TENACITY | Win This Year: Week 2

We all have goals we’ve tried to reach but never had the strength to finish. This week, learn how to develop the tenacity to push through difficulty so you can win.

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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.
  • 00:26:12
    I don't know, but they're going to have to go up against
  • 00:26:16
    who the previous spies who went in the land,
  • 00:26:18
    and they had cold feet, said where there were giants,
  • 00:26:22
    said here there was amazing opportunity, but huge, huge people.
  • 00:26:26
    And this is where they're going to go.
  • 00:26:28
    They're going to go into the nation of the Canaanites.
  • 00:26:31
    And there is that their capital city or a major city named Jericho.
  • 00:26:35
    And these walls, it's fascinating now.
  • 00:26:37
    The walls of Jericho are anywhere from 31 to 42 feet high.
  • 00:26:44
    And we know this for a couple reasons.
  • 00:26:46
    One, we can look at some things
  • 00:26:47
    that are in the Bible talking about this,
  • 00:26:49
    and two, we can see what the archaeologists have found.
  • 00:26:54
    This stuff blows me away.
  • 00:26:55
    See, this is what is so amazing.
  • 00:26:57
    The Bible has the audacity again and again and again and again
  • 00:27:00
    and again to talk about things that can be verified or not verified.
  • 00:27:07
    There's like no ancient spiritual literature at all
  • 00:27:10
    where science and archaeology can weigh in and go,
  • 00:27:12
    "Oh, there is no science."
  • 00:27:13
    No, science and archaeology doesn't justify everything in the Bible.
  • 00:27:16
    There's things we still don't understand,
  • 00:27:18
    there's things that are not there as empirical proofs.
  • 00:27:20
    But this is one of the many, many, many,
  • 00:27:22
    many, many, many, many times in the Bible
  • 00:27:24
    where people said, "Well, there's no Jericho's.
  • 00:27:27
    Oh, we found these walls. I guess there are.
  • 00:27:29
    I guess there was."
  • 00:27:31
    These walls were keeping giants, very strong people,
  • 00:27:36
    men of valor, safe inside and keeping them inside of a fortress.
  • 00:27:42
    Joshua sends in a group of people, spies,
  • 00:27:46
    to try to find any insiders inside
  • 00:27:49
    that could help them get into these walls.
  • 00:27:51
    And he finds one.
  • 00:27:52
    He finds a prostitute by the name of Rahab,
  • 00:27:55
    who decides to tip them off on some key intel.
  • 00:27:58
    And she's key in how they were to get in there.
  • 00:28:01
    So Joshua says, "When we get in there,
  • 00:28:03
    we're gonna make sure we spare Rahab and keep her safe."
  • 00:28:06
    They've actually found in the walls, in the ruins.
  • 00:28:09
    There's one section of the wall apparently that wasn't destroyed.
  • 00:28:13
    And there's a dwelling place there,
  • 00:28:14
    but we don't know this for sure.
  • 00:28:15
    We don't know, but some people would say,
  • 00:28:17
    some archaeologists would go, "Well, who knows?
  • 00:28:19
    Maybe this was where Rahab lived because he was supposed be protected.
  • 00:28:23
    Don't know for sure, but it's actually things that make a go, hmmm.
  • 00:28:27
    Right. Things that make you go hmm.
  • 00:28:30
    Book of Joshua 6:17, it says:
  • 00:28:43
    That's right, Rahab, the prostitute, a woman of the night,
  • 00:28:49
    or maybe a woman of the afternoon
  • 00:28:50
    or woman of the morning, too, I don't know.
  • 00:28:52
    I don't know when she did her business, but that was her business.
  • 00:28:54
    She was a woman who was a prostitute.
  • 00:28:59
    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.

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.

  1. Alright everyone, we are a few weeks into the new decade. Let’s do a quick catch up on any resolutions, goals or areas you want to win in 2020. Each person take 30 seconds and give us a recap of how the new decade is going so far. Be as specific or as vague as you want with this one, but keep it under 30 seconds.

  2. Winners are tenacious, but tenacity demands difficulty. Basically, if we are winning we should expect difficulty along the way. Share about a specific difficulty that you are facing in pursuit of your win in 2020.

  3. Read God’s instructions to Joshua and Israel in Joshua 6:3-5. God gives the army an opportunity to get small wins on the way to their major victory here. Where in your life are you seeing small wins?

  4. In your opinion, what is the relationship between tenacity and doubt? Are they connected? If so, explain how? If not, why do you think they are separate?

  5. Tenacity is about moving forward despite difficulty. To do this we need God’s power and we need each other along the way for support. Go around the group and pray for each person, asking God to give them tenacity to continue the fight towards winning.

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Jan 11, 2020 59 mins 44 sec

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