Rainforests and Deserts | How God Uses Every Season to Make You Look More Like Him

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- Hi, my name is Kearstin Ecklund

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and I am so glad that you are joining us today.

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Hey, I'm going to go ahead and get this out of the way.

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If this is your first time,

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it doesn't matter what you believe in God.

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It doesn't matter what you know about church.

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You are welcome here.

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This place was made for you and your questions,

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and we have a great service ahead for us.

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We're going to start out with worship,

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and all that is is singing songs to God and about God.

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I'll be back later to share some announcements

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about what's happening in our church.

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And then Brian Tome will be back, our Senior Pastor,

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to wrap up our series on Terrain.

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We're really glad you're here. Let's lean into worship.

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- You know it's a beautiful song, isn't it?

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And sometimes we sing the words

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and we don't know what we're singing.

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I just felt prompted just to make sure

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we understand what we're singing.

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What we're seeing, if you're saying this now, is like,

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I want to be deeper.

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I don't know anybody who doesn't say they want to be deeper.

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I don't know anybody who doesn't say

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that they want to go have more from God.

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I don't know anybody who doesn't say

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they want to understand more, go deeper.

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The problem is, many of us believe that's because

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I'm not getting the right preaching

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or I'm not getting the right worship experience,

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or I'm not having the right person do whatever for me.

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And those things may be true, but what this song says

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is if I want to go deeper,

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I have to want to be more like Jesus

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and Jesus suffered.

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He suffered, He suffered.

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Let me talk about this a little bit.

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It was difficult.

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And so this song is drawing a biblical principle

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of saying, "Okay, I surrender, I surrender, I surrender.

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I say, I want to be deeper, which means, God,

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if you want me to suffer because that's what Jesus did,

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I'm going to do it, and I'm not going to like it.

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But I do like going deeper. So God, take me deeper."

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I'm going to have the posture of surrender.

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Very few people want that and therefore

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there's a level of spiritual depth

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that very few people will ever have.

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But if you can sing this song

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and you actually can do this song, man,

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I'll tell you great things open up.

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So here we go. Let's go again.

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- Let's just do that chorus. Let's do that chorus.

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- These are dangerous, dangerous prayers, dangerous prayers.

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And I will just confess oftentimes

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when the suffering comes

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my first prayer is: God, make it stop.

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God make it stop.

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And it's way down on the list that I pray:

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God, make me stronger.

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God, would you meet me here?

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God would you teach me about the depth

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of the love of Jesus Christ

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in the midst of the suffering I'm experiencing?

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Friends, that we would become people who would first pray:

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Meet me, God, in my suffering,

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instead of make my suffering stop.

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What would change?

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What could change in your family?

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What could change in your work?

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What could change in your own life

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that we would be people that identify

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more with suffering than we do with comfort.

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God, would you hear our prayers?

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Would You hear the depth of us crying out

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for even more depth with You?

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- God, what makes us different

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than all the angels that You created

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is that we can choose, that we can choose to follow You.

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And so, God, would You see our choice to be here now,

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in this moment, breathing as us saying we want more.

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We want to encounter You, the living God, from the inside out.

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Would You see us here saying yes to You?

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It's in Jesus's name we pray. Amen.

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Y'all, this is so good.

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So good to be with you.

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If this is your first time, here's what you need to know:

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that this community loves to be in the presence of God.

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That's what this is right now.

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It's the community come together to sing about

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who God is and who we are because of Him.

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And that makes this place so rich.

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I'm excited for you to experience

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what we've got this weekend.

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Do me a quick favor. Say hi to somebody around you

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and then have a quick seat. All right?

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- Every Christmas, our community comes together

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to make a difference through the Christmas Gift Drive

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to show families they're not forgotten,

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to remind people that God sees them.

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You buy a gift for a child

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who might not get one otherwise,

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because their parents are either not around

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or in a difficult situation, like prison.

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But it's not about toys or wrapping paper.

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It's about hope showing up in unexpected places,

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in living rooms, in shelters, even in prison cells.

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Because when we give, we see Jesus at work.

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When we give, we see the world through His eyes.

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His love moves through us,

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through prisons across America,

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and through the communities and cities we call home.

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Be a part of what God is doing this Christmas.

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Bring hope to families who need it most.

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- It's officially Christmas season and I am so excited.

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I have had my Christmas trees up for the past two weeks,

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and it is because I am just so excited

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for this season to be generous.

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And that's exactly what the

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Christmas Gift Drive is all about.

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I don't know if you know this,

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but when a incarcerated person

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is able to interact with their family,

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their likelihood of being

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re-incarcerated goes down by 33%.

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That's insane.

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And we have an opportunity to play a part in that exact thing.

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And so if you want to do that,

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you can play a part by going to Christmas Gift Drive.

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That's Crossroads.net/CGD.

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And you can go to the Amazon link. You just click it.

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Order your gift and it'll be shipped

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exactly where it needs to go.

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They get to actually choose the gift, wrap it

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and give it to their family member.

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And so the last day to do that is

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this coming Monday, November 24th.

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That is the last day to order your gifts.

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I hope that you will do that with me.

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Also this week we have our Thanksgiving Eve services.

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They're happening at all of our sites at 7 p.m.

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It's just a night of worship and teaching

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to remember the reason for the season

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and find peace in chaos.

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I don't know if your schedule is like mine,

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but it is packed to the max with dinners

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and family coming in town and all of the things.

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And this is a night just a slow down

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and be grateful for what's happening in our lives.

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And so we hope that you will join us.

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We are live streaming at crossroads.net

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and having it at all of our sites at 7 p.m.

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Next week we are kicking off a new series.

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It's called Christmas at the Movies.

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We've done it the past couple years.

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Last year they taught on Die Hard.

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I still don't understand who thinks

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that's a Christmas movie, but whatever.

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This year's lineup is fire.

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I can't wait for you to see it.

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- Christmas at the Movies.

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- What up? Grinches.

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- I know some of you really wanted me to do Die Hard today.

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I know you did.

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God Bless America.

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- Hallmark style movies.

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I can't wait to jump into it.

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A Christmas movie about a sexy snowman come to life.

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- Merry Christmas Crossroads.

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- I am a big city corporate woman.

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- You're right.

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- To rich men! Yes.

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- This is something that I think God wires into us

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is the desire for fun.

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- Merry Christmas.

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- It's going to be a lot of fun. It is.

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And today actually could be a lot of fun as well,

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because I think I'm going to unlock something for you

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today that you might not have understood

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and maybe didn't even know that you needed to understand.

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So let's pray before I go any further.

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God, thank You for giving me just the privilege

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of talking about things that I love talking about,

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and talking about things that come directly

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from Your Word and are helpful to Your people.

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I pray that you would give the right thing

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to the right person at the right time today,

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and help me be in tune with Your Spirit to deliver it.

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And I pray these things according to

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the character and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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Hey, by the way, my name is Brian, if we haven't met.

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For about a month I haven't been on this stage for a bit,

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but I've been working my noogies off for you.

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We had Revival. How many Revival folks?

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When we had Revival, working all weekend Revival.

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Man Camp working all weekend at Man Camp.

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And I haven't prayed a prayer like that

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here at this stage for a few weeks.

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But let me tell you, some of you go like, huh? What?

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What is that character and identity of Jesus?

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What's that come from?

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Jesus says, if you want anything done in prayer,

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ask it in My name.

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And what that means for most people is

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when they get done with their prayer,

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they tack on in the name of Jesus I said, Amen,

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the name of Jesus. Fine to say it. No problem saying that.

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But many people don't understand what Jesus was saying.

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He wasn't saying put on the end of your prayer

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in the name of Jesus. Amen,

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and then you'll have a higher hit rate of yeses.

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What Jesus was saying was you have a higher hit rate

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of yeses if you understand who I am and My name.

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To know someone's name in the ancient world

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was to know somebody's identity.

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My name is Tome.

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Someone in my family lineage had the identity

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of having a large volume of books,

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maybe a librarian or something like that.

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Your name is Smith.

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Someone would know something about you by your last name

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because your dad or you were a blacksmith

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or a silversmith.

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So when Jesus says, pray in My name, He's saying,

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pray according to who I am, My character, My identity.

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And when you pray that way, you'll be assured

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that I'm really interested in what you're praying for,

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and you might have some more yeses.

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Now, how does this relate today?

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The thing God wants for you more than anything else,

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I'm going to -- I'm going to bum a lot of you out.

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God isn't really concerned whether or not you're happy.

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He's not really concerned that

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you don't have the life that you don't want to have.

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He's not really all that into

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whatever you think you want God into.

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Let me tell you what God's into.

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Just going to lock everything.

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The thing that God wants for you is for you to look like Him.

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Everything, everything God does

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in your life is for that purpose.

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It might bless you. It might.

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It might make things better for you.

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He might make things harder for you.

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But all of that is because what God wants

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is for you to look like Him.

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That's what he's about.

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And many of us just have this real hard time

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understanding God because we don't understand that about Him.

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And therefore there will be different things

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He will do in different seasons, and the reason being,

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because He's trying to develop you spiritually,

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He's trying to form you.

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Different seasons are important.

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Different terrains are important.

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I believe in different seasons.

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I believe in the separation of seasons.

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I believe that Christmas should be separated from Thanksgiving.

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I'm a big Thanksgiving guy.

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I'm a big Thanksgiving guy.

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Do not be putting up your tree before Thanksgiving.

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Just don't do it. Don't do it.

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Unless you're my wife and you're recovering from chemo

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and you want to, then fine. I'll let you do it

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because you're chemo girl. You can do whatever you want.

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But no, no, no, no.

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Let's enjoy Thanksgiving at Thanksgiving.

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And then let's enjoy Christmas at Christmas.

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And here's something we should all agree on.

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I know some of us think that Halloween is a horrible holiday.

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Let me tell you something though.

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If you put your Christmas tree up the day after Halloween,

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that is demonic. That's demonic.

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No, no Christmas stuff should be happening

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the day after Halloween.

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There are different seasons for different things.

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Now I'm going to give you two extremes today.

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Kyle did a great job talking about valleys and mountains.

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Two extremes because they need to --

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I think it's best they go together.

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Two extreme seasons or terrains,

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they are the rainforest and the desert.

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First big idea is this: God grows different things

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in different terrains.

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When He's going to do something in your life,

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He's going to put you in something different in your life

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so He can do something different in your life.

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Psalm 107:33 says this:

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He turns rivers into a desert,

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springs of water into thirsty ground,

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fruitful land into a salty waste,

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because of the evil of its inhabitants.

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He turns a desert into pools of water,

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parched land into springs of water.

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So based on the inhabitants, that would be you and I.

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Based on what condition we're in,

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He will put us in different seasons

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to do something that He wants having done.

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Because there's things He can do in a rainforest

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but He's not going to be able to do in a desert.

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There's things He can do in a desert in your life

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that He's not going to be able to do in a rainforest.

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Rainforest, man, we have the -- we have the desert

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we're going to talk about where things are dry

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and arid and difficult and hard and you feel alone.

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And then we have the rainforest

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where things are lush, where things are moist,

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where things are growing,

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where there's a saturation of water.

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First rainforest I was ever in was several years ago.

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Some friends and I went to New Zealand.

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New Zealand is an unbelievable place.

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If you didn't know that it was right beside Australia,

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you'd have a hard time finding it on the globe.

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It's a beautiful, strange, crazy place,

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which is why Peter Jackson of Lord of the rings fame.

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Is Peter Jackson, right? Yes. Okay.

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Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame, who created that,

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chose New Zealand because

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there's 7 terrains on the planet.

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And in this very small landmass, there's six.

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So when he went there to film Lord of the Rings,

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it was really the perfect concentrated landmass.

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We went and we we climbed Mount Doom,

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which is actually not called Mount Doom.

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It's called mount [mumbles] or something like that.

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So but that mountain was, that was a hike,

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let me tell you that was -- that was a bear

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get getting up on the top of Mount Doom

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where they threw the ring in and everything.

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By the way, there's not like magma in there right now.

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It's a dead volcano.

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But we went to a rainforest.

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Now, I said six of seven, six of seven.

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One of the terrains is desert.

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New Zealand is too small to have deserts and rainforest.

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Those two, like, they don't mix together at all.

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I have visually for visual representation behind us

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those two mashed together.

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They can't match together.

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They're very, very, very different, opposite.

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We stopped to get gas in these rented vehicles

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we were in with rooftop tents,

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and we were sleeping for two weeks in these things.

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And we were asked for what, where the rainforest was

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it's known as Fiordland National Park.

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And Fordland National Park, they said, "Oh, yeah,

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it's it's kilometer marker 54." I said, "Okay, fine, fine."

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I figured we'd drive down and kilometer marker 54,

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we would see just a sign Fiordland National Park.

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No, no, no, at mile marker, kilometer marker 54,

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as soon as we got there,

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we had to turn on our intermittent wipers,

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like, it was to the mile marker exactly.

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Like, here's where the moisture is.

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I thought that rainforests were like

00:33:12

these gusher rains coming down and constant mudslides

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and all this stuff.

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No, not the one I was in.

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It's a it's a constant mist.

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Like, if you're a Disney World

00:33:22

and you're underneath those misters, it's a constant mist.

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And things are lush and beautiful and perfect.

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So when you're in a rainforest,

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and God will put you in rainforest seasons of your life,

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you're going to find you have constant moisture.

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You just feel good. You feel spiritually hydrated.

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He's giving you new insights.

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You find that there are predictable boundaries.

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When you're in a moisture there's predictable boundaries.

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Like, God tends to not just poof, rainforest. Awesome.

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No, there's predictable things you do.

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You have a regimented time when you're praying.

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You have a Bible reading plan.

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You actually, this is going to be crazy,

00:34:02

you actually prioritize going to weekly corporate worship

00:34:07

because you know something different happens there

00:34:09

than when you listen to your Spotify worship list.

00:34:12

And it doesn't mean when you do things like that

00:34:14

that you're going to be in a rainforest.

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But it does mean if you want to experience a rainforest,

00:34:20

you have to be where God is

00:34:22

and where God most frequently

00:34:24

moves through those certain things.

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And when rainforests have sudden change,

00:34:29

like you're in it, you're in it like,

00:34:31

and then you're out of it.

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And that's the same way it is with deserts as we'll talk.

00:34:36

And in Scripture there is a lot of moisture stuff.

00:34:41

We've got the Garden of Eden and all of this sort of thing.

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And then we've got a lot on deserts.

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In the book of Deuteronomy 8:2,

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the two significant deserts there are in the Bible,

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in the Old Testament, it's 40 years of the nation of Israel

00:34:58

walking in the wilderness.

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Wilderness the same as desert.

00:35:01

It's high country. It's arid, it's rocky, it's craggy.

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And then the New Testament is Jesus's 40 days in the desert.

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Let me read for you the book of Deuteronomy 8

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where this 40 day desert comes.

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What's happening here is the nation of Israel.

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And John Tyson talked about this on Sunday at the Revival,

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if you were there a couple of weeks ago,

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where the nation of Israel has sent 12 spies

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into the Promised Land.

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This promised land, by the way, is a rainforest.

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It's basically a rainforest.

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It's described as a land of milk and honey.

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And they say these spies go, "It is.

00:35:36

It is milk and honey, massive clusters of grapes."

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It's a rainforest.

00:35:41

It's a lush environment that they are --

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They can't get over that God has told them

00:35:46

that this is going to be your land.

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But when they go in, ten of the 12 say, "Yeah,

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it's a land of milk and honey. Yes, yes.

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But these people are too big. They're too big.

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We can't do it."

00:35:56

And God is so discouraged that they are not faithful

00:36:02

to do the things that God is doing.

00:36:03

When God gives you something, He doesn't --

00:36:05

He tends to not just give you something,

00:36:07

He gives you the permission to fight for something.

00:36:10

You know, He doesn't just give you a marriage.

00:36:12

He gives you a person to go, "Hmm.

00:36:15

I might want to fight for that person.

00:36:16

I might want to ask them out. I might want to --

00:36:18

I might want to ask them questions. I might want that."

00:36:21

That's what He does.

00:36:22

And so when the Nation of Israel,

00:36:24

these ten of the 12 spies said, "We can't do, we can't do it,"

00:36:26

God realizes, "Okay, people are really ticking me off,

00:36:30

and I need to develop the

00:36:32

spiritual, the people of Israel."

00:36:34

So He puts them in a desert.

00:36:36

I told you the most important thing God wants to do,

00:36:38

He wants to develop you spiritually to look like Him.

00:36:41

He doesn't want to give you a good life.

00:36:42

If you have a good life, great. He's not against that.

00:36:45

The main thing of God is for you to look like Him.

00:36:48

You're created in His image and He wants you

00:36:50

to fully embody who He is to look like Jesus.

00:36:53

So here's what happens in Deuteronomy 8.

00:36:56

And you shall remember the whole way

00:36:58

the Lord God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness.

00:37:04

They're 40 years in the wilderness

00:37:06

until all the unfaithful people die off.

00:37:09

And the two spies and their descendants and Moses,

00:37:12

they're getting developed

00:37:14

while all these people are dying off.

00:37:16

God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness

00:37:18

that He might humble you. That He might humble you.

00:37:21

See, He's spiritually forming you.

00:37:25

Testing you to know what is in your heart,

00:37:28

whether you would keep His commandments or not.

00:37:31

Spiritual formation, making you like Him.

00:37:34

And He humbled you and let you hunger

00:37:36

and fed you with manna, which you did not know,

00:37:39

nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know

00:37:43

that man does not live by bread alone,

00:37:45

but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

00:37:51

So for 40 years, people are walking around the desert

00:37:55

and there's crazy things that are happening.

00:37:57

God's dropping bread from the sky.

00:38:00

Which is why, by the way, Jesus says,

00:38:02

"I am the bread of life."

00:38:03

He's tying Himself to this manna.

00:38:05

He's saying, "I was involved with God way back when.

00:38:09

And God's trying to form you, and I'm trying to form you."

00:38:12

And for 40 years, all they could do was go,

00:38:14

"I can't believe we didn't have faithfulness."

00:38:16

They're walking around.

00:38:17

"I can't believe that we kind of gave up

00:38:20

on the goodness and promise of God.

00:38:21

What was wrong? I can't --"

00:38:23

And one of the miracles God did is

00:38:25

He enabled their shoes to not wear out,

00:38:27

because that's all they could do is walk.

00:38:29

And when you're in a desert, let's bring it back to you.

00:38:33

When you're in a desert, you feel

00:38:35

like you're walking in circles.

00:38:37

You're aimlessly going around and like you just you can't.

00:38:42

You can't figure it out. You you have to endure it.

00:38:44

It's just not good at all.

00:38:47

Deserts aren't always a consequence of our own actions.

00:38:54

For Caleb and Joshua, two of the faithful spies,

00:38:56

Moses, their descendants, they didn't do anything to get.

00:38:59

They didn't deserve being in the desert.

00:39:02

But God was trying to form His people,

00:39:03

so they had to go through it as well.

00:39:05

We're not talking here about you reap what you sow.

00:39:09

There is a reap what you sow.

00:39:11

There are certain things if you do them,

00:39:12

you're going to have some very uncomfortable consequences.

00:39:16

That's not the kind of -- That's reap what you sow.

00:39:19

That's not a desert.

00:39:20

A desert is a prolonged season where you can't figure it out

00:39:25

and you can't feel God.

00:39:30

That's the thing that's really hard, difficult.

00:39:32

This is Jesus's story.

00:39:34

He has a rainforest and then a desert.

00:39:36

His rainforest is He gets baptized and He is all wet.

00:39:41

And He hears in his rainforest moment when He's baptized,

00:39:44

God says to Him, "This is My Son, whom I am well pleased,"

00:39:49

or "This is My Son who makes Me happy."

00:39:52

And then immediately, I'll read it for you.

00:39:54

In the book of Mark 1:12, look what happens here.

00:39:58

Mark 1:12 it says the time --

00:40:05

No, that's not the right one. Here it is.

00:40:08

The spirit immediately drove Him into the wilderness.

00:40:11

Again, wilderness is desert.

00:40:12

So the Holy Spirit, God, said, "You like this.

00:40:16

Good, it's time for you to be uncomfortable."

00:40:19

The Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.

00:40:22

And He was in the wilderness for 40 days,

00:40:24

being tempted by Satan.

00:40:26

And He was with the wild animals,

00:40:28

and the angels were ministering to Him.

00:40:33

So He is in this rough and rocky,

00:40:36

dry, uncomfortable terrain.

00:40:39

When you read this in Mark chapter one,

00:40:44

it's accurate what it says in there,

00:40:46

but you might have the wrong understanding of it.

00:40:48

It's two verses to describe what took place over 40 days.

00:40:55

It's not a linear, consequential two verses,

00:40:57

because in that one verse, when it says,

00:41:00

and the Spirit was ministering to Him,

00:41:02

angels were ministering to Him.

00:41:05

Let's look at the book of Matthew,

00:41:07

which is the longer, detailed version of what took place,

00:41:12

what took place with Jesus.

00:41:14

And just see exactly what what it is.

00:41:17

The end of these 11 verses says this.:

00:41:20

Then the devil left Him, and behold,

00:41:25

angels came and were ministering to Him.

00:41:29

So what that means is for 40 days

00:41:33

Satan is jacking Him up, trying to mess Him up.

00:41:37

And Jesus feels no presence of God.

00:41:41

Himself, He's God, He's the Son of God.

00:41:43

He's one with God, and yet no angels are ministering.

00:41:47

The angels come and minister to Him after.

00:41:50

And how is the evil one messing with Him?

00:41:52

Well, one of the things, one of the things he does

00:41:54

is he says, "Hey, you're hungry, aren't you?

00:41:56

Yeah. Why don't you turn these stones into bread?"

00:41:59

And Jesus understands the desert

00:42:01

that the nation of Israel one went through,

00:42:03

remember that verse I just read for you in Deuteronomy?

00:42:06

And Jesus quotes that wilderness experience

00:42:09

because he knows he's going through a desert experience

00:42:12

and he says, "Man doesn't live by bread alone."

00:42:14

He understands this.

00:42:16

And he's going through a hard, horrible time.

00:42:21

Horrible time.

00:42:23

God believes for His development,

00:42:25

I don't understand how Jesus needs developed,

00:42:27

but the Bible does say that

00:42:30

Jesus grew in wisdom and stature,

00:42:32

so there was some sort of growth process

00:42:35

even the sinless child who was born on Christmas Day

00:42:38

that we celebrate, some development

00:42:40

process He had to go through.

00:42:43

And it was hard. These four days were horrible.

00:42:46

Why do we think that we're not --

00:42:49

That we're exempt from hard, horrible seasons?

00:42:52

Why do we think that, like if it's hard,

00:42:55

then something's wrong? Why do we think?

00:42:57

Why do we think that this being close with God

00:43:00

means being close with comfort?

00:43:03

Friends, this is a lie. This is not true.

00:43:05

This is why people leave the faith

00:43:07

because they don't understand deserts.

00:43:09

God sticks us in the desert to find out

00:43:11

what we're made of and make us something better.

00:43:13

And a lot of us say, "No, I'd rather not be like You, God.

00:43:16

I'd rather not be like Jesus."

00:43:17

If Jesus has to go through a desert for 40 days,

00:43:21

if the nation of Israel had to go through one for 40 years,

00:43:24

why do we think something's wrong

00:43:26

if I'm going through one?

00:43:29

25% of the world is arid.

00:43:32

We shouldn't be surprised if 25% of our life

00:43:35

we feel spiritually dry.

00:43:38

It's a normal thing.

00:43:40

I want to be one person that tells you,

00:43:41

I want one person, "Hey, look. Hey, look.

00:43:44

It's okay if you feel like you're spiritually weak.

00:43:48

It's okay if you feel spiritually dry.

00:43:51

It's okay if you feel like you're going to give up.

00:43:55

It's okay. Just don't give up. Just don't.

00:44:00

Just keep walking. Keep walking because

00:44:04

a rainforest is going to come sooner or later

00:44:07

because God is going to develop you in a certain way."

00:44:11

It's a powerful thing, I'm telling you.

00:44:14

The reasons for the desert are rarely clear.

00:44:17

I say this, I don't know.

00:44:19

I don't know why God puts it.

00:44:21

What are the conditions God says, "Okay,

00:44:22

time for that person to go through the wilderness.

00:44:24

Time to go through"? I don't know.

00:44:27

One person, I was listening to a podcast said this:

00:44:29

Deserts are something that God initiates

00:44:32

and it's necessary for spiritual formation.

00:44:36

That person who said that, that was um --

00:44:39

Oh, that was me. I said that, I said, I said that.

00:44:42

I said that on the Carey Nieuwhof podcast. Yes.

00:44:44

Just making myself feel good about myself.

00:44:48

We don't know. We don't. We don't know.

00:44:51

We don't know why we're in a desert specific season.

00:44:55

Again, let me just so we don't miss categorize this.

00:44:58

The desert is not the normal depression we feel.

00:45:03

If you're depressed, it's horrible.

00:45:05

Figure it out. Hang on. Talk to people.

00:45:08

Desert isn't that.

00:45:12

I mean, you could be depressed in a desert. Yes.

00:45:14

But it's different.

00:45:17

It's different because God has you someplace

00:45:18

to develop you for a reason.

00:45:20

Again, it's not reaping what you sow.

00:45:22

If there's certain things that God wants you to do

00:45:24

and you're not doing those things,

00:45:26

you're just not going to have the lush, spiritual life

00:45:28

that you should have.

00:45:30

I'm not talking about that, though.

00:45:31

I'm saying there are --

00:45:33

This is a thing that God just wants to put you in.

00:45:36

This is not the spiritual malaise

00:45:39

that comes to everybody who doesn't have a prayer life.

00:45:44

This is not the spiritual malaise that comes

00:45:46

to everybody who doesn't read the Word of God.

00:45:48

It's called the Bible.

00:45:49

This is not the spiritual malaise that comes

00:45:51

to everybody who prioritizes everything else

00:45:54

on the weekend, other than attending

00:45:55

a corporate worship service.

00:45:57

And I'm not trying to, like, protect my business

00:46:00

or something like this.

00:46:01

I'm saying this is 2000 years of history of Christianity.

00:46:03

It's just the way it goes.

00:46:04

And we just don't honor that anymore.

00:46:06

And there's no surprises that we have

00:46:09

a spiritual malaise that exists

00:46:12

when we don't prioritize the things

00:46:13

that are biblically true and accurate.

00:46:19

You are going to go through times, though,

00:46:20

where you feel abandoned.

00:46:22

The National Institute of Health,

00:46:23

they say the word dessert originated

00:46:26

with an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic

00:46:29

that's pronounced D-S-R-T,

00:46:31

which means a place that was abandoned,

00:46:33

a place where you will feel abandoned.

00:46:37

Possible reasons for our dessert could be

00:46:41

someone else is sucking up our moisture.

00:46:45

You know, this was the way it was

00:46:47

with the spies and with Moses.

00:46:49

They were with a bunch of people

00:46:51

who just sucked up their moisture.

00:46:52

Everyone in community had to go through that.

00:46:55

You could be with a group of people or a person

00:46:59

and God is going, "That person's got to go through the desert,

00:47:02

and you happen to be with them, so sorry,

00:47:04

you're going through it, too."

00:47:08

The possible reason for desert is also

00:47:10

God's putting us in a boot camp for spiritual growth.

00:47:13

Man, there's nothing like being in hard situations to grow you.

00:47:17

We all know this, right? We all know this.

00:47:20

I mean, vacations don't grow us, vacations restore us.

00:47:23

Vacations are great, but there's nothing like

00:47:25

being in a real hard crucible situation

00:47:27

where you find out what we're made of

00:47:29

and find out what God can do in our lives

00:47:31

and we learn things.

00:47:32

So deserts are often those spiritual boot camp situations.

00:47:36

Deserts also remind us that the spiritual life

00:47:39

is not predictably up and to the right. It isn't.

00:47:44

Spiritual life is all different sorts of sorts of terrains.

00:47:47

The first desert that I understood

00:47:51

while I'd been through deserts

00:47:54

since I gave my life to Jesus at age 15, 16.

00:47:57

But the first desert I went through where I understood

00:48:02

at the beginning of it what was happening was,

00:48:06

uh, oh gosh, a little background.

00:48:09

I've been -- this last, last week I celebrated

00:48:15

being the first person on payroll of Crossroads,

00:48:18

starting the church, and been here for 30 years, 30 years.

00:48:22

So I think, believe it or not, when you understand

00:48:28

what God's most important is making you like Him,

00:48:31

I believe that God didn't bring me to Crossroads

00:48:34

to help start whatever, name things

00:48:36

or how many people baptized.

00:48:39

I honestly believe that God brought me to Crossroads

00:48:42

because He knew this is where He could grow me spiritually.

00:48:48

I honestly believe that God started Crossroads

00:48:50

just so He could put me in freaking deserts

00:48:52

and squash me and form me and grow me and also hydrate me.

00:48:56

I do, and I say for you, for you,

00:48:59

there's places where you are right now

00:49:02

where you don't understand you're there

00:49:04

because God wants you there to make you more like Him.

00:49:08

You think it's the thing. It's not the thing.

00:49:10

It's the thing that the thing is going to bring the thing.

00:49:13

Right?

00:49:14

The thing is going to bring you to be more like Jesus.

00:49:16

Like, "Oh, I hate this." Hey, God, again,

00:49:20

God will do anything He wants, anything possible

00:49:24

for His number one objective is --

00:49:26

Number one objective is to make you like Him.

00:49:31

And we can't look at like, "Well, someone else

00:49:32

is in rainforest, I wish I was there.

00:49:34

Oh, someone's is that desert. Sucks to be them."

00:49:37

God has them there for that reason for them,

00:49:39

He's doing the same thing with them He's doing with you.

00:49:43

So the first rainforest or, excuse me, the, um --

00:49:45

Well, yeah, the first desert that I knew

00:49:49

what was happening because I had now had some seasoning

00:49:51

was when we first went from rented facilities

00:49:55

into our own building in the original part of Oakley.

00:49:59

And, man, we just took off.

00:50:01

It was, uh, we doubled in three months.

00:50:03

We tripled in six months in terms of people coming.

00:50:06

And it was a lot of fun.

00:50:08

And it was crazy running around with your hair caught on fire.

00:50:11

And so we outgrew this 1200 seat auditorium that we had.

00:50:15

And, so just a few years later, we said, "Okay,

00:50:18

well, let's build something else to accommodate

00:50:20

all the people that God's bringing here."

00:50:22

So we built where I am right now, three level,

00:50:24

3500 seat auditorium.

00:50:26

And we said, "Let's not get caught flat footed this time.

00:50:30

Let's make sure we have enough staff,

00:50:32

because staff are there to build into people.

00:50:34

Staff are there to help people.

00:50:35

Staff are there to make sure we got the right stuff.

00:50:37

So let's hire enough staff from day one. Let's get."

00:50:40

So we build this big building, we get a bunch of staff.

00:50:43

Everything's going great.

00:50:44

We come in and nothing happens.

00:50:49

No one new comes. No additional people.

00:50:53

There was people, but not like unusual numbers of people.

00:50:55

Like it just --

00:50:57

And I would come into this room

00:50:59

and it was like babies in a boxcar.

00:51:02

It was like, no one in here.

00:51:04

And we've got our -- we got a larger mortgage now.

00:51:08

And then I go, "Okay, God, did we do this wrong?

00:51:12

Did we not pray enough? Did we not hear You in prayer?

00:51:15

Did we -- What? What is going on?"

00:51:16

And it was just this -- it was horrible.

00:51:20

I would come in to preach and I wouldn't turn around

00:51:22

and look around, because if I turn and look around

00:51:24

and see empty seats and I would just feel depressed,

00:51:26

I would feel like I was a failure.

00:51:28

I would feel like there's just something is not right.

00:51:32

I'd be reminded of it..

00:51:33

And it went on and on, and then it trickled into

00:51:36

other parts of my life.

00:51:37

It wasn't just like an empty room.

00:51:39

It it meant just -- And I just felt like,

00:51:41

God, are You -- are You and I just so apart now

00:51:46

that I don't understand Your voice and Your will.

00:51:49

And You don't see that I'm struggling here

00:51:51

and You're not -- What is--"

00:51:54

Now, of course, I knew as I'm talking with Him on that,

00:51:57

I knew what was happening.

00:51:59

I said, "Oh, I was --"

00:52:00

The last one I got caught flat footed

00:52:02

and I didn't know what it was.

00:52:03

When you know that you're in a desert,

00:52:06

you can categorize it and you can endure it

00:52:09

because I was like, "Oh, oh, okay,

00:52:11

this is one of those desert things, all right."

00:52:14

I was in that desert for two years.

00:52:18

Two years I was preaching the Word of God

00:52:21

without feeling the Word of God.

00:52:23

Two years I was reading the Word of God

00:52:25

in my own personal time with God

00:52:28

without warm shivers up and down my spine.

00:52:31

Not that I get that all the time.

00:52:33

Two years I was going to God in prayer,

00:52:36

I wouldn't hear nothing back. Nothing.

00:52:39

But I'm going to keep doing the thing.

00:52:41

I'm gonna keep doing the stuff.

00:52:42

But I just know it was hard.

00:52:45

It was very, very difficult.

00:52:46

I'm not saying I was living.

00:52:47

I wasn't living a double life.

00:52:48

It wasn't like that on the side I'm doing this.

00:52:50

I wasn't living a double life.

00:52:52

I just wasn't feeling it.

00:52:54

And that's what deserts are like, you don't feel it.

00:52:58

But on the other end, you start feeling a lot of stuff.

00:53:02

My desert break. Deserts come on somewhat slowly,

00:53:07

and then they break real fast. Thank god.

00:53:12

So my breaking was a couple things that took place.

00:53:15

And I just shared this, go like, you'll --

00:53:17

Just to educate you for how this happens with you.

00:53:20

There's generally a couple of things

00:53:21

that happen in rapid succession for me where I go,

00:53:25

"Oh, oh, oh, I think I'm out of it."

00:53:28

The first one was I had, at that time,

00:53:31

used to have open counseling appointments.

00:53:33

Anybody in the church could, we were thousands

00:53:35

of people at our church strong.

00:53:36

But the way I had ordered my schedule,

00:53:39

anybody could go in my office and I had

00:53:41

two half hour blocks a week, and I would sit down

00:53:43

and just talk with whoever for a half hour.

00:53:45

It was good. It was healthy.

00:53:47

And this woman comes in and she's got these, uh,

00:53:53

well, just -- you just start the story is hard.

00:53:56

She's got this stack of journals, spiral or, like,

00:54:02

like the spiral things you'd get at a drugstore.

00:54:05

And she comes in. She's -- It's her journal, she said, hey.

00:54:09

We had had a campaign to build the the building

00:54:13

that we're in right now and other facilities

00:54:17

that all of us are in our Crossroads

00:54:19

or even if you're online,

00:54:20

built that technological infrastructure as well.

00:54:22

So she had contributed and she came in and she said,

00:54:25

"You know, I just want you to know, I haven't --

00:54:27

I haven't come to Crossroads for two years,

00:54:30

but I'm still faithfully fulfilling my commitment."

00:54:32

I was like, "What do you mean

00:54:34

you haven't been coming to Crossroads for two years?"

00:54:36

"Well, I don't make a lot of money.

00:54:38

And so I gave in such a way

00:54:41

that I wouldn't be able to afford the gas

00:54:43

to drive a half hour to my church and back."

00:54:48

What? I'm thinking that's crazy. Like,

00:54:52

"I'll buy your gas." Should have said something, right?

00:54:58

She said, "No, no, no. It was good.

00:54:59

It's been really -- It's really good for me.

00:55:02

And I felt God was asking me to come and encourage you."

00:55:06

She said, "Here's here's the last two years of my journals,

00:55:09

my personal prayer journals with God.

00:55:11

And every day I set aside a dollar."

00:55:14

And paper clipped on every individual page

00:55:18

was one single dollar bill for 365, times two for 730.

00:55:28

So I just wanted to pay and give for this last two years.

00:55:34

And like the faithfulness.

00:55:36

Like, it wasn't about the money, but it was like,

00:55:38

"Oh my gosh, this woman,

00:55:40

the level of faithfulness this woman has."

00:55:41

And when you're in a desert,

00:55:43

you feel like you're all alone.

00:55:44

Like no one's trying to follow God.

00:55:46

Like no one's putting one foot in front of the other.

00:55:48

And I saw this woman who obviously was beyond me

00:55:51

doing crazy stuff, and I was like, wow.

00:55:53

Hit me really hard, really hard.

00:55:57

And then the next day, I think it was the next day,

00:55:59

if it wasn't it was real close to that.

00:56:01

I was reading in my normal Bible time,

00:56:04

not getting ready to preach, just my normal Bible time,

00:56:06

2 Corinthians 11:23-28, where the apostle Paul,

00:56:12

he basically talks about his difficulties and his deserts.

00:56:19

Sometimes he talks about the wound of the thorn,

00:56:23

that there's something in his side he can't get out.

00:56:26

That's kind of what a desert feels like.

00:56:27

I just can't get out of the desert.

00:56:29

And here's here's what he says. He says:

00:56:30

I've been through imprisonments with countless beatings,

00:56:34

often near death.

00:56:35

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews

00:56:38

the 40 lashes less one.

00:56:40

Three times I was beaten with rods.

00:56:42

Once I was stoned.

00:56:43

This is not the fun kind of stoning.

00:56:46

Once I was stoned.

00:56:47

Three times I was shipwrecked;

00:56:49

a night and a day I was adrift at sea;

00:56:51

on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers,

00:56:53

danger from robbers, danger from you, Will Robinson,

00:56:56

danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles,

00:56:58

and lions and tigers and bears, Oh, my,

00:57:00

dangers in the city, danger in the wilderness,

00:57:02

danger at sea, danger from false brothers;

00:57:05

in toil and hardship, through many sleepless night,

00:57:09

in hunger and thirst, often without food,

00:57:12

in cold and exposure.

00:57:15

Here it comes. And apart from other things.

00:57:19

As if like the worst.

00:57:21

There is the daily pressure on me

00:57:24

of my anxiety for all the churches.

00:57:27

He says, basically says, I'd rather be

00:57:30

beaten with a rod naked than be in church work.

00:57:36

And what he means by that is there is anxiety

00:57:39

when you're dealing in the people business.

00:57:42

When God is forming, people and people are,

00:57:44

some are in a in a desert, some a rainforest,

00:57:47

there is difficulty that comes.

00:57:49

And when I read that it was like God,

00:57:51

it was like God said to me.

00:57:52

He said, "Brian, it's okay for you

00:57:56

to have been the way you've been doing.

00:57:58

Ministry can be really hard."

00:58:00

I'm not saying it's as hard as other jobs and other ways.

00:58:03

I'm not trying to say that.

00:58:04

I'm just going, God met me and ministered me.

00:58:06

My normal Bible reading was like, "Hey man,

00:58:08

give yourself some grace.

00:58:10

Stop beating yourself up."

00:58:11

Because that's what I was doing.

00:58:12

Being like, "What is wrong with me?

00:58:14

Am I really going to let an empty building bother me?

00:58:16

Is that what my faith is about is

00:58:18

like filling people in a building?"

00:58:19

It was all this. And then He met me in this

00:58:22

and bam, I was gone. Like, bam, out of it.

00:58:25

Like, whoa, whoa whoa.

00:58:27

It was like I stepped out of that desert. Bam.

00:58:32

I stepped out of that desert.

00:58:33

They're not supposed to live right next to each other.

00:58:35

Man, I stepped in that rainforest and it was beautiful.

00:58:39

Full third big idea.

00:58:41

The reasons for the rainforest are normally clear.

00:58:47

The deserts never clear.

00:58:49

The rainforest is normally clear because

00:58:53

you don't accidentally get into a rainforest.

00:58:56

You may accidentally have some really good things

00:58:58

happen in your life, and that's wonderful.

00:59:00

But again, God isn't into really good things

00:59:04

happening in your life,

00:59:05

only if, what's this thing? What's that?

00:59:08

You should all know, I've said a lot.

00:59:11

No one else in culture is going to tell you this.

00:59:14

So you tell me, what's the thing God's most interested in.

00:59:18

Making you look like Him.

00:59:20

Making you look like Him.

00:59:22

The rainforest, though, it comes --

00:59:26

In the rainforest we're talking about

00:59:28

when you feel spiritually saturated,

00:59:31

you feel like things are growing in you spiritually.

00:59:34

There's things that you've done

00:59:36

to increase the hit rate of that.

00:59:38

As an example, we fabricated a rainforest experience for you,

00:59:45

a potential for you to be having a rainfall.

00:59:47

It was called Revival. It was a couple weeks ago.

00:59:49

Anyone at Revival?

00:59:50

Revival people are still a bit saturated from that.

00:59:54

We spent hundreds and hundreds and hundreds

00:59:57

of thousands of dollars on that event to get you to God.

01:00:02

Hundreds and hundreds of --

01:00:05

And I'm not even talking about the millions

01:00:06

that have been spent on land.

01:00:08

I'm not talking about the ongoing salaries

01:00:09

of people to maintain land.

01:00:10

I'm not talking about that. But why?

01:00:12

Because we want to help you get developed.

01:00:17

And if you did, if you felt hydrated,

01:00:20

it's because you said, "Hmm. I want to go there."

01:00:23

By the way, that's why Revival is so powerful too.

01:00:25

We all have our reasons not to do something like that.

01:00:28

Whatever the reasons is: I'm busy.

01:00:29

I don't like be outside. I don't want to camp.

01:00:31

A lot of people come, come and don't camp.

01:00:33

So what happens is when you get all those people

01:00:37

who clear a hurdle and they come to attend.

01:00:39

What's happening, all the people there, they want God.

01:00:43

No one's there like clocking,

01:00:45

"Well, this is my church experience I just have to do."

01:00:47

Everyone who goes there and deals the traffic

01:00:49

and deal with it, they all want God.

01:00:51

And that's why when you're in that tent, it's like,

01:00:53

"Oh, what is going on here?"

01:00:55

Well, everyone is up for having

01:00:57

spiritual development take place.

01:00:58

Everybody is up for a rainforest.

01:01:01

Everybody wants God.

01:01:02

Everyone's on that journey.

01:01:04

And that's the power and potency of it.

01:01:06

That's what we felt. It was beautiful.

01:01:13

By the way, by the way, um, Kyle mentioned this last week.

01:01:17

Glad he did. We're doing well financially.

01:01:19

Thank you. Thank you very much.

01:01:21

And we've got a lot more to do, a lot to do.

01:01:24

One of the things that God does in history,

01:01:26

He does revivals and awakenings.

01:01:28

And if you study those as I have,

01:01:30

one of the common themes in all of those

01:01:32

is there's always an organization behind it,

01:01:34

and there's always a financial need, always is.

01:01:36

And revivals and awakenings go away

01:01:38

when the finances dry up.

01:01:42

I know that's not convenient for some of us.

01:01:43

We like to think that the Spirit of God just like

01:01:45

dumps the Holy Spirit in your neighborhood

01:01:47

and everybody's like, "Woo hoo! This is great."

01:01:49

No, there's like concerted effort to fight for it,

01:01:52

like I mentioned earlier.

01:01:54

George Whitefield is the greatest evangelist

01:01:56

in the nation of America, in the history of America.

01:01:59

You might think Billy Graham.

01:02:00

Yeah, Billy Graham had more people

01:02:02

he brought across the line of faith.

01:02:03

But Billy Graham also had a much more dense population.

01:02:06

And Billy Graham also had technology to broadcast

01:02:09

his voice and speakers and everything.

01:02:11

Not George Whitefield.

01:02:12

Pound for pound, he was the most effective evangelist

01:02:14

in American history.

01:02:15

From England, and he's going through the colonies

01:02:18

back in early America.

01:02:19

He would make multiple

01:02:21

transatlantic journeys to England.

01:02:23

Why? Because he had to get the resources

01:02:25

to keep the awakening going.

01:02:27

I just say that to say thank you for being faithful.

01:02:30

And a lot of us, we've yet to start on our 10X commitments.

01:02:34

Hey, come on, let's go, let's go, let's go.

01:02:35

You might go, "Ah, I'm kind of feeling. I'm not feeling it."

01:02:38

Yeah. You're in a desert.

01:02:39

In deserts you do things you don't feel like doing

01:02:42

for your own spiritual formation.

01:02:43

And for any of the rest of us, I would just look,

01:02:45

actually look around and go, "Wow,

01:02:47

there's a lot of rainforest stuff that's happening here.

01:02:49

I want to remember my church and I want to fuel that."

01:02:52

So please consider that for your spiritual growth standpoint,

01:02:57

not just for the needs of our church.

01:03:01

Now, Lib and I were talking the other day,

01:03:04

you don't -- you never really know where someone is.

01:03:08

And you could be in a rainforest

01:03:11

when the situations of your life are dire

01:03:15

and you could be in a desert when the situations

01:03:17

of your life are amazing.

01:03:19

You could you could own a super yacht,

01:03:22

and you could have all this stuff and not feel God

01:03:26

and feel like you're on your own.

01:03:29

And you can be in a really horrible situation

01:03:31

and really feel God.

01:03:32

I was talking to Lib the other day.

01:03:34

I said, "Honey, I feel --"

01:03:36

My wife just finished her last chemo treatment

01:03:41

a couple weeks ago. [applause]

01:03:43

And yeah, it's really good stuff.

01:03:46

And she doesn't, um -- she doesn't.

01:03:50

I mean, things are not good.

01:03:51

She's still having awful hot flashes.

01:03:53

Gonna take a couple more weeks for all the chemicals

01:03:55

to work their way out of the system.

01:03:56

She has horrible hot flashes.

01:03:58

She's got incontinence and things

01:04:02

that ooze out of her rear end at the wrong times.

01:04:04

Those of you who are -- I'm just saying that

01:04:06

to go like those of you who've gone through chemo,

01:04:08

you know what I'm talking about.

01:04:09

And for the rest of you, go, like,

01:04:11

there's weird stuff that happens that is horrible.

01:04:14

And she's been amazing.

01:04:16

Like my wife, the day after her last chemo treatment,

01:04:18

she went to Revival because she wanted to get some moisture.

01:04:22

And she slept on the ground for two nights during Revival.

01:04:26

My wife is a badass. She's an utter and complete badass.

01:04:30

And chemo has had horrible, horrible moments. Horrible.

01:04:36

I said, "Honey, I feel like in a rainforest.

01:04:39

Do you feel like you're in a rainforest

01:04:41

or you're in a desert?

01:04:42

She goes, "Oh, I'm in a rainforest.

01:04:43

No question. I'm in rainforest."

01:04:45

In spite of her horrible physical

01:04:46

things she's dealing with,

01:04:48

she feels the moisture of God.

01:04:51

And that's what I want for all of you.

01:04:53

But I want even more for you to look like God

01:04:58

and for you to participate in His process.

01:05:01

And I've tried to unlock for you who He really is

01:05:05

and what He really does.

01:05:06

And I'll just close with a word for those of us

01:05:09

who are struggling and those of us who are struggling,

01:05:11

you may be in a desert.

01:05:13

When you're in rainforest, you're never struggling.

01:05:15

You're like, "Oh yeah, I remember those days,

01:05:17

but whatever. This is awesome."

01:05:19

When you're a desert, man, you're struggling.

01:05:21

My friend John Tyson, the first person

01:05:23

who clued me in to this in deserts there are seeds

01:05:29

that are under underground,

01:05:32

that when there is moisture that comes,

01:05:35

there's what's known as a super bloom. This is one.

01:05:40

The vast, rocky, craggy, dry landscapes,

01:05:44

when the moisture comes, there is a super bloom.

01:05:49

Friends, those of you who are in a desert,

01:05:51

there is a super bloom coming for you

01:05:54

if you will understand and participate with the thing

01:05:57

that God is most interested in

01:05:59

and that is making you like Jesus.

01:06:03

And when you get on that path,

01:06:05

you start understanding life.

01:06:07

You don't just endure life, you start enjoying life

01:06:09

the way He wants you to.

01:06:10

Let me pray for you right now.

01:06:12

God, I pray for all those who are with us today

01:06:14

who've been in the rain forest.

01:06:16

Help us to enjoy it

01:06:17

and to get every amount of growth we can out of it.

01:06:21

And I also pray for those of us who are in the desert,

01:06:23

in the wilderness, who are dry

01:06:25

and it was an act of faith even to show up today.

01:06:28

Lord, I'm not going to ask that it ends.

01:06:31

I'm going to ask You to give us the endurance

01:06:34

to last until You choose for it to end.

01:06:38

I pray and trust that You will bloom things

01:06:40

in us that wouldn't happen any other way.

01:06:43

I pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

01:06:46

- I hope you are encouraged. I sure am.

01:06:49

If you are in a desert, God is still moving.

01:06:52

He still sees you. He is there with you

01:06:54

and your rain forest is coming.

01:06:57

We are just so, so blessed to have a God

01:07:01

that is with us both in the desert and in the rain forest.

01:07:04

I hope you're encouraged as well.

01:07:06

If you want to talk to someone,

01:07:08

if you want to connect with us, go ahead

01:07:10

and text anywhere to 301301

01:07:14

and we'll get you connected to a real person

01:07:17

to talk to you in whatever way that looks.

01:07:19

We're so glad you're here.

01:07:21

And remember to check out our Thanksgiving Eve service

01:07:24

this coming Wednesday

01:07:25

and Christmas at the Movies that kicks off next weekend.

01:07:28

See ya.

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