The Truth About Jesus | Anchored Week 2

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Hey, welcome to Crossroads Church.

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My name is Brian Tome, Senior Pastor.

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Hey, it is great to have you give us time today.

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You know, we're about way, way more than

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gathering together as a church, gathering to worship,

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whether that's in buildings

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or digitally like we are right now.

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We're actually about addressing the problems in our world.

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Crossroads about connecting seekers through a community

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of growing Christ followers who are changing the world.

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I think we all agree our world needs change,

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that our world is broken.

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I'm not even talking about COVID-19.

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I'm talking about the events that have happened recently,

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especially in Minneapolis this last week.

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If you haven't seen it, specifically if you're white,

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I want you to go and find that 10 minute video.

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It is atrocious to see a black man choked out

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and then eliminated by a white man with his knee to his neck.

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It is -- it is utterly stunning and sickening

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and maddening at the same time.

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It's hard for me just to relive with the images

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that are going on in my mind.

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I just want to tell you, man, if you're with us

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and you aren't white today,

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I know your experience in America is

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a much more different and difficult experience than mine.

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And I know you're feeling this more so than anybody of my skin tone.

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We're with you, no matter who you are, black, white,

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any shade in between.

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When God's people come together,

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we come together in heart, regardless of our skin tones.

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And we've got a long, long way to go in our country.

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Our world is broken.

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And we're talking today about Jesus.

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Jesus is the Healer.

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He is the Savior.

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And we need saved in our country.

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We need help because we're not getting this right.

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Let me just pray for you and pray for us

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and our country before going further.

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God, I ask that You would forgive us for our racism,

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and I ask that You would help us with our frustration,

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with our fears, with all the --

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all of the just abuse that's happening right now and the stress.

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God, would You come and comfort us?

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Would You actually save us?

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Help us to understand what it means that You're Savior.

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Do what you can do inside of all of us today.

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And I pray these things according to your name, Jesus. Amen.

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Hey, if you'd like to connect with someone about that

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or anything else, just go to Crossroads.net.

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We love to interact with you.

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Well, we are in our Anchored series.

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We need to be anchored in the midst of difficult times were in now.

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When everything's swirling around,

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we need to be rooted to things that don't change.

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Christianity is anchored to ancient faiths that keep us rooted.

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My friend Kyle is going to talk about this.

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Yes, I'm Senior Pastor at Crossroads, but I willingly

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and willfully share the teaching microphone with a lot of people

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because God's voice comes through multiple channels.

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So we're gonna look at who is Jesus?

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And is He really the only way?

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How important is that?

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Let's get started. -

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- In the second and third century, just like today,

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there were a lot of opinions on what it meant to believe in Jesus.

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His followers knew this was a problem,

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so they worked together to write formal statements

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about what those non-negotiable beliefs were.

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They called those statements creeds.

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And one of the most well-known and enduring is the Apostles' Creed.

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I believe in God, the Father Almighty,

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Creator of heaven and earth.

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I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, Our Lord,

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who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

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born of the Virgin Mary,

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suffered under Pontius Pilate,

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was crucified, died, and was buried.

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He decended to the dead.

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On the third day he rose again;

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He ascended into heaven,

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He is seated at the right hand of the Father,

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and He will come to judge the living and the dead.

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I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church,

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the communion of saints, the forgivness of sins,

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the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

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For 1700 years,

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these are the truths that Christians have anchored themselves to.

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What you choose to anchor your life to

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determines whether you survive the storm

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or get pulled under the waves.

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Hey, my name's Kyle. I'm one of the teaching pastors here at

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Crossroads. And we're in this series called Anchored,

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where we're talking about the beliefs that Christians

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have anchored themselves to for thousands of years,

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to not just survive the storms, but thrive through them.

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Now, I know that the idea of anchors might sound limiting,

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restrictive, old fashioned.

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Why on earth would you want to tie yourself down to anything?

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Well, the answer is pretty simple:

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Anchors aren't limiting, they're life saving.

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Think about this for a second. A belief to anchor yourself to when it

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comes to boats: boats with holes sink.

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And if you have a boat and you find a hole in it,

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a good idea is to figure out how to patch the hole yourself

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or find somebody else who can.

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What about Jesus? What are the non-negotiable beliefs

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to anchor yourself to when it comes to Him?

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Increasingly, there's this idea that there are none.

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You can believe about Jesus kind of whatever you want.

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It's a personal preference.

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If you like the moral teacher Jesus better,

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you can go with that one.

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Or you could believe that Jesus is just kind of

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an enlightened teacher of love.

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Whatever you want, it doesn't matter.

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It's like picking out a boat. Some people want a big 'ol yacht boat

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like this. Some people want a speedboat,

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pontoon boat if that's your flavor, whatever.

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They all get you up and down the river just the same.

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The problem with that is that that is not what Jesus said

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and it's not what Christians have anchored themselves to

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for thousands of years.

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The Apostles' Creed, the ancient summary

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of the anchoring beliefs of the Christian faith,

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describes Jesus very, very specifically.

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It says this:

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Those words describe the specific and historical person

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of Jesus, God's only son, the only one who's beaten death

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and the only one who knows how to rise again.

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Jesus Himself put it this way in John 14:6:

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The way means the way to solve the problem between you and God.

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Jesus viewed Himself as a specific solution

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to a very specific problem.

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Which begs the question: what is the problem

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between us and God? Increasingly it feels like people think there's

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not a problem, that there's nothing between us and God.

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I hear people say stuff like, "You know, God is love.

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And as long as you're on the side of love,

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God's on your side, because God's always on the side of love."

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If you believe that, the only thing I have to say to you

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is that Jesus can't be your way because He can't be

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a solution to a problem you don't believe you have.

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Others of us believe there is a problem,

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but it's solvable with a little bit of DIY muscle.

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If we just knew what to do, we could do it ourselves.

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For some, the idea is that the block is mental.

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The problem is mental and if I could just

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achieve enlightenment, the right thoughts.

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If I center myself through meditation,

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I could solve the problem between myself and God.

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Other people think the problem is works.

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If I could just have the right works.

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If I just knew what to do, the right good deeds to do,

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I could fix the problem on my own.

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I hope you're getting this critical truth

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that what you view as the problem

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determines the solution you go searching for.

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If you grew up in church like I did,

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you might have seen a picture like this.

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The idea is that my sin has so separated me from God

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that there's a gap I can never cross,

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but the cross fills the gap.

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The problem is that sin has separated me from God.

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You might be surprised to hear me say

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that picture is at best incomplete

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and at worst wildly misleading

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because your sin has not merely separated you from God.

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Your sin has killed you.

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According to God, you are spiritually dead.

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Therefore, the only solution to that problem

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is someone who has beaten death

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and knows how to come back to life.

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And the only one with that resumé is named Jesus.

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According to God, you have a problem and you can't solve it.

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Your problem is that you are dead.

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Ephesians 2:1 says this:

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But how would you know if you're dead?

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I mean, Bruce Willis went a whole frigging movie

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without knowing it, I see dead people.

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He was talking to you the whole time, Bruce.

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How'd you miss it? Well, the answer of how would you know if you're

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dead is easy, you would check for the symptoms.

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Dead things like this fish buddy of mine, oh, ugh.

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(sniffs) Oh, you can tell it's dead.

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Do you know how? Dead things have two key symptoms.

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One, there's a lack of movement.

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This fish is not going anywhere unless I throw it,

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in which case would make an amazing splat.

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It's very tempting, actually.

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I'll probably throw this right afterwards.

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Two, dead things not only don't move anywhere,

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dead things decay.

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Internally this fish is decaying.

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Right now this thing's been on ice

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so it's not as obvious, but just mildly, mildly horrible.

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Now, the symptoms of spiritual death are the same:

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A total lack of movement in your life,

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like you're not making any progress towards

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the purpose that God has created you for.

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You're not making any impact in the world around you,

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the impact that you were designed to have.

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And internally there's decay.

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Things aren't just staying the same,

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they're getting worse.

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Not just hopeless; you're getting more hopeless.

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Not just aimless; getting more aimless.

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Not just bitter, getting more and more and more bitter.

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Now, sometimes the signs of death are very obvious.

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I'm no scientist, but I believe this fish to be dead.

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How about you? But sometimes they're less obvious.

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You know, if you go to churches you'll hear people's stories

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and they'll talk about what life was like before Jesus.

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Sometimes it's this big dramatic story

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that tend to be the one that make the air,

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you know, that we'd make videos out of.

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And they all sound something like this, it's like,

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"So, there was a third string circus clown

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running a dog fighting ring underneath

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an abandoned Wendy's off the highway."

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You know, you're like, wow, that sounds crazy.

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And let me just say, obviously, I'm having fun.

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I you have a dramatic story of what life was like

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before God, those actually are very, very inspiring.

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They're just not my story.

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My story would sound something more like this:

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scene one. "So there was a good kid from a solid family

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with a college education and was pretty good sports and art."

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You know, it's not quite the same obvious dead-ness in me.

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Make no mistake, I still dead.

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It just took me a long time to notice the symptoms.

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You had to lean in a little bit to smell it.

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You know, I go to church and I hear people say this idea

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that I was dead and my trespasses and sins.

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And I would think, "Yeah, I know.

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I'm so dead.

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Got it." I didn't really believe it, though.

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I thought I had it all together, including when it came to God.

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Like people would come to me for me to teach them about God.

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I thought I had it all together, but the signs of death

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were there if you leaned in close enough.

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I remember when I was 22, a friend invited me

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to a party, out for a night of drinking.

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And we went out and like we did it.

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We did it right. You know what I mean?

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And the next morning I woke up

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and I was not feeling particularly at best.

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My friend invited me to church with him.

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And I remember thinking, "I don't want to go to your church.

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I don't need church.

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I've got this God thing all figured out, man.

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And you know what? Just to show you how much I have it all figured

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out, fine, I'll go."

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And I'm not entirely sure whether I was hung over

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or still drunk, but the entire service

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I was just fighting to keep everything inside.

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And it was one of those services that would not end.

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Like, it was like we got to the end of it, you know,

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the pastor guy stands up on the stage.

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And was like, "Great, time to go."

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I start grabbing my coat. He's like, "You know what?

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Let's sing a song."

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And I thought, "Let's not do that.

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Man, I'm about to spray all over these people.

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It's about to rain just disgustingness on everybody."

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And we sing the song.

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At the end of it he's like, "One more chorus."

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I was like, "You are killing me." You know?

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Luckily, I didn't spray on everybody around me.

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I made it almost, not quite to the car.

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Made it out the door to the front of the church.

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And then I deposited about a dozen Red Bull and vodkas

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all in, all over their tastefully conservative landscaping.

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It was gross.

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There were problems in my life.

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I was dead.

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I wasn't making any movement.

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There's no movement in my life.

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I wasn't getting any closer to purpose God had designed me for.

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I wasn't making an impact in the world around me.

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And internally there was decay.

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I was lonely and getting lonelier.

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I was prideful and getting more prideful.

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The signs of death were less obvious, but they were there,

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especially if looked in the bushes.

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What about you? Are there signs of death in your life?

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Is there a lack of movement?

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Are you getting any closer to the purpose

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that God has designed you for?

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Are you making an impact on the world around you,

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the impact that He designed you to uniquely have?

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What about decay? What's going on inside of you?

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Are you hopeless and getting more hopeless?

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Are you bitter and getting more bitter?

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Are you aimless and getting more aimless?

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It's a question we all have to answer: Am I dead?

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Look for the symptoms in your life.

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Do you have a problem that you can solve or are you dead?

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Not physically dead, but spiritually dead?

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Everyone Jesus ever met had to answer the same question.

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Now, of the thousands of people He met,

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I believe two men stood out more in his mind than any other.

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They left this like almost haunting

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and contrasting image on Him.

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The reason I believe that is because

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of all the parables Jesus ever told,

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there's only one in which He uses real characters.

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It happens in Luke 16, Jesus tells the story

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of two men, a rich man who believed he had a problem

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that he could solve if he just knew the way to do it.

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And a man who thought he was dead, a man named Lazarus.

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Now, spoiler alert to the parable,

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the rich man never got life

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because he refused to believe he was dead.

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Not only did not get life,

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he actually got death, eternal death.

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But Lazarus, the poor man who knew he was dead,

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got life for ever.

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Now, these men are real men that Jesus met.

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The rich man you might have heard called the rich young ruler.

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Jesus meets him and He runs up to him

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and asks him this question in Matthew 19:16:

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The rich man's question reveals

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what he thought about his problem.

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He says, "What good thing must I do?"

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Like any good DIY-er, if I just knew the instructions,

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I could probably figure this thing out.

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What good thing do I need to do?

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The thing is, that's not what Jesus thought was his problem,

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it was that Jesus gave him an answer he didn't like.

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Now, the Bible actually says that the rich man went away sad.

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He heard those words from Jesus and he said,

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"No, no thanks.

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Not what I'm looking for." Now, what Jesus said to do was to sell

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everything. Get rid of everything because I'm the only way.

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Just like the Apostles' Creed said, I'm the only.

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I'm not an add on. You've got to get off your pile of ice

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and your ice, the thing that's keeping you

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from noticing your symptoms and the stink in your life

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is all of your stuff. You've got to get rid of it

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so that you'll smell the decay, the death in your life.

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But the key instruction, the way to life

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was the last thing Jesus said, "Follow me."

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Why? "Because I am the way to life."

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Now tragically for the rich man,

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life Himself was standing in front of him.

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The man's response?

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"No, thanks." It's tragic.

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The contrast to that story is the story of Lazarus.

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Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha,

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had become like family to Jesus, and Lazarus got sick.

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His sister sent word off to Jesus

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who was out of town that Lazarus was sick.

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And by the time the message gets to Jesus,

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Jesus looks at everybody and says,

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"He's not sick anymore.

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He's dead." Still, Jesus gets up and starts walking to town.

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And when Martha sees Him approaching, she runs out to him.

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At this point Lazarus has been dead for four days,

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like smelly, stinky, dead.

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She runs out and she says, "Jesus,

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I know if you had been here,

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I know you could have healed him.

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I know you could have.

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But still, I feel like you can bring him back to life."

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And Jesus looks at her and He says this in John 11:

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Martha's answer?

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"Yes. Yes!" Jesus walks over to the tomb where Lazarus is buried

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and he yells out in a loud voice, "Lazarus come out."

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And the dead man walks out alive.

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The question for you and me is, who are we?

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Do you believe you're the rich man

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or do you believe you're Lazarus?

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Are you willing to anchor yourself

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to the time tested truth that apart from God you are dead?

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If so, let me be abundantly clear with you.

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Meditation exercises will not bring dead things back to life.

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Hey, little buddy, just go inside and focus on positive vibes.

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You know, just really think every day.

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Not going to help.

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Focusing on love will not help.

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Buddy, just be loving.

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Just think love. Just do love.

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Just live love, man.

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Live, laugh, love. Not going to make a dead thing come alive.

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Resumes of good works.

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Just do the right things for the right people.

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Generally be a good fish --

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No. Does not make dead things come back alive.

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The only one who can make dead things alive is God Himself.

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Suddenly the words of the ancient creed matter greatly:

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I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son,

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who was crucified, died, and buried

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and on the third day rose again.

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If you're willing to anchor yourself to the time tested truth

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that Jesus Christ is the only way to life,

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He will resurrect you every time.

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- Man, Kyle is right on the money.

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He is a God that resurrect us.

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I've experienced that numerous times in my finances,

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in my marriage. He is good.

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And what we want to do is we want to bring that power

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to as many people as we know

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and that happens when we support our church.

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We have opportunity to be givers right now.

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You can go to Crossroads.net/give for those of us

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who are walking closely with Christ and are tithers,

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this is what we do, if we're still getting an income,

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we return 10% to to God.

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Others of us are not there yet, but we still want

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to support the the church we're a part of. That's great.

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You can go to Crossroads.net/give or text Crossroads at 313131.

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Let's go back and hear Kyle's final words

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on how we can get to a new place.

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- You and I have a problem: we are spiritually dead,

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but as dead as that fish was, you can be as alive --

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Oh, oh, oh, no, no, (kids giggling).

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You can be -- You can be made -- You can --

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No stop! Work with me. Ack!

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As dead as that fish was,

00:22:31

you can be made as alive as this one

00:22:34

and have a new life of freedom.

00:22:37

Hey, little buddy, go be free. Have a great life.

00:22:42

Enjoy. He calls it the abundant life.

00:22:46

He says this in John 10:10:

00:22:53

God has given me that life.

00:22:55

I was once spiritually dead.

00:22:58

I was flatlined in my ego, in my pride,

00:23:01

decaying internally in loneliness,

00:23:04

but God brought me back to life.

00:23:07

And He will do the same thing for you,

00:23:10

the way He's always done it,

00:23:12

through the only way, His Son Jesus.

00:23:15

If you will anchor yourself to the time tested truth

00:23:19

that Jesus alone is the solution to your problem,

00:23:23

He will resurrect you.

00:23:25

He'll take you from hopeless to hopeful,

00:23:29

from fearful to fearless.

00:23:31

He'll do it for you, all you have to do is ask.

00:23:35

Let's do that right now.

00:23:38

Jesus, would You resurrect us?

00:23:41

Would You take all of the dead places in us

00:23:43

and would You make it alive?

00:23:46

We want the abundant life that You promise.

00:23:49

Resurrect us.

00:23:50

We anchor ourselves in the time tested truth

00:23:52

that You alone are the solution to our problems.

00:23:56

Thank you, Jesus. Amen.

00:23:59

Let's sing this song right now that tells Jesus

00:24:03

that He alone can give us life,

00:24:06

that He alone has Paid It All.

00:33:58

- Jesus, thank You so much for this truth

00:34:00

the truth of who You are,

00:34:02

that You are God's Son and You died for us

00:34:05

that we might have eternal life.

00:34:07

Thank You for that.

00:34:08

Thank You for drawing us closer to You. Amen.

00:34:13

- Thanks for singing with us.

00:34:14

I believe Jesus did pay it all for you and for me.

00:34:18

Just a reminder, if you want to give, you can go to Crossroads.net/give

00:34:22

or you can text Crossroads at 313131.

00:34:26

You know, we want to do all we can to connect with you

00:34:29

and encourage you throughout the whole week,

00:34:31

not just when you're with us in this environment.

00:34:33

If you want that to happen, two different times this week

00:34:35

we're going to text you some good stuff.

00:34:37

You can text "Anchored" to the same number: 313131

00:34:43

I hope to connect with you then and we'll see you next week.

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