You Can Change | Faithful in a Faithless World Week 2

Isolation…a crappy Job…flurona—all of us have an easy list of reasons why this year could be destined to suck. In fact, these days it’s reasonable and normal to assume things are awful and won’t change. But is that actually the truth? Join us today as Brian talks about how we have the power to change our lives regardless of the terrible circumstances we face.

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    Hey, happy New Year. Welcome to Crossroads.
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    My name is Kyle, and this year, 2022,
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    we at Crossroads want to guide and equip you
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    for the adventurous life that God has for you.
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    And that might sound like, "That sounds great, Kyle.
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    But all I'm hoping for this year
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    is a better year than last year."
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    If that's where you're at, I'm exactly with you.
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    My 2021 ended with a thud. It was terrible.
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    Right before Christmas, like the day before,
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    my middle child decided to jump down our basement stairs
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    and cracked open his head.
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    Ended up in the ER getting staples in his head.
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    That wasn't great.
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    And then on Christmas,
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    I got a gift I didn't ask for: COVID.
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    It was terrible.
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    Listen, whether you had a terrible end of your 2021
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    like I did or you just read the headlines about Omicron
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    and all this stuff, it'd be really easy right now
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    to assume it's all just going to suck,
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    no matter what I do.
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    Just throw our hands up. Whatever.
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    But what we're going to talk about today
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    is that there is a different way to live your life
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    that leads to a better life.
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    And you and I, good news,
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    have more control over it than we think.
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    The key to all of it is time spent with God.
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    That's why, as a community we're doing something
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    this year, for the entire year,
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    we're calling the Bible Challenge.
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    I'm going to tell you more about that at the end.
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    But today we're going to kick it off
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    with our senior pastor Brian in the book of Daniel.
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    Here's just a little bit more about that book.
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    - The book of Daniel is a story of a faithful man
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    and the unmatched power of God.
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    Today's setting is right after
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    Babylon's first attack on the city of Jerusalem
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    about 597 B.C. and the city is left in ruins,
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    plundered, utterly destroyed,
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    and any other way to say it was crushed.
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    Like any conqueror of the time,
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    King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon takes
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    as many things as he can from Jerusalem,
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    including some people.
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    Among them some of the Israelite royal family.
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    That guy named Daniel and three of his good friends
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    were the cream of the crop, the bee's knees,
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    all that and a bag of chips.
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    And do people even still say that?
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    Anyway, you get the point.
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    They were the best of the best and some.
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    And they were chosen to serve the king.
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    Today we explore their story
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    and what it means for our life.
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    - Hey, my name's Brian, welcome to Crossroads.
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    The big idea for today is this:
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    you control your life and you can improve your life
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    and your walk with God.
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    Yeah, you do.
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    You have more control than you think,
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    and you can improve yourself
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    and your walk with God more so than you think.
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    I think this is part of why we're so drawn
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    to New Year's resolutions.
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    We get frustrated with them.
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    Like this graphic shows, it looks the same
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    from year to year, but we're like, "Oh no,
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    this year I really mean it.
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    Even if we're not saying what we mean,
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    I really mean it this year."
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    If you look at some of the people
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    who have inspired us over the years,
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    they include people like Mother Teresa
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    who died, you know, many years ago.
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    But we can learn something from her life
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    and this way and an odd learning
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    you might have never come across before.
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    Mother Teresa had a spiritual confidante,
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    the Reverend Michael Vander Peete.
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    And in her correspondence, an old letter,
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    here's what she says to him. She says:
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    Wow. Is this Mother Teresa admitting
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    that she doesn't hear from God,
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    that she doesn't feel God,
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    that she's spiritually dry?
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    Apparently so.
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    Time Magazine in 2007 says this:
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    What does this mean?
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    Does this mean Mother Teresa was a sham?
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    Does this mean that we can't really feel God,
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    because if Mother Teresa doesn't feel God,
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    how does somebody like me have any shot?
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    Mother Teresa can't control life
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    and can't control her walk with God,
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    just like you and I can.
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    I'm trying to encourage you to do
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    some creative things in 2022,
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    like actually read the Bible.
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    Mother Teresa, think about this,
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    for her whole life she did the same thing
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    day in, day out. There's something good to that.
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    Same thing day in, day out.
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    Served of the same people, the same country,
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    listen to the same sermons,
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    the same Catholic theology,
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    the same Gregorian chants, all that stuff.
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    That's fine.
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    But here's what we need, every once in a while,
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    we need to try something different.
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    That's what I like about resolutions.
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    We're trying to say I want something different.
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    You know what Mother Teresa needed?
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    She probably needed to listen,
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    instead of the same Catholic 15 minute homily,
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    she probably needed some T.D. Jakes,
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    give her something fresh and new.
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    Instead of another Gregorian chant,
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    she probably would have been well served
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    with Maverick City.
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    We need to try new things.
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    If you want the same things you had last year,
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    keep doing the same things you did last year.
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    But if you want to take control of yourself,
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    control of your spiritual formation,
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    you're going to have to try new things.
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    That's why I'm trying to get you to try new things
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    like Read the Bible regularly in 2022.
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    We're going to look at the Book of Daniel today
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    and for the next several weeks.
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    Daniel is a crazy, crazy situation.
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    Here's what's happening in the world at his time.
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    It's around 600 B.C.
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    King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon
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    marches on the city of Jerusalem
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    and they capture the Nation of Israel,
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    or known as the southern Kingdom of Israel.
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    Daniel is one of these captives.
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    And the Babylonians, they take everything.
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    They take the holy objects inside the temple.
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    They try to take their traditions.
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    It's an early form of cultural appropriation.
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    They take, they take it all.
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    And when they get Daniel,
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    they want to take even more from him.
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    Have you ever felt like our culture
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    is trying to take from you?
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    It's just take, take, take, steal, steal, steal.
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    Trample, trample, trample.
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    You may feel that way, but that was
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    what actually happened with Daniel
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    and we can learn something from him
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    and even taking control of our life
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    in our walk with God in the midst of it.
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    Here's what says in Daniel 1:3:
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    This guy, who's a eunuch,
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    he's going to come up a number of times.
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    I'm just explain this.
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    In the ancient world, when you served under a king,
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    the king wanted to make sure that
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    there wouldn't be any coups.
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    So he would require once you got to
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    a certain level in his administration,
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    if you were a male, that you castrated yourself.
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    Because the belief was this would disincentivize
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    you from leading a coup because
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    you could never have your own royal household,
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    because you never could have your own offspring.
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    So eunuchs were very senior ranking officials.
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    That's the case with this guy.
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    So Chaldeans, by the way,
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    are the hyper spiritual types of the Babylonian empire,
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    the people who can prophecy, see in the future,
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    this kind of thing, or so they believed.
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    This is an executive training program
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    that King Nebuchadnezzar sets up.
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    He says, "I want you to go get the best of the best.
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    Bring them here. Bring them over here to me."
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    And Daniel is selected
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    because he has hit the DNA lottery.
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    When's the last sermon you heard on,
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    "Hey, if you hit the DNA lottery
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    of having a wonderful complexion
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    and being good looking, God has a plan for your life"?
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    There's very few people who are like that,
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    and those that are we just don't like, you know/
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    Like, I don't know a Kardashian say
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    or Tom Brady who's just annoying.
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    Very impressive, Tom Brady, very impressed.
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    But dude, you're getting like, you're getting older,
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    as I'm getting older, and you're not making me look good
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    because I'm feeling like a slacker when I look at you."
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    DNA lottery, whatever it is,
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    unbelievable what that guy's done.
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    How many people has he dated or married
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    who are supermodels?
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    Man, it drives a lot of guys crazy.
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    Daniel. Daniel would have basically have been
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    the Tom Brady of his day.
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    It's why he's selected into this group.
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    Now, here's the deal:
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    We've got to know our identity.
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    Two big ideas today, one is this: Know your identity.
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    I'm going to give you the name of Daniel
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    and his three friends.
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    You might have heard of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
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    if you've been around churches
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    or in Sunday School.
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    Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,
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    that's actually not their name.
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    They are given a new identity by the Babylonians,
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    who do not want to respect them.
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    Let me read the verse for you right now.
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    Daniel 1:4-7 says this:
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    So if you've heard the names
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    Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,
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    that's actually not their name.
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    That's not the name that their parents gave them
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    or the name that reflected their identity before God.
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    That was a power grab by the Babylonians
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    to change their ways and who they were.
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    The Babylonians are trying to get them
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    to forget who they actually are,
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    forget who their real God is.
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    Daniel, his name means in the Hebrew God is my judge.
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    The right God, the real God, God is my judge.
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    Changes to is the Belteshazzar,
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    which means "bel protects his life."
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    Bel was a foreign false deity.
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    Hananiah means Yahweh has been gracious,
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    and his name is Shadrach, which means
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    "command of the moon God."
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    The Moon God is a false God, not a real God.
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    See, the Babylonians are trying to say,
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    "No, not the God over here you serve.
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    No, this is the one. This is who you are."
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    Mishael means who is like God.
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    Who is like him? You ever think that?
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    Sometimes you think about who God is, you're like,
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    "Who is He who keeps giving me grace and favor
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    and forgiveness like that and provide, who is He?"
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    That's what his name means, but he's given the name Meshack,
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    which means "who is what Aku is,"
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    another force foreign deity.
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    Azariah means God has helped,
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    and Abednego, the new name he's given,
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    is "servant of Nebu."
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    Let me tell you the same thing
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    happens in our culture today.
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    No, you're not a Christian. You are a consumer.
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    No, you know, no, no, you are an extremist.
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    No, you're you're a liberal.
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    You're a conservative.
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    You're a Democrat. You're a Republican.
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    You are enlightened. You are non enlightened.
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    You are a deplorable.
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    You are an elite. You are whatever.
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    You know who you are? Your name is forgiven.
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    That's your identity.
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    To know your name means to know your identity.
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    If your last name is Smith,
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    somewhere in your background is a silversmith
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    or a blacksmith was with you.
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    Tome is my last name.
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    Some of my background meant somebody
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    was doing a lot of stuff with books,
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    because tome means a big volume of books.
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    My name Brian Douglas Tome.
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    My parents gave me that name because they thought
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    it sounded good, which is cool. That's fine.
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    Most of us will give names because they like it.
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    Brian Douglas Tome.
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    But there wasn't any deep spiritual meaning
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    to those words, but it is part of my identity.
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    Crazy story.
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    I'm adopted. I met my birth parent,
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    my birth father, a few years ago.
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    You know what his name is, his first name?
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    Douglas.
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    My parents unknowingly gave me
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    the middle name of my birth father.
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    Wow. You've got to know your identity.
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    You are a child of God. You are a son of God.
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    You're a daughter of God. You are forgiven.
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    You are accepted.
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    You are him in whom he is well pleased.
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    These are all basic Bible statements
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    about who you and I are, which is why
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    we've got to be in the scriptures because
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    the scriptures give us our identity.
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    Fox News and CNN is never going to give your identity.
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    Never, never.
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    You've got to know who you are.
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    You have to take control of your understanding
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    of yourself and walk in it.
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    - Real quick, I'm going to interrupt here
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    to talk about giving, and I'm going to do it
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    in less than 30 seconds. Ready, go.
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    You know, here at Crossroads, we're trying
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    to lean into the ways of God
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    that actually lead to a better life.
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    And one of those ways is giving.
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    Giving is something that's a spiritual act
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    that actually supports things in the world
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    here and now, help heal the world
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    instead of tearing it down.
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    If that's something that interests you,
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    you can learn more at crossroads.net/give.
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    Back to the message.
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    - The second thing, the second thing we do
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    is we have to know our identity
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    and we've got to know our disciplines.
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    What is it that you do to keep yourself clear headed?
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    What is it that you do to make sure that you are healthy
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    physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally?
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    What is it?
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    Do you know what those things are?
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    One of the things we're doing this year
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    to get ourselves healthy and know what it is,
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    is, Hey man, I am going to be a Bible reader.
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    That's one of my identities.
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    It's one of my disciplines is to read the scriptures.
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    Faithfulness to God is completely countercultural.
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    Daniel makes a bold decision in the midst of
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    a culture that's going the opposite way
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    of the ultimate true God
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    to not accept the king's food while in the palace.
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    Even though he's got external pressures
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    and those foods would taste good,
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    he decides he's not going to give in.
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    Daniel 1:8-10:
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    You can learn a lot here from Daniel
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    in how to deal with a culture that's at war with us,
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    if you feel like the culture
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    is at war with you spiritually.
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    Daniel, he doesn't like protests
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    and he doesn't just get belligerent.
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    He gets diplomatic. And the eunich is like,
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    "Man, I've already lost one part
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    of my body voluntarily, don't make me lose my head.
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    How can I make sure the things are going to be OK here?"
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    Daniel doesn't want to eat the king's food
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    or drink his drink. Wine is the case.
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    Why is that?
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    We're not -- we're not sure exactly why that is.
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    There's positive references to alcohol in the Bible.
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    Jesus's first miracle is turning water into wine,
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    so it's not that alcohol is hyper, hyper negative.
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    Was it that the alcohol was prepared
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    in a non-kosher way outside the dietary guidelines
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    of the first five books of the Bible? Maybe.
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    Was it that the alcohol or that wine
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    was just a sign that Daniel was under the thumb
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    of a foreign entity and he didn't want to cave to it?
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    Maybe.
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    But Daniel says, "Look, I would like instead
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    to have my own drink."
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    That's some high quality H2O right there.
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    He decides he wants something different.
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    Alcohol consumption has risen sharply
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    since COVID started, about 20%.
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    We have new phrases like gray drinking,
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    where we're now, people are talking about drinking.
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    Is it bad to drink, like, if I have
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    a Bloody Mary at 10 o'clock in the morning
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    when I'm working from home like every day,
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    can I have a martini or a mixed drink at four o'clock?
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    Can I have two and three drinks every single night?
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    Can my new normal be never less than two drinks
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    every single day?
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    We're asking alcohol questions, at least we should,
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    because we're getting carried away.
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    I don't think it's just how we drink.
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    It's also how we eat, what we consume.
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    Daniel says instead of all these foods,
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    who knows what they were, fatty french fries
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    or something like that? We don't know.
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    Let me have my vegetables. Mm-hmm.
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    I mean, let me eat some of these guys.
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    Let me eat some things that are yummy to my taste buds
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    and are actually going to increase my capacity,
  • 00:17:59
    take control of myself.
  • 00:18:02
    Lost somewhere and all of the furor in our country,
  • 00:18:07
    here's another identity,
  • 00:18:08
    identity of vaccinated or unvaccinated.
  • 00:18:10
    That is not an identity.
  • 00:18:12
    You may be vaccinated or you may be unvaccinated,
  • 00:18:14
    but that is not an identity.
  • 00:18:15
    Just like, say, that's who I am.
  • 00:18:17
    That's not our primary identity.
  • 00:18:19
    It's I am a child of God, is what I am.
  • 00:18:22
    But lost in the whole debate over the vaccination,
  • 00:18:27
    is the truth that we are a sedentary country
  • 00:18:30
    of overeaters, with 48% of us being classified as obese.
  • 00:18:34
    And for type two diabetes, those of us
  • 00:18:36
    who unfortunately have that, we would rather
  • 00:18:39
    have a pill than actually change or have insulin
  • 00:18:43
    than actually change our physical habits.
  • 00:18:47
    Dr. John Abramson said recently:
  • 00:18:55
    By your life, you're not a victim.
  • 00:18:57
    You're not a victim of what's happening out there.
  • 00:18:59
    80% of your health is dictated by your choices,
  • 00:19:03
    your decisions. You choose your life.
  • 00:19:06
    And I believe this is true about your spiritual life.
  • 00:19:08
    If you're feeling distant from God,
  • 00:19:10
    80% of that's on you. Why 80%?
  • 00:19:12
    Because the whole other thing that you can't control
  • 00:19:14
    is God going to speak that day uniquely?
  • 00:19:16
    We don't know.
  • 00:19:17
    Am I going to read something in the Bible
  • 00:19:18
    that's going to be in my situation?
  • 00:19:20
    I don't know, but we have to control it.
  • 00:19:22
    We have to step into it.
  • 00:19:24
    This unique is uncomfortable allowing Daniel
  • 00:19:28
    and his friends to try something different.
  • 00:19:31
    And yet that's exactly what they do.
  • 00:19:33
    And let's see whether or not it works.
  • 00:19:36
    Book of Daniel Chapter one says this:
  • 00:20:12
    That is good stuff. It works.
  • 00:20:16
    They took control. They diplomatically did a test.
  • 00:20:19
    And they said let us try this and see how we look
  • 00:20:21
    and like, "Man, you look great. In fact, you've gained weight."
  • 00:20:24
    Back in the old times they wanted to gain weight
  • 00:20:26
    because they were also thin because food wasn't as abundant.
  • 00:20:29
    So it was actually a good thing
  • 00:20:30
    to have a little bit of fat on you.
  • 00:20:32
    So they actually gained weight.
  • 00:20:33
    That was a positive and great thing.
  • 00:20:36
    Where are you appropriately gaining mental acuity?
  • 00:20:41
    Where you are you appropriately gaining
  • 00:20:43
    emotional resilience?
  • 00:20:46
    Where are you growing in your mass?
  • 00:20:49
    Most of us are not seeing growing because
  • 00:20:51
    we're not taking control of our life
  • 00:20:52
    and we're not feeling closer and closer to God.
  • 00:20:54
    You know why?
  • 00:20:55
    Because we're mindlessly following
  • 00:20:57
    the patterns of everybody else.
  • 00:20:59
    Google time spent in front of a screen.
  • 00:21:02
    You can find your own results.
  • 00:21:03
    I'll tell what I just found,
  • 00:21:04
    I looked at it just a few hours ago. Spooky.
  • 00:21:07
    You know how many?
  • 00:21:09
    How much time we spend in front of a screen?
  • 00:21:12
    666 minutes a day.
  • 00:21:16
    666 minutes a day. Wow.
  • 00:21:21
    Last week I talked about the mark of the Beast.
  • 00:21:23
    Mark the Beast wasn't vaccinations or barcodes.
  • 00:21:26
    Who knows, maybe the mark of the Beast
  • 00:21:28
    is our our device.
  • 00:21:29
    I'm not ready to say that.
  • 00:21:31
    I'm saying this, though.
  • 00:21:32
    If you're spending 666 minutes a day,
  • 00:21:35
    11 hours a day, you're going to go nowhere, nowhere.
  • 00:21:42
    You're not going to advance spiritually.
  • 00:21:44
    You're not going to advance physically.
  • 00:21:46
    You're not going to advance mentally.
  • 00:21:47
    I'm trying to motivate you.
  • 00:21:49
    I'm saying, "Come on, man,
  • 00:21:50
    if you don't like where your life is,
  • 00:21:52
    you can change it simply by cutting that,
  • 00:21:54
    I don't know, in half?
  • 00:21:56
    Cutting it by 90%, shoot, cut it by 10%.
  • 00:21:59
    Cut an hour out of all the social media updates
  • 00:22:02
    and all the streaming and all this,
  • 00:22:04
    just kind of cut a portion of it out.
  • 00:22:06
    And if you put that into your version
  • 00:22:08
    of water and vegetables, your life will be amazing.
  • 00:22:14
    Amazing.
  • 00:22:15
    In fact, if you just cut out 40 minutes,
  • 00:22:19
    just 40 minutes of that and you read the Bible,
  • 00:22:22
    you realize the 90 days you get through
  • 00:22:23
    the entire Bible in 90 days.
  • 00:22:25
    40 minutes a day,
  • 00:22:26
    you get through the whole Bible in 90 days.
  • 00:22:29
    I'm not asking you to do 40 minutes a day,
  • 00:22:32
    but I am saying this: you ought to get in
  • 00:22:34
    the Bible Challenge with the rest of us.
  • 00:22:36
    Four times a week.
  • 00:22:37
    The very word of God to saturate your mind
  • 00:22:40
    and saturate your heart and saturate your spirit
  • 00:22:44
    to give you the life that you actually want,
  • 00:22:48
    a life closer to God and a life that actually works.
  • 00:22:51
    Let's learn from Daniel.
  • 00:22:53
    He felt oppressed.
  • 00:22:54
    He was under judgment from others.
  • 00:22:56
    He was stuck in a situation
  • 00:22:58
    he was not happy with under Babylonian rule.
  • 00:23:01
    And yet he took control of his life.
  • 00:23:04
    He dealt with the things he could deal with.
  • 00:23:06
    He was diplomatic.
  • 00:23:07
    And as we're going to see in the weeks ahead,
  • 00:23:09
    he has a powerful and profound impact,
  • 00:23:12
    not just on his life, but on the nation of Israel
  • 00:23:16
    and actually the future of the world.
  • 00:23:21
    - Listen, I know this sounds crazy,
  • 00:23:23
    but you can't imagine the impact
  • 00:23:25
    your life could have if you take a page from Daniel
  • 00:23:28
    and you do what he did.
  • 00:23:29
    And as we'll see in future weeks,
  • 00:23:31
    the key to Daniel's impact was his dedication
  • 00:23:35
    to spending time with God on a daily basis.
  • 00:23:37
    One time in his life
  • 00:23:38
    it even got him thrown into the lion's den.
  • 00:23:40
    We're going to hear that story in a few weeks.
  • 00:23:42
    But for now, I want to invite you
  • 00:23:43
    to join us in the Bible Challenge.
  • 00:23:46
    It's really simple. You need two things to do it.
  • 00:23:48
    One is download the Crossroads Anywhere App.
  • 00:23:50
    It's completely free wherever you get your apps.
  • 00:23:54
    When you do that, you're going to click right here
  • 00:23:56
    and open up the section on scripture.
  • 00:23:58
    You'll be able to read scripture and journal,
  • 00:24:02
    and by the way, see what people like me and Brian
  • 00:24:05
    and others around the community
  • 00:24:06
    are hearing inside of the scripture.
  • 00:24:08
    So you're not doing it alone.
  • 00:24:10
    The second thing you need is this:
  • 00:24:12
    it's a field guide of sorts that we put together
  • 00:24:15
    that's a commentary, context, history.
  • 00:24:17
    It gives you all the stuff that you need to know
  • 00:24:19
    about the Book of Daniel to follow along and understand
  • 00:24:23
    and get the most out of what you're reading.
  • 00:24:25
    And the best news about this is it's also completely free.
  • 00:24:27
    To get it just go to Crossroads.net/BibleChallenge.
  • 00:24:31
    And when you do that, me and the team at Crossroads
  • 00:24:34
    will be praying for you.
  • 00:24:35
    Praying that you don't just have
  • 00:24:37
    another routine to add to your life.
  • 00:24:39
    Another thing that you have to do every day.
  • 00:24:40
    Check the box.
  • 00:24:42
    That's not what we're doing here.
  • 00:24:43
    Our prayer is that you meet God in scripture.
  • 00:24:47
    You get encouragement you can't get anywhere else.
  • 00:24:49
    You find hope you're not going to find anywhere else.
  • 00:24:51
    You find power and peace in your life
  • 00:24:54
    that you did not find last year.
  • 00:24:55
    That 2022 is a year that you get the most out of life
  • 00:24:59
    and experience the adventurous life
  • 00:25:01
    that we know that God has for you.
  • 00:25:02
    Join the Bible Challenge
  • 00:25:04
    and we'll see you next week on Crossroads.
  • 00:25:08
    - 2022, best year ever.
  • 00:25:10
    How? Let's all do the Bible Challenge?
  • 00:25:14
    - Hello? - What is it, you might ask.
  • 00:25:15
    - I didn't even -- I didn't --
  • 00:25:17
    - It's this challenge to read the Bible
  • 00:25:20
    every week in 2022.
  • 00:25:22
    - That's a lot of pages, right?
  • 00:25:24
    - Here's how. Okay, first, you experience the weekend,
  • 00:25:26
    either in-person or online.
  • 00:25:28
    Every series will teach from a book in the Bible.
  • 00:25:30
    It's good news, it's inspiring and all that.
  • 00:25:32
    You'll love it. - I love -- I love good news.
  • 00:25:34
    - And then the Bible challenge really happens
  • 00:25:36
    in the Crossroads app.
  • 00:25:38
    Every day in the app, read from the Bible
  • 00:25:40
    and write a journal entry on what you learned.
  • 00:25:42
    The research says if you do it
  • 00:25:43
    at least four times a week,
  • 00:25:45
    you'll really start to see a difference in your life.
  • 00:25:47
    If you have a group, you'll find a weekly study
  • 00:25:50
    in the app based on the same scripture
  • 00:25:51
    for your group to discuss.
  • 00:25:53
    When you opt in, you also get a field guide
  • 00:25:55
    to help you understand the book even more.
  • 00:25:58
    - Oh, like I notebook, like a journal, like a GPS.
  • 00:26:00
    - And if you engage with the Bible in the app
  • 00:26:02
    at least once a week during a series,
  • 00:26:04
    we'll mail you a sticker to commemorate the milestone.
  • 00:26:06
    A little encouragement to keep it up.
  • 00:26:08
    - I love stickers.
  • 00:26:09
    - For real, the Bible Challenge will help you
  • 00:26:11
    find the best way through 2022.
  • 00:26:14
    Get started today.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

This is the group part of the Bible Challenge, so your questions are based on a specific Bible passage like the weekend message. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. What’s the best nickname you’ve ever received? (Note: If you have any new people in your group, be sure to get their real name first, or it could get weird.)

  2. What stood out to you in this weekend’s message?

  3. Read Daniel 1:3-7. Daniel was selected because he had some things going for him. Share with the group how you think God made you — gifts, skills, characteristics, etc. How does this affirm who God made you to be?

  4. The Bablyonions tried to bring Daniel into their culture by giving him a new name. Discuss some areas as a group where you feel tension in following God or aligning with the culture you’re in.

  5. Now read Daniel 1:8. What is one way you can choose to follow God this week?

  6. Now close your time in prayer. Here’s an example: “God, thank you for giving us an example of faithfulness in Daniel. He was in a world that was in chaos, and our world feels like that too. We ask for the same clarity Daniel received. As we read Your Word, teach us who You are and who You say we are. Give us the strength and courage to lean more on you then on our own understanding.

More from the Weekend

Bonus Questions Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper!

1) There are many prophecies in the book of Daniel. For some of us that’s a new concept, and others of us might have stories that make us hesitant of prophecy today. What is your experience with prophecy, and how do you feel about leaning into it as a way to experience God?

2) Sometimes it’s hard to see where God is using specific situations for our long-term good, like the Babylonions’ rule in this time reminding people He is the one true God. Share an area where odds seem against you. Where do you need His encouragement or perspective of how he’s working this out for you? As a group, commit to praying for each other in those areas this week.

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Jan 10, 2022 26 mins 22 sec

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