What Do You Trust? | Rock Solid Week 4

The status quo just isn’t cutting it anymore. Everybody and everything is flawed and broke—no surprise there. If that’s the case, how do we know what to trust? Which messages should we listen to, and which should we reject? Turns out, Jesus had an answer to that—and it often meant turning the religious norms on their head. Join us as Brian talks about how we can have a clear, solid foundation for our lives.

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    - He is the cornerstone.
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    It doesn't move, it doesn't budge, you can't break it.
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    Whereas I and you are merely vessels of clay.
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    - Hey, I'm Kyle. Welcome to Crossroads.
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    We're here solely to help guide and equip you
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    for the adventurous life that God has for you.
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    Now there are some things that are a virtual certainty,
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    right? Like death, taxes,
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    all three Spider-Mans in the new Spider-Man movie,
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    but one that's not talked about so much
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    is struggling with faith.
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    We're talking about this current phenomenon
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    called deconstruction
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    and how it's affecting so many of us
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    and the faith that we have.
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    Today our senior pastor, my mentor, Brian Tome,
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    is going to help us through this.
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    - Hey, I'm Brian, great to be with you today.
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    We're ending our series on Rock Solid,
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    and this message actually ties really well
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    to the last message
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    where we talked about deconstruction.
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    What is deconstruction?
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    Deconstruction, as I'm defining it
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    is allowing your doubts and the doubters
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    to destroy your faith.
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    We live in an age of skepticism.
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    People love to be cynical.
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    People love to find fault in things,
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    find fault in people, to see the flawed logic,
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    to call hypocrisy whenever we see it.
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    And we get so used to trying to see through somebody
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    that we never actually see something
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    that we want to build our life on.
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    C.S. Lewis, who was later in life
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    a convert to Christianity and wrote amazing books.
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    C.S. Lewis said this:
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    There is this great fixation that many have
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    of finding faults in faith,
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    finding faults in Christendom,
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    instead of actually building our life.
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    What are we trying to see?
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    What are we trying to hold on to?
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    What's our life becoming?
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    I don't see many deconstructionist
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    who see through the false claims of Christianity
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    and then build a great life.
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    Cynicism and skepticism is a foundation
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    that is not stable enough that's going to enable you
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    to get as high as you actually want to get.
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    See, the problem for many of us
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    is not so much with Jesus.
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    The problem is with the people who represent Jesus.
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    People will always let us down. Always.
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    People are flawed individuals.
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    People who align themselves with Jesus,
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    who talk about Jesus, like me, I am a flawed individual.
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    I want to tell you right now,
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    do not place your faith in Brian Tome.
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    I'm doing my best to follow Jesus
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    with all my life and all my heart,
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    and I'm doing better at it today
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    than I was five years ago, than I was 20 years ago.
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    But I'm just telling you right now,
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    if you're looking for somebody
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    who has doesn't have any faults, don't look here.
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    If you're looking for somebody who's going to be
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    the foundation for your faith, don't look here.
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    You need to look to Jesus, not me
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    or any other pastor you may have heard of
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    or any other Christian author.
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    In the Book of 2 Corinthians 4:7-8,
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    the Apostle Paul talks about this dynamic when he says:
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    Apostle Paul says I have this great possession
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    of the presence of God,
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    of the very spirit of God in my life.
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    But it's inside of a jar of clay.
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    That's what we are, we're jars of clay.
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    Some of our jars look nicer than other jars.
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    Some of our jars are dressed up better than other jars.
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    But all of us are in a vessel that's very fragile
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    and very flawed.
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    Kind of crazy that inside of this vessel
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    of Brian's Tome God deposits the truth of Jesus
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    inside this vessel,
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    inside of your vessel, if you received Him,
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    God deposits the very Holy Spirit of God.
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    We are vessels that have amazing truth,
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    and yet they're just --
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    that was supposed to break, actually, it should.
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    And yet, let's try this one here,
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    and yet, I'll help this one.
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    And yet we're just vessels. That's all we are.
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    We're entities that are going to break
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    because we're flawed.
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    Now compare our fragility, if you will,
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    with actually The Rock of Jesus.
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    The Book of Matthew 21:42, Jesus said to them:
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    So Jesus contrasts himself with myself, with yourself.
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    He is the cornerstone, he's the foundation stone.
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    It's solid. It doesn't move. It doesn't budge.
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    You can't break it.
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    Whereas I and you are merely vessels of clay.
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    When Jesus says He's a cornerstone,
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    He's not just saying that He's hard,
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    He's stable, He's not going to crack.
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    What He's also saying is,
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    "Upon me will be built a movement
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    that will be going in the right direction."
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    And you, if you want your life to go
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    in the right direction, to go higher and higher,
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    you and I should build our lives on Him, on Jesus.
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    And when we don't have our lives built on Him,
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    we should deconstruct anything in our life
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    that isn't built on Christ alone.
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    - Quick interruption.
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    I'm going to talk about giving for 30 seconds.
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    Start the timer, go.
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    1 Thessalonians 5:18 says:
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    Give thanks in all circumstances
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    for this as God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
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    See, we believe that giving is
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    more than just cutting a check.
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    But it's actually a spiritual act,
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    one of the best way you can show your gratefulness to God.
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    Yearend giving is a big deal for a lot of non-profits.
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    And it is for us too.
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    By the way, for someone who gives, thank you.
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    This is only possible because of you.
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    And if you want to jump in, if you want to try giving,
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    we have options for you.
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    Go to Crossroads.net/giving.
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    - For our 25th anniversary we wanted to bless
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    a number of our reachout partners locally
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    and internationally by giving away
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    an additional $2.5 million.
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    We want to bless as we've been blessed.
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    What does $2.5 million look like in life change?
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    49,000 meals for the homeless in Greater Cincinnati,
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    1500 more impoverished children fed for a year
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    and assisted with education and spiritual development
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    in places like South Africa, Nicaragua, and Haiti.
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    After care for more than 100 girls rescued
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    from sex slavery in India and Nepal,
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    hundreds of children freed
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    from childhood slavery in Haiti.
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    It looks like additional investment in CityLink,
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    which allowed them to raise even more funds
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    towards the sustainable growth of their partners.
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    Through Undivided, thousands more people
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    to enegage in the work of racial reconciliation.
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    It looks like additional disaster relief help
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    for dozens of families impacted by storms, floods, and fires.
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    Ministry during and after incarceration
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    for hundreds of people and their families,
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    coaching and resources
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    for dozens of faith-based entrepreneurs,
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    healing and hope for dozens
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    of impoverished, addicted, and trafficked people
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    in the Price Hill area of Cincinnati,
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    25 more cars for people in a transportation crisis,
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    hundreds of individuals receiving the care
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    and services to overcome addiction.
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    Thousands of people around all of our sites
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    blessed by the church
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    by increasing the resources of non-profits in their local area.
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    And we are just getting started.
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    This is how we run.
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    Changing the world is a core part of who we are,
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    and your generosity increases hope
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    and fuels life change. This is God.
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    - I have a very -- it's kind of
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    a bit of a difficult time for me right now.
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    I've had two people close to me die.
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    One of them brought me to Christ. His name was Denny.
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    In high school, he brought me to Christ,
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    and then he disciple me,
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    and he mentored me in understanding leadership.
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    If you've ever been affected by my life at all,
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    you're on Denny's downline.
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    He's pretty -- a pretty impressive guy.
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    And Denny was a jar of clay.
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    Denny had problems, Denny had quirks,
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    Denny had hang ups, Denny had --
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    It was just as is with me, as with you,
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    as was with anybody, he was a jar of clay.
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    And yet he was able to bring people like me
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    to the foundation of Jesus.
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    Denny, he hired me one summer
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    to do a construction project.
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    He wanted to build an addition onto his house
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    and he figured oh, Brian --
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    Denny also didn't like to pay people a lot of money.
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    He didn't.
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    He wanted to cut corners financially whenever he could,
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    which is a good idea.
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    You should always try to be wise with your money.
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    So it's like, "Well, why should I hire a contractor?
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    I know Brian, he worked last summer in construction.
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    I'll just have him do my addition."
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    And so I ended up doing it.
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    It was a larger addition than the actual house itself.
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    And what was the payment terms?
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    The payment terms where he gave me his motorcycle.
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    It was a Honda Nighthawk 550.
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    He gave me his old couch and love seat.
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    And he gave me $500 a month spending money.
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    That's what he gave me.
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    I said, "Great, I'll take it. I'm all in."
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    I had to get the guy with a backhoe
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    to go into the side of his house
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    and start digging down and scraping back the house
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    where we were going to put the foundation.
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    And I learned something that day.
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    I learned why that original house had stucco on it,
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    white stucco, actually,
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    the actual technical term is dryvit.
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    Why it had that wrapped around the house.
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    It was because it was hiding the cracks
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    that were riddled through the house.
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    When we peeled away that dirt
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    on the very bottom of the foundation
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    where cinder blocks, you could put your fist through.
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    And those cracks continued up into the normal house,
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    you just couldn't see it built over with stucco.
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    So the first problem had to do is fix the foundation.
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    The blocks themselves were just rested on dirt.
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    They had no cornerstone.
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    There was no concrete footer for it.
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    So I had to go underneath that and dig it out
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    section by section, underpin it,
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    and put put some foundation there.
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    This is the way it is for us.
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    We could look really good on the outside:
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    Beautiful makeup, beautiful biceps,
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    beautiful financial accounts, wonderful looking friends,
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    wonderful looking, whatever.
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    We can look really, really good on the outside,
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    but it can also just be stucco
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    that's covering the cracks of our hearts.
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    The cracks of feeling like I'm unworthy,
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    the cracks of depression,
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    the cracks of the way we feel like we are failures
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    and we're not measuring up, the cracks of performance
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    of you have to keep doing and doing and doing
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    or else believing that God doesn't love us
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    and care for us, instead of the foundation
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    that Jesus already done for us.
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    He's already died on a Cross for me.
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    He's already performed for the Father
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    and I don't have to perform for the Father.
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    If I believe I have to perform for the Father,
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    I'm going to be very tired and very weary,
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    and there's going to be cracks in my foundation
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    because I'm not on the cornerstone
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    of the one who has done for me
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    what I can't do for myself.
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    Jesus was a Jew, and inside Judaism some people
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    would have called Him a deconstructionist
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    because He was challenging the status quo.
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    But He wasn't deconstructing Judaism
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    the way that some people are known
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    to deconstruct Christianity in that
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    He wasn't just trying to tear something down
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    and he wasn't -- and he was offering solutions instead.
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    He wasn't deconstructing Judaism.
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    But He says some things that are very challenging,
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    not just to them the first century, but to us today.
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    We're going to take a look at some of those things.
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    The Book of Matthew 5:17, here's what it says:
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    The ancient Jewish scriptures
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    are divided up into three sections:
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    the law, the prophets, and the writings.
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    The writings are the wisdom literature: Proverbs,
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    Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.
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    Those books no one really has much of a problem with.
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    They're pretty, pretty helpful standard stuff,
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    that's really, really good stuff.
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    But we tend to have a real problem with the law,
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    which is Genesis, Exodus,
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    Leviticus, Numbers Deuteronomy.
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    Those things in there, does that really relate to me?
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    Why is it say things about scraping mildew off walls,
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    or why did it say --?
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    Or the prophets, which is, you know, Jeremiah, Isaiah,
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    Malachi, Habakkuk, on and on and on.
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    And Jesus says, "Look, don't think I've come
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    to eliminate those hard parts of the Bible?
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    No, no, no. I'm not coming to eliminate those things.
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    I'm not coming to deconstruct those things.
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    I've come to fulfill those things, fulfill those things."
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    I believe in all Jesus says,
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    "All of it, I believe in it,
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    and I'm going to fulfill it."
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    And then what He does in the Sermon on the Mount,
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    He gives a bunch of things where He says,
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    "You've heard it said this" and He quotes the law.
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    "But I tell you this."
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    And then He'll say, "You've heard this,"
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    and then He quotes the law and says,
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    "But I'll tell you this."
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    Let's read some of those and see
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    is He deconstructing His faith
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    or is He doing something different?
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    Let's -- there's a bunch of them.
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    I'm just going to do a few of them.
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    Let's take a look at Matthew 5:27, Jesus says:
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    You've heard that was said.
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    Where it was said, it was actually said in the Bible.
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    But I say to you, I say to you--
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    You'd think He'd almost say to you,
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    "But I say to you, it's OK to have an adulterous affair."
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    Or I say to you it's OK.
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    No, He says, "I say to you,
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    it's not just about the adultery,
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    it's about your mind. It's about your eyes.
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    Are you looking at somebody with lustful intention,
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    lustful thoughts, having fantasies about them,
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    nurturing that, spending energy on that?
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    If so, you're objectifying that person
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    and you're hurting God because that's His child.
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    And you're spending energy on
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    a sexual fantasy that's not helpful,
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    and you can't build your life on the cornerstone
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    and have it go some place that way.
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    That's one example He does.
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    You've heard it said this, but I say that.
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    In other words, He takes it and He amps it up.
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    When I hear people deconstructing today,
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    they always deconstruct in a way
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    that makes their life easier.
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    They always take the standards of the Bible
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    and then they knock them down
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    to make them something that they like,
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    it'll be easier for them to fulfill.
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    Jesus, He articulates all the standards
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    of his Jewish faith, and bam, he bumps them up.
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    Let me give you another one. Verse 31:
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    So they had a common practice
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    in a male dominated society of husbands
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    doing whatever they wanted with their wives,
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    including divorcing the wife whenever he could.
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    This is part of the law.
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    There was official divorce procedure
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    that was in the law, in the scriptures,
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    and you would kind of write a divorce certificate
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    and then it was, you know, it was over.
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    But there was an official provision in the law,
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    but it was never an official provision in the law
  • 00:17:45
    that anybody for any reason, including just had a bad day
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    or I saw somebody better looking could just divorce
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    his wife and go on to somebody else.
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    But this is happening and people are actually
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    within the literal confines of their religion.
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    Jesus says, "You've heard this said, but I say to you."
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    He says, "I say to you, you can't have a divorce
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    unless there's sexual immorality that's taking place.
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    That's what I say to you."
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    See, again, He takes it and bam.
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    This not only elevates the status of women
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    and keeps women from being protected
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    and not being widows who are out in the street
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    in that ancient culture.
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    It also protects our heart
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    because what's wrong with the heart who wants
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    to divorce somebody that quickly
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    when God doesn't divorce himself against us?
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    That's a crazy thing.
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    God weds himself to you,
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    and you and I give him grounds for divorce.
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    And yet He stays wedded to us. Crazy.
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    Let's do another one.
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    Let's go down to verse 39, it says this:
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    Well, you know what?
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    Sometimes you know the Word of God is alive and active,
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    sharper than any double edged sword.
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    And I just realized here,
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    give to the one who begs from you.
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    I've got to admit that my general demeanor
  • 00:19:28
    with somebody who's begging on a street corner
  • 00:19:31
    is to ignore them and go by them.
  • 00:19:34
    This verse actually tells me
  • 00:19:35
    to actually give something to them.
  • 00:19:36
    I'm challenged by that. Hmm.
  • 00:19:39
    Don't you hate when the cornerstone
  • 00:19:41
    helps you see something that you've read over
  • 00:19:43
    a bunch of times?
  • 00:19:45
    You thought, Man, I can't remember the last time
  • 00:19:47
    I gave a person on a street corner money.
  • 00:19:50
    Hmm.
  • 00:19:52
    I've got all my reasons why not to do it,
  • 00:19:54
    but the cornerstone tells me I should.
  • 00:19:57
    Anyway, it says here you've heard it said
  • 00:19:58
    eye for eye, tooth for a tooth.
  • 00:20:00
    This is in the Bible, and it's meant
  • 00:20:03
    for people who are judges, have official positions
  • 00:20:06
    of being a judge to when they give out justice,
  • 00:20:10
    that when someone has lost an eye, they take an eye.
  • 00:20:12
    It's like equal, equal justice.
  • 00:20:15
    If someone j-walks, you don't want
  • 00:20:17
    that person having life in prison, right?
  • 00:20:19
    It's got to be an eye for an eye.
  • 00:20:21
    It's going to be commensurate.
  • 00:20:22
    But the problem is now everyone's
  • 00:20:24
    taking justice in their own hands, according to Jesus.
  • 00:20:26
    So, unless I'm an official judge,
  • 00:20:29
    that's not my job to judge somebody.
  • 00:20:31
    It's not my job.
  • 00:20:33
    Instead, I have to turn the other cheek.
  • 00:20:36
    I have to let them have their injustice with me.
  • 00:20:39
    Turning the other cheek is what that's known
  • 00:20:41
    or it also talks about if you're hit on the right cheek.
  • 00:20:45
    How are you hit on the right cheek?
  • 00:20:46
    You're hitting the right cheek with the backhand
  • 00:20:48
    in a right handed culture.
  • 00:20:50
    Jesus is not saying if you are physically accosted,
  • 00:20:54
    just allow somebody to beat you up.
  • 00:20:57
    He's saying when you're insulted, bam, a backhand,
  • 00:21:00
    that sort of back hand.
  • 00:21:01
    When you're insulted, don't feel like
  • 00:21:04
    you need to return insult for insult.
  • 00:21:07
    What would Jesus say about our social media,
  • 00:21:10
    our social media patterns,
  • 00:21:12
    just returning insult for insult.
  • 00:21:14
    He says instead, instead turn the other cheek,
  • 00:21:18
    live on a higher level.
  • 00:21:19
    Again, you've heard this and, bam, takes it up another.
  • 00:21:21
    Let me give you one more, verse 43:
  • 00:21:36
    Hate your enemy, hate the one who maybe is an oppressor
  • 00:21:38
    who's going to come across the border
  • 00:21:40
    with swords and kill you, in that context.
  • 00:21:42
    But Jesus says, "Look, I say, love them."
  • 00:21:44
    Here's the problem. The problem with us today is this:
  • 00:21:49
    as believers, if you're a believer,
  • 00:21:50
    if you're calling yourself on top of the Rock,
  • 00:21:53
    the problem is we're way more into our ideology
  • 00:21:56
    than our theology.
  • 00:21:58
    We're way more into our political ideology,
  • 00:22:01
    our racial ideology, our justice ideology,
  • 00:22:04
    or abortion ideology, or whatever ideology
  • 00:22:07
    is all across the spectrum, instead of our theology.
  • 00:22:11
    Our ideology is informing how we go to church.
  • 00:22:15
    Our ideology is telling us
  • 00:22:17
    what preachers to turn on, turn off.
  • 00:22:18
    When's the last time you actually opened up your Bible
  • 00:22:22
    in your theology and formed your ideology?
  • 00:22:25
    When I talk with people who have a problem
  • 00:22:26
    with certain things that that I may preach on.
  • 00:22:29
    "I just don't feel..." I say,
  • 00:22:30
    "Well, tell me what's your scripture verses for that?
  • 00:22:33
    Where's your biblical?"
  • 00:22:34
    (stammers) They don't have any so frequently.
  • 00:22:38
    If someone does have verses that's different than mine,
  • 00:22:41
    great, we can have a conversation about that.
  • 00:22:43
    But the number of people who have conviction,
  • 00:22:45
    who have ideological conviction,
  • 00:22:47
    not theological conviction and theological means,
  • 00:22:50
    theos, the study of God. That's what that is.
  • 00:22:53
    Theos, the word for God in Greek, ology, study of.
  • 00:22:56
    It's very, very weak and therefore --
  • 00:23:00
    therefore we're deconstructing
  • 00:23:03
    because we haven't had a foundation,
  • 00:23:06
    because we're weak, we're uninformed,
  • 00:23:08
    were ill formed spiritually.
  • 00:23:14
    We want to help your faith
  • 00:23:17
    this coming calendar year as it comes up.
  • 00:23:20
    We've got -- we have a spreadsheet
  • 00:23:21
    that a bunch of people work on
  • 00:23:23
    and we've been praying about
  • 00:23:25
    and we are going to work really hard in 2022
  • 00:23:27
    of increasing our biblical infrastructure.
  • 00:23:30
    We're going to look at books like Daniel, Philippians.
  • 00:23:35
    We're going to look at the Book of Genesis
  • 00:23:38
    and actually get our theology,
  • 00:23:41
    get our mindset right in this book
  • 00:23:45
    and equip you this year to be for yourself
  • 00:23:48
    inside of this book.
  • 00:23:51
    We want this because
  • 00:23:53
    we want you to be on the Cornerstone.
  • 00:23:55
    We want you to be on the Rock of Salvation.
  • 00:23:57
    We don't want you to be following jars of clay like me.
  • 00:24:00
    We want you to be following the actual Rock of Ages,
  • 00:24:03
    Jesus Himself, the Chief Cornerstone.
  • 00:24:06
    When you follow Him, you have a life that can build
  • 00:24:10
    and can soar and be rock solid.
  • 00:24:13
    Let me pray for you.
  • 00:24:14
    God, thank You for Your patience
  • 00:24:17
    with broken, cracked vessels like me.
  • 00:24:24
    Thank You for Your salvation and for Your foundation.
  • 00:24:32
    We serve You this week. Amen.
  • 00:24:36
    - That is exactly right.
  • 00:24:37
    Listen, your faith cannot stay personal.
  • 00:24:40
    If you want a secure foundation to live a life
  • 00:24:43
    that's founded on the solid rock,
  • 00:24:44
    you have to do it as a part of a
  • 00:24:46
    community. And that's exactly what this is.
  • 00:24:49
    There is a community, our online community,
  • 00:24:51
    that you can join and be a part of, jump into this week.
  • 00:24:55
    There's actually several things for you
  • 00:24:57
    to do to jump into it.
  • 00:24:58
    One, we believe in worship.
  • 00:25:00
    Outside of this experience, we've made a tool for you
  • 00:25:03
    to carry through your week.
  • 00:25:04
    We've actually mashed together two songs:
  • 00:25:06
    Doxology and God of the Breakthrough
  • 00:25:08
    and turn it into a video you can play,
  • 00:25:09
    you can sing along with throughout your week.
  • 00:25:11
    It'll be available right here and also on YouTube.
  • 00:25:14
    Also, we have a Night of Prayer.
  • 00:25:16
    Prayer is a powerful to experience.
  • 00:25:18
    If there's something you need prayer,
  • 00:25:20
    prayer's just something that's always felt weird,
  • 00:25:22
    I don't understand it, all that stuff.
  • 00:25:23
    Join us for a night of prayer on December 2nd.
  • 00:25:26
    And last, we need mentors.
  • 00:25:28
    We need people who can lead others.
  • 00:25:30
    We've got a lot of volunteers coming out of The Journey
  • 00:25:32
    and there's a lot of people to care for.
  • 00:25:34
    If you're somebody who's feeling called
  • 00:25:35
    to take a step forward to mentor others,
  • 00:25:38
    we would love to hear from you.
  • 00:25:40
    You can find details about all that stuff
  • 00:25:41
    at online.crossroads.net.
  • 00:25:43
    And by the way, if I can help you with anything,
  • 00:25:46
    you can always e-mail me kyle.ranson@crossroads.net.
  • 00:25:49
    And you've got a story of gratitude,
  • 00:25:50
    something God's doing in your life,
  • 00:25:52
    it's that season, I would love to hear it.
  • 00:25:54
    That's it for now.
  • 00:25:55
    We'll see you next week on Crossroads.
  • 00:26:22
    - We all are in search of peace this time of year.
  • 00:26:27
    Come and here the Christmas story
  • 00:26:28
    told through unexpected eyewitnesses
  • 00:26:31
    and gain a new, peaceful perspective
  • 00:26:33
    on a familiar story.

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

Welcome to the Weekend Follow-Up. Let’s get started!

  1. Would you have more fun smashing clay pots or taking a pottery class and making them?

  2. Read 2 Corinthians 4:7. How would your life change if you thought of yourself as a jar of clay?

  3. Read Romans 12:2. Do you find yourself putting your faith in other people, in ideologies, instead of the theology of God? If so, how does thinking of that person or that ideology as a fragile clay jar change your perspective?

  4. Brian gave numerous examples of how Jesus deconstructed the faith upwards, how he raised the bar, rather than lowering it. What’s an area of your faith you could “raise the bar” in this week?

  5. Now close your time in prayer. Here’s an example: “Lord, thank You for giving us your Son, who not only saved us but gives us a firm foundation to build our lives on in this world. Give us the discernment and the wisdom to rely on You and Your word rather than the ideologies of the world. Amen.

More from the Weekend

Read John 1:14. At Crossroads we’re about the power of God who transforms lives. Everyday we’re getting outside ourselves trying to make a difference in the world. One way we do this is partnering with organizations who literally are changing the world everyday. If you want to jump in and start giving risk free, you can try the 90 day tithe test here.

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Nov 22, 2021 26 mins 50 sec

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