

And maybe when you do that,

00:34:02

you'll sense the smile of God in your life.

00:34:05

You'll find that your actual spirituality

00:34:07

is increasing because

00:34:09

you're practically a stronger person.

00:34:12

A life of faith is a life of moving.

00:34:14

It's not a life of philosophy.

00:34:16

It's not a life of mentality.

00:34:17

A life of faith as a life of movement.

00:34:19

Put one foot in front of the other,

00:34:22

get to the place where God can use you

00:34:26

where He can bless you.

00:34:28

The Book of Romans 12:1 says:

00:34:45

By the mercies of God present yourself.

00:34:47

They would have an altar where you would put

00:34:50

an animal, physically put an animal on a physical altar,

00:34:55

and that would tell God, "This is Yours,

00:34:58

this animal is Yours, this life is Yours."

00:35:00

And what is being said there is

00:35:01

we need to put our physical bodies on the altar

00:35:06

and say to God, "God, I'm Yours. I'm here.

00:35:11

I'm here to do Your agenda.

00:35:13

And I want to be able to do Your agenda.

00:35:17

To do Your agenda, it means I'm going to have

00:35:19

to have some physical competency,

00:35:21

some mental competency, some spiritual competency.

00:35:24

But I want to take care of this body as the best I can.

00:35:27

I want to make it strong to be able to rise up

00:35:32

and do whatever I need to do.

00:35:33

And I have no idea what You're going to want me to do."

00:35:35

I had no idea I was going to have an opportunity for elk.

00:35:39

I'm doing a little more working out now

00:35:41

than two weeks before I go out, a little more.

00:35:43

But I was ready.

00:35:45

I've been doing stuff for a while.

00:35:47

I was ready to step up.

00:35:50

You want to be capable, friends.

00:35:52

You want to be competent.

00:35:53

You want to be strong.

00:35:54

Not the strongest, not body beautiful,

00:35:57

not perfect, disciplined person.

00:35:59

Just having enough capacity to do

00:36:02

what God might bring your way.

00:36:04

Do that this winter.

00:36:07

Let me pray for you right now.

00:36:08

God, I thank You for the bodies You blessed us with,

00:36:11

however broken they may be,

00:36:13

however beautiful they may be to the world's eyes,

00:36:16

however overweight they may be,

00:36:19

however disease they may be.

00:36:20

You gave us a body.

00:36:22

You gave us something and we're thankful for it.

00:36:25

Help us to take care of it.

00:36:26

Help us to use it to the fullest extent

00:36:31

of all possibilities.

00:36:33

Lord, we want to put Your gifts into play,

00:36:35

that means we want to put our bodies into play.

00:36:38

I thank You for the the gift of Jesus

00:36:40

and the gift of His body to ours.

00:36:44

I pray these things according to His name,

00:36:46

His character, His identity, Jesus Christ. Amen.

00:36:52

- As we go into this next time of worship,

00:36:54

this isn't supposed to be passive,

00:36:56

it's not just supposed to be quiet and reflective time.

00:36:59

It can be active, bold, and out there.

00:37:02

It can be aggressive.

00:37:04

And so I want you to think of it as a workout.

00:37:06

When you approach a workout,

00:37:07

you get ready for that workout.

00:37:09

You get in a posture ready for that workout.

00:37:10

So lean in right now,

00:37:11

maybe scoot to the edge of your seat,

00:37:13

maybe put your hands out in front of you.

00:37:15

Make this a bold declaration of God,

00:37:17

whether you believe it or you want to believe.

00:41:03

- A life of faith is a life of movement,

00:41:05

it's not a life of philosophy,

00:41:07

it's not a life of mentality.

00:41:08

A life of faith is a life of movement.

00:44:31

- It's been great worshiping with you today.

00:44:33

And if you're anything like me,

00:44:35

your 2020 rhythms are just off you,

00:44:38

you're out of practice, out of habit.

00:44:40

But if you would like a reminder to make sure

00:44:42

you don't miss any moment of the series,

00:44:44

you can text "NEXT" to 313131.

00:44:48

- It was great to be with you. We'll see you next time.

00:44:51

- [screaming]

	The Strength We Need To Thrive 💪	2:12
	Instant Replay 🏀	7:56
	Jen's Story	8:42
	Your Physical Fitness Is A Spiritual Issue	12:09
	Worship: Laying It All Down	37:20
	Worship: Trust	41:06

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