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Today, we're talking about how to deal with this crisis.
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I'm right now inside of an empty auditorium,
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one of Crossroads church's many auditoriums we have.
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No one's here because we've shut down our physical gatherings this weekend.
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We're not sure how long it's gonna last,
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but it's going to happen this weekend.
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We did this out of safety reasons, out of love reasons.
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The Book of 2 Timothy 1:7, it says:
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God has not given us the spirit of fear,
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but of love, power, and self-discipline.
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Some people would say, "Isn't it fear
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if you're shutting down buildings and not having people gather?"
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No, no, it's not fear. It's actually love.
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We're loving our communities by not having the potential
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of a virus spreading and somebody getting hurt.
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It's also a form of power.
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We're making decisions and we're empowering people
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to take hold of their lives.
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And it's a self discipline issue.
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It's knowing that there's things that you can control
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and the things you control, you should do those.
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We're going to talk about those things
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and some others throughout today.
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We're excited you're with us,
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if you're a longtime Crossroader or it's your very first time,
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I'm hoping you're going to get things here with us
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you might not be getting in your other media outlets.
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And one of those things is going to be worship.
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We're gonna try to connect to transcendent being
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who is beyond us through music.
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And why don't I pray before we do that.
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God, You are good to have us here today and to be with us today.
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I'm thankful that all of us are able to participate.
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And I pray God that You would be pleased by what takes place,
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that You would be exalted
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and that You would comfort your people.
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May this please You, God,
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and these things according to character and identity of Jesus.
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Amen.
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Let's sing these words together.
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Psalm 91 says:
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Our God is powerful and He's with us.
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That song is actually called What a Beautiful Name It Is.
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That's the main refrain that happens in the song.
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And every time that happens in that song,
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I always think, you know, Jesus was a guy.
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How does He feel like "Your name is beautiful"?
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I wouldn't want someone's saying Brian's name is beautiful.
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There's nothing wrong with it, it's just a little odd.
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I like the song, I like it a lot.
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But here's the thing, that line is worth emphasizing:
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Powerful name.
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He has a powerful name because in times of crisis
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you don't need etherial ideas.
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You don't need like flower power, just be nice and loving.
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In times of crisis, you want actual real power.
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That's the power that God provides.
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That's the power we want to step into right now.
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Let's pray for that.
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God, I pray that You would pour your power on us,
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whatever coffee shop we're in, whatever living room we're in,
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wherever we are right now, God, notice your people.
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Notice Your people who want to be Your people.
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Give us something we wouldn't have had
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if we just stream Netflix.
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Give us a taste of You.
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Give us a perspective we can't get elsewhere.
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Give us a touch of Your Spirit beyond everything else
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that happens for the rest of our time.
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I pray these things according to the character
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and identity of Jesus, Amen.
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Well, now's normally the time the pastor would say,
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"You can take a seat right now."
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You might've been sitting all the time anyway.
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00:16:02
So, you know, I know we've got all different people
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00:16:05
of all different walks of life
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who are being affected in different ways by this crisis.
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And we're gonna hear just a little bit from people
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who you might be able to identify with,
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those of us who are in leadership positions
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or in government positions.
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You might be able to identify with my friend Chris,
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who's a Cincinnati City Council Member.
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Chris, what are you seeing and how you feeling?
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- You know, this is a serious situation.
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People need to take it serious, avoid public spaces,
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be a safe distance from each other,
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constantly wash your hands.
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But we're doing everything we can to ensure that life goes on,
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that you have clean water, that your trash is picked up.
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So feel good that government is working the way it should.
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- So, God, I pray a blessing on everybody
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who is making governmental decisions.
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Help them to make the right decisions.
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Help them to listen to the right people.
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Give them Your power as they do their jobs.
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Amen.
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And then we're going to also have Rico,
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who is a school teacher.
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Rico, tell us what you're dealing with and how you're feeling.
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- We're feeling anxious.
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We don't know what distance learning means,
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while at the same time continuing to provide services
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like meals for kids that need them.
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We just don't know what the future holds
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and what that looks like in terms of relationships
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and continuing this with our students.
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- God, I thank you for Rico and for every teacher.
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It's a thankless job normally.
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It's even more thankless right now
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because all the old metrics are gone.
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The consistency of the same classroom is gone.
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I ask that You pour Your grace on them
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and enable them to still be teachers for us,
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even though they're not in a traditional classroom.
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Help them to still form minds through distance,
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digital things, or other ways that You're going to use them.
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Thank You for them. Amen.
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We also have Monica, who is a mother, full time mother.
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Monica, what's going on? How are you feeling?
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- I have four kids to our home from school
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on an extended spring break or online learning.
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I'm feeling a little anxious about keeping them all healthy.
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I'm also feeling blessed that
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we get to spend some extra family time together.
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- God, I know that all parents have a hard job,
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especially now with kids around more.
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I pray for increased energy, increased opportunities
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to talk to their kids, to form their kids,
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raise their game, God, their most important thing they do
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is build into those kids.
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I pray they would still be built into
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and You would find them the resources to do so.
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In Your name I pray, Amen.
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And my friend, Leah, who is a pediatrician,
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represents many people who are in the medical industry.
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What are you feeling? What's going on?
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- So this week has brought a lot of counseling,
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educating, helping to manage fears and anxieties
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of patients and families,
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while also adapting office protocols
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and trying to deal with the real problem
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00:19:00
of limited supplies, masks, gowns, face shields.
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It's been a challenge, but we're ready to take it on
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and eager to continue helping people.
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00:19:08
- So, God, I thank You for everyone in the medical profession
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who takes care of our bodies,
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who takes care of what's going on inside of us.
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I know that they're stressed.
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I know that they're low on supplies.
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I know that they have unbelievable responsibilities on them.
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Elevate them, God, pour grace in them, give them more energy.
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Give them crazy wisdom to diagnose and to care and comfort.
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They are Your hands physically and your feet right now.
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God, thank You for them.
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I pray these things in your name.
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Amen.
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You might not be one of these folks here,
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but there's other things that you represent.
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I'm going to commission you right now.
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God, for all of the entertainers,
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all the people who make our life light,
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where people aren't buying tickets anymore.
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I pray that help them to -- please bring levity.
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For all the servers, all the restauranteurs,
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all the businesses that are down and are hurting
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and are laying off people and are not sure where to go from here.
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God, I pray that You would pour Your power there.
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Help us know how to direct those resources.
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00:20:18
For the people who've already been homeless,
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who've already been out of work,
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now more of us are like them.
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I ask that you would still give them yourself.
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Enable these people to be who You create them to be,
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whether they're at their normal job
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or their normal walk of life or not.
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For the flight attendants, for the pilots,
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for everybody, every sector of the economy
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across the globe that's affected.
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God, I ask you to bring your power and enable these people
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to still be who You have had them to be.
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They're still not those things,
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they just might not be doing those things as often.
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Bless them, I pray. Amen.
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00:21:00
Well, normal services we would normally say,
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00:21:01
"Hey, let's thank the band."
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So let's yeah, thank the band.
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Yeah, they were great.
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They didn't want to thank you, I'm up for thanking you.
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- Yeah, we have a small, small studio audience
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saying thanks to the band.
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Our studio audience, not all of you are six feet apart.
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Shame on you.
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Shame on you, you should be.
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All right. Here's deal, man.
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For those of us who call ourselves Christians,
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now's the time to find out if you actually are one.
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See we can call ourselves anything,
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but when a crisis hits, then we find out really who we are.
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We can have all kinds of beliefs and ideas
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and flowery sentiments, but man, when the --
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when the stuff hits the fan, how we react,
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our view of that thing, our interpretation of tha thing
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that will tell us really if we have faith
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00:22:01
or if we do not have faith,
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00:22:02
if we have an abiding presence with God
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or if we don't have an abiding presence with God.
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00:22:08
The history of Christianity, the history of the world
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is one suffering after another,
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00:22:13
one difficulty after another,
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00:22:15
one tragedy after another, over and over and over again.
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I've heard some people say, "Oh, man,
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I feel so disillusioned with this."
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That's good. Good. That's wonderful.
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Because your illusions should be dis-ed.
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That's what disillusionment is,
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when your illusions are dis-ed.
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If you have an illusion that everything in life
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00:22:30
is going to be comfortable and everything is going to be easy
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00:22:33
and the economy should just keep clicking along and
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everything I want should fall right inside of my Excel spreadsheet,
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00:22:38
you, my friend, have been deluded and disillusioned.
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00:22:41
We've had a wonderful run the last few years or decades,
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00:22:45
but what do you know, life happens to everybody,
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always does.
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00:22:49
That's the chart of human history.
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00:22:52
Followers of Christ are used to dealing with conflict.
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They're used to dealing --
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we're used to dealing with crisis.
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It happens again and again and again.
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00:23:01
Sociologist Rodney Stark from the University of Baylor
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00:23:04
tried to study the spread of Christianity in the first century.
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And he saw it was because believers
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were responding differently in crisis.
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Here's actually, what he says:
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It was how early followers responded to crisis
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that caused the spread of Christianity,
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because people saw power and they wanted that power to themselves.
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00:23:49
This crisis that we're in is not imagined.
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It is real.
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The Corona virus is 20 times more contagious than influenza.
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For every two people infected with the virus,
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00:24:02
there's 100 other people who will be infected
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00:24:04
if the germs are transmitted.
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00:24:07
The incubation period, many of us
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00:24:09
may have the coronavirus right now and we don't know it
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00:24:11
and we may be spreading it right now and we don't know.
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These aren't fearmonger things.
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This is data.
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00:24:17
This is basic science.
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00:24:20
And, you know, the CDC and everybody else I'm hearing
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is all going to be talking about your physical health
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00:24:27
and all the tips to to stay healthy
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00:24:29
and all the things we should do about washing our hands.
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00:24:32
Great, wonderful. It's all good.
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00:24:33
We're not here for that; you can get that elsewhere.
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00:24:35
I'm not concerned about your physical health.
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I've got to tell you,
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I'm concerned about your spiritual health.
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00:24:40
As we talk about flattening the curve, which is why
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we're not meeting physically at all Crossroads.
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We want to flatten the curve
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and spread out the contagion.
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as we're flattening.
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00:24:51
I just got to say, man, the way I hear
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some of us talking, your faith has been flattened.
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It's been flattened.
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And I'm just going like, "Really?
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We expected everything to be easy?
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00:25:03
We expected that if I did the right things
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00:25:07
and I thought the right thoughts
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00:25:10
and I just thought happy thoughts and I just --
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that everything would go easy for you?"
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00:25:13
Really?
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00:25:15
No, no. We had a faith in something that wasn't real,
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he had a faith in some some mythical reality that is not true.
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00:25:25
I'm not here to do dooms and gloom with us.
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00:25:28
I just want a shot -- fire a shot across the bow
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of many of us who just thought that life could be normal.
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00:25:36
Friends, crisis is normal; that's what history says.
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00:25:39
And now we get to be in one right now.
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00:25:41
And now we get to see what we're made of.
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00:25:45
Or we get to see if I want to make myself different,
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if I'm going to allow God to make me different.
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00:25:51
Jesus came to the earth in the midst of crisis.
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00:25:55
The the Jewish nation was under oppression of Rome,
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there was crisis there.
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I mean, most of His -- all of His miracles are coming
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00:26:01
because somebody was in the midst of crisis,
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00:26:03
again and again and again.
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00:26:04
So His words, His teaching are still relevant for us today.
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00:26:07
Let's take a look at some of them from
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00:26:09
the book of Matthew 6:25-34, here's here's what he says:
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00:26:38
Or what are we going to wipe ourselves with?
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00:26:43
Can we lighten things up a little bit right now?
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00:26:46
Can we just noticed, like there is some crazy,
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00:26:49
ridiculous things that are happening right now.
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00:26:52
We are so scared.
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00:26:53
We are scared poopless.
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00:26:56
This is still church, so I'll put it that way.
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00:26:59
If you were just with me, I would tell you
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00:27:00
what that word actually is.
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00:27:02
But we're still scared poopless.
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00:27:03
And I guess we're not too scared poopless,
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00:27:05
because we're buying ridiculous amounts of toilet paper.
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00:27:11
Folks, folks, this is crazy.
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00:27:13
Let's just step back, the reason why Jesus
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00:27:15
has this whole lawn thing about why we should not fear
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00:27:17
and why we should have anxiety is because we're weird, man.
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00:27:21
We're like America is not the land of the free;
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00:27:23
we're the land of the fear.
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00:27:24
We just, man, we can freak out.
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00:27:25
Maybe it's not Americans, maybe it's all people all times,
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00:27:27
which is why the Bible talks about fear and anxiety
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00:27:29
so many times, 365 times, one for every day.
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00:27:34
And here we're going to have a whole long teaching
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00:27:35
on Jesus all about fear.
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00:27:38
Many industries and businesses that
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00:27:41
they get profitable when fear comes.
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00:27:44
I know around the country there are some grocery stores
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00:27:49
that have been hurting financially because
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00:27:51
we've had a very wild, mild winter.
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00:27:55
I swear some grocery stores must have agreements
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00:27:58
with their local meteorologist and say,
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00:28:00
"Hey, hey, could you work in the words wintry mix?
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00:28:04
Whoa, that'll get 'em, because wintry mix happens,
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00:28:07
Oh, look out, batteries and milk.
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00:28:09
Look out. We're gonna sell,
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00:28:10
we're make up all of our monthly up on batteries and milk."
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00:28:13
Well, we haven't had a really significant winter,
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00:28:15
but boy, we have a crisis.
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00:28:18
But the problem was this crisis
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00:28:20
is not having people get batteries and milk.
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00:28:23
They're getting toilet paper What?
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00:28:25
The symptoms of the coronavirus is dry cough and fever.
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00:28:34
It is not blowing poop out of every orifice.
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00:28:39
It's not. It's not like poop is exploding through your eyeballs.
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00:28:42
"Oh, where's some toilet paper, Mildred?
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00:28:44
Get some toilet paper.
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00:28:45
Put it on."
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00:28:46
I don't understand this.
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00:28:49
The only reason we're -- let me put it this way:
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00:28:50
I know you might be concerned about toilet paper.
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00:28:53
God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
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00:28:55
If you don't have it, I'll cover you.
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00:28:57
I will.
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00:28:58
Go to me on my social media feed, seriously.
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00:29:00
I've got enough toilet paper.
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00:29:01
I'll send you a square in the mail if you really need it.
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00:29:03
Not a lot, because that's all about I use ever use normally.
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00:29:05
Maybe that's why I'm non-crisis.
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00:29:07
Some of you guys are like handfuls.
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00:29:08
I don't know what your deal is.
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00:29:09
I'll send you a square, seriously.
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00:29:11
If you're really in crisis, I'll send you a square.
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00:29:13
Just follow me on social me and message me
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00:29:16
and I'll have you coming around.
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00:29:19
I'm making fun of this because I'm trying to just help us see
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00:29:22
it's just a little ridiculous about how fearful we are.
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00:29:26
Now we actually have something that's a crisis,
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00:29:27
but some of us have been in perpetual crisis mode
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00:29:29
for so long that we don't know where to go for now.
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00:29:32
We were already maxed out.
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00:29:34
We're the culture that has ulcers.
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00:29:36
We're the only created things that have ulcers.
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00:29:39
No other created animal has an ulcer.
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00:29:41
No gazelle ever has an ulcer,
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00:29:43
because gazelles don't live in constant anxiety
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00:29:45
and fear all the time.
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00:29:47
They have anxiety and crisis moment
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00:29:49
when they see a lion coming and they take off and run.
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00:29:52
And when it's over, they're either dead
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00:29:54
or they're not stressed anymore because it's over.
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00:29:57
We live in it all the time.
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00:29:58
And so for some of us, our response is just showing
-
00:30:02
we're living in crisis mode all the time
-
00:30:03
because the power of God is foreign to us
-
00:30:06
and we may actually be functioning atheists
-
00:30:09
that have spiritual language,
-
00:30:12
but the power for Christ isn't inside of us.
-
00:30:15
Verse 27 says this, Jesus says:
-
00:30:29
Jesus says those of us who have weak faith,
-
00:30:31
who have been flattened, perpetually worry,
-
00:30:35
perpetually think about what could go wrong,
-
00:30:38
perpetually fixate on the negative.
-
00:30:42
This is the time for us to go inward less
-
00:30:46
and go outward more.
-
00:30:47
Worrying is when you go inward with your thoughts,
-
00:30:50
inward with your negative nightmare fantasies,
-
00:30:53
inward with what all could be wrong.
-
00:30:56
But Jesus wants us to go outward.
-
00:30:58
Outward as when we go outward and we pray,
-
00:31:00
we actually talk to God.
-
00:31:02
We go out, we actually talk to people.
-
00:31:04
We tell people how we're feeling.
-
00:31:06
When we go inward and we worry
-
00:31:08
and we think about these things,
-
00:31:10
we don't get any closer to God.
-
00:31:12
To get closer to God, we've got to go outward.
-
00:31:14
We've got to actually talk not worry, talk.
-
00:31:18
There's a person in our community
-
00:31:19
who's come a long way in this area,
-
00:31:21
and actually God has enabled her
-
00:31:23
to be more powerful in the midst of this crisis.
-
00:31:26
Her name is Ella. Let's check out her story.
-
00:31:33
- I have had anxiety my entire life.
-
00:31:36
At my absolute worst I have been hospitalized twice.
-
00:31:41
It's led to panic attacks
-
00:31:43
and it's led to the thought of suicide
-
00:31:46
and feeling like there's a weight so big
-
00:31:53
that I'll never get out of this fear.
-
00:31:55
I'll never break out of it.
-
00:31:57
The worry is not making the right decision
-
00:32:01
and this decision is going to impact something greater in my life.
-
00:32:05
Which I think is what a lot of people
-
00:32:06
are feeling right now with this virus.
-
00:32:10
And it's a lot, it's heavy.
-
00:32:14
I had some friends come around me
-
00:32:16
and they begged me just every day.
-
00:32:22
They would just say, "Just pray."
-
00:32:24
And eventually, honestly, to kind of shut them up,
-
00:32:27
I was like, "Okay, I'll do your prayer thing."
-
00:32:29
And it was that time that I really sat down and prayed
-
00:32:32
and tried to connect with God, saying,
-
00:32:35
"Hey, I don't know."
-
00:32:37
I honestly said, "I don't know if You're even there.
-
00:32:40
I don't know what You can do for me,
-
00:32:43
but I don't have much --
-
00:32:45
I don't have many other options, so do what you want
-
00:32:48
if you're gonna do anything."
-
00:32:51
And he did.
-
00:32:52
So I would say that I had a deep encounter with God there.
-
00:32:56
And there was this peace that on my worst day,
-
00:33:02
I still had this like inside, in the deepest core,
-
00:33:05
I had this like joy and this peace
-
00:33:09
that I would have traded some of my best days for.
-
00:33:13
That happened three years ago,
-
00:33:16
and I can still stand on that exact moment
-
00:33:20
because when you meet the Lord
-
00:33:21
and He meets you where you are and you invite him in,
-
00:33:25
it's indescribable.
-
00:33:27
During this time, during the coronavirus pandemic,
-
00:33:31
it's a time where I think we get to choose.
-
00:33:36
We get to slow down, be present.
-
00:33:40
Be present right now.
-
00:33:42
Don't get caught up in the what's going to happen when this peaks,
-
00:33:48
what's going to happen.
-
00:33:51
Some of the the outlets are telling us
-
00:33:55
to prepare for the future,
-
00:33:56
to prepare for what's coming next.
-
00:33:59
I try to keep myself grounded
-
00:34:00
in what's happening right now.
-
00:34:01
How is this affecting my life today?
-
00:34:03
And God's going to have tomorrow.
-
00:34:08
I can control my choice to rely on God.
-
00:34:12
I can control my choice to ask Him for peace.
-
00:34:15
I can't control what's going to go on at the grocery store.
-
00:34:17
Whether I'm going to be able to buy toilet paper.
-
00:34:20
I don't know. But I can control how I react.
-
00:34:26
I can control whether I lean on my Facebook feed
-
00:34:31
or whether I open my Bible or listen to worship music
-
00:34:35
or connect with God in that moment,
-
00:34:38
instead of connecting with the fear
-
00:34:40
and the emotions of everybody around me.
-
00:34:43
I would say I am free of anxiety
-
00:34:46
and it takes me every time that I get to say that
-
00:34:48
because there was a time
-
00:34:50
I didn't think I would ever get to say that.
-
00:34:53
That doesn't mean I don't have times that I'm anxious.
-
00:34:56
It does mean that there aren't things that make me anxious,
-
00:34:59
but I have come to a place
-
00:35:02
where it doesn't consume my life anymore.
-
00:35:05
The Bible even promises us that there's going to be
-
00:35:08
peace that surpasses all understanding,
-
00:35:10
and that is the best way that I could possibly phrase it.
-
00:35:15
- Man, I love -- I love what she says there.
-
00:35:19
She's not saying there that
-
00:35:21
all of the sudden I have no more fear ever.
-
00:35:23
She's not saying all of the sudden I have more anxiety.
-
00:35:26
She's saying that God came to her and did
-
00:35:29
something different in here and she's making choices.
-
00:35:31
That's what I'm trying to push everybody on today.
-
00:35:33
I'm trying to tell you, you can make a choice
-
00:35:36
on how stressed you're going to be.
-
00:35:38
You can make a choice on how anxious you're gonna be.
-
00:35:41
You can make a choice on whether or not
-
00:35:43
you're going to talk with God or you're going to go inward.
-
00:35:45
You can make a choice and you can have the power of God
-
00:35:48
and you can open yourself to His power
-
00:35:51
or you can do what everybody else does
-
00:35:53
and just go around going, (sound effects).
-
00:35:56
Hey, you've got to control your life.
-
00:35:57
You've got to control your mind.
-
00:35:59
That's what Jesus was saying, "You can control your mind.
-
00:36:02
You can control your life."
-
00:36:05
And there's a power that God gives us
-
00:36:06
that enables that to happen.
-
00:36:08
Now, at this point in time,
-
00:36:09
I'm some surprise some of you are not going,
-
00:36:12
"This is not what I expected today.
-
00:36:13
Not what I expected today. I expect some more positive stuff."
-
00:36:16
I'm hopeing to be positive.
-
00:36:17
What is more positive than, you know, having toilet paper talk?
-
00:36:19
That pretty positive. That's always good.
-
00:36:21
But I've got to tell you, things are going to get better.
-
00:36:26
The market is going to rebound.
-
00:36:29
It just is.
-
00:36:31
We're getting used to this now as human beings.
-
00:36:34
In my lifetime there have been three or four major,
-
00:36:36
major, not corrections, just major, major downturns.
-
00:36:40
Massive, massive.
-
00:36:41
And every one recovers quicker than the previous
-
00:36:43
because we're getting more used to it.
-
00:36:44
It's like active shooters.
-
00:36:46
I think the last active shooter incident was like four people
-
00:36:50
and was barely a headline because we're getting used to it.
-
00:36:52
We're pressurizing to it.
-
00:36:53
So the market and all of us investors are getting used to it.
-
00:36:56
The market will rebound.
-
00:36:57
It will.
-
00:36:58
We will resume some normalcy in our life.
-
00:37:01
We will.
-
00:37:02
I'm not "The sky is falling," guy.
-
00:37:05
I'm just taking the opportunity to say I know
-
00:37:09
there's people, preachers all over the place right now
-
00:37:13
just trying to convince you, "Life's going to be good.
-
00:37:15
It's gonna be all good.
-
00:37:16
God's got a special care for you
-
00:37:18
and nothing's going to happen to you.
-
00:37:19
Don't worry, because nothing's going to happen to you.
-
00:37:22
Right around the corner,
-
00:37:23
there's a blessing of God waiting for you."
-
00:37:25
All this stuff.
-
00:37:26
And I just want to say that Pollyanna speaking,
-
00:37:29
if ancient followers of Christ heard that Pollyanna speaking,
-
00:37:34
they would go, "What faith is this?
-
00:37:37
This is not the power of God I know,
-
00:37:39
The power to deny that anything bad is happening,
-
00:37:41
the power to deny that anything bad could happen."
-
00:37:44
Fortune nobody in Crossroads has been infected
-
00:37:47
with the coronavirus.
-
00:37:50
It doesn't mean no one will.
-
00:37:52
It doesn't mean we could not have loss of life
-
00:37:55
It doesn't mean that at all.
-
00:37:57
We're going to pray it doesn't happen,
-
00:37:58
and we love people who might be hurting
-
00:38:00
in our neighborhoods or in our church.
-
00:38:02
There's not some immunity bubble
-
00:38:04
that God puts over His followers
-
00:38:06
for suffering in the midst of crisis.
-
00:38:08
Part of how you deal with the crisis
-
00:38:10
is you get okay with the idea that life has difficulty
-
00:38:14
and I'm in one right now and I need
-
00:38:17
to change my attitudes and my perspectives right now.
-
00:38:20
Right now it's not about looking at
-
00:38:22
my retirement account and seeing, "Oh, it's down here."
-
00:38:24
Right now it's about going, "Hey, God, thank you
-
00:38:26
that I'm not hungry today.
-
00:38:29
Right now, it's not about grieving that, "Oh, no,
-
00:38:31
I can't go to work. They've been shut down."
-
00:38:33
It's about, "Hey, God.
-
00:38:35
I'm thankful that
-
00:38:36
You have people in my life that I'm thankful for.
-
00:38:38
I'm thankful for that."
-
00:38:39
Right now, we redirect our mind towards those things,
-
00:38:43
that's what we do when we're in the midst of crisis.
-
00:38:45
And every hero in the faith, in the scriptures,
-
00:38:49
they're a hero because of the crisis.
-
00:38:52
Every single one.
-
00:38:54
You know, I heard this guy, Daniel.
-
00:38:55
I just think of one's kind of off the top of my head.
-
00:38:57
Daniel gets thrown into the lion's den and God does save him.
-
00:39:01
Amazing. Well, well, don't forget, he had a crisis.
-
00:39:05
He was in a lion's den.
-
00:39:06
A lion was slobbering on him.
-
00:39:08
Right? It was serious, serious stuff.
-
00:39:11
Jonah, who may be a hero, he's a prophet in the Old Testament.
-
00:39:13
He gets thrown overboard of a ship
-
00:39:15
and gets swallowed by a giant fish or a giant whale.
-
00:39:19
Abraham, the founder of the Hebrew nation,
-
00:39:22
he has to leave his entire way of life
-
00:39:25
and go someplace different and wait to hear from God.
-
00:39:29
That's suffering, that's a crisis.
-
00:39:30
Moses, who leads the nation of Israel out of slavery.
-
00:39:34
Moses is banished by his adopted family.
-
00:39:38
Moses leaves all the comforts that he had
-
00:39:40
in his previous home serving with pharaoh
-
00:39:43
to be a marauder in the desert.
-
00:39:44
His previously comfortable way of life, it's gone
-
00:39:48
and it's gone forever.
-
00:39:50
And he's a hero of the faith because of it.
-
00:39:53
All the early apostles of Christ, all of them,
-
00:39:56
except for one, the Apostle John,
-
00:39:57
all of them died by the hands of their tormentors.
-
00:40:01
Jesus Himself tells us to pick up your cross
-
00:40:04
and follow me daily.
-
00:40:05
Get ready to lay your life down at a moment's notice.
-
00:40:09
Some people are really freaked out that I'm hugging people.
-
00:40:11
If you want me to hug you, I'll hug you.
-
00:40:15
If you don't want me to hug you, that's okay,
-
00:40:16
I won't hug you.
-
00:40:18
You can call, but if you're infected, I will hug you.
-
00:40:22
I will hug you. I will lay my --
-
00:40:24
if you need some human touch, I'll give you some human touch.
-
00:40:27
Because I picked up my cross and died.
-
00:40:29
I'm a walking dead man already.
-
00:40:32
When you take that attitude, not protecting your life
-
00:40:34
or keeping everything --
-
00:40:35
or your illusionment of what America should look like,
-
00:40:38
what your life looks like,
-
00:40:39
spiritual power comes your way and things change.
-
00:40:43
Jesus continues this, He says:
-
00:41:04
When Jesus says, "Seek God's Kingdom
-
00:41:06
and His righteousness, do that first,
-
00:41:07
and everything else will be given you as well."
-
00:41:09
Remember, what was the other else?
-
00:41:10
The other else was food, clothing, toilet paper.
-
00:41:15
It was all those things, that's what he talked about.
-
00:41:17
So He's not denying those aren't gonna happen.
-
00:41:19
And I'm saying as well, the best way for me
-
00:41:22
to make sure my needs are met is if I'm tracking with my God
-
00:41:25
and I'm seeking first His Kingdom
-
00:41:27
and I'm loving my neighbor as myself.
-
00:41:30
Yes, my neighbor, who I'm supposed to be six feet away from,
-
00:41:32
I'm going to love him as my --
-
00:41:34
Yes, the guy who's annoying normally,
-
00:41:36
bBut I'm going to love him as myself.
-
00:41:38
And when I step out and step into other people's lives,
-
00:41:42
there is a presence of God that brings things to me
-
00:41:46
I wouldn't have otherwise.
-
00:41:48
But I've got to seek first Him,
-
00:41:51
not seek first my comfortable American lifestyle
-
00:41:54
tat is the way it's supposed to be.
-
00:41:55
I love my life. I love my lifestyle.
-
00:41:57
But I'm not entitled to it.
-
00:41:59
The only thing I'm entitled to is whatever
-
00:42:01
God brings my way I'm going to put my eyes on Him.
-
00:42:04
And Jesus says here, don't worry about tomorrow.
-
00:42:07
So don't worry about tomorrow.
-
00:42:08
Why we don't worry about tomorrow?
-
00:42:11
Because we have time to put into our worries
-
00:42:13
and troubles today.
-
00:42:15
That's another thing Jesus said.
-
00:42:16
Jesus doesn't say, don't worry about tomorrow
-
00:42:18
He doesn't say that.
-
00:42:20
He says work on the troubles you have today.
-
00:42:24
Today if you don't have enough money for food,
-
00:42:28
work, work and worry about that today.
-
00:42:31
Today.
-
00:42:32
If you've got food in your pantry for a while,
-
00:42:34
don't think about food if your not going to run out of food.
-
00:42:36
If you can put a plan in place to get more food.
-
00:42:38
Hopefully this is all going to go away
-
00:42:40
and all of this stuff about about crisis is going to go away
-
00:42:43
because in three days made this won't be a crisis anymore.
-
00:42:46
That's why it's wasted energy to think further in the future.
-
00:42:49
Worry about it today.
-
00:42:52
If your kid is sick today, deal with today
-
00:42:56
because that's trouble today.
-
00:42:58
But don't think about what's could happen a week from now,
-
00:43:01
two weeks from now; that's wasted energy.
-
00:43:04
You control your life.
-
00:43:06
You control your faith.
-
00:43:08
You control your outlook.
-
00:43:10
We are not victims of this.
-
00:43:12
You're only a victim if you're just swept away
-
00:43:15
in the whole public outcry
-
00:43:16
and doing what everybody else is doing
-
00:43:18
and that is being flattened by fear and anxiety.
-
00:43:21
There is a God that's above you, He's beyond you,
-
00:43:25
and He's working in and through you.
-
00:43:27
Double down on your times of prayer.
-
00:43:29
Why not? You got nothing better to do.
-
00:43:31
You're quarantined and you're away.
-
00:43:32
What are you going to do, watch more Netflix?
-
00:43:34
We say all the time regularly, "You need to get with a group.
-
00:43:37
You need to get with a group."
-
00:43:38
That Rodney Stark quote said they were able
-
00:43:41
to get in the crisis because they were living
-
00:43:42
this way all the time anyway.
-
00:43:44
Now, you understand why we say you need to get in a group.
-
00:43:46
Youn need to find one.
-
00:43:47
Like we're gonna give you some tools a little bit.
-
00:43:48
You need to find some people
-
00:43:50
who are going to cover your backside
-
00:43:52
and you're going to cover their backside.
-
00:43:54
You need to find those people.
-
00:43:55
You need to figure out what your mode of thinking is,
-
00:43:58
because I'm telling you what,
-
00:43:59
if you're looking at CNN or FOX
-
00:44:01
and you're letting them put their thoughts in your mind,
-
00:44:04
you're not going live a spiritual power.
-
00:44:06
You need to figure out what your Bible rhythm is,
-
00:44:08
where to get something in your mind
-
00:44:10
that transcends the negativity
-
00:44:13
and the fear mongering that's going on.
-
00:44:15
We're way excessively being more fearful than we should
-
00:44:19
while we are in a legitimate crisis.
-
00:44:22
So I'm going to -- I'm going to invite the band to come out
-
00:44:27
and we're gonna do a song.
-
00:44:30
And we've got some other stuff that's happening right now.
-
00:44:32
So we're not done.
-
00:44:33
But this is this actually one of my favorite songs
-
00:44:36
and I think it's a song that's especially relevant right now.
-
00:44:39
So, God, as we sing this song together
-
00:44:41
before we get on with our next thing,
-
00:44:43
I look forward to bringing a calming influence on us,
-
00:44:47
a calm, a calm and a peace and also rising up,
-
00:44:52
a rising up of making this personal to our faith
-
00:44:55
that we will not be conquered, we will not be pushed down.
-
00:44:58
We will not live with an ulcer.
-
00:45:00
We'll be people of faith, people who are different.
-
00:45:05
Hear this, our song to You.
-
00:49:58
Let's do that, let's do Oh that power again
-
00:50:00
I want to pray some things in there.
-
00:50:37
All right, so I'm thinking of people right now
-
00:50:39
It's one thing to talk about things philosophical.
-
00:50:41
Right now people are needing power,
-
00:50:43
so we're praying, God, right now.
-
00:50:45
We're pray, God, right now for people
-
00:50:47
who don't have child care.
-
00:50:52
[ Oh, the power ]
-
00:50:53
- Oh, that's good. I like that.
-
00:50:54
[ Oh, the power ]
-
00:50:57
God, I'm thinking about businesses
-
00:50:58
who are having stress right now, bring Your power.
-
00:51:01
[ Oh, the power ]
-
00:51:04
God I pray for marriages that are in crisis
-
00:51:06
because there's more stress on top of the old stress,
-
00:51:09
Bring your power. [ Oh, the power ]
-
00:51:12
God I know we have a hard time having ends meet normally,
-
00:51:15
and now it's even worse. [ Oh, the power ]
-
00:51:19
God, I ask for governing authorities who are making calls
-
00:51:22
and decisions, give them the mindset they need.
-
00:51:24
[ Oh, the power ]
-
00:51:26
God, alleviate from us our worried nature.
-
00:51:29
[ Oh, the power ]
-
00:51:32
God, bring us relational connection. [ Oh, the power ]
-
00:51:38
God, meet our needs of food and clothing.
-
00:51:42
Do that, God. [ Oh, the power ]
-
00:51:46
God, bring a community around us
-
00:51:48
and us around our community. [ Oh, the power ]
-
00:51:56
Yeah, Guys, let's sing that one more time.
-
00:52:44
- Man, who said you can't have church digitally?
-
00:52:47
That was, come on now.
-
00:52:49
You know what just occurred to me?
-
00:52:51
Hey, some of things I just prayed,
-
00:52:53
if we can get somebody on the computer to put this in.
-
00:52:57
Let's -- if you want to text in
-
00:52:59
or you want to put on your Facebook page,
-
00:53:01
we would love to pray with you.
-
00:53:03
Some of those prayers, you might say, "That was for me."
-
00:53:05
Others of you are going, "I hope he prays for this."
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00:53:08
We want to pray for you.
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00:53:09
We've got people who can pray for you right now.
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00:53:11
So in a little bit, you'll see how to do that.
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00:53:13
Do that and we want to we want to be with you
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00:53:16
because we want you to go to a new place.
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00:53:18
All right. All right.
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00:53:19
So next up, Chuck, come on in here.
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00:53:22
Where do we go from here?
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00:53:23
Chuck, come on in here and talk to us.
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00:53:25
- Yeah. Yeah. So, hey, you know what?
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00:53:27
This virus is definitely stopping us from going
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00:53:29
to church in the traditional ways that we have,
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00:53:32
but it doesn't have to stop us from being the church.
-
00:53:34
And so, man, if you're connected to Crossroads already
-
00:53:36
or maybe somebody shared this link with you,
-
00:53:38
we want you to know we want you to be a part of this church.
-
00:53:41
You know, for the first hundred years,
-
00:53:42
followers of Jesus didn't know anything
-
00:53:44
about physical buildings anyway.
-
00:53:45
That was not a thing that kept them
-
00:53:47
or enabled them to be the church.
-
00:53:49
And we want you to know there are ways you can connect.
-
00:53:50
There's two things we're really focused on in this time:
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00:53:53
connecting you, being a spiritual support to you.
-
00:53:55
Like you said,
-
00:53:56
we don't want this to flatten you spiritually.
-
00:53:58
And also, how do we mobilize as a community?
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00:54:00
How can we serve?
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00:54:01
And there are two places where you're going to find
-
00:54:03
all of the ways that you can connect and serve.
-
00:54:06
And that is following us with social media.
-
00:54:08
On all the platforms follow CRDS Church, Crossroads Church:
-
00:54:11
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
-
00:54:13
That's gonna be the place where you're going to find
-
00:54:14
daily worship, ways that you can connect
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00:54:17
and engage with other people.
-
00:54:18
And then also download the Crossroads App.
-
00:54:20
That's another opportunity you have to do things like
-
00:54:23
be reading the same scriptures together and sharing
-
00:54:26
and encouraging each other with each other
-
00:54:27
what we're hearing from that.
-
00:54:28
We want you to know there are ways for you
-
00:54:29
to be a part of the church.
-
00:54:31
And here's my hope.
-
00:54:32
My hope is that we will look back on this time
-
00:54:34
and actually we would say,
-
00:54:35
not that we wish this on anybody,
-
00:54:36
because real people are being impacted by this,
-
00:54:38
we're all impacted.
-
00:54:39
But that we would say, "This helped me grow closer to God."
-
00:54:42
- "And I am so glad that I was connected to God's church."
-
00:54:45
- We have so much to talk to you about.
-
00:54:47
And we've been working hard the last several days.
-
00:54:50
We've redeployed staff resources,
-
00:54:52
because it takes a lot of energy to pull off services
-
00:54:54
in all of our locations.
-
00:54:55
And we're running after problems.
-
00:54:57
- We're not about running services;
-
00:54:58
we're about running after people.
-
00:55:00
And we just can't tell you all about it right now.
-
00:55:02
We've got to get outside of our thing.
-
00:55:04
If all we do with all of our time off now
-
00:55:07
is binge more Netflix, watch more YouTube videos,
-
00:55:10
we're not going to be any better off.
-
00:55:13
We have part of the solution for you.
-
00:55:14
We're gonna give you things that will grow you spiritually,
-
00:55:17
enable you to get to your neighbors.
-
00:55:18
And we want to enlist you in an army
-
00:55:20
that's going to be blessing our communities.
-
00:55:22
So what Chuck said, that's all the way.
-
00:55:24
And you might just need to find some people
-
00:55:26
to be around and just don't touch.
-
00:55:28
Yes, you can touch me. It's all good.
-
00:55:32
- You know, I like that.
-
00:55:34
- We might have to self-quarantine later, but right now we're all good.
-
00:55:37
- But we need to be around folks
-
00:55:40
in whatever way you're comfortable with.
-
00:55:41
We can't be isolated and just be bingeing things digitally.
-
00:55:45
We need to be healthy right now.
-
00:55:46
And part of the way that we're healthy as a church
-
00:55:49
is that we give, we choose to be generous,
-
00:55:51
we choose to step into this opportunity and be generous.
-
00:55:53
- I guess I was supposed to talk about giving; wasn't I?
-
00:55:54
-Yeah.
-
00:55:57
- We've had people say, "Hey, maybe we should
-
00:55:59
take a special offering for victims."
-
00:56:01
We're not going to take up a special offering,
-
00:56:02
because the bread and butter of Crossroads's resources
-
00:56:05
goes to help people all the time.
-
00:56:08
The more resources we have, the more people we can help.
-
00:56:11
And so as we give, as we tithe, we're just --
-
00:56:15
the more resource we have,
-
00:56:16
the more we can deploy into our communities.
-
00:56:19
And so if you still have a job right now.
-
00:56:21
If you've still got a paycheck coming in,
-
00:56:22
you've got something to tithe off.
-
00:56:24
And if you don't, hey, man, sit back.
-
00:56:27
And if you're newer spiritually
-
00:56:29
and you're not sure why exactly to give.
-
00:56:30
Great.
-
00:56:31
We're not here to convince you of anything like that.
-
00:56:33
But for those of us who are in the faith
-
00:56:34
and are ground in our faith, we understand
-
00:56:36
this is important for times like this.
-
00:56:39
- So Crossroads God, that's last given.
-
00:56:41
I think that's it. Right.
-
00:56:42
One more thing, and that is I can't imagine
a better series for us to be going into.
-
00:56:47
And even just the way that this is going to be delivered next week.
-
00:56:49
And we start a brand new series called Real Encounters with God.
-
00:56:52
This is actually a series we done before, immersive teachings in Israel.
-
00:56:56
This one is new because it's all about Jesus and the Jesus myth, separating truths
from Jesus, from what is true, from from myths that we might believe in.
-
00:57:04
Man, it's going to be is going to be amazing.
-
00:57:06
It's a great in-room experience, but amazing digitally especially.
-
00:57:10
And we'll find out that some days how long we're gonna be ever gonna
be off next weekend or how long we're taking a week by week.
-
00:57:16
But yeah, you're right, we couldn't ask for something better.
-
00:57:18
It's gonna be amazing.
-
00:57:19
So at minimum, we'll see you digitally next week.
-
00:57:29
Coming this March, the Jesus myth.
-
00:57:32
A pilgrimage to the most controversial places on earth.
-
00:57:36
Investigating ancient stories of Jesus, separating the myth from the
truth and discovering what it means for you today.
-
00:57:46
The third season of Real Encounters with God.
-
00:57:49
All new on location in Israel.
-
00:57:53
New places, new people.
-
00:57:55
New encounters.
-
00:57:57
Real encounters with God.
-
00:57:58
The Jesus myth.
-
00:58:00
Premiering March 21st and 22nd at Crossroads.