Run a New Race | The Life of Paul (Run Journey Week 0)

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[music: Crossroads Music, Count Me In ]

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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads. My name is Jen.

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So glad you're streaming with us today.

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- Yeah, my name is Andy Reider,

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Community Pastor of Crossroads Anywhere.

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And whether you've been around for like 15 seconds,

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maybe you came for the first time

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at Super Bowl of Preaching last week

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for all that craziness, tens of thousands of people

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online at our physical sites,

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or you've been around for 15 years.

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Man, it's a perfect, perfect weekend to jump in

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because we've got the Run Journey

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that starts this weekend.

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It's going to be incredible, but a big stuff happening.

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Last weekend with Super Bowl of Preaching,

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big stuff starting this week with the Run Journey.

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We also have a little something happening

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right after this service. - Right after this service.

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Stay tuned. A QR code will pop up on the screen.

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We are doing a live Zoom.

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We're going to get some backstage stuff happening.

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We've got some surprise guests for you.

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It's going to be incredible. So stick around,

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jump on Zoom with us immediately after this service.

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- That's right. We want you to know, like,

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this is not just a thing that we watch.

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This is a community that you can belong to.

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So joining us afterwards would be a great place

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to get to know this place and some of its people better.

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But we're actually going to start off our time,

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as we often do, with music.

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And this isn't just because it's a habit,

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it's not because that's just legally

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how you have to start a church service.

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Because we use these moments to connect with God.

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It's not just a Spotify playlist,

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it's not just a soundtrack.

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These are actually our conversations

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that we have with God

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where He reminds us what's true about Him

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and what's true about us.

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So turn up your volume. Lean in right now with these songs.

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- Some of us have nothing to do but trust You.

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We don't know how ends are going to meet.

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We don't know how we're going

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to make sense of the medical prognosis.

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We don't know what in the heck

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we're going to do with our child.

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We don't know what we're going to do

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and how it's going to work out, God, for just me

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feeling like something is just not firing on all cylinders.

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Well, many of us have needs of some degree,

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and we come here today because we're saying

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we're going to keep working the best we can.

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But, God, we just gotta trust You.

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We trust You because you, after all, call yourself a Savior.

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We need saving.

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We need something beyond our own ingenuity,

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our own mindset, our own physical capacities,

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our own, our own history.

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We need Your history, and we need You to be involved.

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And we're trusting in You this morning.

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This is our -- this isn't just our song,

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this is our prayer this morning, God.

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- You're the only one worthy, worthy of our praise,

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worthy of our attention.

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And God, if I'm honest, my week doesn't always look the way

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as if it's acknowledging You as the one who's worthy,

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the one who's guiding my life.

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God, so my prayer is that You'd help me,

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that You'd help us to trust You wholeheartedly,

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to stop leaning into our own ideas of our life

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and to trust what You have for us.

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Because that's a path to freedom.

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That's a path to fulfillment in this life,

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no matter what's being thrown at us.

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But to trust in You, God, is the ultimate goal.

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So what we do that today, You're worthy of our praise

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and we sing to You, we pray to You, and we say Amen. Amen.

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Come on, it's good to sing to the Lord together in this space.

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Hey, singing is our act of worship.

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And we do many things as a sign to God that we belong to Him.

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Another one of those things is through our finances.

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And me and my family give every month.

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And if you've been here, you've heard me say

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this a bunch because it's real.

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I want God to know that I trust Him with my pockets.

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And so maybe you want to start that journey today.

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If you're new, hey, we're just glad you're here.

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Don't worry about it.

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But if you want to give and you feel that from the Lord,

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you can join me in that at crossroads.net/give.

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Hey, you've been singing around some crazy good singers,

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or not, the past 16 minutes.

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Why don't you turn to them and say, hey,

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tell them your name and then you can have a seat.

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- What's a journey, you ask?

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No, not that one. It's not rocket science.

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It's just something life changing

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we've been doing as a community for 20 years.

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Will it work for you? We're betting on it.

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Thousands of people have made incredible progress

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leveling up and getting off the sidelines of their lives.

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And you can too.

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Too busy? We get it.

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But this is so worth it,

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if you're into finding your purpose and winning at life.

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Who doesn't need a win?

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I thought so.

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So we've made it simple.

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There are just three steps to the Journey.

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Step one: attend the weekend at a site or online.

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See the Bible come alive from here or here or even here.

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Step two: do your individual work

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in this specially designed personal reflection folder.

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Step three: meet with the group online or in person.

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We've created original content just for groups

00:21:04

that includes this sweet original game

00:21:06

that is both fun and deep. Heads up Mattel!

00:21:10

And our Lead Pastor Kyle has something encouraging,

00:21:13

challenging, and inspiring just for your group via video

00:21:16

each week as you discover the race you were made to run.

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Now all you have to do is show up

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and experience five incredible weeks

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that just might change your life.

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Go here to learn more.

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- That's right, The Run Journey is designed to help you

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level up and run the race that God actually has for you,

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not for somebody else, but for you.

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Not vague inspiration, but your race that God has for you.

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- Yes, and as you just heard,

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there are three ways to be a part of the journey.

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One is attend a weekend or watch online,

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which you're doing right now. Check.

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Two is get a folder. If you live near a site,

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you'll pick this one up at your site.

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If not, you can go to crossroads.net/Journey

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where you can scroll down, give us your info

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and we'll mail this to you for free.

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And then three is get in a group. Tell us about groups.

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- Right. Now is the time to join a group.

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There are tons of group options available on our website

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at crossroads.net/Journey, on location,

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at our sites, in homes, and on Zoom as well.

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- Yes, great filters make it really easy.

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- Right. It's kind of like online shopping,

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but for a group, you can also join our groups.

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If you don't have one, you can join us

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with Chuck Mingo, Kyle Ranson, Hannah Driskill.

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- Justin Mosteller.

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- People you already know and love.

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- Are leading online groups. - That's right.

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If you've got a Journey, if you already have a group,

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you can do the Journey together and maybe

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consider inviting some of your friends,

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family, neighbors to join you as well.

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- Yep. And if you are hosting, it's very important

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that we know you're hosting a group.

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So get registered on our website so that we can

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get you all of the information and you can join in

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online at host training so that

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you are fully prepared for what to expect.

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- That's right. So if you've done a Journey in the past,

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there's something fun and special coming up.

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It's this. This super professional, super fun game

00:23:08

is going to be your guide for the group experience

00:23:10

through the entire Journey.

00:23:11

This game shapes the weekly rhythm,

00:23:13

the weekly conversation, and honestly, it's just a blast.

00:23:17

So whether you're meeting in person or online,

00:23:19

we've got a great version of the game for you.

00:23:21

- Digital tool we got to try out last week.

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- Yes. So good, so good.

00:23:24

Now my personal plug here:

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I would not be married without the Journey.

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Long story very short, 15 years ago I was

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brand new at Crossroads started something

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called the Free Journey here and met my wife.

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I asked her out. - You met Rachel in a Journey?

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- Yes. Met my wife Rachel, asked her out.

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She said no, hard pass

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because the conversation was just surface level.

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It wasn't until a few weeks later the Journey

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allowed us to go deep and go to a new place.

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- No promises, single people.

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- No promises, but I'm just saying it worked for me.

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Now the journey is all built around the life

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of this guy named Paul, who wrote a bunch

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of the New Testament, but he lived with unique purpose

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and calling and identity.

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We want to introduce you to him right now.

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- Yeah. God, it's amazing to see somebody

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who runs their race and runs it well.

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And I know You've got a bunch of people in here

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who You've got to race for us.

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Some of us are already on the race.

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Some of us have been sidetracked.

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But I am thanking You that You give clarion calls

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that bring clarity, and that's what I'm asking happens today.

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Thank You for choosing me to articulate these things,

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and I never want to take that for granted, God.

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Help us become who You want us to be.

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And I pray these things according to the character

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and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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So we're going to talk today a little bit about Saul,

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who is later renamed Paul, as you just learned.

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We're not talking about Paul Bunyan.

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We're not talking about Paul George.

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We're not talking about pallbearers.

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We're talking about the person of Paul,

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who is responsible more than anybody for penning

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more the New Testament than anybody else.

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This was a guy who, if you research him,

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whatever list you find, like, who is

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the most influential person in the history of the world,

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number one will always be Jesus because He --

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We date time after Him. He did more than anybody.

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There's not even a close number two.

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And the Apostle Paul will show up anywhere

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in the top five or top ten because

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he impacted Eastern and Western culture.

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This was a guy who was on mission.

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In the book of 1 Corinthians 9:24, he gives a metaphor

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that we're going to tap into for the next five weeks

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that I'm introducing us to today.

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He says this in 1 Corinthians 9:24.

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Do you not know that in a race all the runners run,

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but only one gets the prize?

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Run so that you may obtain it.

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Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.

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They do it to receive a perishable wreath,

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but we an imperishable.

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Go into the race as if to win it.

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You ever felt like something's just off?

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You ever felt like, you know, the gears of life

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just aren't meshing right?

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You ever felt like you're spinning your wheels

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and you're not sure why you're spinning your wheels?

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You ever eel like there's a fog that won't lift from your eyes

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or for your perspective?

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It's just not the way it seems like it should be.

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You ever feel like you just can't break through whatever

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the breakthrough is, like, there's just something.

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You know what I'm talking about?

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Like you're just a fry short of a happy meal, you know.

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I think it's because

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this metaphor is trying to speak to us

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where we don't know if we're in it.

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Am I in the right thing?

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Am I going the right direction?

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There's three kinds of people, three kinds of people,

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those who can count and those who can't.

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And of the three, all of us are going to be one of those three.

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Some of us need to change our race.

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We're in the wrong race.

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We're on the wrong direction.

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Some of us need to run the race we're in right now,

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and we need to have more intensity.

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We need to run harder.

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And some of us need to just know

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what's the finish line of the race I'm in?

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Is it just an ongoing grind? What's the finish line?

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So let me talk about each of those.

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All of us are in one of these categories.

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First, some of us have to change our ways.

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Paul, the apostle Paul, he had a race.

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His race was to be the best

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and most fanatical Jew on the planet.

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And he was, and he was running that race really, really hard.

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What race are you in?

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Do you know the race that you're in?

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All of us are in one right now,

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whether you've identified it or not.

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But what is it?

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What's the default race we're in?

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Maybe you're in the -- Maybe you're younger

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and you're in the just get a good job race.

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That's when I say "just," that's an important race.

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Maybe yours is a, man, find some close friend race.

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Maybe you're in the find a spouse race.

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Maybe you're in the I need to get some kids race.

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Maybe you're in the I need to have less annoying kids race.

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Maybe you're in the I have to maximize my potential

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and maximize my earning power race.

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All of these races can be fine and good.

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And maybe God wants you to do all of these races.

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They're good races, but unless they're focused on

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the truth and identity of God, and He's commissioned

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you to be in that race,

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and you know He wants you to be in that race,

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and that race excites you to exert yourself,

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life is just not going to be as fulfilling as it could be.

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You're not going to be as close to God as you could be.

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The Apostle Paul was doing really well in his race

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before he was an apostle, which means one who was sent.

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Before he was sent to Gentiles to help them

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understand who God was, he was doing really great in his race.

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He was excelling.

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He was exceeding as a Pharisee, part of

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the ruling class of religious people who would invent

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laws for people to keep, and he would keep them himself.

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And he's on the road.

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We have these sayings in our country that we forget

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even we don't even know what they are.

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Our road, the road to Damascus,

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he's on the road to Damascus, not the yellow brick road.

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He's on the road to Damascus

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where he's going to do his thing.

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What's his thing? Get to that city over there

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where there's more Jews who are deluded

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that Jesus is the Messiah.

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He was convinced that Jesus was not the Messiah,

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that this was not what the Savior was going to look like,

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and he was taking out his convictions

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on people with violence.

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Let's go ahead and read what happens

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as he's on the road to Damascus.

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That's his race that he's running.

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Says this in verse three:

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Now as he went on his way, he approached --

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I'm in in Acts chapter nine, excuse me.

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Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus,

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and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.

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And falling to the ground, he heard a voice

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saying to him, "Saul, Saul,"

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which is the previous name, before he gets changed to Paul'

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"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"

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That's interesting. Let's pause right there.

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Interesting. Uh, this is Jesus saying,

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"Why are you persecuting Me?"

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Saul wasn't overseeing the persecution

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and killing of Christians until Jesus left.

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Why did He say why are you persecuting Me?

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I don't know if you've ever heard before that

00:34:54

if you're part of the body of Christ,

00:34:56

part of the family of God, if you've made a decision

00:34:58

to receive Jesus in your life,

00:35:01

you receive the Spirit of God,

00:35:03

specifically, you receive the Holy Spirit.

00:35:06

And when you receive, the Holy Spirit

00:35:07

doesn't come into the world until Jesus leaves the world

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and the Holy Spirit comes into

00:35:12

only those who have received Him.

00:35:14

And we band together and we become the church

00:35:17

which has been known as the Body of Christ

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or it's also been known as the hand and feet of Christ,

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because so many of the world's problems

00:35:25

get counteracted by us because we're His hands and feet.

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And Jesus says, "Why are you persecuting Me?"

00:35:31

Meaning there's people over there, They're Me. They're Me."

00:35:38

Jesus takes a personal.

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When you have a hard time,

00:35:41

when things are not going your way because you are Him,

00:35:44

if you're a follower of Christ, if you've received Him.

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It's pretty cool, pretty interesting.

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So he goes on and says, says this, "But rise

00:35:51

and enter the city and you will be told what you are to do."

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The men who were traveling with him stood speechless,

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hearing the voice but seeing no one.

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God cuts in on Paul's race.

00:36:09

He's going one way.

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He's very confident and God cuts in.

00:36:13

Have you ever had something happen

00:36:15

where your race gets changed,

00:36:17

where you think you're going the right direction,

00:36:20

but all of a sudden something happens

00:36:21

and your plans detonate?

00:36:23

Where you think this is what God wants you to do,

00:36:25

but all of a sudden God slaps you another way?

00:36:28

We are confident this is who you are

00:36:31

and where you're going, and all of a sudden you realize,

00:36:33

"I have no idea where I'm going."

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You ever had a time where God gets your attention,

00:36:39

however He gets it, through some pain,

00:36:42

gets your attention through a word that someone gives you,

00:36:45

gets your attention through a dream,

00:36:47

gets your attention through just noticing

00:36:49

my life is just going nowhere.

00:36:50

Whatever it is, Paul has this moment

00:36:55

and God gets his attention by striking him with lightning.

00:37:11

Actually, it says a light has come and engulfed him.

00:37:16

Could have been lightning, could have been some other thing,

00:37:19

but all Paul knows is all of a sudden he could see

00:37:22

and now he's blind.

00:37:25

He had a purpose and now he has no purpose.

00:37:29

He has an encounter with the living God

00:37:32

and he is in darkness.

00:37:34

He cannot see, his way of life has ceased to exist.

00:37:39

The things that he could do before he can not do anymore.

00:37:45

And this happens, it happens because God had

00:37:49

to get his attention because he was running

00:37:54

the wrong race.

00:37:59

God will get your attention

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when you're running the wrong race,

00:38:03

one way or another, He will.

00:38:08

As he's struggling in blindness,

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God gives another person instruction.

00:38:15

He says to Ananias, "I've got a race for you to run.

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Here's this race.

00:38:18

This race is just going to take you like an afternoon.

00:38:20

But you need to enter this race and you need to run this race."

00:38:23

He goes to Ananias, who's a Jew who lives in Damascus,

00:38:27

who believes that Jesus is the Messiah.

00:38:30

And he says, "You're supposed to go to this guy Saul

00:38:35

and you're supposed to bring him to understand who Jesus is.

00:38:37

You're supposed to tell him the truth."

00:38:39

And Ananias just doesn't like this idea at all.

00:38:44

I don't know if you've ever been put into a race

00:38:47

and you just don't want to be in it.

00:38:49

I don't want that to be my race.

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Well, that's Ananias here. Let's see what happens.

00:38:55

It says this: And the Lord said to him, "Rise and --"

00:39:00

I'm in verse 11. The Lord said, "Rise and go to

00:39:04

the street called straight at the house of Judas.

00:39:06

Look for a man of Tarsus named Saul,

00:39:08

for behold, he's praying. He's praying.

00:39:11

He's been in a vision, in a vision with a man

00:39:17

and he has seen a vision -- He has seen in a vision

00:39:20

a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him

00:39:24

so that he might regain his sight."

00:39:26

So Saul has already seen this, this is what's going to happen.

00:39:30

But Ananias, when he hears this, Ananias answered,

00:39:32

"Lord, I've heard from many about this man,

00:39:35

how much evil he has done to Your saints at Jerusalem.

00:39:39

And here he has authority from the chief priests

00:39:42

to bind all who call on your name."

00:39:46

But the Lord said to him, "Go,

00:39:49

for he's a chosen messenger of Mine to carry My Name

00:39:53

before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.

00:39:58

For I will show him how much he must suffer

00:40:01

for the sake of My Name."

00:40:04

Yeah. Yeah. Ananias doesn't want to do this.

00:40:08

This is going to be very uncomfortable for him.

00:40:10

He goes, "This guy might kill me.

00:40:13

I don't like this guy. Don't like him at all."

00:40:16

And God says, "No, this is what you got to do.

00:40:18

And you got to tell him that he's got a new race

00:40:21

and part of his race, part of his race

00:40:23

is to suffer for My Name's sake."

00:40:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a race that none of us want

00:40:30

and that's a race that some of us have been deluded

00:40:32

into thinking that when you're suffering,

00:40:34

something is wrong.

00:40:36

No, what's wrong is us thinking that we're not going to suffer.

00:40:39

That's what's wrong.

00:40:41

This is not called a nature walk. It's called a run.

00:40:45

It's called a run.

00:40:46

It's not an ecological stroll to look at glaciers

00:40:49

and just enjoy things and pick the posies and smell things.

00:40:53

No, it's a run. It's a run.

00:40:55

You know, anybody who runs? Do you run?

00:40:58

Freaking hard, isn't it?

00:40:59

You don't want to do it, do you?

00:41:01

If you're going to be any good at it,

00:41:02

you got to get used to being in pain,

00:41:05

having a level of suffering if you want to actually win a race.

00:41:09

And this is the reason why many of us feel anemic.

00:41:13

This is the reason why many of us feel like

00:41:15

we're not getting anywhere, is because

00:41:18

we've been deluded into thinking that

00:41:20

when God gets a hold of my life, my life gets easier.

00:41:24

We've been deluded into thinking that

00:41:25

if I come to know God, He's going to just

00:41:27

smooth everything out in my life.

00:41:30

The history of the world, people who are spiritually great,

00:41:34

the one thing they have all in common is suffering

00:41:36

and its difficulty. All of them.

00:41:39

And the lid on your life and my life,

00:41:43

the lid is always how much difficulty you can bear.

00:41:47

So if you can bear this much difficulty,

00:41:49

that's the lid of your life.

00:41:51

If you can, you can go bear that much, that's the lid.

00:41:55

You can bear this much. That's the regulator.

00:41:59

Maybe God was -- We don't know, I'm just --

00:42:03

I'm just supposing, we don't know these things.

00:42:05

But maybe God was calling Paul because Paul had

00:42:10

a really high suffering index.

00:42:13

In his previous life he was up for doing hard things.

00:42:16

In his life he'd always been doing the hard core stuff.

00:42:19

And you're not hard core if you haven't learned

00:42:21

how to live with difficulty and tension

00:42:24

and trials and strife and suffering.

00:42:29

Maybe this is why God wanted him to do a new thing,

00:42:32

which was go after the Gentiles.

00:42:35

It's crazy. You're a Jewish guy

00:42:37

who's all about Jewish things all the time,

00:42:38

but He's going to redirect him to go after Gentiles.

00:42:42

Crazy. All I'm saying, friends, all I'm saying is this:

00:42:46

You and I have got to make peace with suffering.

00:42:50

We have to make peace with difficulty.

00:42:53

We have to make peace with hard things.

00:42:56

And if you're not going to make peace with it,

00:42:57

you will not win. You cannot win.

00:43:00

You cannot have a life that's full and fulfilling.

00:43:04

A life that's easy, maybe, but not full and fulfilling.

00:43:08

The Apostle Paul gets converted

00:43:10

in the book of Galatians 113 he talks about his drive.

00:43:15

He says this: For you have heard of my former life

00:43:18

in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God

00:43:22

violently and tried to destroy it.

00:43:24

And I was advancing in Judaism. He's advancing.

00:43:27

He's going up, up, up

00:43:28

beyond many of my own age among my people,

00:43:31

so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my father.

00:43:36

He is just hardcore. He is go, go, go.

00:43:43

Maybe, again, we don't know this. We don't know.

00:43:45

Maybe God called him to this race because

00:43:48

God looked at the 12 disciples, the remaining 11 disciples

00:43:52

and just goes, "Man, none of those guys have what it takes.

00:43:56

None of them. They're all Jewish.

00:43:58

None of them can shift.

00:43:59

None of them can really shift to really embracing Gentiles.

00:44:03

None of them have the fire in the belly that I need."

00:44:06

I don't know, I'm just guessing. I don't know, I don't know.

00:44:09

But God says that that fire, I want to redirect that.

00:44:13

It's interesting when God comes in your life

00:44:15

and gets a hold of your life,

00:44:16

He does not give you a new personality.

00:44:19

If you're type A right now, when God gets ahold of you,

00:44:22

you will be type A afterwards.

00:44:25

If you are type B right now, when He gets ahold of you,

00:44:27

you would be type B afterwards.

00:44:28

If you're an extrovert now,

00:44:30

you will probably always be an extrovert.

00:44:31

Unless you're a male who ages will become more

00:44:33

and more introverted as men as we age.

00:44:35

Don't understand why that is.

00:44:36

I don't know if it's the case with women or not,

00:44:38

but I can speak that that happens.

00:44:40

If you're an introvert or an extrovert,

00:44:42

if whatever your spiritual gifts are,

00:44:43

God channels and uses that.

00:44:45

He tends to not give you a whole personality makeover

00:44:49

to do the race He wants and He wants,

00:44:51

He wants Paul's piss and vinegar. He wants it.

00:44:56

He just wants it put in the right direction.

00:45:00

Paul gets converted.

00:45:04

Now I want to show you a video, a story of

00:45:07

another guy who experiences this ugly word,

00:45:11

this crazy word, this word, I just said it.

00:45:14

It's like a four letter F word. The word converted.

00:45:17

In our culture, no one wants to be converted.

00:45:20

We don't want to convert anybody.

00:45:21

We just want to live and let live. You be you.

00:45:23

You identify as you want to. You be your true self.

00:45:26

And what that means is, no, you never change.

00:45:28

Never change. No, you don't divert your path.

00:45:30

You just justify why you are the way you are right now.

00:45:34

Because changing has too much difficulty

00:45:38

and too much suffering. You don't want to do that.

00:45:40

You just want to justify the way you think right now.

00:45:43

Just have to justify where you're going right now.

00:45:45

And when God gets ahold of you, He converts you,

00:45:48

He converts your energies to a different direction.

00:45:51

That's why spiritual growth is hard,

00:45:52

which is why many of us don't spiritually grow.

00:45:55

As soon as Crossroads says

00:45:56

something you don't like, you leave.

00:45:59

As soon as there's something you read in the Bible

00:46:01

that God wants you to, you're like, nope,

00:46:02

gotta find some place that ignores that

00:46:05

because you don't really want to work hard at it.

00:46:10

You just want easy affirmation.

00:46:13

And therefore, that's why something is always off.

00:46:16

Because you're not -- You can't win the race that way.

00:46:18

No one can win anything that way.

00:46:21

Here's a guy who grew up a muslim in a muslim country.

00:46:25

We're going to hear more from him in the next five weeks

00:46:27

when we start the Journey, Narula,

00:46:30

and let's hear about his story.

00:46:37

- I've lived my whole life in Turkey.

00:46:39

I was actually born in a very conservative family,

00:46:42

and conservative, like, is very a common term in Turkey.

00:46:46

But my family, especially my dad,

00:46:48

was not just a conservative Muslim who was just trying

00:46:52

to do like his five times of prayer every day

00:46:55

and, you know, his religious stuff.

00:46:57

But also he wanted us to be raised with enough knowledge

00:47:02

to understand why we were doing what we were doing.

00:47:06

Actually, my dad was against TV.

00:47:08

Even so, he didn't allow TV at home,

00:47:10

so all I could do at home was to read

00:47:13

religious books about the prophets,

00:47:16

reading Quran and learning my faith.

00:47:19

And I was pretty devout because of that.

00:47:21

I even was a kid who was trying to impress his dad

00:47:24

by memorizing, like, multiple chapters a day.

00:47:27

I was so devout, for example, because according

00:47:31

to traditional Islam, music is haram

00:47:34

and so I would not listen to any music.

00:47:37

I had a small iPod, but I would only listen

00:47:39

to Quran recitations in Arabic.

00:47:41

Or when I was playing basketball with my friends,

00:47:43

I would be the only one who would stop playing

00:47:46

when I heard the call of prayer and go to the mosque,

00:47:50

pray and come back and continue playing.

00:47:52

Because in Islam there is this idea of making God happy

00:47:57

or like, you know, like, uh, doing things

00:48:00

that he wants you to do

00:48:02

and kind of completing your tasks every day.

00:48:05

So it's more like a ritualistic

00:48:07

and like earning your salvation kind of way. Right?

00:48:10

So I was like, trying to be a good Muslim.

00:48:13

When I reached high school it is when

00:48:16

my kinda horizon widened, because until then

00:48:20

I was living in the same neighborhood

00:48:22

with the same friends, with the same people around me.

00:48:24

It was like a bubble, right?

00:48:26

But in high school, this is where a lot of people

00:48:28

from different backgrounds come together.

00:48:30

And that's, although I knew, for example,

00:48:33

the term atheist, I've never met someone

00:48:36

who actually identified themselves as atheists, right?

00:48:39

Who were saying that, "I am an atheist.

00:48:40

I don't believe in God." So for me that was a shock, actually.

00:48:43

I was like, wait a minute, like, these people actually exist.

00:48:46

I'm so lucky because that's how Muslims say

00:48:49

when you ask, like, what do they believe in?

00:48:51

They say, I'm lucky I was born in a Muslim country

00:48:54

and like in a Muslim family.

00:48:56

But what about a Christian kid

00:48:59

who was born into a Christian family,

00:49:00

thinking that that is the truth for themselves,

00:49:04

and they will live with that for their whole life,

00:49:07

and then they'll go to hell because of that.

00:49:10

So I wanted to understand, like, how it was possible

00:49:14

for that kid to be saved as well, in a way. Right?

00:49:18

I was also trying to imagine a person in my head really,

00:49:22

a person who has never heard about Islam or Christianity.

00:49:26

So like, if that person decided to look at both religions

00:49:31

and both faiths and the evidence for them,

00:49:36

what would they conclude?

00:49:37

What I discovered that was in favor of Christianity

00:49:42

that actually, like shook me was the historical Jesus.

00:49:46

And how it is not just a faith based thing,

00:49:49

but how it is evidence based from history

00:49:52

and not just Christian sources as well.

00:49:55

So not just from the Bible.

00:49:56

It's not like you have to believe in the Bible

00:49:58

to believe Jesus lived and died by crucifixion.

00:50:01

But there are external sources that also

00:50:05

has witnessed that, even though like those were written

00:50:07

by people who did not believe, like Jesus's divine nature,

00:50:12

being able to trace the Bible back to the original authors

00:50:17

and all made me feel happy and excited about,

00:50:21

okay, there is a way to reach that, the truth

00:50:25

objectively and intellectually. And I'm getting there.

00:50:28

I became convinced and I was a teenager, right?

00:50:31

I was in high school, so I didn't know h

00:50:34

ow to reveal the news to my parents either.

00:50:38

And my parents also didn't know how to receive

00:50:41

such, such big and serious news. Right?

00:50:43

So my dad had a very aggressive reaction.

00:50:47

He kicked me out of the house.

00:50:49

In my head, I'm like,

00:50:50

I'm so convinced that this is the truth.

00:50:52

I'm so, you know, I think I found it for myself.

00:50:55

So that is very important to me.

00:50:57

And I'm just gonna kind of shove it in their face

00:51:00

and, like, slap them with the truth kind of, you know?

00:51:02

And I was just doing it also very aggressively,

00:51:05

which was not easy, especially for my dad,

00:51:07

who had a different vision for me.

00:51:09

I long to also meet with actual Christians,

00:51:12

and I didn't even know if there were --

00:51:14

There would be Turkish Christians like me.

00:51:16

So one evening I actually decided to google

00:51:19

a church in Gaziantep.

00:51:21

And what I at least hoped to find was a historical church,

00:51:25

right? That I could go to a visit.

00:51:27

Like maybe it's a museum now and all.

00:51:29

And then this Turkish number came up

00:51:32

and I decided to give it a call.

00:51:35

And it was this American pastor who has founded

00:51:38

a church in Gaziantep.

00:51:40

I went and I met the pastor and he and the church,

00:51:45

the whole church was amazing.

00:51:46

He was the one, the pastor who later on baptized me as well.

00:51:51

And that's kind of how my spiritual conversion

00:51:55

started when I saw a church you can pray

00:51:58

and worship in your own language and that, like,

00:52:02

I can speak to God and God speaks back to me.

00:52:05

And like, we can have this,

00:52:08

it's like you don't even need anyone else.

00:52:10

You worship as a community,

00:52:13

but you don't need anyone else in that moment.

00:52:15

You can just communicate directly with God.

00:52:17

That was so deep for me.

00:52:18

At some point, I received a calling from God

00:52:21

that now, with my background, I think

00:52:23

I could convey these messages.

00:52:26

And so I started making videos for YouTube.

00:52:29

I share about what we Christians believe

00:52:33

and what Christianity is all about.

00:52:34

I try to show, even like the arguments

00:52:38

for the existence of God.

00:52:40

People from the West come to Turkey

00:52:42

to experience the Christian history.

00:52:45

I of course share about, like, how in the Bible, like,

00:52:49

for example, the seven churches of Revelation,

00:52:51

they're all in Turkey, or like the route that Paul took

00:52:55

through Turkey also here, like the fairy chimneys,

00:52:58

Christians actually hollowed some of these out

00:53:01

to use as houses to run and hide from persecution.

00:53:05

Because of my background, I believe that

00:53:08

like I could create that bridge for them to cross

00:53:11

because I ask the same questions or similar questions

00:53:15

that they are asking now.

00:53:17

My dad recently, I was on the phone with him

00:53:19

and he said, "You know, people come to me sometimes

00:53:23

and they see your videos online and they say,

00:53:25

'Yeah, your son is still a Christian.

00:53:27

Like, what do you think about it?'

00:53:28

And I tell them, 'My son has become a man,

00:53:30

a better man, a better person.'"

00:53:33

That for me was very, very valuable.

00:53:35

Every good thing that we get from following Him

00:53:39

and through Him, I think it's just awesome.

00:53:41

So I wouldn't change it for anything else, you know?

00:53:44

So yeah.

00:53:52

- That's good stuff.

00:53:53

We'll hear more from Narula over t

00:53:55

he next five weeks. But Narula and his story,

00:53:59

that's a classic macro conversion story.

00:54:03

But there's other conversions that we have to undergo

00:54:06

by changing our race.

00:54:07

One conversion or one race that's changed for me

00:54:10

over the last years, I've realized envy

00:54:14

had been seeping into my life,

00:54:16

looking at other people who I identified with

00:54:19

who were peers of mine, and I would see them

00:54:22

get opportunities or things that I wasn't getting.

00:54:25

And I was measuring and comparing myself to them

00:54:27

and allowing my fulfillment, my joy, to be based on

00:54:30

how I was doing relative to them.

00:54:31

And I wasn't feeling very good

00:54:33

because they were doing better than me,

00:54:34

better than me in my own mindset.

00:54:37

I was like, hold on, I got to get --

00:54:39

I got to get converted from that.

00:54:41

I'm not going anywhere with that.

00:54:44

Maybe there's a conversion or a changing of the race

00:54:47

from being fixated on your savings

00:54:50

to being fixated more on your giving.

00:54:53

Maybe it's a drive from relational separation

00:54:58

to relational integration, that we actually start

00:55:01

spending time on the relationships around us.

00:55:04

So some of us, some of us have to change our ways.

00:55:07

Some of us have to run our race harder.

00:55:11

You're in the right race, you just got to run harder,

00:55:14

like more intense.

00:55:16

Warren Buffett said this:

00:55:17

Intensity is the price of excellence.

00:55:20

The Bible would put it this way.

00:55:23

Disciplines is the price of winning.

00:55:27

That's the Bible's words on this.

00:55:30

In the book of Philippians 3, the apostle Paul

00:55:34

talks about how his intensity just got refunneled.

00:55:38

Here's what he says: If anyone thinks he has reason

00:55:41

for confidence in the flesh.

00:55:42

I mean, confidence in our own ability to do things

00:55:45

in and of our own power. That's the flesh.

00:55:47

I have more: Circumcised on the eighth day

00:55:50

That was a Jewish law. Check. Got it.

00:55:55

Of the people of Israel, that's me.

00:55:56

Of the tribe of Benjamin, a supreme tribe, that's me.

00:56:00

A Hebrew of Hebrews. I say I'm an American.

00:56:03

I'm American of Americans. That's who I am.

00:56:05

A Hebrew of Hebrews; as the law, a Pharisee.

00:56:08

Then just know the law kept it perfectly,

00:56:10

he even made up laws, made up laws be more extreme.

00:56:13

As to zeal, a persecutor of the church;

00:56:17

as to righteousness, under the law, blameless.

00:56:21

He's got an intensity, he's got a zealousness about him.

00:56:24

One of the most depressing things I've streamed

00:56:27

in the last year. I don't know if you saw it or not.

00:56:29

I found it depressing. Maybe you didn't.

00:56:31

Was a two part, I think it was two part documentary

00:56:34

on Charlie Sheen. It just made me sad, you know?

00:56:37

Here's this guy who's amazingly talented.

00:56:40

He's been amazingly successful in many ways,

00:56:42

yet he's battled with addiction

00:56:44

and destructive behaviors for decades.

00:56:47

And I don't know, it was just was a bummer, really. It was.

00:56:50

When he was in the midst of one of his addictions,

00:56:52

one of his addictive periods, what pulled him out

00:56:56

was his dad, Martin Sheen, who was an alcoholic

00:57:00

and has firsthand exposure to what,

00:57:03

the kind of intensity it takes

00:57:05

to run the race towards sobriety.

00:57:07

And Martin Sheen said this. He said:

00:57:09

Nothing ever gets done unless it's done by a fanatic.

00:57:14

Right, people who are just like, "I need to be mellow.

00:57:17

Let's be reasonable. Let's just be balanced,"

00:57:21

never get anything done.

00:57:23

It's those who go, "This is where I'm going,

00:57:27

and I'm going to be intense.

00:57:29

I'm going to actually run it."

00:57:31

The word zealous is even a horrible word,

00:57:34

another horrible word in our culture.

00:57:37

Like zealous? You don't want to be that.

00:57:39

You'd rather be a zombie than being a zealot.

00:57:43

The Bible talks about sleeping. Wake up, O sleeper.

00:57:45

And the Bible talks about running.

00:57:47

So let's contrast these for a moment.

00:57:50

The life of being a runner or a zealot.

00:57:53

Paul was a zealot. He just had to redirect it.

00:57:55

Or the life of being asleep or being a zombie.

00:57:58

If you're a runner, if you're zealous,

00:58:00

you're moving towards something.

00:58:02

If you want to be a sleeper, be a zombie,

00:58:04

you're staying away from something.

00:58:06

You might even know right now,

00:58:08

I know the race I want to be in, but you don't want to do it.

00:58:11

If you're a runner, you are focused on the future.

00:58:14

If you're asleep, you're focused on yourself.

00:58:17

If you're a runner, you're fighting darkness.

00:58:20

If you're sleeping zombie,

00:58:21

you're actually living in darkness

00:58:23

and you're fine with it.

00:58:25

If you're a runner, you're moving when it is hard.

00:58:29

And if you're a sleeper you're only moving when it's easy.

00:58:32

These are two different worldviews,

00:58:34

two different states of being.

00:58:39

And those of us who actually want to win

00:58:41

are going to choose to fight it.

00:58:45

I've had a number of these things in my life.

00:58:47

I'll just with you two.

00:58:50

One was, uh, gosh, one of my early experiences

00:58:54

where I had to harness energy.

00:58:56

I was a pretty late bloomer as far as intensity is concerned.

00:59:00

When I was in high school, I definitely had

00:59:01

a tendency around working out and football

00:59:04

and actually partying.

00:59:06

But then when I came to know Christ,

00:59:08

I went into this, like, laissez faire thing.

00:59:10

Maybe it was the people I was hanging around with

00:59:12

that just kind of, I don't know, I just had this thing,

00:59:14

like, just mellow out, just chill.

00:59:17

And I ended up losing my way, which is a big part

00:59:20

of why I was so horrible in school.

00:59:23

It took me seven years to get my four year degree.

00:59:27

I just didn't have an intensity to study at all,

00:59:30

and my dad was paying for it, so I took advantage of that.

00:59:34

When I was 24, had been married for two years

00:59:36

and in year six of my educational quest.

00:59:39

I was at this church.

00:59:40

I was serving as a student pastor and church about 400.

00:59:43

And you could go forward in the service

00:59:46

and we had these steps at the front of the stage.

00:59:48

And during this one part of the service,

00:59:50

if you want to go forward and pray, you could go and pray.

00:59:53

And I chose that day to go up and pray,

00:59:55

knelt on the steps and I was praying about,

00:59:57

I don't know why I went forward to pray,

00:59:58

but there's some reason I went forward to pray.

01:00:01

And then God spoke to me.

01:00:05

When I say he spoke to me, there was an idea

01:00:07

that came to my mind that was so out of my mind space

01:00:12

that I don't know where it came from.

01:00:15

I don't where it nowhere I came from,

01:00:16

and it was the kind of thing that God would approve of.

01:00:19

And the thought and the prompting from God was,

01:00:21

"Brian, you need to go to seminary." Okay?

01:00:26

I came home and told Lib and she virtually laughed in my face

01:00:29

because she'd been married to me for two years now,

01:00:32

and she saw how much I sucked at school

01:00:34

or in any level of discipline, any level of intensity.

01:00:37

It's like you're thinking,

01:00:38

you can't even knock off your degree here.

01:00:41

Now you're going to get a three year

01:00:42

MDiv Master of Divinity degree. No, no, no.

01:00:46

But I got more intense.

01:00:49

There was this new thing that happened, a new race,

01:00:51

and I was a late bloomer with that as far as was concerned.

01:00:55

And that continued to grow.

01:00:56

My intensity started continuing to grow and get reshaped.

01:00:59

And there was another critical moment at age 35.

01:01:03

We had -- Crossroads have been going for about five years.

01:01:06

We in rented facilities at a public school.

01:01:09

We came over, bought a old lumber warehouse,

01:01:12

which is that direction, original building, 1200 seats.

01:01:16

And we found our church after we moved into it,

01:01:19

we doubled in three months and we tripled in six months,

01:01:22

which was in some ways really awesome.

01:01:25

It's kind of affirming, like, hey, we're on the right path.

01:01:27

Maybe felt like I had a little bit of job security.

01:01:30

You know, it felt like you were winning,

01:01:33

like things were happening well.

01:01:34

But at the same time, it wasn't good.

01:01:36

I found myself in the atrium at this concrete atrium

01:01:41

that's out there in the middle of the week by myself,

01:01:44

processing with God. And I said, "God, what?

01:01:47

This building is full now. It's full.

01:01:51

What? I just went through, led the church through

01:01:56

a campaign," which would lead somebody through something.

01:01:58

You have to be a leader in it.

01:02:00

So Libby and I cast out everything we had,

01:02:02

gave away all our kids toys and the whole thing

01:02:05

and did all that, and then expended all of our energy

01:02:11

on hiring architects, building the thing,

01:02:14

getting people to build it, getting bank to make up

01:02:17

the gap with mortgage and all that stuff

01:02:21

I had literally fried my adrenal glands.

01:02:23

They were fried. I went, I asked them,

01:02:26

"Doc, what's going on?" Fried my adrenal glands.

01:02:29

And so here I am at 35 years old, and I said,

01:02:31

"God, what, what, what?

01:02:34

We're supposed to have another campaign,

01:02:36

give away money I don't have, have more architects,

01:02:38

more complexity, and more people build things

01:02:41

and yet have a higher mortgage. And then what?

01:02:43

We're going to fill that up in another campaign?"

01:02:45

And I said, "God, if this is my life,

01:02:48

I don't want to -- I don't want to do this, I can't do this."

01:02:52

And God redirects like, boom, out of nowhere comes to me.

01:02:57

And I sense this thought, again,

01:02:59

I describe it as God talking to me.

01:03:01

It's like a thought that comes out of nowhere

01:03:02

that's not the kind of thought I would generate,

01:03:05

but it's the kind of thought that Jesus would approve of.

01:03:07

Comes out of nowhere. And God says,

01:03:11

"What if instead of you try to -- what if?

01:03:13

What about instead of building Crossroads

01:03:15

you build the kingdom of God?"

01:03:18

Hmm, oh, I want Crossroads to grow.

01:03:21

We work really hard for Crossroads to grow.

01:03:23

I want more people to be blessed and deep in our church.

01:03:26

I want that, but like, okay, that's a different thing.

01:03:28

Like, okay, so it's not just endless treadmills

01:03:32

of like building more buildings for building sake,

01:03:34

getting more people for people's sake.

01:03:36

But like, if we can, if we can take us as a team

01:03:40

and throw it into the kingdom of God

01:03:43

and have the kingdom of God become more to look like

01:03:45

what is in heaven and the communities we're in that,

01:03:48

that'd be amazing.

01:03:49

And that was the day Crossroads changed.

01:03:51

We brought our intensity.

01:03:52

We still want to grow, obviously.

01:03:54

We're still doing all that stuff, but the intensity

01:03:56

to do things like tutor and mentor kids who are at risk,

01:04:01

like put tens of millions of dollars at this point

01:04:04

into Citylink, a center that brings people

01:04:06

out of generational poverty.

01:04:08

And we started that and put in the --

01:04:09

Or like Compassion International.

01:04:11

We take prime time on the weekend, all services

01:04:15

every so often and make us aware of this organization

01:04:17

called Compassion International that takes kids

01:04:20

and educates them and feeds them

01:04:22

for their entire childhood.

01:04:24

And we've done 17,344 of those kids here in our church.

01:04:30

$21 million, $21 million that doesn't even go

01:04:33

through our books that you all, that we all do.

01:04:37

Girls rescued out of sex slavery, prisons,

01:04:41

hundreds of thousands of people being reached in prison.

01:04:43

All these things was a -- and I could go on

01:04:47

and on and on and on and on.

01:04:48

But these things were that moment of, okay,

01:04:51

let's be intense about other things

01:04:53

and use the energy for that.

01:04:54

That was a different race, same intensity.

01:04:58

Not like, okay, just back off and just relax.

01:05:00

Enjoy your life,

01:05:01

but bring intensity for things that matter.

01:05:04

And then finally last one I'll say is this.

01:05:06

Some of us, some of us need to know what the finish line is.

01:05:12

There is a finish line.

01:05:13

You know, you're in a race right now and it does end.

01:05:17

You're not in it forever.

01:05:19

Maybe some of the confusion you might be feeling

01:05:22

is you were in a race and that one ended.

01:05:24

And maybe you won.

01:05:26

And now what I'm doing, right?

01:05:29

That's what the Apostle Paul is saying.

01:05:31

He says, do you not know that in a race

01:05:33

all the runners run, but only one receives a prize?

01:05:35

So run that you may obtain it. You obtain it. How?

01:05:38

Because the race is over and you've won it.

01:05:40

The way you survive the grind.

01:05:43

There's a grind to life, right?

01:05:45

The way you survive the grind is going, "I'm in the grind.

01:05:48

But there is a finish line.

01:05:50

I'm in the grind, but it's happening."

01:05:53

This is one of the things that God's worked on me

01:05:55

on over the last year or so.

01:05:58

Like, I want to finish well.

01:06:00

And the pattern, the general pattern seems to be

01:06:02

for people like me who have my kind of job,

01:06:05

eventually you screw up and have a public scandal,

01:06:08

so then, then, then I could start to feel,

01:06:10

I could start to feel like, okay, that's the point.

01:06:13

Just get to the end of however long I'm at Crossroads

01:06:16

without having committed scandalous sin.

01:06:18

And I'm all for getting to the end

01:06:20

and not committing scandalous sin. That's great.

01:06:22

I don't want to be DQ'd,

01:06:23

but that doesn't mean that I'm finishing well.

01:06:25

That doesn't mean I've run the race.

01:06:27

Like, what's my end point here?

01:06:30

When do I know I'm done? When am I done?

01:06:36

You have to know what your finish line is.

01:06:37

There's a race that God has you in,

01:06:39

but there's things He wants you to do.

01:06:42

But at some point, you finish that one

01:06:44

and it's on to another one.

01:06:45

No, we also have to finish the race of our life,

01:06:48

get the end of our life running through the tape,

01:06:50

having served Christ, if you're a Christian, that's true.

01:06:53

But there's other like mini sprints.

01:06:55

You have to know where the end of it is.

01:06:57

See this stuff that we're talking about right now,

01:06:59

this is really out of the box

01:07:01

of what many Americans want to live,

01:07:04

which is why America's mental health is as bad as it is.

01:07:09

It's why America's spiritual health is is as bad as it is.

01:07:12

These are things that Tony Robbins

01:07:13

is not going to make money off of.

01:07:15

These are things that are counter to our culture

01:07:18

of your life should be easy and your spirituality

01:07:22

should just buttress your life

01:07:24

and give you good feelings and give you --

01:07:26

Yeah, there's great feelings that come

01:07:28

when you're connected with God and you're sweating

01:07:33

and there's a point and there's a purpose,

01:07:36

and that's what makes it really fulfilling.

01:07:37

And that's why I'm so excited for the next five weeks,

01:07:40

we get to dig in on this.

01:07:41

Five weeks we get to do this.

01:07:43

We put our best, some of our best creativity

01:07:46

in the weekend services,

01:07:47

always top, top notch creativity we're bringing.

01:07:51

Resource, spending a lot, a lot of money

01:07:53

to bless all of us with a personal guide,

01:07:56

doing all we can to make it possible for you

01:07:59

to be around actual people and be sharpened.

01:08:01

It's one of the reasons I need this Journey

01:08:03

just the next five weeks, I've realized

01:08:04

I've kind of gotten diverted my race.

01:08:06

I've become way too accustomed to wasting too much time

01:08:09

streaming mindless stuff

01:08:11

that's never going to positively impact my life.

01:08:14

I'm fine doing some amount of streaming mindless stuff,

01:08:17

but not as much as I'm doing right now.

01:08:19

So I'm excited. Okay.

01:08:21

Wednesday nights when the group

01:08:23

that I just got formed invited into. Yeah.

01:08:25

Okay. I got one less night

01:08:26

that I'm going to be tempted to stream.

01:08:27

That's good stuff.

01:08:28

I'm actually talking to real people.

01:08:32

I'm actually hearing real problems

01:08:34

and having real celebrations instead of scripted problems

01:08:36

and scripted celebrations.

01:08:39

I'm saying all of this for you.

01:08:41

Please, please, we don't want any --

01:08:43

We don't need anything for you the next five weeks.

01:08:46

We want something for you.

01:08:48

We don't need anything from you the next five weeks.

01:08:50

We want something for you.

01:08:52

Take advantage of this thing

01:08:55

that's been created for you, for us.

01:08:58

Your life, your future just could be different

01:09:01

if you exert yourself for five weeks.

01:09:03

It's going to be good. It's going to be fun.

01:09:06

It's going to be meaningful.

01:09:07

God, thank You for who You are and what You've done.

01:09:11

And we ask that You would meet us in our race.

01:09:17

Some of us are in the locker room,

01:09:18

some are at the starting line,

01:09:20

some of us are panting from the last race that we finished.

01:09:23

God, we're trusting You to meet us

01:09:25

and You fuel us for the run that we have yet to to run.

01:09:31

We thank You for these things. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

01:09:34

- That's what the Run Journey is all about.

01:09:36

- Yes. And experience it in a group.

01:09:38

Have we said it enough times yet?

01:09:40

- Just several dozen more.

01:09:41

Get in a group.

01:09:42

Crossroads.net/journey to find groups.

01:09:45

- That's right. And hey, part of leaning into

01:09:48

what God has next for you, or that more that He has for you

01:09:51

might actually be a miracle.

01:09:53

We've been doing these at all of our sites,

01:09:55

these online night of healing prayer.

01:09:58

We have that coming up this Tuesday.

01:10:00

We'd love for you to join us, love for you to tune in,

01:10:02

see if you want to be a part of a miracle

01:10:04

or see God doing for you.

01:10:06

- Yes, there will be personalized prayer

01:10:07

for you online,

01:10:08

as well as those who are in the room in Oakley

01:10:11

and there's a couple other campuses

01:10:12

who still have their events that haven't happened yet.

01:10:14

So you can find one of those too.

01:10:16

- Check out Crossroads.net/prayer.

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