The Strength To Stand | Unbreakable Week 1

Brian, Alli, and Chuck have been stranded in the desert with a mysterious crate. Their mission is to help you out of the spiritual desert you’re facing and to complete this week’s challenge. Join us as Brian walks us through how we can have the strength to stand in hard times.

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    Hello and welcome to Crossroads, which comes to you today
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    from one of the harshest and most unforgiving environment
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    on all of planet Earth, the desert.
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    Blazing sun and scorching heat by day,
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    bitter cold and frigid temperatures at night,
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    biting wind pretty much all the time.
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    Oh, and it's full of stuff that could kill you
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    like scorpions and snakes.
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    I've been told to watch out for the green ones,
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    apparently to kill you in like five minutes or something.
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    Also, there's biting ants, there's some just over there.
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    So why am I here? What's in this box?
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    Why are we in the desert?
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    Swell, we're here in the desert,
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    because I know you're in the desert.
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    How do I know? Well, I read your mail,
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    like your actual mail, your all your e-mail.
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    I know from the stories you send me
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    that you find yourself in a place of the desert of purpose,
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    where you had dreams, but the dreams have dried up.
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    You had ambitions, but the ambitions have evaporated.
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    All the opportunities are gone.
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    Now others of you are in a marriage
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    that used to be thriving and incredible
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    and all the joy has just disappeared into the sand.
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    Others of you are apathetic, lonely, bitter.
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    Some of you are just tired of life and all the stuff.
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    We're all in a desert somewhere.
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    The good news, you don't have to stay here.
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    In fact, at Crossroads we exist to guide you
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    out of the personal desert you find yourself in
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    to the adventurous life that God has made you for.
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    Now, to that end, I've invited my three friends
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    and fellow teaching pastors Brian, Chuck, and Alli
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    out here to join me in the desert.
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    I've asked them to give us the strength to stand,
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    the courage to move, and the endurance to last.
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    Outside of those three things,
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    they know very little of what's about to happen.
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    Like what's inside this box?
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    Which should make all this very much fun for us.
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    Here they come right now.
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    - Say hello to your cousin. There's my cousin.
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    - I'm with you, we're a team.
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    Let's get this stuff out.
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    We can do this, we can do this.
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    - I did not expect this wind, Chuch,
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    I'm not going to lie to you. Look at my hair.
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    - Here's the thing we need the heat.
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    I believe you're supposed to make him into dinner.
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    - Oh, oh.
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    - What is going on?
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    - Are we ready to play today?
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    - Get in here, Chuck.
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    - I hiked all the way from Ohio.
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    - Are you trying to look like a dork?
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    - Well, some some things I can do effortlessly.
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    - Do you want to know why you're here?
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    - Yes. - Yes. - I would love to know why.
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    - I just need to know. Please tell me no snakes.
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    - Oh, lots of snakes, Chuck. (crosstalk)
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    Also, scorpions.
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    - He screams like a girl.
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    - Listen, you're here in the desert
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    because our community's in the desert.
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    I know that you guys get the same texts,
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    the same phone calls, the same emails that I do.
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    People are dried up,
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    they are worn out, and they need our help.
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    And that's where you guys come in.
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    You guys are going to be the guides
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    to get us out of the desert.
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    Here's how this is going to work.
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    Each of you has the challenge of delivering
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    a powerful, profound, actionable message to get us out.
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    Brian, we needed you to give us the strength to stand.
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    - Great.
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    - Chuck, the courage to move. - All right.
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    - Alli, the endurance to last. - Okay.
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    - To get us all the way out.
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    - All in all the time.
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    - Awesome. Now, here's the next part.
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    All of you will be using the same source material,
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    the same section of the Bible.
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    One of the most powerful, profound places in scripture,
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    a pillar of the entire story of God, the book of Exodus.
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    They were in desert, we're in a desert.
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    (crosstalk)
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    - Wandering in the desert.
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    - Yeah, that does make sense.
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    - Kyle, they got out.
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    - Some of them, Chuck. - Well, not all of them.
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    - And also 40 years. I can't give it 40 years here.
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    - Well, here's the thing, it did take 40 years
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    and most of them didn't actually get out.
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    - Most of them didn't.
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    - Your challenge is to get us out in about 25 minutes a piece
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    and leave none of us behind.
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    - No problem. - Okay. - In.
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    - Then here's the last part: This box.
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    The nation of Israel faced challenges on their journey,
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    weird things, bizarre things, strange -- oh, stop --
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    strange things.
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    - I'm making sure nothing is hissing at me from this box.
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    - And just like they faced challenges,
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    you'll face challenges,
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    task that you have to complete together
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    to better understand what they went through,
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    help us understand what they went through.
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    And honestly, it just sounded like a lot of fun to me,
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    so I just thought I'd make you do it.
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    To you. - Yeah.
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    And to everybody watching as well, probably not to you guys.
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    So that's the challenge. Are you in?
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    - In. - Yes. - In.
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    - Okay, awesome. Expected nothing less.
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    Then it is time to open the box.
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    - All right. - Oh, man.
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    - There you go, Alli. - Nice.
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    - Good teamwork already. - There we go.
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    - Your enthusiasm is admirable, but we'll see if it lasts
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    once they open the box and start the challenges.
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    Like I said, this should be fun for us.
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    - I mean, obviously. - The Bible.
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    - You will need to use that. - This is cool.
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    - OH what, Revelation 20. This is the end of the story.
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    (crosstalk)
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    - I like all this stuff. - What in the heck is this?
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    - Is that a sextant? - Who knows? - A what?
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    - I think it's a sextant.
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    I do not know how to use it, but I think --
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    - Yeah, we have GPSs now. Do we have a GPS?
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    - Can we use our phones? - No phones.
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    - Okay, so what's this?
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    Okay, those, everyone grab one.
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    You'll find your name on it.
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    Each of you will have a challenge in your message.
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    Do not open that until you begin your message.
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    You'll take it out,
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    whatever it says on the inside, you'll do it.
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    Is there anything else in there?
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    - Wait, there is this here, a map.
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    - That looks very important. Here, let's -- put that up here.
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    What do we got? - Hold it down.
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    - Where's the beginning? - You are here.
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    - Okay? - You are here in the middle of nowhere.
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    - Yes, we are. - Okay, so here it is.
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    The first thing is strength to stand, week one. That's me.
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    Survive the desert, week one challenge.
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    - Okay. - Okay.
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    - So we're not just preaching, we're actually doing things.
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    - While you preach your week one message,
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    Chuck and Alli, you'll go to that location on the map
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    and do the challenge. - Okay.
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    - That's how it will work every week.
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    - All right. - All right. (chuckling)
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    - There is a literal, very big crack we have to go through.
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    - There are several, yeah. - Wow, all right.
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    - While these are actual locations on the map,
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    you will notice it's not the scale.
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    And we weren't quite sure about the distances.
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    - Hundreds of miles.
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    - I mean, there better be some palm trees around here.
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    - Yeah, I agree.
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    Listen, we have full confidence in you.
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    - Okay. - I think it's time to head out.
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    - All right.
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    Brian, why don't you grab your envelope.
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    - Let's go. - Head off to your location.
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    Chuck and Alli, head off to find challenge number one.
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    Where's my location? - I don't know.
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    You have the map. - This direction.
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    - Chuck's got the map, I don't know, talk to him.
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    I thought we made that clear. - Let's do this.
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    - This is going to be amazing, I think.
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    As Chuck and Ali set off to find their challenge,
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    Brian began his Strength to Stand on message
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    by charging up the hill
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    and shouting down the wind, literally.
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    - I'm in a wind tunnel right now.
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    I need the strength to stand.
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    I know from interacting with so many people
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    that if you're anywhere close to normal,
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    your life doesn't measure up to what you wanted it to be.
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    The wind keeps buffeting you in the face
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    and it's difficult for you to stand,
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    let alone take some ground.
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    What we need is the X factor of the presence of God.
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    He gives us something that we don't have
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    in and of our own natural abilities to be in the midst
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    of a natural windstorm in a dry and arid place.
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    When you get that, you get to become unbreakable,
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    not shaken, not broken in half, not blown over,
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    but standing tall. That's what we're doing today.
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    I had the strength to stand up on that ridge
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    with that wind blowing,
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    but my vocal chords didn't have the strength to endure.
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    So now we're down in place that's a little more serene.
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    And the thing that we have --
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    - Right here, the thing you have to do is work in this challenge.
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    Brian, it's time to open this up and see what's inside.
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    - All right, let's see what we've got here
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    in our little Indiana Jones satchel.
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    - I'll take that. - Thank you.
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    This is a story from someone watching right now,
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    they're in a desert in their life,
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    and your job is to teach your message to them
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    and help them get out of the desert.
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    Whenever I get something, I always go to the very end
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    and see who it is, Derek is his name.
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    I also go through emails real quick to see
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    if it's negative and going to be cracking on me.
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    Do you normally do that? I do that all the time.
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    I'll go, "Okay, they're not cracking on me."
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    Here's what it says:
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    My wife and I have been going through troubles.
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    We both used to be very religious,
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    but over time walked away.
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    But I wish God would give me guidance.
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    I've been stuck between what I feel God is calling me to
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    and my responsibilities as a husband.
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    How do I find adventure in the day to day?
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    What should I do in my marriage? Derek.
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    Okay, Derek, I got you here.
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    Let me just talk about the religion piece first.
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    Religion tries to tell us if we do all these things,
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    then God's going to be okay with us
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    and He's not going to smite us.
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    So go to church, do the right things,
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    and magically things are going to be okay.
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    It's kind of a sense of controlling your morality.
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    And there's some good things about that.
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    Great, go to church and control your morality.
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    But that's different than tapping into the X factor
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    of the power of God who can enable you
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    to not just stand in the midst of a difficult marriage
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    or a difficult season in your marriage,
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    but to actually endure, to actually thrive.
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    God makes normal people abnormally strong.
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    But we have to embrace the X Factor or the presence of God,
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    not the rules of religion, but to know and embrace God Himself.
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    My experience is that most people don't enjoy their life.
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    Most people are frustrated with their marriage.
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    They're frustrated with their business.
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    They're frustrated with their finances.
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    We can be frustrated with those things
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    and still experience God in the midst of those things
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    and have a different life while loving God,
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    not loving religion, but loving God.
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    Let's talk the rest of our time about Moses,
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    who was one of the iconic leaders in the Bible.
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    This is a guy who had wind buffeting his face year in,
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    year out through different challenges of his life.
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    And he not only stood, but he actually was unbreakable.
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    He is a leader in the nation of Israel.
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    He wrote much of the Old Testament.
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    Jesus Himself in Mark 7:10 quotes him.
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    Moses was a Jew at birth
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    and he's born in this really strange time.
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    The nation of Egypt has their whole country in oppression.
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    Pharaoh sees that all these Jewish women
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    are having children, he's afraid of a future coup.
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    So he issued a demand to the midwives
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    who are helping the Jewish women deliver.
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    He says whenever you have a little Jewish boy
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    that comes out of the birth canal,
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    I want you to eliminate that life.
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    When Moses gives birth --
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    when Moses is born, rather, by his his mother,
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    that midwife said, "I don't want to do this.
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    I can't do this with this little child."
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    Moses' mother nurses him, breastfeeds him,
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    about three months old, though he's a bit large
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    and making fusses and she's got to get rid of him.
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    And the way she does that, she puts him in a basket,
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    floats him down the river.
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    And down river, whether she knew this or not,
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    we're unsure of, down river is Pharaoh's house
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    and the women of his house
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    are hanging out by the stream one day.
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    They see this basket, they pick up this basket,
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    see this little baby.
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    And as many women do, "Oh, I need this child,
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    I need to save this child."
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    And Moses, this little Jewish baby,
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    ends up growing up in Pharaoh's household.
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    Pharaoh probably had a pretty sweet crib
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    on the side of the river.
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    He didn't live in a van down by the river.
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    He would have had an amazing house right there.
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    Moses gets an ideal situation where he's brought up
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    in this amazingly wealthy family.
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    And his mother actually enters the picture
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    and actually nurses him as his nursemaid,
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    even though Pharaoh's household doesn't really know this.
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    I really identify with this situation,
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    because as Moses is adopted and it's amazing
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    that he has a chance at life
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    and in the midst of all these opportunities
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    that pharaoh's household would have given him,
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    there's still a primal wound.
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    I'm adopted and most of us who are adopted
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    would understand that there is a primal wound that happens
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    when you are separated from the person
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    you've been inside of for nine months.
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    You feel alone. I don't remember this.
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    I don't remember feeling alone.
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    But psychologists would say there was a primal wound
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    when the person who I knew had abandoned me.
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    The person who I knew in the womb did
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    an amazingly loving, generous thing
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    by giving me a shot at life.
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    Amazing, amazing. But as a little creature
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    you can't reason through that and understand that.
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    This is why myself and many people who were adopted
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    have a hard time with feeling rejected.
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    We're concerned that people are going to like us.
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    We sometimes stiff arm people,
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    we stiff arm people before they can stiff arm off us.
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    It's sort of a mode of protection to keep ourselves
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    from being hurt again because we're just trying to stand.
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    Moses, if he's at all like me and others who are adopted,
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    he's just trying to stand.
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    He's just trying to make it through life.
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    But God keeps giving him opportunities
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    and responsibilities that would blow over the normal person.
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    But they don't blow over him. He's actually unbreakable.
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    If you could manufacture the ideal leader
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    in our culture today,
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    that person might not look like Moses,
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    a person who was by nature perhaps immature,
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    a person who was separated from their family of origin.
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    But yet those things might have caused him to lean into God
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    and make him be a better man with the better future.
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    It's our difficulties, it's the wind that we have,
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    it's the shots that we take to the mouth that strengthen us
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    and give us the ability to do things
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    that we couldn't do if we just had a fairy tale existence.
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    We have to change the way that we see our circumstances,
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    to stop feeling bitter about the circumstances I'm in
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    and see our circumstances is actually
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    wind that strengthening us.
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    You might have heard the illustration years and years
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    and years ago they had what was known as a biosphere
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    when they tried to take plant life
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    inside of a controlled environment of a dome
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    and make the perfect environment.
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    They found that the trees inside of there were bending over.
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    And they thought, why is that? Why are they bending over?
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    They're bending over because there wasn't any wind
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    and trees needed the wind, the pressure of the wind
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    to be strong and to actually stand.
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    Derek, the wind you're feeling right now could actually be
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    the strength that you could receive from God
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    to have a better marriage and a better life.
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    It's weird the way that works, but person after person
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    has found that that is the way that life works.
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    - With Brian off to a strong start,
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    let's check in on Chuck and Alli.
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    - All right. - This must be it.
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    - This is challenge number one. - What do you think is in here?
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    - I have no idea. I have no idea.
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    - Looks like we have to get in again.
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    - I just wonder if we're going to have to build something.
  • 00:16:42
    - I hope not, no. We are not skilled.
  • 00:16:46
    - Let's try this. - Okay. - Go ahead and get us in there.
  • 00:16:51
    - I'm sorry in advance if I hammer you.
  • 00:16:53
    - Oh, no, that's good. Okay.
  • 00:16:56
    - Okay, it says Survive the Desert week one challenge.
  • 00:17:02
    In the Book of Exodus,
  • 00:17:03
    the Israelites wandered in the desert
  • 00:17:05
    for 40 years in search of the Promised Land.
  • 00:17:08
    We have provided you a limited supply of rations,
  • 00:17:10
    basic navigational tools and supplies to help you survive.
  • 00:17:15
    - Okay.
  • 00:17:16
    Please use them to set up camp. - Okay.
  • 00:17:18
    - Start a fire. - Okay. - And make dinner for the group.
  • 00:17:22
    - We can do this. We can do this.
  • 00:17:24
    - I'm so glad you're up for it. - We can do this.
  • 00:17:26
    - This says -- wait -- dinner. - This is dinner.
  • 00:17:29
    - So we won't, do you -- - Oh. - Oh.
  • 00:17:32
    - There's something in that. - What is that?
  • 00:17:33
    - There's something alive in there.
  • 00:17:35
    Okay, so why don't we just leave this here for now.
  • 00:17:38
    - I think dinner goes in there, Kitty tent.
  • 00:17:40
    - Hello Kitty tent. All right. Rusty knife. Oh my -- Oh!
  • 00:17:45
    - No. - You think? - No, that's not happening.
  • 00:17:47
    - I hope not. I sure hope not. That's firewood, flour.
  • 00:17:50
    - Some flour.
  • 00:17:52
    OK, so this this reminds me of the manna in the desert.
  • 00:17:55
    - The Israelites were wandering in the desert.
  • 00:17:58
    So what did they do for food? Right?
  • 00:17:59
    - Right. And God provided them manna.
  • 00:18:02
    It looks like we sort of have the same.
  • 00:18:04
    - We do. We have Gold Medal.
  • 00:18:06
    (crosstalk) - Packages dropped straight from heaven.
  • 00:18:08
    - Exactly. So we could make something with that.
  • 00:18:11
    - I hope you have a recipe in your head.
  • 00:18:13
    I think we should start with the tent.
  • 00:18:15
    - I do too. So here we go.
  • 00:18:21
    - Sorry. - Oh, man.
  • 00:18:23
    All right, so let's get this tent going here.
  • 00:18:29
    - There I just my part. - Stakes.
  • 00:18:32
    - All right.
  • 00:18:36
    - Still not quite sure. Oh. - Our tent. - We lost our tent.
  • 00:18:40
    - Yeah, I did not expect this wind, Chuck.
  • 00:18:43
    I'm not going to lie to you. (crosstalk)
  • 00:18:47
    Look at my hair.
  • 00:18:48
    - Not off to the best of starts,
  • 00:18:50
    let's hope things go better for Chuck and Alli
  • 00:18:53
    and get back to Brian.
  • 00:18:55
    - Life can be incredibly frustrating for us.
  • 00:18:58
    Let's think about our yearbook.
  • 00:19:01
    Go way, way back to your high school yearbook
  • 00:19:03
    or go way, way back to the Facebook posts
  • 00:19:06
    of your friends when you were in high school.
  • 00:19:09
    What are some of the dreams were articulated there?
  • 00:19:11
    May be dreams like: I'm going to be a physician.
  • 00:19:15
    I'm going to be a surgeon.
  • 00:19:17
    I'm going to work with inner city schools.
  • 00:19:20
    I'm going to start a business.
  • 00:19:22
    I'm going to be an inventor.
  • 00:19:24
    How many of those things actually come to pass?
  • 00:19:28
    Very few, which is why many of us are very frustrated in life,
  • 00:19:32
    because the things that we we thought we would have,
  • 00:19:34
    we don't have.
  • 00:19:35
    And then we go into a downward spiral
  • 00:19:38
    of feeling bad about ourselves
  • 00:19:40
    and feeling we're constantly playing defense
  • 00:19:42
    instead of seeing that what we've experienced
  • 00:19:44
    could be the very wind that's strengthening us for the future.
  • 00:19:49
    Author Max Lucado writes this:
  • 00:20:15
    I'm hoping you stop looking back.
  • 00:20:18
    I'm hoping you stop looking inward.
  • 00:20:21
    I've heard people say, "All the answers we need
  • 00:20:23
    are inside of ourselves." No, they're not. No, they're not.
  • 00:20:28
    They're outside of ourselves. They're forward.
  • 00:20:30
    That's where God is.
  • 00:20:33
    God is not trying to give us the past that we wished we had.
  • 00:20:37
    He's trying to give us a future
  • 00:20:38
    that we can only have when we have the X factor of Him.
  • 00:20:45
    - You know what? I'm with you, we're a team.
  • 00:20:48
    Let's get the stuff out. We will just move to the next thing.
  • 00:20:51
    We do have wood, so we can do -- let's make a fire.
  • 00:20:54
    Get this. We can make this work with this.
  • 00:20:55
    - All right.
  • 00:20:56
    - Okay - I'm going to watch how you do that.
  • 00:20:58
    - I'll light this rope on fire. - I'm going to sit right here.
  • 00:21:04
    - There's a spark.
  • 00:21:10
    Who are we kidding? - We're not going to get this.
  • 00:21:12
    - We didn't start the fire. - No, we didn't.
  • 00:21:14
    - I don't think we can. All right. So --
  • 00:21:16
    - Whatever. - We have dinner in here.
  • 00:21:18
    This is concerning to you. I know.
  • 00:21:19
    - I don't really want any part of this.
  • 00:21:21
    - There's a bird in here. You can see it.
  • 00:21:23
    - I just saw an eyeball. - Yeah, there's a bird in here.
  • 00:21:25
    - An eyeball.
  • 00:21:26
    - Is there anything else in here?
  • 00:21:27
    No, just the one bird. I see you.
  • 00:21:29
    - I don't want to hurt it. We're not going to hurt it.
  • 00:21:32
    You're not hurting this bird.
  • 00:21:33
    I'm just telling you that right now.
  • 00:21:36
    - All right, so here we go. - Okay, bye, birdie. Oh, oh.
  • 00:21:40
    - Oh. Look at it. That is a quail.
  • 00:21:44
    Quick hit the hammer. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.
  • 00:21:48
    - We are not hurting-- - We're not gonna hurt the bird.
  • 00:21:50
    We're not going to hurt this bird.
  • 00:21:52
    - Hey, Chuck, hey, Alli. - Kyle. - How's it going?
  • 00:21:55
    - Would you like to meet my new little friend here?
  • 00:21:58
    - Does he have a name? - Not yet.
  • 00:22:00
    Not yet. We're not sure.
  • 00:22:02
    - Okay. I believe --
  • 00:22:04
    I believe you're supposed to make him into dinner.
  • 00:22:06
    - Oh, no, it's not happening. - Okay.
  • 00:22:08
    - Chuck's going to find some other way to eat.
  • 00:22:10
    - We'll just do bread.
  • 00:22:11
    - Weren't you -- didn't you also have a shelter?
  • 00:22:13
    What happened to your shelter? - It flew.
  • 00:22:15
    - Had, yeah, past tense. We had a shelter.
  • 00:22:16
    - Didn't expect the wind out here.
  • 00:22:18
    - Where's your fire at? - We're getting there.
  • 00:22:20
    - We think we could work on that.
  • 00:22:22
    We think that one has potential.
  • 00:22:24
    - Well -- (crosstalk)
  • 00:22:25
    - Hours and hours of struggle.
  • 00:22:26
    - Why don't you come back to--
  • 00:22:28
    - Oh, birdie. - Whoa, whoa.
  • 00:22:30
    - Oh, you guys.
  • 00:22:32
    - Like I could probably catch him.
  • 00:22:35
    - Where did you get that thing? - He's gone.
  • 00:22:38
    - I'm kind of mad at you right now.
  • 00:22:39
    - You know, maybe try the bread, that's all.
  • 00:22:41
    Remember, we're helping the people.
  • 00:22:43
    - Did you put the bird in the box?
  • 00:22:44
    - Remember we're helping the people.
  • 00:22:45
    I'm not going to confirm or deny that I put the bird in the box.
  • 00:22:48
    His name is Petey, so just I would make the bread.
  • 00:22:52
    - I'm supposed to get bread? - Uh-huh. - If that bird --
  • 00:22:54
    - Here's the thing, we need to eat, so...
  • 00:22:57
    - I know. I understand that God gave the Israelites quail, I do.
  • 00:23:01
    - Uh-huh.
  • 00:23:02
    - They were kind of grumbling about it. You remember, right?
  • 00:23:05
    - Just kind of like you and Chuck
  • 00:23:06
    about this whole thing. Right?
  • 00:23:07
    You got to, Chuck, catch that quail.
  • 00:23:09
    - I'm working on it.
  • 00:23:11
    Kyle? - Yeah.
  • 00:23:12
    - I'm not going to kill that quail.
  • 00:23:14
    - I know, Alli.
  • 00:23:15
    - It's not going to happen. - I know.
  • 00:23:16
    - I'm working on the manna, but I'm not killing a bird.
  • 00:23:20
    - It seems like you and Chuck
  • 00:23:21
    are finding this challenge very challenging.
  • 00:23:23
    I sure hope Brian's doing a little bit better.
  • 00:23:25
    Let's check back in with him.
  • 00:23:36
    - Moses had that X factor and he needed it
  • 00:23:39
    as life kept blowing him problem after problem,
  • 00:23:44
    strange circumstance after strange circumstance,
  • 00:23:47
    led to him still standing strong,
  • 00:23:50
    even though sometimes he did run.
  • 00:23:53
    In the Book of Exodus 2:11-14, it says this:
  • 00:24:39
    Somewhere along the line, Moses comes to recognize
  • 00:24:41
    that while he's in an Egyptian home, he's actually a Jew.
  • 00:24:46
    When he finds this out, we don't know when he finds this out,
  • 00:24:49
    but something primal inside of him comes out
  • 00:24:51
    when he sees an Egyptian beating one of his own people by birth
  • 00:24:55
    and he just unleashes pain on them and kills the guy.
  • 00:24:58
    Next day, similar situation with two Jews
  • 00:25:01
    and one of them just cracks on him and he realizes,
  • 00:25:04
    "Oh, no, I've been found out. If Pharaoh and everybody else
  • 00:25:08
    finds out my family of origin story, I am going to be dead."
  • 00:25:12
    And so he leaves. He runs away.
  • 00:25:16
    He's a murderer and he's a fleer.
  • 00:25:18
    He's in some ways running from his problems.
  • 00:25:22
    I have a good friend of mine who has got a good bit of resources,
  • 00:25:26
    and his daughter in high school was having a lot of pressure
  • 00:25:30
    with some of the friends that she had
  • 00:25:33
    and some of the other things that were going on.
  • 00:25:35
    And I'll call her Sue, even though her real name is Connie.
  • 00:25:41
    And as he tells me the story, he says to his daughter,
  • 00:25:45
    "Sue, you can't run from your problems."
  • 00:25:47
    When he told me that I was encouraging him
  • 00:25:50
    to take his daughter and put her in another school,
  • 00:25:52
    because he had the resources.
  • 00:25:53
    And I said to him, I said, "Yes, you can.
  • 00:25:56
    Yes, you can run from your problems.
  • 00:25:58
    Sometimes you ought to go to your problem --
  • 00:26:00
    away from your problems rather than get blown away
  • 00:26:03
    by all the pain that's coming your way.
  • 00:26:04
    You can still stand if you can get away from a problem
  • 00:26:07
    you can't handle in that season."
  • 00:26:11
    As Moses runs away from his problem,
  • 00:26:14
    right in this area where the Egyptians are,
  • 00:26:17
    he spends time out in the desert,
  • 00:26:19
    he gets married, he has a child.
  • 00:26:22
    And here's what Exodus 2:22 says:
  • 00:26:26
    She gave birth to a son and he called his name Gershom,
  • 00:26:29
    for he said, "I have been a sojourner in a foreign land."
  • 00:26:35
    Moses ends up giving his son a name that exemplifies his life.
  • 00:26:41
    Everywhere he's gone he's been a sojourner.
  • 00:26:43
    He hasn't fit in. He's felt rejected.
  • 00:26:46
    He's felt like an outsider.
  • 00:26:47
    He felt like he can barely stand it another day.
  • 00:26:51
    And yet he is still standing and he is wandering
  • 00:26:55
    and he is connecting with his God as best that he can.
  • 00:26:59
    You can feel like an outcast, blown all over the place,
  • 00:27:03
    and yet still stand.
  • 00:27:05
    The New Testament tells us when he was 40,
  • 00:27:09
    that's when he was a murderer.
  • 00:27:12
    So from 0 to 40, he was sojourning in an Egyptian home,
  • 00:27:16
    even though he was a Jew.
  • 00:27:17
    Then from 40 to 80,
  • 00:27:19
    he's sojourning in the desert like this,
  • 00:27:23
    having a child and trying to figure out his next run of life.
  • 00:27:26
    And then at the age of 80,
  • 00:27:31
    he has another fascinating encounter with God.
  • 00:27:35
    Now, before I tell you about that encounter that he had,
  • 00:27:37
    I want to make sure that you and I understand
  • 00:27:40
    that he had problems. He had difficulty.
  • 00:27:44
    He had wind that was blowing in his face.
  • 00:27:45
    He had all kinds of obstacles he had to overcome.
  • 00:27:48
    His life was not easy.
  • 00:27:49
    He would have never, ever, ever
  • 00:27:51
    scripted his life to be this way.
  • 00:27:53
    Nobody would.
  • 00:27:54
    And life was getting late for him, too.
  • 00:27:56
    It's not like looking back at high school.
  • 00:27:58
    He's now way later in life, and yet he's still standing
  • 00:28:04
    and he's still strong.
  • 00:28:06
    Before I finish the story on him
  • 00:28:08
    and give you some things are going to help your life,
  • 00:28:10
    I think it's appropriate for us to pause and sing to God.
  • 00:28:14
    Let's worship together
  • 00:28:16
    to this song that talks about being strong.
  • 00:31:42
    - Have you noticed that nearly every adventure
  • 00:31:44
    that God calls someone to, like Moses,
  • 00:31:47
    starts as a place that they don't want to go?
  • 00:31:49
    Now I don't know anybody
  • 00:31:50
    that wants to be generous in their life,
  • 00:31:52
    that wants to see their money leave their bank account
  • 00:31:55
    and go somewhere else.
  • 00:31:56
    But it's an adventure that God calls every single person
  • 00:31:59
    who wants to follow Him to take.
  • 00:32:01
    Now, I know that can sound self-serving
  • 00:32:02
    for a church to say that.
  • 00:32:04
    We've designed a way for you to do this risk free.
  • 00:32:07
    Honestly, it's called the 90 Day Tithe Test.
  • 00:32:09
    The idea is if you give for 90 days, we believe that
  • 00:32:12
    God will show up and take you on a new adventure in your life.
  • 00:32:15
    You'll feel His blessing and His presence.
  • 00:32:17
    And if you don't, get this, we'll give all your money back.
  • 00:32:20
    If you want to go on that adventures,
  • 00:32:22
    go to Crossroads.net/give.
  • 00:32:24
    Let's keep going with a story of Moses.
  • 00:32:28
    As Brian starts the final push of his message,
  • 00:32:31
    what he doesn't know is that I'm about to jump in
  • 00:32:34
    with a question every sane person has to ask.
  • 00:32:39
    Let's see if he'll have a good answer
  • 00:32:40
    or get completely tripped up.
  • 00:32:45
    - Powerful words from that song,
  • 00:32:48
    even more powerful when there lived.
  • 00:32:51
    The last thing I want to look at in Moses' life
  • 00:32:54
    comes from Exodus 3:1-5. Here's what it says:
  • 00:33:46
    Moses is in -- - Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait.
  • 00:33:49
    This story is getting a little crazy, okay?
  • 00:33:52
    Are sane people really supposed to believe
  • 00:33:55
    that God talked to a guy out of a bush that's on fire?
  • 00:34:00
    - Um...
  • 00:34:01
    Yes, I'm going to explain it in just a moment.
  • 00:34:03
    Maybe they'll understand
  • 00:34:04
    if you don't interrupt me at the wrong part.
  • 00:34:06
    But if we -- if we're to expect that there is a God
  • 00:34:09
    who is real, has an X factor of power,
  • 00:34:11
    we should expect X power, unusual events to happen
  • 00:34:14
    from time to time.
  • 00:34:16
    Moses experienced them.
  • 00:34:17
    I want more of us to experience them every once in a while.
  • 00:34:20
    - Great answer. Okay, keep going.
  • 00:34:22
    - Okay, so he's out in this dry, arid, humid environment.
  • 00:34:27
    Wind is blowing, all kind of stuff is happening.
  • 00:34:29
    He's just doing his chores one day and he sees
  • 00:34:33
    way off in the distance a bush that's burning.
  • 00:34:36
    Now, it's interesting here that he might have seen
  • 00:34:39
    bushes burning a number of times
  • 00:34:41
    because in dry air environments it happens.
  • 00:34:44
    But this one keeps burning,
  • 00:34:46
    it's burning and the bush isn't consumed.
  • 00:34:49
    That's what catches his eye, not the fire,
  • 00:34:52
    but that it's not going out.
  • 00:34:53
    Like a little bush or was a huge bush, we don't know what it was,
  • 00:34:56
    but it just kept going and going.
  • 00:34:58
    He said something unusual is happening here.
  • 00:35:04
    When you want God to break into your life,
  • 00:35:07
    bring you an X factor, give you ability to stand,
  • 00:35:10
    there's a number of things that Moses does
  • 00:35:12
    in this story that you and I need to do.
  • 00:35:15
    Derek, this is for you.
  • 00:35:16
    One, turn the noise off.
  • 00:35:19
    When Moses came in an environment like this,
  • 00:35:21
    he didn't have the same distractions
  • 00:35:22
    he would have had elsewhere.
  • 00:35:23
    You had time to think. He had time to pray.
  • 00:35:26
    He had time to process.
  • 00:35:27
    We need to stop being so stimulated in our lives
  • 00:35:31
    that God can't stimulate us.
  • 00:35:32
    He can't break through the clutter.
  • 00:35:34
    We've got to get to places that are calm and quiet
  • 00:35:36
    to actually hear and sense the presence of God.
  • 00:35:40
    Number two, to take your shoes off.
  • 00:35:42
    God tells him to take his shoes off because
  • 00:35:44
    the place where you're standing is holy ground.
  • 00:35:47
    Not that that dirt itself was more special
  • 00:35:50
    than the dirt a mile away,
  • 00:35:51
    but it's special because God is there.
  • 00:35:55
    The carpet in a church isn't any more holy
  • 00:35:58
    than the carpet in your home, unless you're hearing from God
  • 00:36:02
    in that church, in that building, or in your home.
  • 00:36:05
    We need to recognize that when God does break through
  • 00:36:07
    and He might be breaking through to you, Derek,
  • 00:36:10
    or anybody else here right now.
  • 00:36:11
    When He breaks through, you've got to recognize
  • 00:36:13
    this is really important.
  • 00:36:17
    This is a special sacred moment.
  • 00:36:19
    Soak in what you're sensing, what you're feeling,
  • 00:36:24
    and recognize that the calmness that you're having
  • 00:36:28
    or the ideas that you're having
  • 00:36:30
    or the newfound resilience that you're having
  • 00:36:32
    is actually the presence in the gift of God.
  • 00:36:35
    It is the X Factor.
  • 00:36:38
    And number three, take off on an adventure.
  • 00:36:44
    Moses doesn't just have a little Kumbaya circle with God
  • 00:36:47
    that's a nice thing to have in your memory book.
  • 00:36:51
    He is getting equipped
  • 00:36:53
    and motivated for his next adventure.
  • 00:36:56
    And adventures are not climbing these mountains,
  • 00:36:59
    though that may be adventuresome.
  • 00:37:01
    The adventures that are most important to you
  • 00:37:03
    are the adventure that Derek has.
  • 00:37:05
    How do I keep my marriage going?
  • 00:37:08
    The adventure of how do I live on
  • 00:37:11
    my meager resources I have right now?
  • 00:37:13
    The adventure of how do I break chemical addiction?
  • 00:37:17
    The adventure of how do I break my pornography fixation?
  • 00:37:22
    The adventure of how do I find the right employer
  • 00:37:26
    that's going to meet my needs and get me to a new place?
  • 00:37:29
    These are the adventures that would define your life
  • 00:37:32
    and where you can encounter God in the midst of those.
  • 00:37:35
    You might actually have more in common with Moses
  • 00:37:39
    than you think of.
  • 00:37:40
    You're never going to write parts of the Bible.
  • 00:37:42
    You may never encounter a bush that is burning
  • 00:37:46
    and you've never seen it consumed.
  • 00:37:48
    But if you've ever felt like you are alone,
  • 00:37:53
    that you can barely stand, that wind is blowing you down,
  • 00:37:57
    you and I can be like Moses.
  • 00:37:58
    We can have the strength to stand.
  • 00:38:01
    We can be used in powerful ways.
  • 00:38:04
    But you have to believe that.
  • 00:38:06
    You have to believe that you're not just a powerless slave
  • 00:38:10
    that's blown all over the place.
  • 00:38:12
    But you're a very child of God and He has a purpose for you.
  • 00:38:15
    He has dreams for you.
  • 00:38:16
    And you're not going to know those dreams maybe,
  • 00:38:18
    or the fullness of them for some time in the future.
  • 00:38:21
    But where you are right now, you can stand, you can stand.
  • 00:38:25
    You will say, "I will be different. I will hear.
  • 00:38:28
    I will listen. I will notice.
  • 00:38:30
    And when it's ready, I will go."
  • 00:38:33
    Isaiah Chapter 40:29 says that:
  • 00:38:45
    There is one who can increase your strength
  • 00:38:49
    even when you feel that you are about to faint.
  • 00:38:52
    He has done it with Moses, He's done it with me in my life,
  • 00:38:57
    and he's done it with countless others
  • 00:38:59
    who are just normal Joes and Joanns
  • 00:39:01
    who didn't think they could take another punch,
  • 00:39:04
    and yet they did because of the X Factor of the power of God.
  • 00:39:10
    Stop the excuses. Stop thinking you can't do it.
  • 00:39:14
    Stop thinking that if only you had this
  • 00:39:17
    or if only you could see that or if only I could be Moses.
  • 00:39:19
    You're not Moses, you're not going to have his experience.
  • 00:39:21
    Stop the excuses, stand where you are.
  • 00:39:25
    It will pass and God will use you
  • 00:39:28
    and you will sense Him in a powerful way if you just stand.
  • 00:39:32
    Let me pray for you right now.
  • 00:39:34
    God, I'm thankful that you use normal people
  • 00:39:37
    like Moses and like Derek, like me
  • 00:39:41
    and like everybody else who's with us today.
  • 00:39:44
    God, we need this and we needed this noise to be turned off
  • 00:39:49
    and the wind to come down
  • 00:39:51
    and we needed to have a clarity about our future.
  • 00:39:54
    I believe you've given that to us today.
  • 00:39:55
    We're not just going to stand, we're going to walk into it.
  • 00:39:58
    I pray these things in Your name, Jesus. Amen.
  • 00:40:04
    - We're not going to starve our first night in the desert.
  • 00:40:08
    - What happened to the bread, guys?
  • 00:40:09
    - I'm kind of proud of that. - I think so.
  • 00:40:12
    - Hey, guys. How are you doing?
  • 00:40:13
    - Well, you know, we lost our shelter. Tent flew away.
  • 00:40:17
    - You did a shelter? - We did, but --
  • 00:40:19
    - We did, we got it up, but the wind took it.
  • 00:40:22
    - Yep, but we got quail. - We made dinner.
  • 00:40:24
    - Just like the Israelites in the story of Exodus,
  • 00:40:26
    we got rotisserie quail. - You have quail?
  • 00:40:28
    - We turn the manna into bread.
  • 00:40:30
    - You made that? - Rotisserie quail. Yeah.
  • 00:40:32
    - Because it looks like it's cooked,
  • 00:40:34
    but I don't see any remnants of an actual fire here.
  • 00:40:37
    - Well. - For safety reasons.
  • 00:40:39
    Yeah, I mean --
  • 00:40:40
    It definitely didn't just come prepared from the crew.
  • 00:40:42
    I mean, that didn't happen. So it got cooked.
  • 00:40:45
    - I don't really know that's exactly
  • 00:40:47
    what a quail would look like, even.
  • 00:40:48
    - It was big.
  • 00:40:49
    - You don't know what a quail looks like.
  • 00:40:51
    - I know it doesn't look like that.
  • 00:40:53
    I've gone quail hunting. Have you gone quail hunting? No.
  • 00:40:56
    What is scratching around in there?
  • 00:40:58
    - That's noisy. - Nothing.
  • 00:41:00
    - Nothing in that box.
  • 00:41:01
    - I can hear something scratching.
  • 00:41:02
    - You guys, you didn't leave it in the box, did you?
  • 00:41:05
    Did you leave it in the box? - Dinner? - Oh, darn it.
  • 00:41:09
    - There's something alive in here.
  • 00:41:16
    - Oh, look at that. Aww!
  • 00:41:19
    - Come here, little boy or little girl.
  • 00:41:21
    Come here. Come here. Come here. - There it is.
  • 00:41:26
    - Oh, say hello to your cousin. Here's my little cousin.
  • 00:41:32
    That's what -- that's what you would have looked like,
  • 00:41:35
    except smaller if someone knew how to make a fire.
  • 00:41:38
    - Don't hurt it.
  • 00:41:40
    - We couldn't do it. We couldn't do it.
  • 00:41:41
    - All right. All right.
  • 00:41:43
    You get a reprieve today. You had strength to stand.
  • 00:41:47
    Strength to stand is what you had,
  • 00:41:50
    strength to live another day.
  • 00:41:52
    - Okay, I think we've got enough here.
  • 00:41:54
    (crosstalk)
  • 00:41:56
    - Give the knife here. - No.
  • 00:41:59
    - Keep the knife away from him.
  • 00:42:00
    Hey, I hope you had a great time here today with Crossroads.
  • 00:42:03
    We'll be back next week with another episode
  • 00:42:05
    in this Unbreakable Series: Learn to Become Unbreakable.
  • 00:42:09
    By the way, we've about a lot more
  • 00:42:10
    than just whatever happened here today.
  • 00:42:12
    There's all kinds of care and content
  • 00:42:14
    and access to amazing experiences and opportunities
  • 00:42:16
    available to you no matter who you are, where you live.
  • 00:42:19
    Go to Crossroads.net/new to find out all about that.
  • 00:42:22
    We'll see you right back here next week.
  • 00:42:25
    - Pretty bird, pretty bird. (all yelling)
  • 00:42:33
    - Don't miss next week on Crossroads
  • 00:42:35
    when Chuck gives us the courage to move.
  • 00:42:38
    We see in the sweeping story of Exodus
  • 00:42:41
    everything that plays out in the entire story of the Bible
  • 00:42:44
    and the story of how God is engaging in your life
  • 00:42:47
    and my life.
  • 00:42:48
    Today there's this the struggle from slavery to freedom.
  • 00:42:51
    There's this longing for a rescuer/deliver, right?
  • 00:42:54
    And beautifully it ends with the finding of a Promised Land.
  • 00:42:58
    There is something that happens
  • 00:42:59
    at the end of this journey that encourages you.
  • 00:43:01
    So listen, you're going to find the courage to move.

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

Welcome to the Weekend Follow-Up. The questions below are for the weekend of March 20 & 21, 2021.

  1. Think back to a time when you dreamt about your future, maybe a childhood dream job or the first car you’d buy. Share one of those memories, and why you wanted that.

  2. Finding strength to stand against the wind begins with finding the true source of strength: a relationship with God. Discuss the differences between religion vs. a relationship with God and how it impacts your faith on a daily basis.

  3. There are three ways we can hear God more clearly, helping us to experience more breakthrough. 1) Turn off the noise (distractions that keep you from knowing God) 2) Take off your shoes (moments to pause and sit in what God may be doing or saying) 3) Take off on an adventure (confronting your struggles). Which of these areas have given you strength and which are the ones that cause the most resistance for you?

  4. Sometimes in life we may feel we don’t measure up, or that the wind is always against our sails. Take three minutes and review the three areas in question #3. Share with the group one step you will take this week in finding the x-factor of tapping into God’s power and strength.

  5. Now let’s close our time together in prayer. Use this one if you want, “God, thank you for using normal people like us, and for wanting a relationship with us. We need more of you and we need less of the noise distracting us from you. God we ask that you show us the way to turn off the noise so we can receive more of your strength. Amen.

More from the Weekend

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Mar 20, 2021 43 mins 27 sec

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