TENACITY | Win This Year: Week 2

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A Go Trip is about going.

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Going outside your comfort zone,

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going to a new place,

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going beyond normal,

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going where you want to go instead of where you've been.

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Your normal life is getting you as far as you can go.

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And where are you going right now?

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You're going the way of normal.

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If you want to go further than you are right now,

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you have to go outside of what you're comfortable with.

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That is the role of Go Trips.

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They're beyond normal.

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They stretch you.

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They push you. They give you actual capacity.

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Muscles you didn't have beforehand

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that now can take your normal life beyond the normal.

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And you get to help people.

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You get to take on actual physical problems

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and make a difference in somebody else's life

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and the trajectory of their family and their village.

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People you encounter will be changed because you stepped out

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and you went on a Go Trip.

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Let's Go.

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- This could be your year to Go.

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Why would you not do that?

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2020 is a great year for you to try something new.

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Do something adventurous.

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Go outside of your comfort zone.

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As a church, you know, this is who we are as a church.

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We're a church who goes.

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We believe that God has really, really good things in store for you,

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for me, for your friends, for my friends this year.

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Whether you're joining us online right now

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and you join us online every week,

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whether you're sitting in a Crossroads building

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or you go halfway across the world to experience God this year,

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I think He has something for you.

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And, you know, when we go outside of our comfort zone

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and we choose to go on an adventure,

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it gives us opportunity to meet God in a fresh way,

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to make some new friends, to create great memories.

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And you might just learn something new about yourself

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and new about God on that trip.

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And we don't want you to be worried at all about the finances

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or the details or how might that --

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We'll help you with those things.

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If you want to chat with us on the Crossroads website

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about any of your questions around Go Trips,

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we have staff and volunteers who would love right now

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to chat with you about that.

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You can head to Crossroads.net/Go

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and see more about the trips that are heading to Bolivia

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and South Africa and India and Puerto Rico,

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all over the place this year.

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It might just be the thing that makes your 2020 that much different

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and that much better than if you were to stay where you are

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and do the comfortable thing this year.

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I think you'll be better for it.

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The other thing that's coming up for us as a church this year

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is we have a brand new groups season.

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I was just reading in Hebrews 10 earlier this week.

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And one of the verses I was reading said:

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don't neglect to meet with others like some are in the habit of doing,

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but get together for the purposes of encouraging one another.

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I want you to be encouraged this year.

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I want you to have fun with other people.

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I want your friendships and your relationship with God to go to new places.

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And that can happen if you join a group,

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or better yet, become a group leader.

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Right now is the time

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where we are recruiting new group leaders for the year.

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And you don't have to have all of your stuff figured out

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or have it all together.

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We'll guide you, coach you, give you content to help you do this.

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And it's just a matter of whether or not you're going to step out

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and take the bold move and become a leader this year.

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Chat with us on the Crossroads website

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or head to Crossroads.net/groups

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to get more information

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and to apply to be a leader today.

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And we're gonna spend some time worshipping together.

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Worship is the time where we actually sing songs to God.

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These are just prayers put to music.

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And whether you believe these words fully and deeply

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or you want to believe these words just a little bit more

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than where you do right now, go out on a limb

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and actually sing these songs, say these words out loud to God.

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He might do something in your head and in your heart

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and in your life in the midst of declaring out loud

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what you want to believe deeper in your heart.

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- Well, hey, welcome to the weekend here at Crossroads.

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My name is Justin.

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We're in week two of our series called Win this Year.

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And that's what we want you to do, we want you to win.

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You know, one of the things I love is

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I love when my kids walk into a room as loud as they can

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with all their chaos and screaming about how much they love me.

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The Bible says that God loves it when we shout out to Him

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and when we sing to Him.

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Sometimes we need to be woken up to that reality,

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and it takes some loud drums and it takes a lot of them

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to remind us that what we do here is not passive.

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It's active.

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We connect our beliefs into our actions through song.

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We want you to join with us.

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So if you're in the room, stand up with us.

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If you're at home, man, you're glad you're joining with us.

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Do whatever you've got to do to engage with us.

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Whatever you believe or don't believe, you're in the right place.

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We're glad you're here together with us.

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- Well, sometimes when we worship together,

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I know that it can feel a little awkward or weird

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because we're singing out loud and we're declaring these words to God.

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But I think He loves it because when we declare that

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He's a good father and we declare that He's a good king,

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maybe we believe those things fully or we want to believe them more.

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But what we're saying to God and why we call this worship

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is because we are ascribing worth to Him.

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We're telling Him that He's first.

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And we can do that verbally through song, and He loves it.

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And another way that we can tell God that He's first

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is we can practically put Him first in certain areas of our lives,

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like our finances.

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And just like worship, it can feel a little uncomfortable

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or awkward or difficult to make that step,

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to actually give money away,

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actually give money to the church, give it to God.

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And yet it tells God that He's worth it.

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It ascribes worth to Him.

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And it helps align our heads and our hearts.

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And you can do that by heading to Crossroads.net/give.

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And you could choose to give to the church today,

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maybe for the first time, maybe for the hundredth time.

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But you should know that as you do this, you're telling God

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that you trust Him to sustain you,

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and He's honored and feels loved by you,

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that you would choose to prioritize Him

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and tell Him he's worth it in those ways.

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You know, not everything that we do in church

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has to be serious or difficult.

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Sometimes it is.

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And it's good for that to be true.

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Sometimes we just do things that Crossroads because it's fun.

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Sometimes we just do things in church because we can.

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And so we have a moment like that right now for you.

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We're in a series right now called Win This Year.

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And I want you to actually get to win something right now.

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It could be the first thing of 2020 that you win.

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And it has no point other than it's fun.

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So you may have seen the Yeti and Big Foot characters

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in the midst of this series branding.

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Right now, they're going to enter a competition.

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Week in and week out, they're in competition with each other.

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You might be a Yeti fan.

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You might be a Big Foot fan.

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But what you could do right now is you could text in 313131

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who you think is going to win the competition in this next video,

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Yeti or Big Foot?

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Now I'm trusting that you're not going to fast forward

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and watch this ahead of time.

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We're in church, people, have integrity.

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But text in who you think is going to win Yeti or Big Foot

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and you'll have a chance to win an actual Yeti cooler,

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some great beef jerky, some other prizes.

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And maybe best yet, the costumes for Yeti and Bigfoot,

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uncleaned full of sweat, just because we can.

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This is going to happen every week of this series,

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you'll be entered to win and we'll send you this package if you do.

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Text us right now.

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And you know, I believe that God wants you to win this year.

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- Win This Year with Bigfoot and Yeti..

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Today's competition: Armwrestling.

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Ut-oh, backwards hats.

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This is going to be over the top.

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And wrestle.

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We've got a good match going here.

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Yeti's playing dirty, Bigfoot's playing dirty, oh man.

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And the winner is Bigfoot.

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- Now, why do we play things like that?

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Because we can, that's part of the reason we do.

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Part of the reason is because a lot of us have

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a little bit of a junior high sense of humor around here.

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But I tell you the main reason is, the main reason is

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we have short attention spans.

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And so we try to put curve balls in there to keep us focused.

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That's what I'm going to talk about today.

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How do you keep your focus?

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How do you keep your tenacity with your head going towards the thing

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that you want to have happen in your life during 2020?

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I'm going to talk about that today.

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Let's pray before we go any further.

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God, I am thankful that you brought people within earshot and visual sight of what's happening right now

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to be pushed a little bit and be comforted a little bit.

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It's always an honor for me to talk about transcendent concepts,

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and today is no different.

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Help me to be clear, helpful, and in alignment with Your truth.

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I pray these things according to the character and identity of Jesus, Amen.

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So we've talked in this series about winning.

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1 Corinthians 9:24 says, we talked about it last week,

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don't you know in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?

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Run in such a way that you may win.

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We're calling it a series on winning.

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It could also be called a series on

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finding God's will for your life and accomplishing it.

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Same thing, but winning is a lot shorter than

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finding God's will for your life and accomplishing it.

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I think all of us have things in 2020 that God wants us to do,

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that we need to discover, that we need to achieve.

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And whether we do those things or not, those things will be our wins.

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And if we don't do those things, those things will be our losses.

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Last week we looked at vision, the picture of where we're going.

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What is it that we want?

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What is it we're striving after?

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And today, it's not about having a picture of what we want.

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It's about the tenacity to actually keep going after it.

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What does tenacity mean?

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Here's what it means:

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In this series we're going through the Book of Joshua,

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or at least a bunch of points in the book of Joshua.

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Joshua was a key figure, a key leader in the history of Israel.

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And this book is a key element of Israel's history.

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It's kind of crazy that the nation of Israel even exists today.

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They're like the oldest nation that's still around

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and is still one them economic powerhouses on the entire globe.

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This is a nation that has been enslaved.

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This is a nation that's been practically exterminated:

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Six million Jews eliminated during the Holocaust.

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This is a nation which still receives a level of anti-Semitism.

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This is a nation where they inhabit right now,

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they got a land to be in after not being in one for generations.

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A land they inherited or they were given after World War II.

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Mark Twain said it wasn't fit for camels to walk through,

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and now it is this lush thing that they've done.

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The nation of Israel has been pretty, pretty impressive.

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And whatever you think about the nature of Israel,

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one thing we should all be able to agree on,

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they are tenacious.

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They are tenacious.

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They just keep going.

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And you and I, if we want to win in 2020, we've got to be tenacious.

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Now, this year is 2020.

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And I don't know how many of you have ever been

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on a leadership team for a business

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or for a civic organization or a nonprofit group

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or a church or something like that.

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But if you were and you were on one of those kind of boards

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or one of those steering committees or thought process teams,

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whatever was and you around in say the year 2000

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or the year 1995, you might have come across a 2020 vision.

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I mean I was around a bunch of nonprofits where they had a 2020 vision.

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Get it like year 2020 and 20/20 vision?

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Get it?

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You get it, get it?

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2020 and 20/20.

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They would have these massive goals like start a church in every city

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or we're going to grow this by that, these massive amounts.

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But Crossroads never had a 2020 vision.

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We don't -- we've never.

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We've had vision, things we're going after.

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We don't have a 2020 vision

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Let me tell you why we never had a 2020 vision.

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We never had a 2020 vision in large part because

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I don't want to put something out there that we wouldn't do,

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these high lofty ideals.

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I would love someone to figure out how we could tabulate

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across America all of the 2020 vision statements have been out there.

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Of course no one ever did a 2020 vision statement

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in like 2015 because that would be too much accountability,

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is going to happen in five years.

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It would always be something way, way out.

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I would love to see how many actually came true.

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And I would tell you, I'm pretty darn sure,

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like none of them or 0.001

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Why is that?

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Because it's easy to have a vision and put some plaque on the wall.

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It's a lot harder to do the hard work every single day,

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tenaciously going forward one step after another.

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If you have a vision for your life, if you want to win,

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it will cost you and I.

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It will be difficult.

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It will be hard.

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If you're not having difficulty, if it's not hard,

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you're going after a daydream.

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A daydream never comes with difficulty.

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It's just a little fantasy that's in your mind,

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"Oh, someday I'd like that to happen."

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When it's a vision, if something is there

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and between here and there is time and difficulty.

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And the only people who get between here and there

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are people who are tenacious.

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This is the nation of Israel.

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This is why vision doesn't come true.

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We're not tenacious enough.

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If I had a crystal ball and I could look at 2020 for you,

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I could tell one thing is true for every single person here,

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you will have difficult times in 2020.

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I promise you the crystal ball would tell me that

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you will have difficult times in 2020.

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And I could promise every single person here,

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whatever you wanted to happen on January 1st.

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all hell, maybe literally hell, will stand in the way

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of why you felt that you needed to win in

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and actually winning because difficulty gets in our way.

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Now the Nation of Israel has had difficulty after difficulty.

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I talked about last week, I talked about coming out of slavery,

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miraculous thing of drowning of chariots

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and Egyptians tracking after them and complaining in the wilderness

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and God waiting for all the complainers to die and all that stuff.

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I can't go into all that right now.

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But then there's this Jordan River,

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and they're going to go on the other side of this Jordan River

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and everything over there is new.

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Generally, when things are new, they are hard

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because you don't have any muscle memory.

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We're just not -- we're not used to it.

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Now they're ready to go over to the other side.

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Now, it's not just about what God has done for them,

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which is getting them out of slavery.

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Now it's about what they are going to do under God's guidance.

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They're now going to take possession of the promised land.

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Let me read a section for you: Joshua 6:2-3:

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And the Lord said to Joshua,

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this is the leader of the Knights of Israel at this time period.

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So God tells him, I'm going to give this to you.

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But then he says, and you have to do this: X, Y, Z.

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When God gives us something, it very rarely is

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the kind of passive receiving like we'd like to think about giving.

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He will do that sometimes.

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We will sometimes passively receive something from God.

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But very frequently He gives us something

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and He gives us a vision and He gives us permission.

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And now we have to tenaciously go after it.

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This is the way it is with the nation of Israel.

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They don't just inherit the Promised Land

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like some old rich uncle died and dropped it in their lap.

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They have to go over and they have to fight for it.

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Number one, tenacity demands difficulty.

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Tenacity demands difficult.

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The very fact that we have this word

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in the English language called tenacity

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is proof that there is difficulty.

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In fact, if there is not difficulty,

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there is no need for tenacity.

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Tenacity is only there because we are having difficulty.

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If you weren't having difficulty, it wouldn't be tenacity.

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It was just be something we want to do.

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There is a difference between something I want to do

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and something I have to be tenacious about.

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Tenacity is doing something I don't want to do,

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doing something that doesn't have qan immediate payoff as soon as I do it,

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doing something that still has doubts attached to it,

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doing something that's going to have a delayed time period

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until I actually get something out of it.

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This is going to be difficult.

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Every step of the Nation of Israel is difficult.

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Every -- Maybe that's why they're still existing today.

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Maybe it's why they're still a world power today

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with this itty bitty piece of land

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is because they've been forged in difficulty.

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I don't know, but they're going to have to go up against

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who the previous spies who went in the land,

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and they had cold feet, said where there were giants,

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said here there was amazing opportunity, but huge, huge people.

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And this is where they're going to go.

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They're going to go into the nation of the Canaanites.

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And there is that their capital city or a major city named Jericho.

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And these walls, it's fascinating now.

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The walls of Jericho are anywhere from 31 to 42 feet high.

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And we know this for a couple reasons.

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One, we can look at some things

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that are in the Bible talking about this,

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and two, we can see what the archaeologists have found.

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This stuff blows me away.

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See, this is what is so amazing.

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The Bible has the audacity again and again and again and again

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and again to talk about things that can be verified or not verified.

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There's like no ancient spiritual literature at all

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where science and archaeology can weigh in and go,

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"Oh, there is no science."

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No, science and archaeology doesn't justify everything in the Bible.

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There's things we still don't understand,

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there's things that are not there as empirical proofs.

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But this is one of the many, many, many,

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many, many, many, many times in the Bible

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where people said, "Well, there's no Jericho's.

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Oh, we found these walls. I guess there are.

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I guess there was."

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These walls were keeping giants, very strong people,

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men of valor, safe inside and keeping them inside of a fortress.

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Joshua sends in a group of people, spies,

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to try to find any insiders inside

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that could help them get into these walls.

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And he finds one.

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He finds a prostitute by the name of Rahab,

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who decides to tip them off on some key intel.

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And she's key in how they were to get in there.

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So Joshua says, "When we get in there,

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we're gonna make sure we spare Rahab and keep her safe."

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They've actually found in the walls, in the ruins.

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There's one section of the wall apparently that wasn't destroyed.

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And there's a dwelling place there,

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but we don't know this for sure.

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We don't know, but some people would say,

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some archaeologists would go, "Well, who knows?

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Maybe this was where Rahab lived because he was supposed be protected.

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Don't know for sure, but it's actually things that make a go, hmmm.

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Right. Things that make you go hmm.

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Book of Joshua 6:17, it says:

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That's right, Rahab, the prostitute, a woman of the night,

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or maybe a woman of the afternoon

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or woman of the morning, too, I don't know.

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I don't know when she did her business, but that was her business.

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She was a woman who was a prostitute.

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Here's the crazy thing about this,

00:29:01

thousands of years later in the book of Hebrews

00:29:03

in the New Testament portion of the Bible.

00:29:05

We're in the Old Testament portion right now.

00:29:07

Thousand of years into the future,

00:29:08

she's listed in Hebrews 11 in what is known as the Hall of Faith.

00:29:13

The Hall of the Spiritual Greats in the Old Testament.

00:29:17

And she's right there alongside a bunch of people

00:29:19

who had a much more sexually pure history.

00:29:22

Rahab is named the Hall of Faith.

00:29:23

You know what this means?

00:29:25

It doesn't matter how awful your 2019 was,

00:29:30

2020 you can be winner, it doesn't matter.

00:29:33

It doesn't matter what your failures were in your past.

00:29:37

God does not categorize you by your failures.

00:29:40

It doesn't matter what you've done in the the past.

00:29:43

What matters is what you start do starting right now and going forward.

00:29:47

Now it might matter in the sense that you might have done

00:29:49

some things back there that are going to restrict your movement

00:29:52

and things that there's gonna be justice to pay.

00:29:55

OK, but there's nothing you're going to do in the past

00:29:57

when you come in relation with God where He's going to say, "Okay, you, done with you.

00:30:01

I got dealt with you way back when because (indiscernible)"

00:30:05

No. He chooses and works through a prostitute

00:30:08

and He could choose and work through extortioners,

00:30:12

slothful Americans,

00:30:14

people who have broken resolutions again and again,

00:30:16

people who make commitments to God

00:30:18

and don't fulfill those commitments to God.

00:30:20

People who have sorted of sexual pasts.

00:30:22

People who are just a little -- a little white lie

00:30:25

or whatever it is, wherever it is, whatever it is

00:30:28

God wants to use you right now.

00:30:30

He does.

00:30:32

God has a future for you.

00:30:34

There's a will for your life.

00:30:37

You could choose to win and you're winning in the future

00:30:42

has nothing to do with your past,

00:30:43

unless you let your past affect your future.

00:30:46

Rahab had a future and it was in serving God and His people.

00:30:54

That is amazing.

00:30:55

Can I hear an Amen? Could I get an Amen on that?

00:30:57

Amen, huh? Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmmm.

00:31:01

It's good, God is always there for another chance.

00:31:05

So even if 2019 was the sixth year in a row

00:31:08

you didn't get a single resolution done.

00:31:09

Hey, there's 2020 and God's up for a brand new start,

00:31:13

even if you failed on one of your resolutions two days ago.

00:31:17

Whatever. Whatever.

00:31:19

You probably failed,

00:31:20

but you probably didn't have sex with somebody for money.

00:31:22

So even if He got over that,

00:31:24

He can get over you dropping that resolution.

00:31:26

Just start from now, start from scratch.

00:31:29

You know, I don't know, maybe that's is what you did two days ago.

00:31:31

I don't know.

00:31:33

Crossroads has all kinds of people.

00:31:34

I love it. I love that that's the case.

00:31:37

I just -- seriously, one of the tactics that the evil one uses,

00:31:42

there is an evil one that wants to keep you from winning

00:31:45

is he wants you to believe that you're disqualified.

00:31:47

He wants you to believe that you're not up for the task.

00:31:51

He wants you to believe that God doesn't really care

00:31:53

about your future because of your past.

00:31:54

And it's just not true.

00:31:57

We need a level of difficulty.

00:32:00

We actually need this.

00:32:02

God put into the world the very DNA of difficulty.

00:32:07

Adam and Eve, when they were placed in the garden,

00:32:10

they were to work the garden.

00:32:12

Let me tell you something: Working a garden is difficult.

00:32:16

And they were working a garden and it was difficult

00:32:18

before sin entered the world, before Adam and Eve

00:32:20

ate of the fruit they shouldn't have eaten from difficulty is here.

00:32:24

Do not try to run away from difficulty.

00:32:27

We have to endure it and we have to run through it,

00:32:29

it's being tenacious.

00:32:30

Now, one of the goals I want to win at or I want to be a part of,

00:32:33

and hopefully do too.

00:32:34

We are going to do this in every talk this series.

00:32:38

We're going a little snippet of something

00:32:40

we're hoping to win at as a church.

00:32:41

We have a special that's going to Amazon Prime on January 26.

00:32:45

It's called Phantom Lake.

00:32:46

And it's about people who are trying to win,

00:32:48

overcome certain things in their life and learn new skills.

00:32:53

And we went into this, we did all the casting.

00:32:55

I'm going to show you an eight minute clip of that in just a moment.

00:32:58

When we went into it, we recognized that one of the problems,

00:33:02

one of the problems we were going to have

00:33:03

is every story, every reality series.

00:33:06

And this is, I think, six or seven episodes.

00:33:09

Every good story has to have a villain.

00:33:12

And so we knew for this to be good TV,

00:33:14

we needed a villain, right?

00:33:17

The problem is how do you have open tryouts with people

00:33:20

and knowing, "Okay, who's going to be an idiot here

00:33:22

that we can humiliate in front of the entire nation?

00:33:27

And I tell you what, if some of you applied,

00:33:29

you would've been great villains, I'm telling you right now.

00:33:31

You would have and I know you're upset you didn't get picked.

00:33:34

It was an act of grace to not pick you, let me tell you.

00:33:38

Because you would have lost.

00:33:39

I would have been all in your grill.

00:33:40

I would have had fun.

00:33:41

You would've been humiliated for the rest of your life.

00:33:43

So anyway, we said, "No, we're not going to get somebody

00:33:48

Well, we ended up having a villain.

00:33:53

Some episodes the villain was me, believe it or not.

00:33:56

Me? Yes, me.

00:33:57

But difficulty was the villain again and again and again.

00:34:03

Here is an eight minute clip of one example of

00:34:06

some pieces brought together over the number of episodes

00:34:09

of the kind of difficulty and tenacity that one guy had to go through.

00:34:15

- I wake up every day and I say to God,

00:34:16

"God, what ever you've got going on today, I want to be a part of it."

00:34:21

We're gonna do something really unorthodox

00:34:23

in taking an experienced riders on this trip.

00:34:26

You've got to be in a situation

00:34:27

that's foreign to what you're used to.

00:34:29

New riders are going to be challenged.

00:34:32

I had this feeling that everyone has an adventure that they're on.

00:34:35

I want to see real people in the real world

00:34:38

with real life adventures learn how to conquer them.

00:34:40

That's why I want to do this trip with people who need it.

00:34:44

If we're not in a difficult position,

00:34:46

we don't grow the way we could grow.

00:34:48

I learn when things are difficult.

00:34:50

I learn when I get smacked in the mouth.

00:34:52

I learn when I fall down.

00:34:54

I don't want to fail because I didn't try hard enough.

00:34:57

Some people would say, "Well, you're a pastor,

00:34:59

shouldn't you just be doing Bible studies?"

00:35:01

I'm about making real men and women stronger

00:35:04

and this is a way that I found that does it.

00:35:26

Just when it feels like we're getting some momentum,

00:35:29

we have to pull over again 40 minutes later.

00:35:33

David's bike has a new mechanical issue.

00:35:42

My question is, one, do you tow.

00:35:44

Two, can you come pick this bike up and get me going quickly?

00:35:51

So here's the deal. I'm sorry.

00:35:54

It sucks.

00:35:55

- Yup.

00:35:56

Here's what we're going to do, we're gonna get this towed

00:36:01

to a dealer who's going to have a tech stay late at night.

00:36:05

If they have parts in you're going to get to go

00:36:09

and you're going to be rolling.

00:36:10

If they don't, you're going to have to be waiting until Tuesday.

00:36:13

Basically what I'm saying is you're gonna be on your own.

00:36:17

Are you okay with that? - Yeah. I think I have to be.

00:36:20

- Attitude of the Day award right here,

00:36:22

attitude of the day award.

00:36:24

You're going to get to Phantom Lake.

00:36:26

- He's working his fingers to the bone.

00:36:28

Look at that freakin finger, he worked it to the bone.

00:36:31

Look at that.

00:36:32

Don't raise the middle finger to the camera.

00:36:34

What are you doing? You can't be doing that.

00:36:37

- I definitely love working with my hands.

00:36:39

I ended up putting my hand in the table saw.

00:36:43

One of my friends had told me, actually the friend

00:36:45

that was there the night that it happened, he's like,

00:36:47

"You take on any task that comes to you."

00:36:50

And he's like, "You love figuring things out".

00:36:53

He's like, "You're gonna figure this out."

00:36:55

- This is definitely the most hectic first day I've ever had.

00:37:00

David is -- He's gonna get the tow truck by himself.

00:37:04

He's gonna go up the dealer.

00:37:06

They're waiting for him.

00:37:07

They're going to get his bike going as soon as he can.

00:37:09

He's gonna catch up to us whenever he can.

00:37:10

We're gonna make our way towards Telluride.

00:37:13

We're still gonna try to get close there.

00:37:14

I doubt we're gonna get all the way to Telluride.

00:37:17

So when I feel like it's unsafe for us to drive anymore,

00:37:20

tell me, we're going to get a hotel as far as we get.

00:37:24

If they don't have anything in the hotel,

00:37:26

we're going to pitch tents in the parking lot.

00:37:31

- I fixed it. Something else broke, I fixed it.

00:37:34

Now something else has gone wrong.

00:37:36

And I'm stuck outside a highway while you guys

00:37:39

keep going out with the rest of them, keep going on.

00:37:45

I just want you guys to see what I'm about to write into.

00:37:47

This is separating me from my group, but I'm going for it.

00:38:05

- David rejoins the group after 10 hours of riding solo.

00:38:11

- That was awesome.

00:38:18

- Yes, welcome back, man.

00:38:22

- Eight hours?

00:38:23

- Nine.

00:38:38

- So that's what you moved it earlier and it seemed to work all right?

00:38:41

- Yeah, I mean, I got, what? 10 miles out of it?

00:38:44

But I mean, even just going from there up to here, 20 feet.

00:38:47

I mean, it just started cutting out again.

00:38:50

- So it runs fine sitting here.

00:38:52

- Yes.

00:38:53

- So what the heck?

00:38:55

- I don't know.

00:38:56

TOME: David's got a bike issue.

00:38:57

He's not going to be able to continue.

00:38:59

He's a very handy guy, so he's going to take stuff apart,

00:39:01

see if he can figure out what's going on.

00:39:03

He'll catch up with us.

00:39:06

- I feel pretty helpless at this point,

00:39:07

like I'm going to do what I can with the bike,

00:39:13

but I don't know.

00:39:14

I don't know this bike, I don't know it well enough.

00:39:19

I'm pretty handy, but I'm not a master mechanic.

00:39:26

I don't understand why this bike was doing that.

00:39:29

I think I know what was wrong, but I don't fully know.

00:39:31

So it's working now and I think it's has to do with heat.

00:39:34

But what matters is, is that, you know,

00:39:36

I just spent time with God last night talking about it.

00:39:39

I said, "I'm sorry that I didn't trust you, God,

00:39:41

in my moment of frustration."

00:39:43

And I was weak and I didn't trust Him.

00:39:45

So one way or another, I'm going on this trip

00:39:49

and I know God wants me here

00:39:50

and I'm just going to accept things as they come.

00:39:53

All right. I'm coming for you. ZACK! HEY-O, ZACK!

00:40:01

- David's here.

00:40:04

What?

00:40:10

TOME: Gett in the left part of the exit,

00:40:12

when you come off the exit, get in the left lane.

00:40:15

Go get gas and then come back here.

00:40:17

David's got a clutch adjustment issue.

00:40:19

So, you guys go get gas then come back here.

00:40:21

OK?

00:40:23

Surprise, surprise, David has another bike issue.

00:40:29

I'm starting to wonder if the problem is in David

00:40:32

versus David's bike.

00:40:34

- You can put both nuts on top.

00:40:37

I had a couple of 13s somewhere.

00:40:39

What in the world?

00:40:42

I had --

00:40:44

I put both nuts on it,

00:40:46

they said you could put both nuts on top.

00:40:50

Like I adjusted it properly, like I know what I'm doing.

00:40:53

I did this right. Like, what's going on?

00:40:58

TOME: You put the recluse in?

00:40:59

- Yeah.

00:41:02

Well, we found the culprit, this clutch basket nut.

00:41:07

I don't have the right size tool, so my buddy Ron here

00:41:12

was so graciously found me tool after to have the tool,

00:41:17

he's come through in a pinch.

00:41:19

I would say that his help is clutch.

00:41:26

- We have near success, closing up,

00:41:31

closing up the bike to see if it works

00:41:34

- In shop terms, mechanical things.

00:41:35

- Yeah. I mean, I have a lot to contribute to what's happening here.

00:41:41

David, is it working?

00:41:43

How's it feel?

00:41:44

- It feels good. It's working like it's supposed to.

00:41:46

Now I know what's wrong with that.

00:41:49

I still need to get the right tool,

00:41:50

but we'll deal with that tomorrow.

00:41:53

- Make no mistake about it, this trip is a bear.

00:41:57

I'm looking forward to getting to Phantom Lake

00:41:59

and I'm looking forward to being done.

00:42:10

[applause]

00:42:11

Every day I would have in the midst of difficulty,

00:42:13

that's just some of the difficulties.

00:42:14

I mean, every -- it was just -- it was a grind.

00:42:17

I'd have people on the crew coming to me on the side and go,

00:42:20

"Man, we're really under attack."

00:42:22

And I'd say, "Why is it whenever something is difficult,

00:42:25

Satan gets the credit?

00:42:27

What, what, what? Why is that?"

00:42:28

I said, "Let me tell you something.

00:42:29

This makes for great TV, all the difficulty.

00:42:32

And nobody is, as far as we know, like long term permanent injured."

00:42:38

But that's where we are, un-tenacious people,

00:42:41

as soon as something goes wrong, we go, "Oh, something's wrong."

00:42:43

No, it's what part of winning.

00:42:46

To win, we have to go against things that are pushing on us.

00:42:51

We have to learn to be tenacious.

00:42:53

This is the way it works.

00:42:54

It's always worked that way.

00:42:56

Luke 21:19, Jesus says:

00:43:04

Don't retreat, stand firm, that's in the New International Version.

00:43:09

In the ESV, the English Standard Version, it says:

00:43:18

Difficulty. Keep going.

00:43:22

Keep pushing.

00:43:24

The second thing that needs to happen with tenacity

00:43:25

is tenacity stacks the small wins.

00:43:29

Tenacity looks at the small wins and stacks them up

00:43:32

and embraces the small wins.

00:43:35

Last week in the NFL playoff games,

00:43:37

who watched any playoff games from last week?

00:43:39

Yeah.

00:43:40

Tom Brady's final pass of the season.

00:43:43

We wondered at that time if it was the final pass of his career.

00:43:47

It was a pick six, right?

00:43:48

And Chuck said to me, "There's no way he's retiring.

00:43:51

No way Tom Brady is going to go down

00:43:54

and his last pass is a pick six.

00:43:57

Of course, he's gonna stick around."

00:43:58

And here's what Tom Brady said a while ago about small wins:

00:44:19

If you had a weight loss goal, did you lose 30 pounds last week?

00:44:24

No, but hopefully you said, "Hey, I got my 3 one mile walks in."

00:44:30

That's a win.

00:44:31

If you had a goal to write a book

00:44:32

did you finish your book last week?

00:44:33

No, but hopefully said, "Hey, I had writer's block

00:44:38

at least for a half an hour because I was trying."

00:44:41

Whatever was last week, if you wanted intimacy

00:44:45

with somebody in your life, did it just pop up last week?

00:44:48

Maybe, probably not, but hopefully you had

00:44:52

one more substantive conversation with the person last week.

00:44:56

I could go on and on and on and on and on.

00:44:58

Friends, if it's a true vision we want to win in,

00:45:01

it's not going to come together in January

00:45:03

or maybe not even February.

00:45:05

So God's looking to see if we're going to be tenacious.

00:45:09

He's going to see how long it's going to take.

00:45:10

Now, I had a small win this week.

00:45:13

One of my things I want to win in this year is

00:45:16

I would like a 100,000 followers on social media.

00:45:20

I would like 100,000 followers on social media because

00:45:22

I would like to positively and spiritually influence people,

00:45:25

as many people as I possibly can.

00:45:27

Sometimes that's through stupid things,

00:45:29

earning the right to be heard.

00:45:30

Sometimes that's through scriptural insight

00:45:32

or some such thing like that.

00:45:33

I'm nowhere near that goal, by the way.

00:45:36

I think I've grown, I don't know, 600 people, 500 people.

00:45:42

That's a long way off from 100,000, right?

00:45:43

But I felt like I had wins this last week.

00:45:45

A part of how I'm trying to build into people

00:45:47

outside of a context like a stage is

00:45:49

a podcast I have called The Aggressive Life.

00:45:51

And I worked for a couple weeks lining up killer, killer guests,

00:45:55

like killer killer guests.

00:45:56

And I spent two days in Nashville this last week.

00:45:59

I bundled them all there down there recording.

00:46:01

I tell you what, it was a lot of work.

00:46:04

And I want to -- I don't want to name drop,

00:46:06

but I'm going to.

00:46:07

I'll tell you why I am.

00:46:10

Kathie Lee Gifford, Mike Fisher,

00:46:13

MMA guy Michael Chandler,

00:46:17

Brian "Head" Welch from Korn,

00:46:20

another politician, just really, really crazy.

00:46:23

And the thing is, the only reason to name drop like that

00:46:25

is to say this: I couldn't just line those people up

00:46:28

over two days just by praying about it.

00:46:32

It was a long time of hard work.

00:46:34

And when I got all of them saying, yes,

00:46:36

it's like, "Oh, I got a win. Woo! Wonderful."

00:46:39

And then when I actually got them in the room,

00:46:40

we actually finished recording, "Woo, I got a win."

00:46:43

And I got one that was done.

00:46:44

And I said, "I hope this next one."

00:46:45

And each time was like, "Oh, yeah.

00:46:47

Good."

00:46:48

No episode is released. No new followers.

00:46:50

No one's even helped, but I got a win.

00:46:53

I had some great conversations with people

00:46:55

that are going to be incredibly helpful.

00:46:56

You have to know what are the small things you're going to do

00:46:58

and you as a tenacious person have to learn

00:47:01

to take gratification in small things.

00:47:03

My child listened to me one time this week, woo.

00:47:05

[laughter]

00:47:09

It's a small win, it's a good win.

00:47:11

Now Joshua gives the Nation of Israel these very small wins

00:47:15

that they're to do as they go against Jericho.

00:47:18

Here's where it says in Joshua 6:3:

00:47:50

So he gives some very, very clear directions here,

00:47:55

very clear things that before they have

00:47:57

to actually subdue anybody physically when they get into the city,

00:48:02

before the walls come down,

00:48:04

which I'm sure none of them are believing that's going to happen.

00:48:07

But before all this stuff happens,

00:48:08

they've got seven days of things that they can do

00:48:12

that every day they're like, "Oh, that was a win.

00:48:14

That was a win. All right.

00:48:15

We did that one today.

00:48:17

That was good. I worked on that today."

00:48:21

The last thing about tenacity is

00:48:24

tenacity about the fundamentals.

00:48:26

Tenacity keeps the fundamentals fundamental.

00:48:30

The fundamentals are fundamental.

00:48:32

We don't win by having our lives go viral.

00:48:37

There's no overnight success.

00:48:39

It's an overnight success because

00:48:41

you just found about somebody over the night,

00:48:42

but they've been working for years and maybe decades

00:48:45

to where you could find them out overnight.

00:48:48

It's the fundamentals, the fundamentals of parenting.

00:48:51

The fundamentals of friendship.

00:48:53

The fundamentals of dating.

00:48:54

The fundamentals of marriage.

00:48:56

The fundamentals of finance.

00:48:58

The fundamentals of taking care of yourself physically.

00:49:00

The fund-- always the fundamentals.

00:49:03

And we try to know what those are

00:49:04

and build them one little thing at a time.

00:49:08

We're going into a small group or group season here at Crossroads

00:49:12

where it's a fundamental.

00:49:13

If you want to grow with God and you want support,

00:49:16

you need to be in people's lives and them in your life.

00:49:20

The Nation of Israel was going to be a group

00:49:22

going around Jericho.

00:49:24

And that's why we're getting ready for new season to get in groups.

00:49:27

So I hope we're going to get the right leaders

00:49:29

and I just hope you're thinking to yourself,

00:49:30

"This isn't a churchy thing.

00:49:32

This is a me being equipped to be tenacious thing."

00:49:35

It is critical for that.

00:49:38

The fundamentals for these people are this:

00:49:41

armed men are going to go ahead.

00:49:43

They're gonna take laps around the city.

00:49:45

They're going to have armed men.

00:49:46

And then behind the armed men,

00:49:48

they're going to have seven priests.

00:49:50

And then behind the priests,

00:49:51

they're going to have the Ark of the Covenant,

00:49:53

which is where they store the Ten Commandments.

00:49:54

And then behind them is going to be the rear guard,

00:49:58

more armed people behind.

00:50:00

And so this whole thing and they're coming out

00:50:02

and these guys are taking these horns going [sound effect].

00:50:06

They're kind of going around [sound effect].

00:50:09

They're looking like idiots. Right?

00:50:10

[sound effect]

00:50:11

You know the people inside Jericho are going,

00:50:13

"What in the world are those people doing?"

00:50:16

[sound effect] They're just going around.

00:50:19

And they would do one lap a day for six days.

00:50:23

They go one lap a day for six days.

00:50:26

I don't know exactly why God had them do this.

00:50:30

I do know one thing, I do know when they got done that day,

00:50:34

they went, "OK, we got somewhere today.

00:50:37

We did something. I was supposed to do that today

00:50:39

and we had the right formation and we did it.

00:50:41

OK.

00:50:42

I don't know exactly what's gonna happen tomorrow, but we did it."

00:50:44

They were getting reps and they were doing the fundamentals.

00:50:47

They were honoring the voice of God who is telling them

00:50:50

to do what He was telling them to do.

00:50:54

And then what do you know? The last day.

00:50:57

The last day.

00:50:58

Day seven comes.

00:50:59

Let me just read for you, Joshua 6:15-20:

00:51:29

[Crumblin' Down: John Mellencamp}

00:51:35

Come tumbling, tumbling,

00:51:37

and the walls come tumbling down, doooown.

00:51:45

John Cougar Mellencamp, God bless America.

00:51:47

[cheers]

00:51:49

Yeah, walls come tumbling down.

00:51:55

This story has impacted my life, it has impacted your life.

00:51:57

You might have heard this story before.

00:51:59

You might not have heard the story before.

00:52:00

I'm going to tell it again, because it's worthy of being told.

00:52:04

We did the fundamentals of this story 15, 16 years ago,

00:52:11

right where I'm standing right here on stage,

00:52:15

this was a parking lot outside of a thing called HQ Warehouse.

00:52:20

And this is the parking lot.

00:52:22

We had 20 people who were a part of Crossroads

00:52:24

who were meeting as a prayer group who were part of Crossroads,

00:52:29

because the next day we were going to be going

00:52:30

to Wall Street in New York City to bid on a piece of property

00:52:35

that was 17 acres and 100,000 square foot under roof.

00:52:41

And we were outmanned.

00:52:43

We were outgunned by the Giants,

00:52:44

because we know the giants of Lowe's and Home Depot

00:52:47

and other developers, they were swooping in at this location.

00:52:51

It was two levels beneath street level, literally on Wall Street,

00:52:56

to buy a pieces of property like this all over the country:

00:52:59

Hechinger, Home Depot, excuse me,

00:53:02

Hechinger, Builder Square, HQ, same parent company.

00:53:05

And we knew that we were outgunned and outmanned,

00:53:08

similar to how the Nation of Israel might have said.

00:53:10

And I guess I was talking about this with my kids

00:53:13

at some point earlier, my oldest daughter can remember this,

00:53:16

I guess, because we're praying.

00:53:17

And it was very weird for me, but when you're desperate,

00:53:19

you do desperate things like hold hands to pray.

00:53:21

So I'm like we're holding hands and praying.

00:53:24

And I probably held hands to pray

00:53:26

maybe like three times the last 15 years.

00:53:28

This is one of them, right?

00:53:29

We're doing that? And all of the sudden my daughter goes,

00:53:33

"Dad. Dad." I looked at her, "Yeah, honey."

00:53:36

"Why don't we match around the city seven times

00:53:40

just like Joshua and the Nation of Israel did?"

00:53:42

Now, whenever an idea is a good idea

00:53:45

and it comes from your kid, then it's always your idea.

00:53:47

So I said, "That's a good idea."

00:53:49

"Folks, Let me tell you what we're going to do.

00:53:51

We're going to march around this building seven times.

00:53:55

And just like that seventh day,

00:53:56

they were silent until the end.

00:53:57

We're going to march around in silence.

00:53:59

We're going to pray that God blinds and confuses our enemies,"

00:54:02

because that's what that's what ended up happening

00:54:04

in the story, God blinded and confused their enemies.

00:54:06

So, I'm like, "Okay." So we take off, right?

00:54:09

We're walking around.

00:54:10

It's interesting that the area inside of the Jericho walls

00:54:18

are about the size of a 100,000 square foot building,

00:54:23

along with a garden center,

00:54:25

along with a little driveway on the other edge of it.

00:54:28

It's about -- it's really about that size.

00:54:31

And as we're walking this around, we start off,

00:54:33

we're all excited, we're praying and we're --

00:54:36

Now, I get around two times and I got these two little kids.

00:54:39

I can't remember exactly what they were,

00:54:40

like I don't know, 8 and 6 or something like that.

00:54:43

And they're tired after two times.

00:54:45

I've got one of them my shoulders.

00:54:46

I'm carrying another one.

00:54:48

And I'm really struggling with back troubles at this time.

00:54:50

And I'm just going, "Oh, man, I'm hurting and I'm dying."

00:54:52

I look in front of me, one of the guys, Marcus is his name.

00:54:55

He's in the front. He came from work.

00:54:57

No one came for a hike.

00:54:58

People came from work.

00:54:59

He's got these -- He's got these khaki slacks on

00:55:03

and penny loafer shoes and I'm watching him.

00:55:06

And as we were going on, we kept cutting corners.

00:55:10

We kept trying to get closer and closer.

00:55:12

So we were no longer going over on the driveway.

00:55:15

We were now walking in the deep weeds

00:55:19

right beside the building to make it a shorter walks.

00:55:22

So I'm watching. I'm watching Marcus go through

00:55:24

and all the others going through.

00:55:25

I'm going, "All right, this is --

00:55:27

we're like three times through, I'm like, all right.

00:55:28

That's good enough. That's good.

00:55:30

People understand.

00:55:31

That's good."

00:55:33

And then God spoke to me.

00:55:36

Now, I said last week, when God speaks to me

00:55:38

it's an idea that comes out of nowhere

00:55:41

that I would not have thought on my own

00:55:43

and I think Jesus would approve of.

00:55:46

And it basically is this: Brian, you want a miracle,

00:55:50

but you don't want to walk seven times around a building.

00:55:53

To use today's verbiage: You can't be tenacious enough

00:55:58

to walk seven times around a building, but you want to win.

00:56:01

So all of sudden it got personal.

00:56:04

So we're going around and we're cutting corners.

00:56:06

And by the way, the building is still open.

00:56:08

And there's automatic doors in the front.

00:56:10

So we're brushing up against the wall,

00:56:13

like our right shoulders are

00:56:15

and we're coming against the wall [sound effect].

00:56:17

We're walking 20 people.

00:56:19

And then about about 20 minutes later

00:56:21

we come back around [sound effect].

00:56:24

And we get done and we're tired.

00:56:27

So, we go and I'm part of the team that goes

00:56:30

and bids the next day on Wall Street.

00:56:32

We win the bid for all the money that we had

00:56:34

to put onto it, $4.6

00:56:35

million.

00:56:37

We come back and we had an offer that was double

00:56:40

what we had -- double of what we had gotten for it.

00:56:43

Within the next couple weeks,

00:56:44

we had three companies offer us two to three times

00:56:47

the price of what we had had.

00:56:49

Because they missed flights.

00:56:51

They crossed their wires,

00:56:53

partners did, as to who was actually going.

00:56:54

God literally blinded and confused our enemies.

00:57:02

[cheers & applause] That's tenacity.

00:57:04

That is the way it works.

00:57:06

Friends, I'm telling you right now, I'm telling you

00:57:10

you might be on lap two and you got five to go.

00:57:15

Do not stop.

00:57:16

Do not stop.

00:57:17

I'm telling you, I know, your back is cramping.

00:57:20

I know. Don't stop.

00:57:23

I know that there is going to be endless reasons to stop.

00:57:25

Don't stop.

00:57:27

Keep going.

00:57:28

I know you look like an idiot.

00:57:29

We looked like idiots.

00:57:30

20 of us looking like idiots going around.

00:57:33

If there's something you're trying to win in,

00:57:35

you're going to look stupid to people,

00:57:37

especially people who don't want God.

00:57:40

I know it. I know.

00:57:41

I know.

00:57:42

And I know you can't do it on your own.

00:57:45

You need to be with others as you go around.

00:57:47

But I'm telling you, keep putting one foot in front of the other.

00:57:51

There is a God that has done miracles

00:57:54

like cause walls to fall down

00:57:56

as they did with Jericho at the shout.

00:57:59

And there is a God who will still make walls come down,

00:58:02

but he wants to know are you going to be tenacious?

00:58:05

He wants to know are you going to go for a walk?

00:58:08

He wants to know if you're gonna give Him your plans,

00:58:11

if you're gonna give Him your --

00:58:13

He wants to see if you want to take it.

00:58:16

He's not just gonna give it to you.

00:58:18

You've got to take it.

00:58:19

This is the way God works in the lives of the spiritually great,

00:58:23

and that includes people in here today

00:58:26

who might've been prostitutes yesterday,

00:58:29

but are going to be winners tomorrow.

00:58:33

God, I thank you for Your grace, Your forgiveness,

00:58:38

and Your goodness.

00:58:41

Calm the backs that are achey, calm the minds that are doubting.

00:58:47

We commit to take another lap this week.

00:58:50

I pray these things according to the name Jesus, Amen.

00:58:54

All right. Have a great week, we'll see you next weekend.

00:58:57

- Thanks for joining us for week two of Win This Year.

00:59:01

You can chat with us on the Crossroads website

00:59:03

if you want someone to pray for you right now,

00:59:05

you have questions about Crossroads

00:59:06

or you want to get more connected this year.

00:59:08

We'd love to talk with you.

00:59:10

We'll see you back next week for Week 3 of Win This Year.

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