When Jesus Doesn't Seem To Be Listening

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- God awaits you in the wilderness

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waiting to speak to you, to encourage you,

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to show you something new.

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God awaits you in the wilderness

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to spark new connections, to mend old ones,

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to remind you you're never alone.

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God awaits you in the wilderness to give you a break,

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to show you joy, to bring you back to life.

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- Man, that video says it all.

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We want that for you here at Crossroads.

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And so almost ten years ago,

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we started something we simply call camps.

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These are experiences hosted on our land here in Ohio,

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specifically designed to take you

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to a new place relationally and spiritually.

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There's a passage in the Bible, Psalm 23,

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where King David talks about being refreshed

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or being brought back to life by God.

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It says this: He makes me lie down in green pastures,

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He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul.

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And that's exactly what we want for you

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and what we believe might happen,

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what you might experience at one of our camps.

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You can find more information and find

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a camp designed for you at Crossroads.net/camps.

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Hey, by the way, welcome to Crossroads.

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I'm Andy and I'm so glad you're joining us today.

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While God meets us in the wilderness,

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He also meets us wherever we worship Him.

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Right now this is a chance for us to connect with

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a God who loves us by singing to Him and about Him.

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Now, in a world just full of Spotify playlists,

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I want to tell you why this time is different.

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Now these songs aren't just something you listen to,

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they're actually part of a dialog

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and a conversation with God.

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You can use these words to not just hear

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a song about God, but to experience Him for yourself.

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Let's worship together right now.

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- Let me pray for us.

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Lord, man, I just want to sing that over

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and over and over because as I sing it,

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I realize how much, how much I need You.

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I realize just how important Your presence

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and Your truth is to my life.

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And so it makes me want to sit in that space forever.

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It's such a good reminder

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that space for You is what I need more of.,

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space for You is what we need more of.

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Whether we know it or not, Lord, would You

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just impress it on our hearts right now

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that making room for You is a good thing.

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It's the best thing we could ever do.

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Will we be reminded to do that more and more and more?

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Thank You for Your presence.

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Thank You for allowing us to offer up worship to You.

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You're good. You're faithful. Amen.

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Yeah. You know, for those of us who are believers

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who trust in the Lord, making room is a habit that we have.

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We do it in singing and coming to a space like this

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to gather with believers, right?

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We do it when we pray for our friends and for our family.

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We do it when we give our resources,

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our money to the Lord.

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We're making space for Him to come into our lives

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and do things that we couldn't do.

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We're making space and we're saying,

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"Lord, I trust you." That's what me and my family do.

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You can do that wherever you are, too, by the way.

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You can do that in this room.

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You can do that from your couch. You can do that in the car.

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You want to join me in giving, you can do that

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at crossroads.net/give.

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It's worship and He loves it.

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Guys, thanks for singing.

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Chuck Mingo is here with us today. Come on.

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We're going to hear from him in a little bit.

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Before we do, why don't you say hey to somebody next to you?

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Tell them thank you for worshiping next to you.

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You can have your seat.

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- Hey, how y'all doing? [audience responds]

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I got to tell you, it's really nice sitting here.

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Got my little charcuterie.

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Got a little something on ice. I feel like a VIP.

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I feel like a VIP.

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Have you ever felt like a VIP?

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Have you ever had a VIP experience?

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One of the experiences that I always think about

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is when I was working at Procter and Gamble.

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So if you are in Cincinnati, you know, Procter and Gamble.

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If you're not in Cincinnati, Procter and Gamble

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is a company that makes big brands like Tide

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and other things that I'm sure you've heard of.

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And so I worked for Procter and Gamble

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and I was new to Cincinnati.

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I got my first promotion and I was in sales.

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And we were down in Dallas

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and there was a sales meeting, and, you know,

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it was time to leave and time to roll,

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time to head to the airport.

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I had my flight booked, but I got pulled to the side

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and someone said, "Would you like to fly back

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to Cincinnati on the corporate jet

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with then CEO John Pepper?"

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And I did what you did. I said, "Of course

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I would like to do that." Delta who? US Air who?

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Whatever who? Right?

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And so I remember, like, walking past, like,

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my boss's boss's boss who wasn't invited

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to be on the corporate jet, and I was.

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And just thinking like, "Man, this is wild."

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And so I didn't know what to expect.

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Never been on a corporate jet before.

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We go to not the main airport,

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we go to this private airport

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and we get on the corporate jet.

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And when you get on the jet, John Pepper, the CEO,

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takes your drink order himself.

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And so the CEO of P&G is preparing

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my cranberry juice for me and coming and giving it to me.

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And it was just this amazing experience

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of being on that plane.

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And then after that, after that,

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about a couple days later, I get --

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We had internal mail.

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I don't even know if they still had that in companies.

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We had internal mail, you could get

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a physical piece of mail from someone else in the company.

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I got internal mail from the CEO, John Pepper,

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and it said, "Hey, Chuck, loved being with you on the plane.

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So excited that you're part of the Procter and Gamble team."

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Man, I felt like a VIP, a VIP.

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Now, what does that story have to do,

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other than I like to tell it,

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what does that story have to do with circles and lines?

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Which is what we're talking about in this series.

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Well, here's what we've been talking about.

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We've been talking about how Jesus

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drew both lines and circles.

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And some of us, we're lines people.

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We are truth people.

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We want to know what the clear line is.

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We want people to abide by those clear lines.

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We're truth people.

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Some of us, we're more circle people, right?

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We're hey, like, "There's space for everybody.

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Like, everybody's good.

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Like, why can't we all just get along?"

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Some of us are grace people in that way.

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But what we see in Jesus is

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this interesting contrast of the two.

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Brian talked about this in an interview

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with Kyle Ranson on his podcast, The Aggressive Life.

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Let's take a look a little bit of that right now.

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- This is The Aggressive Life.

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You're always getting people on here talk about

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being aggressive and living aggressively.

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This time we get the godfather

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of aggressive living himself, you,

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on your own podcast to drop some wisdom on us.

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Let's jump into it.

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I would say no matter what you think about God

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or faith or that stuff, pretty hard to argue

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that Jesus hasn't had a massive impact

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on the history of the world.

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And there's something I know that's near and dear to you,

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so near and dear to actually tattooed on your shoulder

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that He did super unique that I want to unpack with you.

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And it's this idea of Jesus drawing circles and lines,

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grace and truth. Talk to us about that.

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- Yeah, so I have a tattoo on my left shoulder,

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and it is the yin and yang of grace and truth,

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kind of melded Eastern spirituality symbol

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of the yin and the yang, with this idea

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in John chapter one, where it says,

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"Jesus came full of truth and grace."

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Most people only want one or the other.

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They only want truth. They want to draw lines.

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Here's who's in, here's who's out,

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here's the behavior you can have,

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here's the behavior you shouldn't have.

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And I'm going to draw a line.

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I'm going to tell you about it

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and you better step across the line.

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That's the truth piece.

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And Jesus was that.

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He did have elements of His teaching about that.

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And if you want to get close to God,

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you're going to have to be used to drawing lines.

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I'm sorry. Everything is not okay.

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Everyone is okay -- Everyone is not okay.

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All thoughts are not the same.

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All spiritualities are not the same.

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There is a line drawing, but Jesus also draws circles

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and invites people into the circle.

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And actually some people who think that

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they're outside the lines of acceptability.

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Jesus actually draws a great big circle

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and includes them.

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He's about including people,

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accommodating certain people's things,

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giving people grace, allowing people to have

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behaviors, thoughts that might be unusual,

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may not even be approved of by God,

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but God still loves them and includes them.

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- Man, I tell you, that's one of the things

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that if you're going to understand who Jesus is,

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we got to wrestle with that, and it is a wrestle.

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This whole idea of circles and lines,

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we're going to get into that today.

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I don't know if you got a chance to see this yet

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or not, but this is just an amazing invitation.

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So Crossroads does have some camp property,

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um, not too far from where we are right now

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here in the Oakley site.

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And I'm telling you, if you want to cross the line

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to adventure and experience God in a fresh way,

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do a camp this year.

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I just got to tell you, my family

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is going to be at family camp that's coming up.

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I'm also going to be at Man Camp as I am every year.

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Whether it's Woman Camp, Couples Camp,

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whatever it is for you, I just want to encourage you.

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There might be something on the other side

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of that line that God wants to show you,

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and it's an adventure that you do not want to miss.

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We're going to pray and then

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we're going to get into today's scripture.

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Let's pray. God, I just thank You for this conundrum.

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It feels like a conundrum, but actually,

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I believe it's a holy mystery, this idea

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of Jesus drawing circles and lines.

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And I think there's something You want

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to show all of us today, wherever we are,

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if we're in a room, if we're in our room,

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You want to show us something today.

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And God, I'm praying that we would have ears to hear

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and eyes to see the beauty of who Jesus is

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and who He is for us.

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And I pray this in Jesus's name, Amen.

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All right, so let me ask you a question.

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What would you do if you had a chance

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to have dinner with your favorite celebrity?

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Would you jump at that chance?

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You know, there's this viral thing going on

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right now in the internet.

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And the question is, would you rather get

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$500,000 given to you, or would you rather

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have dinner with rap mogul Jay-Z?

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And a lot of people, a lot of people are saying,

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"I actually would rather have dinner with Jay-Z,

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because he's a billionaire, and if I had a dinner

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with him, I'm sure it would be a lot like this.

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It would be a VIP experience.

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And think about what I could learn from an evening

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with a billionaire like Jay-Z."

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Now, Jay-Z weighed in on this debate and he said this.

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What is Jay-Z saying? He's saying, take the money.

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Show me the money. Who's with me on that?

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Show me the money. Right?

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God bless you, Jay-Z.

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I'm sure we can have dinner some other time,

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especially if I had $500,000 to have that dinner with you.

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But one thing's for sure, if you were with Jay-Z,

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you would have a VIP experience.

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And a lot of times we see Jesus

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opening Himself to people who seem like

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they would be the forgotten

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or maybe they were on the outside looking in

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and Jesus gives them a VIP experience.

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But the story we're looking at today, actually,

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it appears that Jesus is doing the opposite.

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As we watch how Jesus interacts

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with a particular woman in the Bible,

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who we don't even get her name,

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it would appear on the surface that Jesus

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is actually giving this woman the stiff arm,

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that He wants her to be on the outside looking in.

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And we're going to wrestle with this today

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because there's something in this for us.

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This story shows up in Mark 7:24.

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If you have, like, a Bible that has titles,

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you might have heard this as

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Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman.

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We don't get her name, we just get where she's from.

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This is the story in Mark 7:24, it says:

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And what do you think Jesus's response was to this woman?

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What would you guess it would be, right?

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Wouldn't you guess that Jesus would say, "She's healed"?

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Wouldn't you guess that Jesus would say, "Go in peace"?

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No. Actually, what Jesus says to her is this:

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Now, lest we miss the point,

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Jesus is giving this woman the stiff arm.

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He's giving her the Heisman.

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He is basically saying, "My focus, my target audience

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are the nation of Israel and Jewish people,

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and not dogs like you."

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What, Jesus? Loving Jesus, lamb petting Jesus

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is calling this woman a dog? Really, Jesus?

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I mean, is anybody scratching their head right now?

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You should be scratching your head right now.

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I mean, let's ask some uncomfortable questions

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of the Bible. Is Jesus being racist?

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Is this because she's not Jewish

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that He's responding this way to her?

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Oh, here's another uncomfortable question:

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is Jesus being sexist because it's a woman approaching Him?

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Or how about this one: Is Jesus being classist?

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Is Jesus being classist?

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Is this because this woman isn't rich?

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Well, let me give you some context.

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Jesus was on vacation.

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He was trying to take a break.

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His disciples were trying to take a break.

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In his humanness, He had reached His limit.

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Jesus needed a breather

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and He did not want to be interrupted.

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He didn't want anybody in Tire and Sidon knowing who He was.

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He had gone away from the center of His ministry area

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because He wanted to take a rest.

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This woman is an interruption.

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And who is this woman?

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Well, we know she's Greek.

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We know that she was half Syrian and half Phoenician.

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So, if you want to kind of locate her

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in terms of culture and context, this is

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she would have been a descendant of the people

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of modern day Lebanon or Syria.

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And this woman is an interruption.

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We know it because Jesus says to her,

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Ah, but you know what else this woman is?

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As one writer put it, this woman is a mad mama

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with meager resources who's willing to make a scene

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to get Jesus to heal her daughter.

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She's also that. She's willing to cross some lines.

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And I know what it's like to have a mama

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who's willing to do anything

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to take care of her children.

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I know it because I'm married to one.

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This was years ago, the day before I was going

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on a ten day mission trip to India,

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pretty far away from Cincinnati, to India.

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I'm home. I'm doing my final packing.

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My wife and I had our three kids.

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Our oldest was probably about six.

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My younger son was about three

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and our baby girl was still in arms, was an infant.

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And I remember being upstairs doing my packing thing

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when all of a sudden I hear this like, [sound effect]

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and I knew it wasn't good because my wife cried out

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and then my baby girl started crying.

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And so I run to find out what's going on,

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and I find my wife mangled on the bottom of the steps,

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holding up our daughter, saying, "Take the baby,

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take the baby. "And I'm like, " All right,

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I'll take the baby. What's wrong with you?"

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"I don't care about me. Take the baby," she says.

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And I grabbed the baby.

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And to find out the baby's fine. Nothing, the baby.

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And what I found out was my wife fell down the steps,

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but found a way to cushion our baby girl

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so that she was not hurt,

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but my wife broke her toe in the process.

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The day before I was going to India

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with a six year old, a three year old, and an infant.

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It gets better.

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We go to the urgent care,

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because clearly something was wrong.

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She was in a lot of pain. Foot was swelling.

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We go to the urgent care, find out,

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"Yes. You've broken your toe."

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I don't know if you've ever broken your toes,

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not much they can do for you when you break your toe.

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They told my wife, "Hey, we would just encourage you

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to just, you know, stay off your feet for a couple of days."

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[laughter]

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And my wife was like, "What part of having

00:33:33

a six year old, a three year old and an infant

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and a husband who's leaving for India in the morning,

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do you not understand?"

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Well, I think about that story because

00:33:42

my baby, six year old son is now 15

00:33:45

and my wife does a lot of volunteering at the school,

00:33:48

and my son's friends have deemed my wife

00:33:50

the coolest mom that they know,

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which I agree with that. I agree with that.

00:33:55

And they actually nicknamed her Mama Mingo.

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And it's such a fitting phrase for my wife,

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because if you want to see what it's like

00:34:04

to get buzz sawed, try to come between my wife

00:34:08

and something good for her babies.

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It will not end well for you because

00:34:13

she's a mama who cares about her kids.

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When I think about this woman,

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this Syrophoenician woman, I think about my wife.

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I think about what my wife would do

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to get healing for our kids.

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This woman was willing to cross some lines.

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She was desperate and determined.

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She was at the end of herself.

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She needed Jesus and she wanted Jesus.

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I mean, think about what this woman must have gone through.

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Do you think this was her first attempt

00:34:36

to try to get her daughter healed?

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Of course not. Of course not.

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We know she was Greek, and what we know is that

00:34:43

the way that Greek people viewed illness

00:34:45

was that something was wrong with you.

00:34:47

If you were sick, you had done something wrong.

00:34:49

So this woman probably walked around with shame

00:34:53

from her culture because they assumed that

00:34:55

something she had done was the reason

00:34:58

her daughter was in the place that she was.

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But not only that, not only that, they also believed

00:35:03

that the way that you deal with sickness

00:35:05

is you have to find a way to appease the gods,

00:35:08

because the gods are obviously angry with you.

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And so this would have been a woman

00:35:13

who had probably done things that

00:35:14

actually exposed her daughter and her

00:35:17

to more demonic activity in an effort

00:35:20

to try to get her daughter healed.

00:35:22

This was a woman, suffice it to say,

00:35:24

who had come to the end of herself.

00:35:28

So why does Jesus tell her no?

00:35:33

Why doesn't Jesus just say, "You are healed"?

00:35:35

Why doesn't Jesus just say,

00:35:37

"Hey, I'm going to do this for you"?

00:35:40

Again, is this something wrong with Jesus?

00:35:43

Is this different than the character of the Jesus we know?

00:35:46

I don't think so. I don't think so.

00:35:48

Here's a different way to think about this.

00:35:51

What if what Jesus is actually doing

00:35:53

is not talking about the reasons why this woman

00:35:56

can't cross the lines and be in relationship with Him,

00:35:58

but He's actually exposing the lines we draw around his grace.

00:36:04

See here's the big idea I want you to take away from today.

00:36:15

Jesus is teaching us something through this woman's story.

00:36:19

I would argue He draws two hard lines

00:36:22

and then draws a big old circle in this story.

00:36:25

First, He draws a line at self-reliance.

00:36:29

One of the things that will keep you

00:36:31

from experiencing all that Jesus wants to be for you

00:36:35

is if you have bought into the lie of self-reliance,

00:36:38

that you can actually do this thing called life on your own.

00:36:42

So notice in Mark 7:26, it says:

00:36:49

She's not coming to Jesus dignified.

00:36:51

She's not coming to Jesus trying to drop

00:36:53

the credibility of why He should know who she is

00:36:56

and do something for her.

00:36:57

She comes completely undignified,

00:36:59

completely desperate,

00:37:00

begging for Jesus to heal her daughter.

00:37:03

And I would argue that's what actually put her

00:37:05

in the best position to receive a miracle.

00:37:09

You see, I wonder, I wonder how many of us

00:37:11

miss out on miracles because

00:37:14

we don't want to be seen as needy

00:37:16

or we don't want to be seen as needing to have a crutch.

00:37:20

There's a pastor, John Stott, he puts it this way.

00:37:23

He talks about the fact that like, we are lame,

00:37:25

we are weak, we are all in need of Jesus, but he says:

00:37:48

This woman has something to teach us

00:37:49

about the lie of self reliance.

00:37:52

I know about this. I know about this.

00:37:54

I have been in a group called Men's Healthy Sexuality

00:37:57

for recovering from Sexual Compulsive Behaviors.

00:38:01

I've been in that group for about 12 years,

00:38:03

and I still go every week,

00:38:04

and I'm still in groups every week. Why?

00:38:07

Because I've learned self- reliance won't keep me sober.

00:38:10

And so if I'm going on a self-reliance track,

00:38:13

that's not enough.

00:38:14

And I have to remind myself,

00:38:15

anybody who's gone through 12 steps knows this,

00:38:17

that the first step of the 12 step process

00:38:19

is we admitted we were powerless

00:38:21

and that our lives have become unmanageable.

00:38:25

And I just wonder, I just wonder,

00:38:26

have you admitted your powerlessness?

00:38:29

I wonder, have you admitted that

00:38:31

your powerlessness over that unforgiveness,

00:38:33

that you're powerless over that fear,

00:38:36

that you're powerless if you're trying

00:38:37

to change other people, that you're powerless

00:38:40

on your own to overcome the trauma and the pain?

00:38:43

And what if, instead of trusting your own efforts,

00:38:46

you were willing to trust in the slow work of God?

00:38:51

James 4:6 puts it this way. It says:

00:38:57

That phrase, the slow work of God, is actually from

00:39:00

the prayer of a Jesuit priest who lived a long time ago.

00:39:03

I've been praying this prayer every day,

00:39:05

and I just want to share a snippet of it,

00:39:07

because it's a healthy reminder for me

00:39:09

to not lean into self reliance,

00:39:11

but instead to trust in God. He says:

00:39:26

Why is it that we struggle to trust God?

00:39:29

It's because doesn't it feel like you're in suspense?

00:39:33

It's out of your control. And guess what?

00:39:36

It's out of your control.

00:39:38

And you feel incomplete. It's a process.

00:39:40

I don't feel like I'm there yet.

00:39:42

You know why? Because you're not there yet.

00:39:46

And if you're relying on you to figure it out,

00:39:49

you're always going to be in that place.

00:39:51

But if you can allow yourself to rest in the anxiety

00:39:54

of feeling in suspense and incomplete,

00:39:56

then Jesus can do something for you

00:39:59

that you could never do for yourself.

00:40:01

And so Jesus wants to say to you today that

00:40:04

you have to go past the line of self reliance

00:40:07

if you're going to experience the circle

00:40:09

of receiving His grace.

00:40:10

His grace breaks through the barrier of self reliance.

00:40:14

But secondly, His grace also draws

00:40:16

a line at self-righteousness.

00:40:19

On the one hand, Jesus is using this woman's example

00:40:21

to come against self reliance, but He's also using

00:40:24

this woman's example to come against

00:40:26

self-righteousness as well.

00:40:27

Look at what Jesus then replies to her again in verse 27.

00:40:33

Which meant the children of Israel.

00:40:34

That's who He was referencing.

00:40:41

Oh, this sounds so offensive, doesn't it?

00:40:45

Doesn't it, just like, it just doesn't feel right?

00:40:47

But what Jesus was doing here was actually

00:40:50

mirroring the thoughts of many of

00:40:51

the Jewish people of his day about Gentiles.

00:40:54

He was actually mirroring what many of them believed,

00:40:56

including some of his disciples who saw Gentiles this way.

00:40:59

See, this woman comes begging for Jesus to heal her daughter.

00:41:04

But his disciples were also begging Jesus for something.

00:41:07

This story shows up in the Gospel of Matthew,

00:41:10

and it's really good when you look at

00:41:12

different places where a same story shows up,

00:41:14

because you get different elements of the story.

00:41:16

In Matthew, here's how the disciples respond

00:41:19

when this woman falls on her knees to Jesus, it says:

00:41:28

Now before we throw these guys under the bus,

00:41:30

remember, they were tired. They were on vacation.

00:41:35

They thought the miracle stuff was behind them

00:41:37

for a bit, that they were going to get to take a breather.

00:41:39

And actually, if that was the case,

00:41:41

then it may not have been them saying,

00:41:43

"Hey, Jesus, don't give her what she wants."

00:41:45

They might have been saying, "Jesus, would you please

00:41:47

give her what she wants so we can get on with our vacation?"

00:41:50

And if that's the case, then it makes it

00:41:52

even more uncomfortable that Jesus's response

00:41:55

to the woman at first is, "No,

00:41:57

I'm not going to give it to the dogs."

00:42:00

Whoa, whoa. See, this term was an insult.

00:42:05

In fact, one of the commentators puts it this way,

00:42:07

it says: Jews frequently insulted Gentiles

00:42:09

by calling them dogs, the wild homeless scavengers

00:42:13

that roamed freely in Palestine."

00:42:17

See, make no mistake, part of what was at play

00:42:20

in this story is an ethnic superiority

00:42:23

that some Jewish people were guilty of.

00:42:26

And I just want to say this very clearly,

00:42:28

there is still a painful reality

00:42:33

that ethnic superiority causes pain in our world.

00:42:37

And you can't read this story today

00:42:40

and not think about the ways that

00:42:42

that ethnic difference is playing out

00:42:44

in the land of Palestine right now,

00:42:46

in Israel right now.

00:42:47

But I want to tell you, it's not just limited to there.

00:42:50

We don't have to look very far to see the ways

00:42:53

in which ethnic superiority causes all kinds of strife,

00:42:56

has caused all kinds of violence

00:42:58

over the course of human history.

00:43:01

But let's unpack this a little bit,

00:43:02

because Jesus is leaning into this.

00:43:04

I know this is uncomfortable, but Jesus is leaning into this.

00:43:07

And if we're going to understand this story,

00:43:08

we've got to understand what was the source

00:43:11

of this ethnic superiority?

00:43:13

Why was it that some Jewish people would call Gentiles dogs?

00:43:17

Well, it was because at the time,

00:43:19

some Jewish people believed that the blessings of God

00:43:22

were principally for them

00:43:25

and not to be shared with the Gentiles.

00:43:28

And I want to tell you, they were half right.

00:43:32

Here's the half they were right about.

00:43:34

God had, and I believe, still has

00:43:37

a special relationship with the Jewish people.

00:43:40

God has made a covenant relationship

00:43:42

with the Jewish nation.

00:43:44

But here's what I want us to understand

00:43:46

about that covenant relationship.

00:43:48

God's plan has always been that through

00:43:51

the covenant relationship,

00:43:52

the special relationship with the people of Israel,

00:43:55

not only Israel, but the whole world would be blessed.

00:43:58

Let me show this to you in the Bible.

00:44:00

I want to show this to you

00:44:01

because I want you to understand this.

00:44:03

See, this is what it says in Genesis 12:3.

00:44:05

This is when God makes this promise,

00:44:07

this covenant relationship to Abraham.

00:44:09

He says to Abraham:

00:44:21

See, it was never just for one group of people.

00:44:23

God was going to use that group of people to bless all people.

00:44:26

That's why you see in places like Isaiah 49:6 these words:

00:44:38

Meaning, if that's all I'm doing,

00:44:40

that's too light of a thing.

00:44:50

And before we judge, before we judge,

00:44:53

we just have to admit we missed the plot

00:44:55

the same way today.

00:44:57

Who are the people in your mind

00:44:59

that you've drawn a line and said

00:45:00

they can't be worthy of God's grace?

00:45:03

Who are the people that you said

00:45:05

they are to this, that or the other?

00:45:07

They are too far from the way that I see the line

00:45:10

for them to actually receive the grace of God?

00:45:13

We can be convicted of the same thing.

00:45:16

And so in calling this woman a dog,

00:45:18

Jesus was mirroring the culture

00:45:21

to get his disciples' attention, to say to them,

00:45:23

"That is not the way My grace works.

00:45:26

That what I'm doing is something different in the world."

00:45:30

See, when he called her a dog,

00:45:32

some of His disciples would have nodded in agreement.

00:45:34

Some of His disciples may not have nodded in agreement,

00:45:36

but they would have nodded in understanding, like,

00:45:38

"Yeah, no, that's just the way we think today.

00:45:40

That's how some people think today."

00:45:41

But I want you to remember the big idea today is this:

00:45:44

Jesus is grace breaks through all our barriers,

00:45:47

and so we must choose to step over the line and receive it.

00:45:51

So what Jesus does in responding to this woman

00:45:53

is He brilliantly kills two birds with one statement.

00:45:57

With one statement He's going to break through

00:45:59

the lie that anyone could be righteous enough

00:46:02

on their own to receive grace,

00:46:05

and He's going to demonstrate through this woman

00:46:08

the only thing that actually allows us

00:46:11

to cross over the line

00:46:13

and enter into the circle of His grace.

00:46:15

Jesus tests this woman. He's testing her faith, too.

00:46:19

He wants to make her prove belief in Him.

00:46:21

Does she really know who He is?

00:46:23

Does she understand who He is?

00:46:25

Well, who is He? Who is He?

00:46:27

It's like what Jesus said, Jesus said,

00:46:28

"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

00:46:30

No one comes to the Father except through Me."

00:46:32

He wants to understand, does this woman know this?

00:46:34

And I want you to know this woman

00:46:36

passes that test with flying colors.

00:46:38

After Jesus says, "Let the children eat first.

00:46:41

It's not good to give the bread to the dogs."

00:46:44

The woman's response is amazing.

00:46:46

She answers Him and says, "Yes, Lord,

00:46:48

but even the dogs under the table

00:46:51

eat the children's crumbs."

00:46:54

What is she saying? Well, first,

00:46:56

she's rejecting self-reliance by saying,

00:46:59

"I'll take your crumbs. Jesus,

00:47:02

I believe you are God

00:47:04

and so even your crumbs can heal my daughter.

00:47:07

I believe you're God, so even your crumbs can change my life.

00:47:10

I don't need the whole loaf of bread.

00:47:12

If I can get just some of you, Jesus,

00:47:14

just some of you is better than anything else

00:47:16

the world has to offer."

00:47:17

This woman is not relying on herself.

00:47:20

She's relying on Jesus.

00:47:22

And she also doesn't come with self-righteousness

00:47:25

because she says, "You can call me

00:47:26

whatever you want to call me.

00:47:28

You call me a dog as long as you call me for dinner,"

00:47:31

like they used to say, right?

00:47:32

You can call me whatever you want to call me.

00:47:34

This woman was not caught up in what Jesus called her.

00:47:37

She was caught up in who Jesus is.

00:47:39

And man, if you are caught up in who Jesus is,

00:47:42

then grace is for you. It is available to you.

00:47:47

This woman's faith is amazing and I just wonder,

00:47:51

I just wonder, I wonder if some of us

00:47:53

are really missing out on knowing who Jesus is.

00:47:56

I wonder if we're missing out on the life

00:47:58

that He has for us, because at the end of the day,

00:48:00

we're caught up in stuff that don't really matter.

00:48:04

This woman teaches us a powerful lesson.

00:48:08

And she amazes Jesus. She amazes Jesus.

00:48:12

Look at what happens next in verse 29.

00:48:16

if you get that, if you understand that,

00:48:18

if that's the kind of faith you have,

00:48:30

Amazing. Amazing.

00:48:33

See, this woman didn't give up.

00:48:34

She recognized her unworthiness

00:48:36

and she asked Jesus anyway because she understands

00:48:40

that the gift of grace doesn't come

00:48:41

through self-righteousness.

00:48:42

The gift of grace only comes through faith.

00:48:47

What this woman had was not the necessary right pedigree.

00:48:50

It wasn't about where she was from,

00:48:52

but it was about the fact that she understood

00:48:54

we are only saved by grace through faith in Jesus.

00:48:59

So what I love about this story

00:49:02

is Jesus draws some hard lines.

00:49:04

If you think you're going to get to Jesus

00:49:06

on your own self-reliance, you will never enter

00:49:08

the circle of grace.

00:49:10

If you think that other people aren't going to make it

00:49:13

because you are more righteous than them,

00:49:15

you will miss out on the circle of grace.

00:49:17

So what Jesus does is draw two hard lines,

00:49:19

but He draws a big old circle around Himself.

00:49:22

He draws an open circle around Himself

00:49:25

for all who would come to him through faith.

00:49:27

Why? Because Jesus's grace

00:49:30

breaks through all our barriers.

00:49:32

But we must choose to step over the line and receive it.

00:49:36

See, here's the good news.

00:49:38

No matter what you are, no matter who you are,

00:49:40

no matter where you come from,

00:49:42

you can have a relationship with God

00:49:45

through faith in Jesus, no matter where you come from.

00:49:48

Make no mistake about it, anything or any way

00:49:51

you're trying to have a relationship with God

00:49:53

apart from Jesus is a hard line that will never work.

00:49:57

You can never be good enough.

00:49:59

You can never be righteous enough.

00:50:00

You can never be from the right family

00:50:02

or the right ethnicity or the right country.

00:50:04

It's not about that.

00:50:05

You can never be worthy in and of anything

00:50:07

that you say or do, or you can never be worthy

00:50:10

from anything you don't say or don't do.

00:50:11

Jesus says He is the ultimate line

00:50:14

when in John 14:6 He says:

00:50:21

But the beautiful part about that is that

00:50:23

when you put your faith in Jesus,

00:50:25

that line becomes a big old circle of His embrace

00:50:28

and you step into the grace that Jesus has to offer to you.

00:50:34

I want you to see this in places

00:50:35

like John 1:11-12, which says this:

00:50:41

But listen to what it says:

00:50:42

But to all who did receive Him,

00:50:44

notice it doesn't say,

00:50:45

but to all who are from this city,

00:50:47

or all who are from this social stratus. It says:

00:50:55

This woman wasn't a dog.

00:50:57

She was a child of God through faith.

00:51:00

And all who receive Him get the same right.

00:51:04

Look at what it says,

00:51:05

I love this verse in Revelations 3:20. Jesus says:

00:51:18

I think sometimes we think Jesus is hiding from us.

00:51:21

We think as we're calling out to Jesus, He's hiding,

00:51:23

He's ducking, he's Bobbing, he's Weaving.

00:51:26

No, you know what Jesus did?

00:51:28

Jesus, through His blood threw open the VIP lane

00:51:31

and He is saying, "If you will come to Me,

00:51:33

I will dine with you. We'll have bubbly together.

00:51:36

We'll have fig together. We'll have olive together."

00:51:39

Jesus is pursuing you.

00:51:41

Jesus is not running from you, He's running toward you.

00:51:45

He loves you and He wants relationship with you.

00:51:50

Through faith in Jesus everybody gets the VIP experience.

00:51:54

Everybody gets the corporate jet experience.

00:51:57

Everybody gets to experience what it's like

00:52:00

to be in the family of God through Jesus.

00:52:04

See the salvation He secured through His death

00:52:08

and resurrection is yours through faith.

00:52:11

And when we believe this, when we receive it,

00:52:15

when we open the door of faith and let Him in,

00:52:17

then we actually experience a life changing power

00:52:22

that changes us from the inside out.

00:52:25

Friends, Jesus's grace breaks through all of our barriers.

00:52:29

Question is will we step over the line of faith

00:52:33

and receive that grace?

00:52:36

I believe something powerful is going to happen right now.

00:52:38

We're going to have an opportunity to sing.

00:52:40

We're going to have an opportunity to pray.

00:52:42

And some of you are going to have an opportunity

00:52:44

to come to the front and receive.

00:52:47

And you're going to get instructions

00:52:49

on how that's going to work.

00:52:50

But I just want to tell you, I believe that

00:52:53

there's a reason you're hearing this message today.

00:52:55

I believe that Jesus has been pursuing you.

00:52:58

I think some of you, you've been running.

00:53:01

You've been running, but it's time to stop running.

00:53:05

And what you're going to find is that

00:53:07

Jesus has been waiting the whole time

00:53:10

with open arms to receive you, to offer you life.

00:53:14

So I'm going to invite our prayer volunteers to come up.

00:53:17

And as they come up to the front,

00:53:19

you're going to have a chance to come up

00:53:20

and pray with someone today.

00:53:22

As they come to the front,

00:53:23

they're going to take these stanchions off.

00:53:25

And I want you to just notice that these stanchions are red.

00:53:28

And one of the things we know is the reason

00:53:30

that there is now no barrier between us and God

00:53:33

is because of the blood of Jesus.

00:53:35

The blood of Jesus took the stanchions away.

00:53:38

The blood of Jesus says,

00:53:39

everybody has entry into the presence of God.

00:53:41

You are no longer separated.

00:53:43

As long as you have faith in Jesus and come,

00:53:45

you can receive grace today.

00:53:48

You can receive life today.

00:53:50

You can receive salvation today.

00:53:52

You can receive healing today.

00:53:55

And so this is going to be an opportunity for you.

00:53:58

Maybe you've never done that.

00:54:00

Maybe you've never made that step of saying,

00:54:01

"Jesus, I want to receive Your life."

00:54:03

Then if that's you, then in a moment, in a moment,

00:54:05

you're going to have an opportunity

00:54:07

to get up out of your seat and come down the front.

00:54:09

You're just going to go to the volunteer.

00:54:11

You're just going to say, "I want to receive Jesus."

00:54:14

And if you say that to them,

00:54:15

they're going to just lead you through a prayer

00:54:18

because you do not have to leave

00:54:20

the same way you came in here.

00:54:23

Now maybe some of us we took this step years ago,

00:54:27

or maybe we took this step months ago.

00:54:31

But man, something's grown stale.

00:54:34

There's something of the life of Jesus

00:54:36

that somehow it seems like in some ways,

00:54:38

maybe we have put ourselves back behind a velvet rope.

00:54:42

But I want you to know that the grace of Jesus

00:54:44

isn't a one time experience, that it's meant to be

00:54:46

an ongoing experience for you.

00:54:48

And so if that's you, if you're like, "Man, I want that,"

00:54:50

then you're just going to come up

00:54:52

to the prayer volunteers too.

00:54:53

But you're going to ask them, "Hey,

00:54:55

I want to be restored in Jesus."

00:54:57

And if that's you, then they just want to pray with you

00:54:59

and agree with you that you can have a restoration,

00:55:01

that today can be the refreshment for you.

00:55:03

Today can be the beginning of something new in your life.

00:55:06

And they just want to pray with you

00:55:08

and agree with you that that's possible.

00:55:10

I tell you what, that woman received what she asked for

00:55:16

because she knew who Jesus was

00:55:18

and she believed in what Jesus can do.

00:55:22

And so whether you want the life of salvation

00:55:24

or whether you want a refreshment,

00:55:26

that's all it takes.

00:55:27

All you have to do is believe

00:55:29

that Jesus is who He says He is,

00:55:31

and that He will do what He says He can do.

00:55:34

So, I'm going to invite us to stand and I'm going to pray.

00:55:37

And then for some of us, maybe we just want

00:55:39

to sit in this moment and continue to worship.

00:55:41

For others of us, I want you to make your way to the front.

00:55:43

Don't hesitate. Don't think about it too long.

00:55:45

If God is drawing you, then come,

00:55:51

receive Jesus, be restored in Jesus,

00:55:55

and get all the life that He has for you.

00:55:57

God, I just pray that in all of our locations,

00:56:00

online too, that people would just say yes in this moment.

00:56:05

Whether it's reaching out via the chat

00:56:07

to a prayer volunteer online,

00:56:09

or coming to the front of a room,

00:56:12

You would do something in this moment,

00:56:13

Jesus, that only you can do.

00:56:15

That woman left change and her daughter was changed,

00:56:17

her legacy was changed.

00:56:19

Would You do that today

00:56:20

as people take this step of faith? In Jesus name, Amen.

00:56:27

- As Chuck said, there's always more

00:56:29

that we can get from God, more lines,

00:56:31

more opportunities for us to take steps

00:56:33

with Him and towards Him.

00:56:35

And we believe that God is inviting all of us

00:56:38

to go deeper with Him and we would love to pray for you

00:56:41

and to bless you as you take a step further with God.

00:56:44

We have a whole team of people, real people

00:56:46

like friends of mine, like Jamie and Tierra and D-Man,

00:56:50

and more real people who would love

00:56:52

to connect with you, to talk with you, and to pray for you.

00:56:55

You can go to crossroads.net and chat in.

00:56:57

I promise you, these are not bots, they are real people

00:56:59

and they would love to pray for you right now.

00:57:02

You can also email me directly

00:57:03

at Andy.Reider@crossroads.net

00:57:05

and I'd love to connect with you and to pray for you as well.

00:57:08

Now, before we go, there are a few events

00:57:11

for our Crossroads Anywhere community

00:57:12

that I want to put on your radar.

00:57:14

First, Crossroads is coming to Florida.

00:57:17

Next Saturday the Anywhere Team and myself

00:57:19

will be in Sarasota connecting with our community there.

00:57:21

And then the following Tuesday, this is the big one,

00:57:23

March 5th we will be in Orlando

00:57:26

joined by Chuck Mingo and Crossroads Music.

00:57:29

They will be playing live at the Pillars Loft

00:57:31

in Winter Garden in Orlando,

00:57:32

and we'd just love to spend the evening

00:57:34

hanging out with you.

00:57:35

We'll have amazing live music,

00:57:38

we'll have drinks and appetizers throughout the night,

00:57:40

and most importantly, you'll also have a chance

00:57:42

to meet other community members

00:57:44

from Crossroads Anywhere across Florida.

00:57:47

It'll be on Tuesday, March 5th at Pillars Bar.

00:57:49

Head to Crossroads.net/anywhere for more info and to RSVP.

00:57:53

We really would love to see you there.

00:57:55

And the second thing I want to talk to you about

00:57:57

is coming up and it is called Anywhere Weekend.

00:58:00

Now last year we did this for the first time.

00:58:02

It was crazy.

00:58:03

We invited our entire Anywhere community

00:58:05

from across the globe to come together

00:58:07

in Cincinnati for a weekend.

00:58:08

And guess what y'all did? It was amazing.

00:58:11

The weekend quickly became a launching point

00:58:13

for our entire Anywhere community,

00:58:15

and so we're doing it again this year,

00:58:18

and it's going to be way bigger and way better.

00:58:20

Join us in Cincinnati, July 19-21

00:58:23

for a weekend of live worship and teaching,

00:58:26

from amazing food and fun.

00:58:28

Whether you're six, 16, or 60,

00:58:31

you can make new friends from around the globe

00:58:33

and learn how to experience more of God

00:58:35

right where you are, wherever you live all year long.

00:58:39

Head to Crossroads.net/anywhere and sign up.

00:58:42

As always, hey, thank you for joining us today.

00:58:45

We don't want to be something that you just watch.

00:58:47

We want to be a community that you are a part of.

00:58:50

We'll see you back here next week.

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