How To Recharge | Get Back To Better

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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads, I'm Kyle.

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I have a promise for you today.

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I believe today will help you get better.

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Is anybody else, tired, exhausted?

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And you thought that we were about to get back to normal

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and now it looks like we have no idea

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when that's going to happen

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thanks to this thing called the Delta variant.

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So here's the thing, God has something better for us

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than getting back to normal.

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No matter what's going on in our world,

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He has something for us called back to better.

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Today is all about helping you get to better energy.

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Our Senior Pastor, my friend, mentor, Brian Tome,

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has a message for us about how to have better energy.

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He may even blow something up.

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In this episode, as with everything at Crossroads,

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is enabled by the generosity of regular everyday people,

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just like you and me.

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If you want to join that community generosity,

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you can do that by going to Crossroads.net/give.

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Here's Brian.

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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads.

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My name is Brian. So glad you're with us today.

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I wonder if this verse would be an invitation

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that you would appreciate.

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It comes from Jesus in Matthew 11:28.

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And Jesus says this:

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Who would like rest for your soul today? I would.

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Let's pray that happens.

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God, I ask that we'd see Your instructions

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as life-giving and we would feel them as life-giving

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and that we would have more of You today, Jesus.

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Many of us are weary.

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We have hard and weighty things that are on our lives

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and we need those things removed

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or those things put in perspective.

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Help me to help Your people here today.

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And I pray these things according to

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the character and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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A lot of us feel that way

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because we're just not going anywhere.

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Whenever I'm not going some place,

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specifically in my car, in my vehicle,

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it's because my car's broke down.

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Most of my cars breaking down.

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That's the history of me and cars.

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My wife and I, we have some pretty good cars right now.

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And she's got a Jeep Cherokee that's got 50,000 miles on it.

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I have a Chevy Silverado that has 151,000 miles on it.

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They're pretty reliable cars.

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But still to this day, for so many years,

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I have gotten in cars and not been sure

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whether or not they were going to start or not,

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or not been understanding

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why they stop in the middle of nowhere.

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Because for much of my life,

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and it feels like most of my life,

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I just haven't been able to afford

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reliable transportation.

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I know what it's like in a vehicle

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to not go anywhere and stop.

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And I've got some stuff for us today.

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And I think it hopefully relates to how many of us

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in our life feel like I'm not going anywhere,

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I've stopped.

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Our whole culture feels this way.

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How many times we're saying,

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"Man, I need to get back to normal.

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When are we going to get back to

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the way things were, back when life made sense,

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back when I could go to a movie

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and people be in the theater, and it was a great movie?

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Back when I didn't have to have endless debates

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about everything in my life; masks, vaccines,

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everything is cantankerous.

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And it's because things were difficult before

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and now they're more difficult.

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Carrie Nieuwhof says this:

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And we say, "I need to get back to normal."

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Do we forget what normal was like?

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Normal was worn out.

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Normal was already,

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many of us were frustrated with our lives.

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We just have more things to put on top of it.

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We think about the good old days

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and we're saying, we realize

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those old days weren't very good.

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I remember talking with my grandparents about this,

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who had some really, really hard, difficult times

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as older people.

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They remember World War II and being at war

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and people dying and rationing.

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And they were -- those were difficult.

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And they remember being in, or they remember,

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they're all dead right now.

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They remembered being in a Great Depression

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and they would laugh like these weren't --

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we say the good old days.

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There was anything good about that.

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We forget the things way back when,

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two years ago, weren't all that good.

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And yet they've gotten worse

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and that's why we're weary.

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That's why we are.

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Jesus. Jesus invites us, he says, "Come to me."

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Why would you -- why?

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(paper falls)

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Let's see if Jesus is a little more sticky

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the second time around.

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He says, He says, "Come to me."

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Why would you come to Him?

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Because you're laboring.

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It was just an endless amount of things

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that you have to do, and as a result,

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you're just heavy laden.

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All the stresses and pressures that are on us.

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And that's why Jesus tells us, "If you come,

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you know what I'm going to do?

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I'm going to give you rest."

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Ahh. Who would like rest? I would like rest.

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Ahh, rest.

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Why are we laboring so much?

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Why do we feel so heavy laden?

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Let's forget about two years ago or a year ago.

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Let's just talk about what we're dealing with today.

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Let me just remind us of the things that are happening.

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We're in a global pandemic.

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Delta variant is for real.

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We're in a global pandemic and that's still happening.

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We've lived at home, many of us, for a year.

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We're not designed to be cloistered

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and cooped up for as long as we've been.

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We've been through in very short order

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two Presidential impeachments.

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That's very stressful.

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Whether you're Democrat or Republican,

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two Presidential impeachments.

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Most Americans in their lifetime never had a single one.

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We in just the last few years have had two.

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We've had the most controversial election

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in the history of our country with disputed results.

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It led to an insurrection at the Capitol.

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Many of us, for the very first time,

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saw a real live person get killed by another person.

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I'm talking about George Floyd.

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It wasn't a video game or movie.

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We saw somebody actually get killed on camera.

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And of course, that brought up all the racial tension

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in our country that just goes underground

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and then comes right back up,

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goes underground and comes right back.

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We're just not making much progress

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and that reminds us,

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and that stress is still with us today.

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Let me just keep going.

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We've got new fears the people of our age

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have never had to have before.

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When I was a little kid,

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I actually remember going through inflation.

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It didn't affect me because I wasn't making money.

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I didn't have to write checks or anything like that.

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But I remember as a little kid

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being in my parents' cars during the '70s

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in the midst of the gas crisis, the gas shortage,

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and waiting for hours, hours in line to get gas.

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And my parents being stressed out over wondering,

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"OK, how are we going to get gas

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to be able to go down and get groceries

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or how are we going do it to get to work?"

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We're now talking about inflation

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now for the first time.

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That's another source of of stress for us.

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We have new fears that we've never had to have before.

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What's going on with the Delta variant?

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What's going on? How's it operating?

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And we've got controversial COVID policies

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that are happening left and right.

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No matter what you decide or someone doesn't decide

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with COVID policies, they're stress points.

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Hey, I want to stop here for a minute.

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I want to pause a moment and talk about --

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I just want to want to talk about something here.

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I want to talk to you, not as an authority figure.

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I want to talk to you as a pastor, talk to you as a friend.

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I want to tell you the most --

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one of the most gut wrenching things

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I've been through as a pastor

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just hearing something just recently.

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It happened in our church.

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There was a group of people get together

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to have a group interaction.

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They do it very, very regularly.

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They read the Bible, they pray together.

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It's a very good, healthy group.

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You've got to get into something like that if you can.

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It's really, really important that people

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who have your back and you have their back.

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Somebody was sick in the midst of that meeting.

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So they came together and said, "Hey,

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the Bible says lay hands on and pray for people

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and see if God heals them."

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So they did that.

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They put their hands on and they're praying.

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Two of those people had the COVID vaccine.

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The rest of those people did not.

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I think there was six others.

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The rest of them did not.

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All six who did not have the vaccine

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all got deathly sick and one person died.

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One dad with two little kids

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and a beautiful wife was gone.

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And his vaccination was scheduled for four days later.

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If you look at who's actually in the ICU,

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and they're overflowing all around the country,

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it's all people who have not been vaccinated.

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I'm not saying that there is, you know,

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there should be some vaccine mandates.

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I know we're getting real freaked out about that.

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I'm just telling you, man,

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we don't want to do your funeral. We don't.

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A lot of us -- A lot of us have had the vaccine.

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And guess what?

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Our ovaries and testicles haven't spontaneously erupted.

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They haven't.

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We're still able to reproduce.

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And not only that, not only that,

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that we get better cell phone signal, we do.

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We've got amazing cell phone coverage. It's fantastic.

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Seriously, it's great over here on this side.

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Life works really well.

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I just want to encourage you for your health,

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for your safety, please consider blessing yourself

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and your family.

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It's stressful talking about it.

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Even right now, as a leader, everything is stressful.

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I like in leadership right now to,

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the old whack a mole game, you remember those?

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You know, you had a thing.

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That thing would pop up and you go whack, whack.

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You do a whole whack a mole.

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For most of Crossroads' history,

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Crossroads has been around for 25 years,

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something would pop up was a problem,

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you just go, whack. You kind of whack it down, bam.

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And like OK, and then you go back to normal life.

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And then all of a sudden another pops up,

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oh, there's another problem, bam, you smack it down.

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And you get back.

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And then long distances between problems, huge problems.

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The last year it's been like the carnival game,

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something pops up, bam, bam, bam.

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But it's worse now because here's what it is now.

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Now when a problem comes up if you're a leader,

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you hit it, it doesn't go underground at all;

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it immediately splits in half and it replicates.

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Because every decision you make as a leader,

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every single one, half of everybody doesn't like it.

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Everything you say, half of everybody is upset by,

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everything, and you just don't have problems go away.

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You make a decision, half of everyone is upset.

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Even our president, poor, poor liberal Joe Biden,

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I mean, I don't think anybody else would debate

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that our president is on the liberal side.

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He puts himself out there, but yet even himself

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when he's on the verge of passing

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an infrastructure bill, it's not far enough left

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for people of his own party,

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his people who are more progressive

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in the Democratic Party than he is

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who are in Congress who are picketing

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and demonstrating outside of the Capitol steps.

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Well, Mr. President, sorry, this tough times.

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Your own folks, it doesn't matter who you are,

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half of everybody is against you

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and this is stressful. This makes us heavy laden.

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When I can't even tell somebody what I think

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or what I believe or I can't even tell somebody

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I'm vaccinated because half the people

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they're going to think I'm stupid and brainwashed

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or the other half is going to think

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that I'm anti science and anti [indiscernible].

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It just makes us heavy laden.

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It makes us actually need that rest.

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And how do we get to that rest?

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We get that rest by coming to who Jesus is,

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coming there, going to Him.

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When my cars would break down,

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I would have to figure out why is it stopped?

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Why is my car stopped?

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Why has your life stopped? What is it?

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And when I'm with my older cars that were very unreliable,

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it was always one of two things.

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It was either gas or spark; that's what it was.

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Gas, didn't have money, ran out of gas.

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That makes sense, that's the first thing I would check.

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Second thing is spark.

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You've got your battery and all that kind of stuff.

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Actually, let me show you how this works, actually.

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You've got a battery like this, a car battery,

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and you want to hook that car, you've got a car.

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This is a car battery.

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And what this does, the car battery provides spark,

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provides spark and when it does,

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when the spark plugs go provide a spark like that

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and the fuel comes in the cylinder,

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there's mini explosions.

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OK, this is not power mechanics class.

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I'm just saying, if you don't have spark,

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your car will stop.

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There we go.

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This is when you're energized.

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You've got enough power that things are illuminated

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and you can see things and your car can run.

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Some of us have not just run out of gas,

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we're heavy laden and we're weary

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and we need to come to Jesus for Him to give us rest,

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or actually give us a spark because we need it badly.

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61% of us have gained weight during the pandemic

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that we didn't want to gain.

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That's 29 pounds on average.

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According to the Barna Organization,

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29% of all pastors in the country

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are going to leave their jobs in the next year or so.

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29%, at least they're saying that or we're saying that.

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I'm not going to, by the way,

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unless you won't have me any longer.

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McKinsey report says that 40% of all employees

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are going to leave their job this year.

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They're actually saying,

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"I'm looking to leave my job this year."

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Workplace turnover is going to be increasingly high.

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And why is that?

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Is it really that you're going to

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find a better job elsewhere? Maybe.

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I think really what it is, is we're going,

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"I've got to change something.

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I'm worn out here. Something has to happen.

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I can't keep living like this.

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I need a different spark. I need something."

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We're desperately trying to find a way to get rest.

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When your battery is not giving you any spark

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and you're worn out, what do you do with it?

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There's four things.

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These can be sequential,

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but this is the stuff I go through every time

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I'm not getting spark and my car isn't starting.

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The first thing I do is this: I let it sit.

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I let it sit.

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I disconnect,

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I disconnect the wires and I let it sit.

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Sometimes there can be a phantom draw

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from your electronics or your accessories

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that without you knowing it can be drawing energy

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away from the battery

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when it's sitting out front of your house.

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And so when you disconnect it,

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sometimes you just let it sit,

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it'll come back to life.

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Here's the good thing.

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If you find that you are out of juice,

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Jesus says, come to Me all who are laboring

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and are heavy laden, come to Me

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and ask forgiveness for your sins.

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No, it doesn't say that.

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He doesn't say come to me and repent

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for the way you've lived your life.

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He doesn't say that.

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He says, come to me, I'll give you rest for your souls.

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If you're tired, if you're worn out,

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you've not sinned.

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If you're tired and you're worn out,

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God is not mad with you.

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You might have done some things wrong, maybe,

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but this is not a spiritual issue,

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like a barrier between you and God.

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Something -- sometimes we have no idea

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how this thing isn't firing, but we've got

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to disconnect everything from our life

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and just try to figure out. Let it sit.

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The Book of Psalms 1:1, the very first part

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in the Book of Psalms says this:

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You know what that means to me?

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Blessed is the man that doesn't have

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a phantom draw on his life.

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Blessed is the woman who doesn't have

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a phantom drawing in life where

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there's not somebody who's sucking them dry

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and who is unhealthy for them.

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Blessed is that.

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When you let yourself sit, when you unplug,

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you give yourself the space to meditate,

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to think on the character of God,

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to think on the love of God.

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But when we're plugged into everything

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we can't have that.

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What does a tree do?

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A tree sits is what it does.

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Yes, the roots are growing and,

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yes, there's activity, but it sits.

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Sometimes we just have to sit.

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Sometimes we just have to do something different.

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That's the first thing that's important to do.

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And we also have to recognize that

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the way we live our life, the externals in our life

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are constantly trying to draw things away from us.

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A few years ago, we did a series in Rome called Empires.

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You might want to look at that if you want.

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It's actually pretty, pretty interesting.

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Rome is a fascinating place, old ancient culture

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that was the apex of all of the world.

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And part of it was their technology.

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It was the first place in the world

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to have running hot and cold water.

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You go there and Italy is a great country for wine,

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in large part because it's very, very rocky soil.

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And so when those roots are going down

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to establish themselves, there's something

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in that effort that the plant has to make

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that makes the grapes very, very tasty.

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Those rocks it has to go through and around

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also are a problem with laying pipe.

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What's really nice is to be able to lay a pipe

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that's a bit flexible,

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kind of like lead, which is flexible.

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The Roman pipes were lead pipes.

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Part of the downfall of the Roman Empire,

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I say part, it wasn't the reason.

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But I tell you what, it doesn't help

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when your populace is drinking contaminated water.

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Of course, we know this now,

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looking back at poison lead water and all of us go,

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"How stupid. How stupid."

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They didn't know.

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I think generations from now there will be

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archeologists to look back at America

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and they look at how we use the Internet

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and they go, "So stupid.

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Who did people think they were doing?

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Thinking they could be plugged in all the time,

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thinking they could have just unending pollution

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come into your mind."

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What do I mean by pollution? I mean, by Twitter,

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By the way, this is not anti-social media time.

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It's not. I'm pro-social media.

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In fact, you can follow me on on Twitter

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and on Instagram and on Facebook.

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I like social media. I really do. I like it.

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But I got to recognize, you've got to recognize

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we're dealing with lead pipes

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when we're around social media.

00:20:50

We have to be very, very careful because

00:20:53

we never get away from a time of social media,

00:20:55

going, "Oh, I'm so energized now.

00:21:00

Oh, I feel so good, excited about life.

00:21:03

I don't -- rest, rest smest.

00:21:04

I don't need rest because I just did social media

00:21:07

and I'm on the top of my game right now."

00:21:09

It never happens.

00:21:11

What happens when we're done?

00:21:12

We're actually more worn out, we're more drained,

00:21:15

we're more angry, all these things.

00:21:18

My friend, Ed Stetzer, I heard him

00:21:20

on a podcast recently and he said

00:21:23

that our culture is going through convulsions.

00:21:26

There are seizures that are happening,

00:21:29

all of the things that are going on

00:21:31

and we're worn out as a result of it.

00:21:34

The second thing you do with your battery,

00:21:36

if after making it sit it's still

00:21:38

not coming back to life, the second thing

00:21:40

you can do is you can jump start it.

00:21:42

That's when you take the battery cables

00:21:45

and you put them on.

00:21:47

And then you take the other battery cables

00:21:49

and you put it on another battery

00:21:50

and a car that's running and give it a jump start.

00:21:53

You can jump start it.

00:21:56

If you don't have any energy

00:21:57

you have to think about a jump start.

00:21:58

What does that look like?

00:21:59

Well, look at Isaiah 40:28.

00:22:14

It's like saying God's battery doesn't get drained.

00:22:19

He has an endless supply source.

00:22:21

He does not faint or grow weary.

00:22:23

He gives power.

00:22:31

It's like he's talking about

00:22:32

the dynamics of a battery here.

00:22:40

Yeah, our youngest generations

00:22:43

testing out very high on stress.

00:22:46

That's not a youth thing, it's a human thing.

00:22:49

We all lose our charge and grow weary.

00:23:07

This is part of why we are glad you're here right now.

00:23:11

You've got to be in places

00:23:13

where you can get jump started.

00:23:17

Church attendance is critical

00:23:21

if you want to get a jump start,

00:23:22

you want to maintain your battery's power,

00:23:24

is utterly critical.

00:23:26

I know that sounds like self-serving

00:23:28

or really religious that you should go to church.

00:23:30

But I'll tell you, you should go to church.

00:23:34

You should go to an environment,

00:23:36

and this is church, by the way.

00:23:37

This can be church right here.

00:23:38

You should go to an environment where someone

00:23:40

gives you the transcendent concepts of God

00:23:44

that you're not going to get on Twitter,

00:23:46

where someone understands who you are,

00:23:49

in a place where the Spirit of God

00:23:51

is actually filling a room,

00:23:54

which could be happening right now,

00:23:56

to a place where there may be transcendent worship

00:23:59

or there's just things that you're not going

00:24:01

to pick up in your normal news feed.

00:24:03

This is how God operates.

00:24:05

We have to go to a place where we come under His wing

00:24:08

and where He can build us up and give us the charge.

00:24:11

And not every time you're a part of a worship service

00:24:13

or in a Bible study or in a group setting,

00:24:16

not every time are you going to get a charge.

00:24:18

But every time you're not there,

00:24:19

you're not going to get a charge.

00:24:21

It's not 100% sure that you're going to get a charge.

00:24:24

But is 100% sure if you just do

00:24:26

what you're normally doing, which is draining you,

00:24:28

that you will not get charged.

00:24:31

That's why we want to charge you any way we can,

00:24:33

whether it's attending a church service,

00:24:35

being with us here online, or it's attending a camp.

00:24:39

You know we have Woman Camp, Man Camp, College Camp,

00:24:43

registration is still open for Man Camp and College Camp

00:24:46

and would love you to get to a place

00:24:48

where I would tell you, you will get a charge.

00:24:51

It will happen, but you've got to do something different.

00:24:54

Keep doing what you've always done,

00:24:55

you're going to keep getting what you've always gotten.

00:24:57

If you want something new,

00:24:59

you've got to try something new,

00:25:00

some place to get a charge.

00:25:03

Third thing you do.

00:25:05

Sometimes when you do a jump, it doesn't take.

00:25:08

So what you do is you can also try a trickle charge.

00:25:12

Again, these aren't sequential.

00:25:14

You can do these in any order if you want to.

00:25:17

You do a tickle charge.

00:25:19

You hook it up to a machine that gives out

00:25:22

just a little bit of current over 24-48 hour period,

00:25:27

just a little.

00:25:28

Trickle charge it and builds that power back up.

00:25:35

The book of Galatians 6:9 says:

00:25:46

So then as we have opportunity,

00:25:48

let us do good to everyone,

00:25:49

and especially to those of the household of faith.

00:25:55

You might go, "This verse doesn't make sense.

00:25:58

I mean, I thought we were talking about resting

00:26:01

and heavy laden and this is wonderful,

00:26:04

but what's a verse about don't grow weary in doing good,

00:26:09

doing good to people?

00:26:10

That didn't sound like rest to me."

00:26:15

I don't think that we understand the meaning

00:26:17

of certain words in our culture anymore.

00:26:19

And when our country talks about

00:26:21

rest and relaxation, R&R,

00:26:23

I don't think we know what R&R is.

00:26:26

I've got no problem with binging a show now and then.

00:26:30

I've done it.

00:26:31

I've wasted five hours of my life before

00:26:33

just going, "OH, give me another one."

00:26:34

And maybe that was a fine thing for those five hours.

00:26:38

Maybe it didn't set me back.

00:26:40

But simply lying around doesn't always trickle charge.

00:26:44

The reason why this verse is important

00:26:47

is because there's something in the doing of the good

00:26:51

that can actually trickle charge us

00:26:53

and bring our batteries back up.

00:26:55

I've had a good amount of time off this summer at Crossroads.

00:26:58

Thank you very much for allowing me to do that.

00:27:00

And it was actually it was going to --

00:27:01

it was supposed to be a bit longer time.

00:27:05

And I came into the office about two weeks

00:27:08

earlier than I was planning on coming in

00:27:10

because there was just a lot of problems

00:27:13

going on in our church.

00:27:14

A lot of them I brought on myself.

00:27:16

And just there was a lot of just stress happening.

00:27:19

And so as I was home for the end of my breaktime,

00:27:22

I'm trying to deal with these fires

00:27:24

and I'm answering very highly emotionally charged

00:27:29

emails and phone calls and just, you know.

00:27:33

And I'd think, "OK, I got that."

00:27:35

And then another one would pop up.

00:27:36

And when things wouldn't pop up,

00:27:38

when they would go underground,

00:27:41

I would just still be thinking about the problems.

00:27:43

I'd be thinking about my mistakes.

00:27:46

I'd be thinking about what could happen if this keeps--

00:27:49

I would just be --

00:27:50

I was going like deep introspection work.

00:27:53

And I realized after about a --

00:27:55

after some good time of that, I said,

00:27:57

"Oh, my goodness,

00:27:59

I'm really starting to drain myself more.

00:28:04

I've never been, like, hyper depressed,

00:28:07

but I'm as close to I've ever been here.

00:28:09

This is not good.

00:28:11

And I've read enough about depression to know

00:28:13

that one of the things that psychologists say

00:28:15

is there comes a point where the more inward you go

00:28:19

and the more you think about it,

00:28:21

you go into an inner dark downward spiral.

00:28:24

Just staying there, [indiscernible]

00:28:26

and realize, oh, this is happening, is happening to me.

00:28:29

I need to get out. I need to go serve people.

00:28:31

I need to be talking with people."

00:28:33

And I came back in the office, it's wonderful.

00:28:35

Walk around the offices and was scaring people

00:28:37

and having all kind of fun stuff.

00:28:38

It was actually part of it, just having fun,

00:28:40

joking around staff and just taking extra time

00:28:42

just to, hey, how are you doing?

00:28:44

Just walked by guy today.

00:28:46

I go over and say how are you doing?

00:28:48

And like the Spirit of God said to me,

00:28:50

"This time like really listen,

00:28:52

ask him how he is doing and stand there and listen."

00:28:57

I did. I don't know, it was a five minute conversation

00:29:02

where I felt myself getting trickle charged.

00:29:05

I felt it coming up.

00:29:09

Left to your own thoughts and your own desires alone,

00:29:13

separate from the wing of God in the right environment,

00:29:18

you are likely to be drained

00:29:20

even though you want more of God and more energy.

00:29:25

I'm pro quiet time. I'm pro private devotion.

00:29:28

I'm pro private retreats, isolation.

00:29:31

That can all be good, just be very strategic

00:29:34

when and how you lean into that.

00:29:36

Fourth and final.

00:29:37

Sometimes trickle charge doesn't work.

00:29:39

Jump starts don't work.

00:29:40

Letting it sit doesn't work.

00:29:42

So at that point you have to replace it.

00:29:44

You have to replace your battery.

00:29:46

That's the fourth thing.

00:29:47

Our over-stimulated culture is wired and designed

00:29:53

to capture our imagination entirely

00:29:56

and to leave us burnt out, to utterly crush us.

00:30:02

What Jesus is saying here is come to me

00:30:05

all who are weary and heavy laden

00:30:06

and I will give you rest.

00:30:08

He's talking here about a culture

00:30:11

that's putting burdens on people that they can't handle.

00:30:15

He's talking about a culture that is sucking people dry.

00:30:20

And what He's saying is you need to replace

00:30:22

those cultural influences with Me.

00:30:27

You need to replace them.

00:30:29

Not just maybe vacate them

00:30:32

for a 65 minute worship service,

00:30:34

you need to replace them.

00:30:36

There's certain things in our lives

00:30:38

that have to be eliminated and have to be replaced.

00:30:42

Let me read it to you again. It's critical.

00:30:45

Matthew 11:28, because that's what He's saying.

00:30:47

Look at this from a replacement standpoint.

00:30:51

Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden,

00:30:54

and I'll give you rest.

00:30:56

Take my yoke.

00:30:58

That's the thing you put on your neck to pull a cart.

00:31:01

Take my yoke upon you, my yoke, not his yoke,

00:31:05

not her yolk, not popular culture's yoke, my,

00:31:09

replace that with my yoke.

00:31:12

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.

00:31:16

Not learning from everybody else

00:31:18

who's got frustrating lives, learn from me.

00:31:35

He's asking us to replace it.

00:31:38

Hey, hey, friends, we've got to stop this idea

00:31:43

of getting back to normal.

00:31:45

There's no going back there.

00:31:47

There's no going back there.

00:31:48

And first of all, back there wasn't all that good.

00:31:51

And here's the other thing, the other thing.

00:31:53

There's not a single time God ever asked us

00:31:55

to get back to something.

00:31:57

God is always pushing on to a new thing.

00:32:00

There's not a single person in the Bible

00:32:01

where God says, "Here's My vision on your life.

00:32:03

I need you to get back to--"

00:32:05

No, it's never get back to.

00:32:07

He never had a vision for the nation of Israel,

00:32:09

"I need you to get back to Egypt

00:32:10

because that's where you need to get back.

00:32:12

Get back to Egypt.

00:32:13

I need to get back on the other side of

00:32:15

the Jordan River, I need you to get back there."

00:32:17

Jesus never said to the disciples,

00:32:18

He says, "Hey, come together and I want you

00:32:20

to go back to where you were born

00:32:22

and live quiet lives there."

00:32:24

He never does that.

00:32:26

He says, "Go into all the world, make disciples, go."

00:32:31

The nation of Israel, Abraham is told to go

00:32:34

and become a replicating nation that blesses people.

00:32:39

God is calling you to something.

00:32:42

He's not calling you back to something.

00:32:46

And the more you grieve what was back there,

00:32:50

the more your energy is going to be drained.

00:32:53

And not only that, God's not going to trickle charge

00:32:56

you to go back to your old ways

00:32:58

when Jesus wants us to go to a new wineskin,

00:33:02

a new place.

00:33:04

When we're drained, we've got to remember

00:33:07

God wants something for us, not something from us.

00:33:12

There is a new place to go

00:33:14

and He's concerned about our battery.

00:33:17

He's concerned about our energy.

00:33:19

And he wants us to come to Him,

00:33:23

because in him is rest for our souls

00:33:26

and power that goes beyond our normal abilities.

00:33:32

Let me pray for us.

00:33:36

God, I'm honored that You would let me

00:33:39

talk about You and Your power.

00:33:44

It's an invigorating thing.

00:33:47

It actually gives me more power.

00:33:48

I think of that Galatians passage, it's a way

00:33:50

for me to serve others and go out.

00:33:52

And I pray that people we have been served

00:33:55

and you would help us to see what step we need to take.

00:33:58

Some step must be taken right now, God,

00:34:01

for us to get charged.

00:34:04

We commit that to You and we ask You to give us

00:34:09

any other insights that You need us to have.

00:34:12

In the meantime, we will follow through on

00:34:13

what we know right now.

00:34:14

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

00:34:21

- I don't know about you, but that was

00:34:23

the message that I needed to hear.

00:34:25

I have felt exhausted and tired in my life.

00:34:27

And just a reminder that God wants rest for me

00:34:30

is what I need.

00:34:31

Now if that did resonate with you,

00:34:33

I have three ways for you to jump in

00:34:35

and apply what Brian talked about.

00:34:37

Number one is a tool that we made for you this week.

00:34:39

It's a song our band wrote called Oh The Power.

00:34:42

I would encourage you to listen to it

00:34:43

throughout your week, morning commute, whatever,

00:34:46

to connect you to God.

00:34:47

And you can find that right here or on our YouTube page.

00:34:50

Second is the Crossroads App.

00:34:52

The feature I want to highlight today is this one.

00:34:55

Every day our community reads

00:34:57

the same chapter in the Bible and shares thoughts.

00:35:00

Right here is what Brian wrote today.

00:35:02

You want to know what he said?

00:35:03

Download the app. It's free in the App Store.

00:35:06

And last is the thing I'm probably

00:35:08

most excited about right now.

00:35:09

It's our annual Journey at Crossroads.

00:35:12

And this year's topic is Heroes: Your Path to Greatness.

00:35:16

We've made a guide for you.

00:35:17

It's a tool to take you on this Journey.

00:35:20

You're not going to want to miss it.

00:35:21

Here's the best part: This tool is free

00:35:23

from now through September 14th.

00:35:25

Just go to Crossroads.net/onlinejourney

00:35:28

and it will mail one straight to your house.

00:35:30

That's it for this week.

00:35:31

We'll see you next time on Crossroads.

	Life is DRAINING!	2:09
	Do you need rest?	4:52
	⚡️🔋⚡️	13:33
	Let It Sit	15:56
	Get A Jump Start!	21:40
	It takes time	25:03
	Don't Miss This!	34:21

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