You Are A Father or Mother

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- Today on Crossroads Real Encounters with God,

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we're seeing how the ancient story of God

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is still important for our lives today.

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Before we get into the episode, I want you to know

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that we really care about

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the ongoing situation in the Middle East.

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This series was filmed earlier this year

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before the fighting erupted, but we still think

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it's important to show this series.

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God chose the ancient land of Israel.

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He carved His story into the place itself,

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and He has something to say to us today through it.

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Before we go to today's episode, we're going to sing some songs.

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And these aren't just any song,

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but they actually are songs

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that tell the story of God,

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that it's an ancient story that's still unfolding today.

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The lyrics talk about the God of David

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and the God of the Bible

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is the same God that we believe in,

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and the same God who answered prayers back then

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is answering them today.

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The same God who was a healer is a healer now,

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and the same God who was the Savior is the Savior now.

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- I don't know if you've never heard

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those things about God.

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I don't know if this is the first time

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for you where you're like, "Really?

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People believe that anything is possible?"

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- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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- I don't know if you're like, "Really?

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You believe that God is actually with us

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and He would actually move in our lives,

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that He would care about me?"

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I don't know if it's the first time

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you've heard that or the thousandth.

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I just want you to know it's true. [cheers]

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I just want you to know you have a Creator

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who deeply loves you and sees you and knows you.

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You have one who made life and offers it to you.

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He's changed my life.

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It does not mean every time I've asked Him

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for something that He's fixed it.

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It does not mean everything's been easy.

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I can't help it, maybe you've heard me say it before,

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but any time I say anything is possible,

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there's a choice I make to say, "I trust you, Jesus."

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Even though when I prayed for my mom to not pass away,

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she still passed away.

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But he has met me in pain

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and brought peace into chaos like nothing else.

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He's lifted me out of things.

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These words we say to Him.

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The melodies might be new, but the words

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and the truth of them are not.

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These are words that have been sung to this God

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for thousands and thousands of generations,

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and they're words that remain true today

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about this King and this God.

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It is not a new thought.

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We are not inventing something new here.

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We are saying we get in line with

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thousands and thousands of generations

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who have met this God, who is Creator,

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who has made Himself known in this man named Jesus.

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And he's changed it all.

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So Scripture tells us that if we wonder what God looks like,

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that we can look at Jesus, that He's the perfect image of God.

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And so we look to Jesus and say,

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"Oh, that's what God looks like. Okay. Okay."

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Hebrews, a letter written a couple thousand years ago

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in the first century,

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Hebrews 13:8 says this about Jesus:

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Jesus Christ is the same yesterday

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and today and forever.

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Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,

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today, and forever.

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In a world of chaos and change and despair,

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God never changes.

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He's constant, true, faithful, good,

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loving, kind, powerful, and with us.

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He never changes and neither does our need for Him.

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God, you have my heart

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and I want you to have all my actions.

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I want to live remembering that You are my King

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and my Savior, that You are powerful and with me.,

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that You've made me and know me.

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You walk with me.

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You have my heart and I want You to have my actions.

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I want You to have all of me.

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You are what I'm aiming myself at. Thank you.

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I pray this all because I've seen You in Jesus, God. Amen.

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- Come and have your own encounter with God

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at the Real Encounters Prayer Experience.

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Step outside the busyness of regular life

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and make space to hear something fresh from God.

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Be immersed in the sights and sounds

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of ancient Israel, where God's people

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have encountered Him for thousands of years.

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Now it's your turn to have a Real Encounter with God.

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This one of a kind experience was made just for you.

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Don't miss it.

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Get details at crossroads.net.

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- It's great to be with everybody today.

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You're going to see me in just a little bit

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speaking during our Israel series.

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It's crazy that six months ago

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I recorded those talks in Israel,

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and what's happened in Israel is crazy.

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And some of you might think, "Hey man,

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if you're going to be on video preaching,

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why are you here?" I'll tell you why.

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Because I personally need filled up, that's why.

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I need to come to a place where I sense

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God's moving and worship with people.

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I need it, my soul needs it, my soul craves it.

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So it's great to be with you all today,

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whatever site you happen to be in.

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So, we're going to be continuing on

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in our Real Encounter series.

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But a couple of things I want to make sure I highlight for you.

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This is a fully immersive thing.

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We have an Israel prayer experience,

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or rather a Real Encounters Prayer Experience.

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It's an immersive prayer experience.

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It's at Oakley. All sites are welcome.

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We've actually also fabricated it,

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spent a little bit more money on it

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so that at some point it can be broken down

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and taken, perhaps further sites away.

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I know it's a long haul if you're coming up

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from Lexington or coming down from Columbus.

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I just did it today. It's really solid.

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It's worth it.

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We need to be in environments that push us

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and we meet God that are different,

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and we've made one for you. It's great.

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Our church is about engaging the things

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that God wants done in our world.

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It's crazy how we are in this series based in Israel

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at the moment when the world is focused

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again on Israel.

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Just as a reminder, our church,

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we are a generous church.

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We have those of us here have come to

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a place of spiritual maturity where we are tithers.

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That means we give 10% of our gross income to our church.

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We talk about that, how that's in the Bible

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over and over and over again.

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And as a result of our generosity,

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we're able to send $100,000 over to help in aid

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with Israelis and Palestinians who need help.

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And we've also released another $25,000,

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so it's $125,000 because there's

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a hotel kind of complex area where they've

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just cleared out, and we've bought up the hotel

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to just give to refugees, to stay there

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and try to have some peace. [applause]

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It's important. That's what we do.

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We love seeing an immersive environments.

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We recently came over another immersive environment

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that I want to celebrate and have fun with.

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Woman Camp, a couple months ago, or whatever it was,

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six weeks ago, Woman Camp

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had record setting attendance at Woman Camp.

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All go here for Woman Camp, great.

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Man Camp we just had done, crazy, crazy at Man Camp,

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2600 guys, 41 states, 4 or 5 different countries.

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It was insane. It was immersive.

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There was literal healings taking place.

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I know some of you don't believe it.

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I happen to believe the same God

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who has done things like that

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and still does them today.

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Crazy things are happening. It's good.

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Our church is trying to pour fuel on the fire

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of what God is doing all over the place.

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Christmas is going to be killer. It's coming up.

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We're pulling out all the creative stuff

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to give you a great immersive environment.

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And why am I telling you all this?

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I'm telling you all this to remind you,

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we know that all of this stuff costs

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a lot of money, a lot of money.

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That prayer experience is a lot,

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it's six figures to pull off that prayer experience.

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All the Man Camp, Woman Camp, Couples Camp,

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Vet Camp all that happens because we bought land,

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we're pouring money into land.

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And I want to remind us that we are very similar

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to many nonprofits where we get in the black

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from November to December.

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And so for many of us who are tithers,

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I want to encourage you to consider, man,

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do all these things turn you on?

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Do you want to keep pouring fuel on the fire?

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Maybe you want to give an offering above and beyond that.

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Others of us may not have the faith to tithe,

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but do you want to get on that journey

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and help your church reach and touch and bless people?

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We believe that God leads you and I

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to give to Crossroads so Crossroads

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pours into the kingdom of God.

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No one's inspired of Crossroads having savings accounts.

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We don't give so Crossroads had savings.

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We give so that we can fuel

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the things that are important to God.

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As I was reflecting on this in the book of Luke,

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the last thing I'll share with you, Luke 16, it says this:

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One who is faithful in a very little

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is also faithful in much,

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and one who is dishonest in a very little

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is also dishonest in much.

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If then you have not been faithful

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in the unrighteous wealth,

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who will entrust to you the true riches?

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And if you have not been faithful

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in what is another's,

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who will give you that which is your own?

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God is saying, "If you want Me to give you

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a reward that's eternal, unique rewards in heaven,

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then you have to manage My stuff

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because it's My stuff," God says.

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"It's not your stuff, even though

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it revolves and resides inside of your accounts."

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And he says, "To whom much is given, much is required."

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I'll tell you this one reason for me

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Crossroads continues to challenge me

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because as we've grown and as God has blessed us,

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thank you all for being a conduit

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for how God has blessed our church.

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I keep having the same thought,

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"Oh my gosh, we haven't arrived.

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Now God is holding us to a standard

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of expecting a return."

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And we want to always please God with that.

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You are not part of a church

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that's ever going to sit back

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and play conservative and play safe.

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We're going to keep pushing and pressing

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because we want to please God,

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because it's His resources and it's not ours.

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So thanks for being on that journey and being faithful.

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And thanks for considering that here

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as we come to the end of 2023.

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Okay, well, enough of that.

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Let's get on to seeing our next part,

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installment in Real Encounters.

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And I'm a little sheepish about this one,

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because I did way more crying than I was anticipating.

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So, just just turn your head away when that happens,

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I would appreciate it.

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- Like Brian said, this is

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an important spiritual discipline for our church.

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To learn more about giving or to set up a recurring gift,

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you can just head to Crossroads.net/give.

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As a church, we want our generosity to be contagious,

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and we actually set out to help our friends and neighbors.

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This Thanksgiving we want something bold:

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No empty tables.

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1 in 8 people will have to pick between

00:30:16

daily necessities and buying food for a Thanksgiving meal.

00:30:19

And that's not okay with us.

00:30:21

Through Thanksgiving Food Drive

00:30:23

your box helps to ensure that your neighbors

00:30:25

can create memories over a hot meal this holiday.

00:30:28

No matter where you live, find out about

00:30:30

how to get involved at Crossroads.net/TFD.

00:30:34

Today is episode three of Real Encounters,

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and every word I'm saying is making you wait

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longer and longer and longer.

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No, just kidding. Let's get to the episode right now.

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- The Story of God told through the land of Israel

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is written in the pages of Scripture

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and carved by the very finger of God into the land itself.

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Join us on a journey to discover your spiritual roots.

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Uncover the six essential elements

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of identity deep within you,

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revealed through the life of King David

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and perfected in the life of Jesus.

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The fourth season of Real Encounters with God: Downline.

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All new on location in Israel.

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New places, new encounters, real encounters with God.

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- All right. Real Encounters with God.

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We're here in Israel talking about this primal DNA

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unlocking these six essential elements of identity.

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Today is father or mother,

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which I know from talking to you,

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you would say this isn't us having actual kids,

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everyone has to have children. Some of us can't.

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But this is an attitude of being a father or mother.

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Talk about that.

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- Yeah. When you're a father or a mother

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you take care of people,

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you feel ownership for people, you nurture people.

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It's not in a season, it's just what you do

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and where you are.

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We all want a mother. We all want a father.

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If it's not our DNA, we want somebody

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to mother us and father us, take take that role on

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because it's actually in our DNA, our spiritual DNA,

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and therefore it's actually in our DNA

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to do that for someone else,

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whether it's a child who's our DNA

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or someone were mentoring or somebody else, it's a big deal.

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And I should also say this:

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you're going to be a loser in one of these.

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You know, you can't go six for six.

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You should always try to see that

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this is part of your identity.

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It is just who you are, just built on it.

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But some of this stuff is going to be

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a lot rougher for us than others.

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And this one, when we get to David,

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I think this is the area

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that was the most underdeveloped for him.

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- Yeah. And so you were saying David

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is not good at this. So where do we go to--

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- I think he wants to do it. - He does.

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- Tsuriel will talk about it.

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He's got a good heart. His heart isn't wrong on this.

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He's just got some --

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He's got some baggage that will uncover.

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But where do you think we should go to talk about this?

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- What we thought is about the ancient city of Dan.

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You know, we were talking about the gates

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that were there, of course, these are not

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the gates that David would actually be at,

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but we remember that he was sitting,

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it says that he was sitting between the gates

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when he was waiting for the news from the war

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against his son Absalom,

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that was rebelling against him.

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And of course, father son, wow.

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What was happening with Absalom, and also

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with many other of David's children was terrible.

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And over there we can really try and dig into

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his character as a father to Absalom.

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He really loved Absalom, although Absalom

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tried to kill him and get rid of him

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and did everything wrong.

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So that's the place we want to go.

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- His father issues came and really bit him.

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But what I love, that you can tell,

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Dan is this archeological discovery.

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It's just the more they dig around here,

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the more they find that the Bible

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actually knows it's talking about.

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- It knows what it's talking about, it's real.

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- You know, that we read the Bible.

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We believe the Bible,

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so we see how it fits with archeology.

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But if you will talk to many people,

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as long as they don't find a specific evidence

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that proves something, it doesn't exist.

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And many people, many archeologists and others,

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would claim that there was never a guy named David.

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The whole story of David,

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it's a fake character, like there is the Greek mythology.

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So David is kind of character that

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the Israelites were building themselves

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as if there was a house of David long ago,

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centuries ago, and he was a great king and had all those --

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- Like King Arthur is to England.

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- Exactly. And for many, many years

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there wasn't any evidence.

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And people will say, "If he's such a great king,

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how come you don't find anything?"

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And over there in the ancient city of Dan,

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not long ago, we're talking about around 2000,

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20 years ago, that's all, a little over 20 years ago,

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it was found, you know, a piece of a stone

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that was standing there 150 years after David.

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And it speaks there about some king

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that was killing the king of Israel and the king of Judah.

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And it says that the king of Judah

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is from the house of David.

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So it's the first and only time that we have

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a true evidence that there was a House of David.

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People back then were talking almost 3000 years ago,

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they were always already relating to a house of David,

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a royal family that started from that guy 150 years before.

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House of David.

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That's like saying administration of Joe Biden.

00:35:15

- Yeah. - It was that there was a king,

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he had that, he had a whole team.

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That's really impressive.

00:35:21

- Yeah. So that's a great site for that.

00:35:24

- So Dan makes sense for David.

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What about Jesus?

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He didn't have any kids of His own.

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So where do we go to talk about

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this mother father aspect of Jesus?

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- Okay. What we thought of, of course,

00:35:34

is when Jesus shows compassion over the crowd

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and when he see also the little children.

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Remember that, you know, they were walking

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and His disciples told them get out.

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You know, some of them maybe had children.

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We don't know, many of them were young.

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But "Get out, move away."

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And Jesus, "Stop! Hey, guys."

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And He takes the children and He cares for them.

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So you see, both for the crowds that are hungry,

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that are tired, that they come to listen to Jesus,

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but they sit outside and it's hot day, you know,

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and He cares for them to feed them, also for the children.

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And we want to go there to the hillside of Galilee,

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where those things would happen, and to talk about those things.

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- Yeah, it's another link between David and Jesus.

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It doesn't mean their life is exactly the same,

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but this basic ID comes out with them in different ways.

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- That's right. They're exhibiting it,

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just like you're saying, it's inside of all of us

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and God wants to unlock it. - Yeah.

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- We travel 87 miles from Jerusalem

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to the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus spent 3 years

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caring for those around him.

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- Wow. Tsuriel, this is beautiful.

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- It's already hot. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:36:45

It's a beautiful morning.

00:36:47

- Over the Sea of Galilee.

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- Yeah. The sun is rising over there at the east.

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We're looking at the lake behind us,

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the Sea of Galilee, the beautiful, calm sea.

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- It is calm. - Yeah, yeah it is.

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- Well, it's funny because it's a lake.

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- It's a lake. It's a lake.

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Yeah, we call it the Sea of Galilee, but it's a lake.

00:37:04

- I mean, it's a better name than the Lake of Galilee,

00:37:07

so it makes sense.

00:37:08

- Is there a reason for that? - That was their sea.

00:37:11

I mean, when people used to live here,

00:37:13

not like today, you travel all over the world.

00:37:15

You go, you see oceans.

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For that many people, that would be

00:37:17

the only place that would they would stay,

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unless, you know, going to Jerusalem

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and you don't see any other sea on the way.

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So that's the Sea of Galilee.

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It was also called in the Bible,

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the Sea of Tiberias, for example.

00:37:29

But yeah, this is Galilee.

00:37:31

This is their sea, although it's a lake.

00:37:32

- And there is so much here

00:37:34

that took place in the life of Jesus:

00:37:36

the feeding of 5000 human beings,

00:37:38

which is just crazy to imagine being on this hillside.

00:37:42

- We don't know the exact spot, of course,

00:37:44

where Jesus was feeding those 5000.

00:37:46

But we know that Jesus was here

00:37:48

in those low hills around the lake.

00:37:50

And this is where people would also

00:37:52

be attracted to Him, they would follow Him.

00:37:53

They would see His boat sailing from one place to the other.

00:37:56

And it says in the scriptures that people

00:37:58

would run and they would search for Him,

00:37:59

and they would just be waiting, in a sense,

00:38:02

to meet Him and be healed, be fed,

00:38:05

all those kind of different things that they would do.

00:38:07

- This week we're talking about father,

00:38:09

and I think that's so good because

00:38:11

Jesus walked in the authority of His Father,

00:38:14

and He would show that authority to us

00:38:16

as sons and daughters, kind of gathering to us.

00:38:19

The main reason we're even here is that 5000 concept

00:38:25

is only because He had what a Father has,

00:38:27

which is compassion. He had mercy.

00:38:30

He saw that they were going to be hungry.

00:38:31

- Exactly.

00:38:33

You know, Jesus said, "Me and the Father are one,"

00:38:35

and we call God the Father.

00:38:37

So that was a big part of Jesus being a Father

00:38:41

to see all His, in a sense, children.

00:38:44

And it doesn't matter if they were followers of Jesus or not,

00:38:47

He looked at us as His children and He wanted --

00:38:50

He cares for His children.

00:38:51

So some are going in the wrong way

00:38:53

and some follow Him, but He came for everyone.

00:38:56

That's the point of a father, you know,

00:38:58

he cares for all his children,

00:39:00

even if some are on the wrong way.

00:39:02

- What was it about this story and this location

00:39:05

that when we were talking about,

00:39:06

"Hey, this week we want to talk about

00:39:08

this primal DNA of father," what was it about this

00:39:11

that made you go, "Oh, this would be the perfect story?"

00:39:14

- Because when we think about Jesus as a father

00:39:16

and again, we go through His different characters,

00:39:18

in a sense, one of the major things

00:39:21

that you see is that He cared.

00:39:23

He had compassion for those crowds.

00:39:26

Now, if you have 3000 or 4000 or 5000 people

00:39:29

following you, you know, when we are now doing

00:39:32

what we are doing right now, we always take care

00:39:34

that we will have water, we will have things around us.

00:39:37

But those people were just following Him.

00:39:39

And you see the compassion, He cared for them

00:39:42

where they would sit. If it's a good grass,

00:39:44

if it's nice stone so they can sit

00:39:47

and feel comfortable, if maybe there is shade,

00:39:49

if there is food around, they can be fed.

00:39:51

It's not just, "Okay, I'm coming here.

00:39:53

I'm the superstar.

00:39:54

I'm preaching for one hour and I'm gone.

00:39:56

You know, I have My staff around Me

00:39:58

that will take care of Me as My disciples," so-called.

00:40:01

No, He always thought of them as a father,

00:40:03

first of all, and then Himself.

00:40:06

- Right. Let the little children come to Me,

00:40:08

when they try to stop them, all those things.

00:40:10

- Yeah.

00:40:11

- What's so compelling to me about that

00:40:13

is that the story of the 5000,

00:40:15

the compassion that He had in the moment

00:40:17

to feed them was, of course, physical,

00:40:19

but it was so that they would believe

00:40:21

He could do something in the spiritual,

00:40:23

that they could believe He wants to feed them

00:40:25

every day, daily bread, daily spiritual bread,

00:40:28

daily help, daily compassion, daily care,

00:40:31

daily mercy, daily favor, daily grace.

00:40:34

Over and over, you know, it was so that.

00:40:36

And so just being here. - Yeah.

00:40:39

- Sometimes I want my weekly loaf, I'll be honest.

00:40:42

Sometimes I want my weekly bread.

00:40:43

And He's like, "I'll give you enough

00:40:45

to get through today. - Yeah.

00:40:47

- Now, when you think of of a father or a mother,

00:40:50

you know, it's exactly that sense that you are

00:40:53

sometimes you are tired, you are hungry,

00:40:56

you are exhausted, but still

00:40:58

you do first for your children in a sense.

00:41:00

And I think you see that with Jesus,

00:41:01

He was exhausted, you know, from the physical point of view,

00:41:05

but still He is there for them.

00:41:07

And then at night, you know, He sends them away.

00:41:10

And He spent time kind of recharging His batteries,

00:41:13

praying, you know, to the Father,

00:41:14

and He's there with His Father.

00:41:16

But the moment, you know, the crowds are there,

00:41:19

He's back to the crowds again and again and again,

00:41:21

His children, in a sense.

00:41:22

So He put himself always second to His children.

00:41:25

- That's right. - And even if you aren't

00:41:27

a parent of DNA children, like, I find myself

00:41:32

just walking with some women in my life.

00:41:35

You know, I got some friends who are

00:41:38

kind of parents to some of their younger siblings.

00:41:40

You still need this same grace that you're talking about,

00:41:42

you still need this same Jesus to provide

00:41:45

the daily bread that you're talking about.

00:41:47

You still need to be able to ask Him to help you

00:41:50

because you're like, "Wait, what?

00:41:51

I'm supposed to be trying to help them in some way?"

00:41:54

So I think this applies,

00:41:56

whether you're a natural father and mother,

00:41:58

whether you're an adoptive father and mother,

00:42:00

or a foster father and mother,

00:42:02

a plant foster, you know, father, mother,

00:42:05

discipling somebody,

00:42:07

friend to someone in a motherly relationship,

00:42:09

whatever that is, I think it applies.

00:42:12

So that's good. Thanks for bringing us here, Tsuriel.

00:42:15

- Yeah. - It's just beautiful. - It is stunning.

00:42:23

- If you're a mother or a father in any way,

00:42:26

maybe it's your own kids,

00:42:28

maybe it's mentoring people at work,

00:42:30

maybe it's a conversation with a friend

00:42:31

who's approaching to you going, "Hey,

00:42:33

help me with this situation. Give me your advice."

00:42:35

This story, this feeding of the 5000

00:42:38

has the encouragement and the instruction that you need.

00:42:41

The story starts pretty simply.

00:42:42

Jesus is here. He's healing people.

00:42:44

And everybody gets hungry.

00:42:46

He's teaching, and they're like, "We need food."

00:42:49

And rather than give it Himself,

00:42:50

Jesus looks at the disciples and He says,

00:42:52

"Hey, you give them something to eat."

00:42:55

Now, in this moment, the disciples make a mistake.

00:42:59

See, they look around and they're like,

00:43:00

"Do you have bread? Do you? Do you have bread?

00:43:03

Oh, you don't? Shoot. What do we do?"

00:43:05

So they respond with a sarcastic response to Jesus.

00:43:08

They say this:

00:43:16

Which is basically, like, "Jesus,

00:43:18

we don't have what it takes.

00:43:20

We don't have $2 million to provide for these people

00:43:22

because it's 5000 men, plus women,

00:43:24

plus children, 20,000 people.

00:43:27

We don't have what it takes."

00:43:28

Which the encouragement of this story is not,

00:43:31

"Yes, you do. You do have what it takes."

00:43:34

It's not true.

00:43:35

See, the mistake the disciples make

00:43:37

is they forget that their Father

00:43:39

is standing right next to them.

00:43:41

Jesus, who had healed all those people,

00:43:43

who had performed miracles, who had provided

00:43:46

for exactly what each person who came to Him needed,

00:43:49

would provide for them too, if they would ask.

00:43:54

I don't know what role you're playing

00:43:56

as a mother or a father in your life today,

00:43:59

but I promise you you'll hit a moment

00:44:01

where you do not have what it takes.

00:44:03

Maybe it's when you get home from work

00:44:05

and your kids come to you and you don't have the energy.

00:44:08

Maybe it's when your teenager does something

00:44:10

again and again and you don't have the patience.

00:44:13

Maybe it's when your friend comes to you for advice

00:44:15

and you genuinely don't know what to say.

00:44:18

Maybe it's when you get a call from somebody

00:44:20

from far away saying, "Hey, I'm working through

00:44:22

this decision, can you help me?" And you don't know.

00:44:25

I don't know what it's going to be,

00:44:26

but I promise you, if you'll ask your Father

00:44:30

to provide you with the bread to hand to them,

00:44:35

He will.

00:44:36

Luke 11:11 Jesus said this:

00:44:52

He goes, "Look, look. Let me tell you a secret

00:44:56

about being a parent with me.

00:44:58

I have everything you need. I have it all.

00:45:02

I've got like a giant storehouse of bread in heaven.

00:45:05

And I will take it out

00:45:06

and hand you the piece you need today."

00:45:09

In Matthew six, Jesus talks about praying

00:45:12

and he says, "Ask for your daily bread."

00:45:14

What's the bread you need today?

00:45:16

If it's patience, if it's grace,

00:45:18

if it's truth, if it's understanding,

00:45:20

if it's wisdom, I don't know what it is.

00:45:22

Whatever that thing is, ask your Father in Heaven

00:45:26

to give it to you to empower you to be

00:45:28

the mother and father He's called you to be,

00:45:31

and He will.

00:45:35

Let's join Brian in the ancient city of Dan,

00:45:38

where we can learn more about being a father or mother

00:45:41

from David's greatest failure as a father.

00:45:55

- We're in Tel Dan, Tel means mound.

00:45:58

In the archeological world, you look for mounds

00:46:01

and it's probably an old ruin.

00:46:02

And so this is an old ruin that's been uncovered.

00:46:04

It's really cool.

00:46:06

And part of why it's cool is this is the place

00:46:09

where David was verified as an actual historical figure.

00:46:13

So this is a city that David actually wasn't in.

00:46:16

This city would have inhabited future kings

00:46:20

on his downline 150 years, 200 years, 300 years after him.

00:46:24

We're here because it represents a key moment

00:46:27

in David's life.

00:46:29

This will be known as the king's seat.

00:46:32

You've got the gates of the city.

00:46:35

People would come into the gates looking for justice,

00:46:38

looking for ruling.

00:46:39

And this is where the Kings would sit

00:46:41

or his administration, somebody he had delegated to

00:46:45

to give justice.

00:46:48

This seat reminds me of, obviously,

00:46:51

one of the primal identities that David nailed,

00:46:55

was King. He really nailed that one.

00:46:59

And he was good in that.

00:47:00

But there's other ones he was awful.

00:47:03

Specifically, one of them that he was

00:47:06

really, really -- he sucked at it really, really bad.

00:47:09

And that was the primal role of being a father.

00:47:12

I'm talking about being a father or being a mother.

00:47:16

Before I tell you how bad David was,

00:47:18

just to encourage you.

00:47:21

I like it when the Bible shows us people

00:47:24

who have problems, because I say I can relate to you.

00:47:29

David is one of those things, one of those people.

00:47:31

He does amazing things and he's got major outages.

00:47:36

All of us are going to have an outage

00:47:39

inside of these primal identities,

00:47:42

but we've got to unearth it.

00:47:43

We've got to take away the dirt from it

00:47:45

and let it spring to life.

00:47:47

When it came to being a dad, he struggled.

00:47:50

He was not good at it at all.

00:47:54

Why would this be?

00:47:56

Well, if we think about

00:47:58

how David was treated as by Jesse,

00:48:03

we remember that if he wasn't a bastard,

00:48:07

he was actually treated like a bastard.

00:48:11

Psalm 27:10 is a reflection of David,

00:48:16

it's his own poetry.

00:48:18

And he say, "My father and my mother have forsaken me."

00:48:25

He felt like he was abandoned by them.

00:48:28

By the way, speaking of mother,

00:48:30

we really have no references to David's mother at all.

00:48:33

We know he had one, but there's no references

00:48:36

to his mother at all.

00:48:37

All of the family references of David

00:48:40

when he was a boy are all negative.

00:48:42

We don't know anything about his mother.

00:48:44

We don't know she was doing.

00:48:45

Don't know her name.

00:48:47

We know for his father, Jesse, he was trying

00:48:51

to ignore that he had his youngest son.

00:48:53

He wasn't willing to show him to the prophet Samuel

00:48:55

because, "Well, there's one, my least,

00:48:58

who's out keeping keeping the sheep."

00:49:00

David did not come from an affirming family environment.

00:49:05

Am I ringing anybody's bell here? Anybody home?

00:49:09

I know a lot of people have this issue.

00:49:13

The challenge is when this is all we know

00:49:20

as a family structure, it's really hard

00:49:25

to reproduce something different

00:49:27

when we actually have our own family.

00:49:30

And by the way, being a father and a mother

00:49:33

isn't just when you have biological children.

00:49:36

You're a father or you're a mother when you adopt.

00:49:40

When you tutor at risk children

00:49:44

you're taking on a fathering and mothering identity.

00:49:47

Even when you do something like sponsor a child

00:49:50

with Compassion International,

00:49:52

you're taking responsibility for that child.

00:49:55

That's what fathers and mothers do.

00:49:57

They take responsibility for someone,

00:49:59

they can't check out. They don't check out.

00:50:02

They take responsibility.

00:50:05

I've had people in my life

00:50:06

who've been a father figure to me.

00:50:08

Gil Hopkins, he died a number of years ago.

00:50:10

He was my spiritual grandfather.

00:50:13

I found out that he lived in Cincinnati

00:50:15

and he led to Christ the person who led me to Christ.

00:50:19

Blew me away when I learned that.

00:50:20

Gil was the first person

00:50:23

I wept like a baby for when he died.

00:50:27

I did that because he was the first father figure

00:50:30

I had that had passed, and it wrecked me.

00:50:34

You can be a father figure to somebody

00:50:37

you have a discipleship relationship with,

00:50:39

somebody you take responsibility for

00:50:41

spiritually and emotionally.

00:50:45

David struggled with taking responsibility

00:50:49

for his kids, doing the right thing for his kids,

00:50:51

and also doing the right thing by other people.

00:50:55

He was passive, not a good thing

00:51:00

when we just allow life to happen to us.

00:51:02

Look at his family life; very, very passive.

00:51:04

He's got a son named Amnon who rapes his half sister, Tamar.

00:51:10

David does nothing about it.

00:51:11

He's very absent. He's very, very passive.

00:51:14

Then he has another son, Absalom, who takes vengeance

00:51:18

and kills his other half brother, Amnon.

00:51:21

And David again does nothing about that.

00:51:24

He's so passive in his family

00:51:26

he doesn't know how to engage.

00:51:28

Absalom gets kicked out of the kingdom.

00:51:31

Absalom goes out of the kingdom,

00:51:33

and he garners a bunch of support,

00:51:35

a bunch of warriors, and he leads a coup against his dad.

00:51:39

And his dad does nothing.

00:51:43

He comes to the gates of Jerusalem.

00:51:45

When you come to the gates, you will come for justice.

00:51:48

You will come to that king's seat.

00:51:50

And you would say, "I had this happen to me.

00:51:52

Could you take care of this?

00:51:54

Could you dole out this fine?

00:51:56

Could you help in this way?"

00:51:57

That's part of what the king would do,

00:51:58

he would bring justice.

00:52:00

Well, Absalom comes outside the gates

00:52:03

on the way to where that justice would happen,

00:52:05

and he tries to tell the people, "Hey,

00:52:08

I'm going to give you justice.

00:52:10

My dad's not going to give you justice.

00:52:12

He's too passive."

00:52:14

He basically leads a campaign saying, "Hey,

00:52:19

vote for Absalom, vote for Absalom, vote for Absalom."

00:52:23

Come on, I have some people here.

00:52:24

I need to get some -- I need to get some votes.

00:52:27

Here, would you like to vote for Absalom?

00:52:28

Come on. Vote. Vote for Absalom right here.

00:52:30

This is your hat. Come on, vote for --

00:52:32

Would you like a hat Vote for Absalom?

00:52:35

Yes. Good, there. I just got a vote.

00:52:38

Good. Thank you. No. You can -- my gift to you.

00:52:40

Just remember, vote for Absalom.

00:52:42

Vote for Absalom. All right.

00:52:45

He's outside the gate saying, "Come, come.

00:52:50

I'll give you justice."

00:52:52

He's basically saying, "I'll father you.

00:52:55

My father isn't fathering you.

00:52:57

My father isn't taking care of you.

00:52:59

I'll take care of you."

00:53:01

Friends, this is a bad, bad, bad thing.

00:53:04

And David does nothing. Nothing.

00:53:12

I'm actually encouraged by this in a strange way,

00:53:14

because I'm a father.

00:53:17

I'm a father on a number of different levels,

00:53:19

just as a DNA father having 3 DNA kids of my own,

00:53:24

I have made major mistakes.

00:53:28

I have, I'll just go through some of

00:53:30

my major mistakes with each of my 3 kids.

00:53:33

My son, I felt it was my job to toughen him up,

00:53:36

make him a good man, and I overreached many, many times.

00:53:40

I was too hard on him.

00:53:41

One time we were praying at a family event

00:53:44

and I was a real stickler, like, when we pray to God,

00:53:47

thank him for our meal, you need to be engaged.

00:53:49

And I looked over and my son --

00:53:53

Getting emotional thinking about it.

00:53:55

He took his great grandmother's hand

00:54:01

and was kissing her hand during prayer.

00:54:04

And I saw that as a violation

00:54:06

of what we should be doing and I disciplined him,

00:54:08

I spanked him for it.

00:54:09

And I did a bad job.

00:54:11

So there's a good, there's a right way to spank

00:54:13

and a wrong way and a right time and a wrong time.

00:54:15

It's a very long, drawn out process,

00:54:17

if you choose to do that, if you do it right.

00:54:19

And I broke all the rules. It was awful.

00:54:22

My youngest daughter, I was just stressed out in life,

00:54:26

and I was at the end of my rope.

00:54:28

And she was in this cartwheel phase.

00:54:30

She's just doing cartwheels,

00:54:32

just cartwheels and cartwheels.

00:54:33

And I was so sick of seeing cartwheels.

00:54:35

I was so frustrated in my life.

00:54:36

I was at the end of my rope and I said,

00:54:38

"Just stop doing the cartwheels."

00:54:46

And I could -- I could see that in that moment,

00:54:51

I kind of crushed your spirit.

00:54:53

It was tough. It was really tough.

00:54:54

And I've apologized. I apologize

00:54:56

to all of my kids about these things many, many times.

00:54:58

Because when a dad doesn't do his job, it hurts.

00:55:01

It hurts them, and it hurts me.

00:55:03

My oldest daughter, she -- I thought that

00:55:06

I really needed to develop her spiritually in unique way.

00:55:09

She went to school at University of Cincinnati.

00:55:12

And for some reason I had this thought of,

00:55:14

"You've been under the tutelage of Crossroads,

00:55:17

been Crossroads your whole life, helped start the church.

00:55:19

This will be really good for your spiritual formation

00:55:21

if you don't go to Crossroads

00:55:23

your freshman year of college.

00:55:24

Find another church out there.

00:55:26

My heart was to expand her spiritual horizons,

00:55:29

but I ended up hurting her.

00:55:39

I yanked away from her

00:55:41

her spiritual community she had for 18 years,

00:55:54

and in a very stressful time being away from home,

00:55:58

first year of college.

00:55:59

What she should have had as a backstop,

00:56:02

she didn't because I took her it away from her.

00:56:04

Now these are just three of my faults.

00:56:08

We could keep going on and on.

00:56:09

If you've got faults as a mother or a father,

00:56:12

I get you. I understand.

00:56:13

We're not going to dwell on the past anymore today.

00:56:15

We're going to think about the future.

00:56:17

How do we father people and mother people?

00:56:20

Because it is who we are, it's a core identity.

00:56:31

While everyone has these primal identities,

00:56:35

all of us will have some of them were natural in,

00:56:38

and others of us will have ones we feel

00:56:40

completely awkward and unable to do.

00:56:43

David, for instance, warrior.

00:56:45

I think he came out of the womb ready to fight.

00:56:47

When it came to father,

00:56:51

woo, he just never quite got there.

00:56:55

He was behind the eight ball in understanding this

00:56:57

because of his parents.

00:57:00

And we have entire generations or communities

00:57:03

in America right now that seem to have

00:57:05

perpetual problems, difficulty getting ahead,

00:57:07

difficult with poverty, and much of it is due to

00:57:11

not having healthy mothers and fathers because

00:57:15

there wasn't healthy mothers and fathers

00:57:17

the previous generation,

00:57:18

and now they can't healthily parent this generation

00:57:21

to give them basic skills to be able

00:57:23

to get ahead financially.

00:57:24

This is a critical thing.

00:57:26

Parents prepare the next generation

00:57:28

for an entire country.

00:57:30

David replicates behaviors that his father had.

00:57:35

His father was unwilling to call him a son.

00:57:39

He is called out by the prophet Samuel,

00:57:44

"I think you have a son here."

00:57:45

And Jesse goes through all these different sons,

00:57:48

unwilling to acknowledge David as son.

00:57:50

And finally only as a last resort, he said,

00:57:53

"Well, there is the youngest, actually, my least.

00:57:57

Here he is." Calls him out.

00:57:59

Doesn't even call him, volunteer him up as his son.

00:58:02

David when he hears that Absalom has died in battle,

00:58:07

the civil war has been fought.

00:58:09

David's men have won.

00:58:10

David has given instruction: Do not kill my son.

00:58:14

When he hears word of what happened, he asks,

00:58:17

"What happened with the man Absalom?"

00:58:22

The man Absalom.

00:58:24

He doesn't say what happened with my son,

00:58:26

the man Absalom. He's just like his father, Jesse.

00:58:30

He doesn't want to claim him publicly.

00:58:33

Then as he hears the news that Absalom is dead

00:58:38

and it's like this Cushite, who gives the news,

00:58:41

doesn't even know that he's his son.

00:58:43

It's like there's some separation there.

00:58:45

David then goes off by himself and says this:

00:59:03

He weeps and weeps.

00:59:05

"I can't believe this happened.

00:59:07

My son, my son, my son, my son, my son."

00:59:10

You know how many times that was said?

00:59:12

I don't think anybody in their heart

00:59:14

wants to be a bad parent.

00:59:16

And we see this with David.

00:59:18

He recognizes that he's had some difficulties,

00:59:20

but he brings it out.

00:59:21

It's actually interesting.

00:59:23

Why are all of these examples of David in the Bible

00:59:28

negative relative to his parenting?

00:59:32

I believe the reason is that David

00:59:34

is sending us a message from the grave.

00:59:36

As the King, he would have some level of authority

00:59:39

over what would get in the official written record.

00:59:41

The reason why there isn't

00:59:42

a lot of manuscript evidence for Jesus

00:59:46

outside of people who were early followers

00:59:49

is because manuscripts were created by royalty,

00:59:53

that gets in the official record

00:59:55

and that's what gets unearthed.

00:59:57

I think David makes sure what gets

00:59:59

in the official record is,

01:00:01

"Hey, put in my whole story as a father.

01:00:03

I really messed up on this. Make sure that's in there.

01:00:06

Make sure people can see and learn from me."

01:00:08

We're not going to be able to look at David

01:00:10

as to how he walked in this identity.

01:00:13

Instead, we're going to find other models,

01:00:14

like, here's a good model Jesus.

01:00:16

That's always the answer.

01:00:18

He's always the good model.

01:00:19

We see Him likening Himself and acting

01:00:22

as the mother and father He should be.

01:00:25

He looks on a people who are hurting and battered

01:00:27

and bruised, and He likens Himself to a mother.

01:00:31

This is what it says in Matthew 23:37:

01:00:48

He says, "I'm a mother who wants to nurture,

01:00:51

put out my wings and have you under my shade."

01:00:54

Likens Himself to a mother,

01:00:57

get our understanding of it from Him.

01:00:59

Then the book of John chapter 14 He says this:

01:01:18

Jesus says, "If you want to know how the Father is,

01:01:21

look at me."

01:01:22

He is not only the Heavenly Father,

01:01:25

He's also the ultimate Father,

01:01:27

even though He never had any DNA kids.

01:01:32

This identity can be practiced

01:01:34

when you've never had children because

01:01:37

everyone wants to be fathered and mothered,

01:01:40

everybody wants a mother figure or a father figure.

01:01:44

So let's spend the rest of our time together today

01:01:47

talking about as we father, whoever it is,

01:01:52

what are the key elements, or at least three of them?

01:01:55

There's more, I don't have time for any more than 3.

01:01:58

So let's talk about those.

01:02:04

What great fathers and mothers do is they have

01:02:06

an endless capacity to serve, endless effort.

01:02:11

I don't say endless energy,

01:02:12

because none of us have endless energy

01:02:14

because it gets tiring.

01:02:16

But this is part of why I think there's

01:02:17

a level of selflessness that most people never attain to

01:02:21

unless you have your own children.

01:02:23

Because when your friends annoy you,

01:02:25

you're like, "Oh, whatever, I'm done with you,

01:02:27

get out of here," or might even, like,

01:02:29

disown a friend eventually.

01:02:30

But your kids, like, you can't.

01:02:32

They cry in the middle night, you've got to get up.

01:02:34

When they have a financial hardship at age 19,

01:02:37

you don't say, "Well, sorry, you're 18.

01:02:39

You're an adult." You just can't.

01:02:41

There's endless effort to serve.

01:02:44

It never, ever stops.

01:02:46

This identity of ours actually forms our character.

01:02:51

Jesus did ministry, most of His ministry,

01:02:54

in the region where I am right here at Tel Dan.

01:02:56

This is the Sea of Galilee, right here,

01:02:58

Tiberius, right beneath me.

01:03:00

And when people would come up to Him

01:03:02

who needed to be served, who had issues,

01:03:05

they would say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy."

01:03:10

They were linking Jesus to David.

01:03:12

"Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

01:03:15

Would you please serve me?"

01:03:17

Parents never stop serving.

01:03:22

Another thing that we do as parents

01:03:24

is that we give wise teaching.

01:03:27

Maybe one thing that David did pretty well,

01:03:30

we can infer this, is that he passed on wisdom to Solomon.

01:03:35

Solomon, his successor, was known as

01:03:37

the wisest man in the world.

01:03:39

And I've got to think that David gave him some wisdom.

01:03:42

He's at the very end of his life.

01:03:45

David is on his deathbed, calls in Solomon.

01:03:49

And here's how it goes down 1 Kings 2:1:

01:04:18

What kind of wise teaching

01:04:19

might David have given Solomon? What kind of wisdom?

01:04:21

We don't know all of it, but I'm sure he impacted him.

01:04:24

And this is what fathers and mothers do.

01:04:27

Whether you're fathering or mothering a child

01:04:29

who is at risk or somebody you're a mother figure for,

01:04:32

you just want to give him insight.

01:04:34

I've tried to deal with my kids,

01:04:35

and I'm so thankful where my kids ended up

01:04:38

in the midst of all my issues.

01:04:40

They've turned out really, really well.

01:04:43

And I've seen the marks of my teaching on them,

01:04:46

not just because they all know Jesus

01:04:48

and they're walking with Jesus, but also

01:04:50

they're all in pretty good shape financially

01:04:52

because I drilled into them,

01:04:54

"Do not go into credit card debt. Don't.

01:04:58

And buy an old broken down jalopy

01:05:00

before getting yourself into a 5, 6, 7 year car loan.

01:05:04

Don't, don't do it."

01:05:05

Just wisdom that I've learned that I've passed on.

01:05:08

It's what parents do, what ever wisdom of, like,

01:05:11

who's the kind of person you should date?

01:05:13

A lot of us, a lot of us have had

01:05:15

a really hard marriage

01:05:16

and maybe a really painful divorce,

01:05:18

because our parents didn't help us out at all

01:05:21

in choosing a mate and giving us wisdom

01:05:23

on what somebody should be like

01:05:25

and what we might want to say on a date, all that stuff.

01:05:28

Parents give wisdom.

01:05:30

And then also parents that give painful discipline.

01:05:37

Of all my foibles,

01:05:38

I've got some really bad discipline moments.

01:05:40

I think all my kids would say on the whole,

01:05:42

dad did a really good job on this.

01:05:44

And when I say painful discipline,

01:05:46

I don't mean putting pain on your kids.

01:05:51

I mean for us as parents, when we discipline,

01:05:54

it's painful, hard on us.

01:05:58

This is the barrack area of this city.

01:06:02

It's where the military would have been.

01:06:05

It's where David might have been

01:06:07

most accustomed to being with the men,

01:06:09

with the warriors.

01:06:10

And one of the things that every military warrior has

01:06:13

is a good level of discipline

01:06:15

because it's been drilled into them,

01:06:17

because if they don't understand the right things

01:06:19

and do the right things, they will die on the field of battle.

01:06:23

This is why parents discipline their kids,

01:06:26

they want them to live a long, prosperous life,

01:06:29

as David said to Solomon on his dying deathbed.

01:06:33

And it's hard.

01:06:34

I don't mean hard painful on your kids

01:06:36

so much as it's hard for you.

01:06:37

Every time you discipline your children,

01:06:40

your life is the worst, right?

01:06:42

You ground your kids,

01:06:43

and now they're got to stick around the weekend

01:06:45

and you don't really want to be there on the weekend.

01:06:47

They do something really stupid with the car,

01:06:49

and you got to take the car keys,

01:06:50

and now you got to get back

01:06:51

to shuttling them all over the place.

01:06:53

It's painful for you, but you do it anyway

01:06:57

because you love your kids and you want the best for them.

01:07:00

That's what fathers and mothers do.

01:07:02

Hebrews 12:5-6 teased this out.

01:07:05

It's what God does for us.

01:07:06

It's painful when we're disciplined,

01:07:08

but God does it because He's a good parent.

01:07:10

Here's what it says, Hebrews 12:5-6:

01:07:26

If you want to be in the family of God,

01:07:27

you're going to get fathered by Him,

01:07:29

which means you're going to get disciplined by Him.

01:07:34

Maybe of all these disciplines, this one

01:07:36

might be the most yearned for and longed for by people.

01:07:40

Everyone wants to be mothered and fathered.

01:07:42

These days at Crossroads I'm leaning into

01:07:46

my father identity more than any one else.

01:07:50

There's an organizational dynamic to Crossroads.

01:07:53

It's a large organization.

01:07:54

We've got a large budget, there's a lot of staff,

01:07:56

and there is some business elements.

01:07:59

You've got to balance the budget,

01:08:02

not just go into more debt. You've got to balance it.

01:08:04

You've got to get the right staff in,

01:08:07

and you've got to invite the wrong staff to get off staff.

01:08:10

You've got to figure out vision, strategy, objectives.

01:08:13

There is a CEO type of function in my job,

01:08:17

but when I'm making decisions these days,

01:08:19

I'm thinking mostly about a father.

01:08:21

What do I do as a father?

01:08:23

How do I father the staff?

01:08:26

How do I father the people who I'm building into spiritually?

01:08:28

A couple of examples.

01:08:30

I've got a guy who I've been in

01:08:32

a men's group with for a while.

01:08:34

He's got an infant child who's having significant issues.

01:08:38

Intensive care, just tough, tough stuff.

01:08:43

And so I'm paying special attention to call him

01:08:45

and encourage him and affirm him.

01:08:48

When I call and ask him how he's doing,

01:08:50

he always picks up, which is really strange

01:08:54

because this is a very, very busy guy.

01:08:57

And I know there's a high percentage

01:08:58

of calls that he doesn't pick up.

01:09:00

He picks up later when it fits into his schedule.

01:09:03

He always picks up for me.

01:09:04

I think it's because he notices, "Hey,

01:09:07

BT is calling me.

01:09:09

I think it's going to give me a shot of fatherhood,

01:09:11

a shot of encouragement,"

01:09:12

and that's exactly what I do.

01:09:15

And I call him, I could hear him on the line.

01:09:17

He's kind of -- he's getting weepy because

01:09:19

I'm saying, "Hey, dude, you're doing a great job.

01:09:21

This is a this is a moment where men rise up

01:09:24

and you're leading your family well,

01:09:26

you're doing great. I'm proud of you."

01:09:29

And I could tell it affects him

01:09:30

because I'm fathering him in that time.

01:09:34

There's a guy who reached out to me,

01:09:36

and he was a pastor and basically got --

01:09:41

Well, he's not at his church anymore.

01:09:42

And so we've been texting back and forth.

01:09:44

I've been trying to encourage him.

01:09:45

Some time later, just a few weeks ago, actually,

01:09:48

he showed up at Crossroads, came up afterwards

01:09:50

and came down front.

01:09:51

I stayed down front wherever I preached at Crossroads

01:09:54

because I want to father people as they come forward.

01:09:56

I want to pastor them, answer their questions, pray for them.

01:09:59

So he comes forward. I've never seen him physically before.

01:10:02

And he says, "Hey, I'm the guy who--"

01:10:04

"Yeah, oh, good."

01:10:05

And as we were talking, something in that day

01:10:08

really hit him hard, I could tell.

01:10:11

And so as he turned around, as he was leaving,

01:10:14

my DNA, my primal DNA kicked in.

01:10:18

And it was like the Spirit of God said to me,

01:10:21

"Father, this guy."

01:10:22

And I said, "Hey, hey, just a minute."

01:10:24

And he turned around and I pulled him towards me,

01:10:27

and I put my hand in the back of his neck.

01:10:30

And I got close to his ear and I said,

01:10:33

"You're going to be fine."

01:10:35

And he just, like, melted right before me.

01:10:41

Did he react like that because

01:10:42

God gave me the exact words to say to him,

01:10:45

and that's why he melted?

01:10:47

Did he act like that because I was being

01:10:49

a father figure in that moment

01:10:51

and that's exactly what he needed? I don't know.

01:10:54

All I do know is in that moment,

01:10:56

I put on my father identity, I leaned into it.

01:11:00

Man, we start with David.

01:11:02

The first incident in his life is he's a son

01:11:05

who isn't treated like a son.

01:11:07

The last incident of his life

01:11:08

is when he's a father who's trying to finally

01:11:10

saying something to his son like, this is it, man.

01:11:14

Beginning and ending of all of our identities

01:11:16

is walking our sonship, walking as a parent before God.

01:11:20

And I'm going to tell you right now,

01:11:21

our world has never, ever been more in need

01:11:24

of more people who are secure

01:11:27

as the son and daughter of God. Never.

01:11:29

And our world has never, ever before

01:11:31

been more starving for father and mothers

01:11:35

than we are right now.

01:11:36

It's time for you to rise up, dust off that DNA.

01:11:39

It's in you. Dust it off.

01:11:41

Put yourself in the game.

01:11:43

God's people need you to be who He has created you to be.

01:11:50

- Hey, thanks for joining us today.

01:11:51

If you don't have it,

01:11:52

make sure you get the Crossroads Anywhere app.

01:11:54

It has all kinds of good stuff,

01:11:56

location based opportunities just for you,

01:11:58

you can catch up on content you've missed,

01:12:00

you can pray for others, you can ask for prayer,

01:12:03

you can read scripture, you can even journal,

01:12:05

and the list just goes on and on.

01:12:07

I particularly love the journals because

01:12:09

I've wondered before like, "Hey, what's Brian Tome

01:12:11

think when he reads the Bible in the morning?"

01:12:13

You can answer that question for yourself

01:12:15

and see how he and other people on our community

01:12:18

and on our staff team are reading the Bible

01:12:20

on their own, and you can put your own journal in too.

01:12:23

Download the app on Google Play

01:12:25

or the App Store today.

01:12:27

Now, don't miss next week on Real Encounters with God.

01:12:32

- Next week on Real Encounters with God,

01:12:34

we uncover David as a friend

01:12:36

and how we are all wired to be friends

01:12:38

and need friends like David's mighty men in our lives.

01:12:43

The six essential identities God

01:12:45

has woven into our primal DNA

01:12:47

are the key to having a life that works.

01:12:50

Don't miss out on discovering your spiritual roots

01:12:53

and unlocking the God given identity of friend within you.

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