What Does It Mean to Be Blessed? | The Book Of Psalms Week 3 | Anywhere Service

Do you want to live a blessed and peaceful life? It might seem impossible to achieve this lofty dream today. This impossible-sounding life is actually possible by adopting a practice thousands of years old. Join Paco as he teaches us how fearing God can lead to a blessed and peaceful life.

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    - These six verses break down really
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    into four big spheres of life, right?
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    It's the individual, it's the family,
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    it's the church, and it's all of society.
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    And we're going to see what a life of walking
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    in the ways of the Lord actually looks like.
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    - Where are we in the Bible?
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    Let's begin at the beginning, shall we?
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    The Bible begins in the Old Testament,
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    written around 3500 years ago.
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    The first five books of the Old Testament:
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    Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy
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    are known as the Pentateuch, or books of the law.
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    The next 12 books: Joshua, Judges, Ruth,
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    1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings,
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    1 Chronicle, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.
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    Whew. That's a lot.
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    These are known as the historical books.
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    This brings us to the books of the Bible
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    known as the Wisdom Literature.
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    It starts with Job and then into
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    a collection of 101 poems known as the Psalms.
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    - There's a chapter in the Book of Psalms
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    that has really unlocked for me a way to drown out
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    all that chaotic noise
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    and instead find something better
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    that I can actually vibe and live my life doing.
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    Today, I want to show you where that is
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    and how that exactly works.
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    But first, quick question for you:
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    What did you want to be when you grew up,
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    like when you were a kid?
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    Like what did you want to be?
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    Did you want to be like an astronaut,
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    a teacher, a firefighter?
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    Me? I wanted to be all those things.
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    But as I got a little older, I started to realize
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    what I really wanted to do was I wanted to be a DJ.
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    Yeah, that's right.
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    I wanted to be on the turntables,
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    making great noises,
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    you know, doing the whole thing.
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    [scratching] You hear that? That's fun.
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    Now, these turntables and this rig is interesting
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    because the technology has, like, evolved over time.
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    So I'm going to try to turn this thing on
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    and see if it actually -- Oh, it works.
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    Oh, look at that. It works. It really works.
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    Let's see if I can actually, like, scratch.
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    I don't even -- I don't even -- [scratching]
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    Oh, you hear that?
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    Oh, look at that.
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    Let's try something.
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    Let's try this. [song changes]
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    It worked. It work --
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    I'm not going to play with these too much
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    because my DJ friends will actually
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    be in the comment section making fun of me.
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    But I wanted to be a DJ as a kid, right?
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    And I had friends around me at the time,
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    we had like a little crew or whatever.
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    And my good friend, he wanted to be a public speaker.
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    He wanted to inspire people through his words
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    and through speeches. Right?
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    I had another friend who was in culinary school
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    and he wanted to make incredible foods
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    and that sort of thing.
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    And then had another friend
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    who was like a really good rapper. Right?
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    Well, as life progresses, my rapper friend,
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    he actually became a school principal.
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    And so he's still inspiring people through words,
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    but not necessarily ones that rhyme. Right?
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    So he's leading thousands of kids at a high school, right?
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    And my friend who was in culinary school,
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    he actually became a really good rapper.
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    And he's written songs for artists
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    that are Grammy winners and, you know, doing his thing.
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    And my friend who wanted to be a public speaker,
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    he's actually traveled the entire world deejaying.
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    And well, me, I'm here with you. Right?
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    It's funny how life works.
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    There's one thing I've learned,
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    it's that life is complicated and it's messy
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    and it's super intertwined,
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    and it never goes as planned.
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    But I got to be honest with you, I tell you this,
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    I am at peace.
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    I am at peace with God. I'm content.
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    And I believe that I am blessed
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    beyond what I could ever imagine.
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    And as life never goes as planned,
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    one thing we can plan for is that
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    when we take God seriously and we walk in His ways,
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    there are benefits.
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    So as we unpack Psalm 128,
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    I want you to see this as a snapshot of
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    an ideal society, church, family, and individuals
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    who are experiencing peace and contentment.
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    Let's read it together, Psalm 128:
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    Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
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    who walks in His ways!
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    You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
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    you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.
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    Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house;
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    your children will be like olive shoots around your table.
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    Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.
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    The Lord bless you from Zion!
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    May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
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    all the days of your life!
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    May you see your children's children!
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    Peace be upon Israel!
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    Now, I know, before you go all wild on me,
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    a few things to note about this.
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    The word fear in this passage
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    is not what we talk about when we talk about fear.
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    The word fear in this passage is really
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    about respect, reverence and awe.
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    You and I have this weird thing like fear equals horror movie.
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    That's not what the writer is talking about here.
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    They're talking about respect and reverence
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    and taking seriously.
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    And this chapter shows us what a thriving family
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    and society and individuals and all aspects of life
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    looks like in a specific snapshot in history.
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    It's different today, we all know that.
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    We don't live in ancient Israel.
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    You probably don't even like olives.
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    And most of us, right now,
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    we don't pick our grapes off of a vine.
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    We drink our wine out of a box. Right?
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    This Psalm is an ideal, and it's okay
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    if your life doesn't look exactly like that right now.
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    But this can be something for us to strive for.
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    And in the same way,
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    we strive to be more and more like Jesus.
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    Every day we can strive for ideals.
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    So what does it really mean to be blessed?
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    What does it really mean for it to be well with you
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    and walk in the Lord's ways?
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    How do we actually get there?
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    Well, these six verses break down
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    really in the four big spheres of life, right?
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    It's the individual, it's the family,
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    it's the church, and it's all of society.
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    And after the break,
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    we're going to unpack each of those four
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    and we're going to see what a life of walking
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    in the ways of the Lord actually looks like.
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    - Hey, I'm Hannah. - And I'm Kyle.
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    - We're hoping that this message is connecting with you.
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    And if it is, we'd love for you to go to Crossroads.net/give
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    to support videos being made just like this one.
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    - That being said, let's get back to the message.
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    - Okay, so this deejaying thing is pretty sweet,
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    but we got to watch out for the bots, right?
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    So I'll give you just a little bit of --
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    remember this one? Classic.
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    You're not going to catch us bots.
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    We're not doing it. Not going to happen.
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    This is how deejaying works. Right?
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    This rig right here back in the day,
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    they would they would DJ on these things called records,
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    right, vinyl. Right?
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    And so if you were doing an event,
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    you'd have to walk in there with like giant crates,
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    like milk crates stacked to the ceiling
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    to be able to pick songs out of.
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    Now, it's a little bit different, right?
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    With technology and whatnot,
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    we've got playlists that you can pull from.
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    You can pull the songs out of here,
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    so you have to walk around
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    and load up a plane or whatever, or a car or a van.
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    And then from there, from the software,
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    it comes into these these turntables here. Right?
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    And so these turntables,
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    I learned on on these right here.
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    I learned on these guys right here.
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    But now DJs are getting smart.
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    They got a smaller, more condensed pack.
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    It does all the same great stuff, right?
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    It does all the awesome stuff,
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    but it's just a little bit smaller.
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    And then from there,
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    the sound goes into like this mixer, right?
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    And so this mixer right here is, like,
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    where the central point
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    of all the different noises coming in.
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    And then you get to take the sound out of the mixer
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    and you send it into the speaker.
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    And the speaker is what the world hears
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    or what your listeners hear, right?
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    So let's read Psalm 128 with that framework in mind.
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    Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
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    who walks in his ways!
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    You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
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    you shall be blessed and it shall be well with you.
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    Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house;
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    Your children will be like olive shoots around your table.
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    Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.
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    The Lord bless you from Zion!
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    May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
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    all the days of your life!
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    May you see your children's children!
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    Peace be upon Israel!
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    Six verses, but unpack a lot of insight
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    on what a blessed and peaceful world looks like.
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    And we're going to unpack those four spheres.
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    But I want to do it in a way
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    that's been really helpful for me
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    as I've been reading Scripture, right?
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    And that's reading it backwards.
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    Like not backwards in like this word
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    and this word in reverse order.
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    But I mean, taking the verses, and reading them in reverse.
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    All right?
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    So the four spheres in reverse order, right?
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    We're going to pull it back.
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    We're going to pull back a little bit here
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    and unpack these.
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    The first one, right, verse six.
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    Verse six is talking all about society.
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    And when we think about society,
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    it really is interesting to me that
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    the noise that is coming out of the speakers
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    of Culture right now,
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    it really strikes me as uncomfortable, right?
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    Like hear how loud this is.
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    It could be a loud. It could be annoying.
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    It could be frustrating. It could be ugly.
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    It could be angry. It could be divisive.
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    We've got a lot of things coming out of the speakers
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    right now that need to be addressed. Right?
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    But the way we're going about it,
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    it feels like the speaker itself might be broken.
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    I think we all agree that a long life,
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    a peaceful life is something that we want.
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    A peaceful nation is more ideal than a non peaceful one.
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    And if we're going to change
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    what's coming out of the speaker. Right?
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    We can't just move the speaker around and tip it over
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    or or throw it out the window.
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    We have to look at the other components
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    that make up what's happening in culture,
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    because just like what's coming out of a speaker,
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    it's comprised of all the different elements.
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    What's coming out of society is comprised of
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    a lot of different elements.
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    I told you that the mixer sends the sound of the speaker.
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    Right?
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    Well, that really takes me back to verse five,
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    it talks about being blessed from Zion.
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    Like what's Zion, right?
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    Not just the basketball player.
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    Like what is Zion?
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    Zion was referred to as the holy city of Jerusalem.
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    And often times, like the temple that sat on the hill.
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    Right?
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    It was a place where all of the Israelites went.
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    It was the place where they met, and they worship God together.
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    There's an ideal in this passage
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    that everyone who is blessed
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    and is walking in God's ways
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    is connected to a body of believers.
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    And for us right now,
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    where the body of believers meet is the local church.
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    And I encourage you to get connected to a local church.
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    And this mixer is a lot like the local church, right?
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    If you think about this mixer as the place where
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    all the different people come together
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    and they all try to work together
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    to impact what's coming out of the speaker.
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    There are a lot of different components to this, right?
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    If you turn one side on too loud, it's super annoying.
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    But if you don't turn it on at all,
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    you don't hear it, right?
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    You get nothing.
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    Now, if this side tries to fight with that side
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    and you get like all of this back and forth going on,
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    all that jazz, it becomes annoying
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    and nobody enjoys it, right?
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    No one is blessed by it.
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    But when both sides of this mixer
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    are working the way they're supposed to,
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    something is created, right,
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    that wouldn't normally be there.
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    And then the people who are listening, they're blessed.
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    Society is blessed by the church working together,
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    the body of believers.
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    But a church is not just where it where it stops. Right?
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    Because the church is made up of more
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    than just people coming together.
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    It's made up of families.
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    And that takes me to verse three. Right?
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    Verse three is all about the family.
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    And it's important to remember in the culture
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    that these people were reading and studying this,
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    men did a lot of the studying and reading
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    and women did not.
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    And I want to encourage you,
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    if you look at your your home life right now
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    and you're like, "Ah, I hate it when we talk about this stuff,"
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    because, you know, your home life doesn't look like
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    that or you don't have to two parents in the home
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    or, you know, you might even
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    live with your birth parents or whatever that might be.
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    I want encourage you with this. Okay?
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    Families are like turntables. Okay?
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    They come in all shapes and sizes. All right?
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    I learned on this, this is what I had growing up.
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    Today I'm using these.
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    There have been times where I've used
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    different models of turntable and in the same way
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    God uses families that look like this,
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    that looks like this, and that look like
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    something that we don't even have on this table. Right?
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    Every family is different.
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    And if if you read this, and you automatically feel shame,
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    I want to take a quick pause and talk to you real quick.
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    Like, I know traditionally in Christendom
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    it's been like a one size fits all for women
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    and men are like, yeah,
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    you can do all these other things.
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    Women, you are called to just do this one thing, right?
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    And when you read a verse like that,
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    it can automatically trigger that feeling.
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    And so if you're a mom or wife or a woman right now
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    and you are called to be in the home,
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    if that's where you find your family situation,
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    I encourage you.
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    You are being fruitful.
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    You are not missing out on all the stuff
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    that is happening outside.
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    You are being fruitful.
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    You are a fruitful vine in your home.
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    And I also want to encourage moms
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    who are in the workforce and doing their thing,
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    the single moms, the moms who have decided to work,
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    the moms who are running businesses
  • 00:13:43
    and doing the whole thing.
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    I want to encourage you too.
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    You aren't failing your family.
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    You are being a fruitful vine.
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    See, what fruitful means is that
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    you are not just providing wine,
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    you're providing shade, you're providing nutrients,
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    you're providing covering over your family.
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    And what that looks like
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    changes depending on your situation.
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    You are being fruitful
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    if you are taking care of your family
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    and you are taking care of your home,
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    whatever that might look like.
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    In my house, it's probably not the same as yours, right?
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    Like my wife and I, you know,
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    we decided a few years ago that my wife would stay home.
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    Now, let me just stop you right there.
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    My wife's earning potential is, like,
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    way higher than mine.
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    But we made a decision that
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    it would be more fruitful for our family.
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    She decided she wanted to stay home.
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    All good. You know what that means?
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    That means she's being fruitful
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    as she cares for our kids every single day.
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    That also means that I'm going to have to be fruitful
  • 00:14:42
    in getting some stuff to bring home. Right?
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    Getting some money.
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    It also means that we can say yes to some things
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    and we can say no to some things
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    based on what we were called to do
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    to be fruitful in our home.
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    And then I also want to stop here real quick
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    because we're talking about family and stuff.
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    There's a lot of different emotions that can come up.
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    There are folks out there who are maybe you're single,
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    maybe you've been single for a long time
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    and you're like, "Man, I can't wait to make that,
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    you know, have to deal with those problems or whatever."
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    Or maybe you don't have children
  • 00:15:12
    or maybe you don't have a biological family.
  • 00:15:14
    Be encouraged with this.
  • 00:15:15
    We are all spiritual children of someone.
  • 00:15:19
    Everyone has a family, that's not a biological family.
  • 00:15:23
    Maybe you have a spiritual family.
  • 00:15:24
    And if you're following Jesus
  • 00:15:26
    or you're a part of pursuing who he is,
  • 00:15:29
    you are the spiritual child of someone.
  • 00:15:31
    I'm the spiritual child of Kevin and David
  • 00:15:35
    and the guys who had led them.
  • 00:15:38
    You are the spiritual child of someone.
  • 00:15:39
    We all have a family. We're all part of a family.
  • 00:15:43
    But families, right, families are made up of what?
  • 00:15:47
    Of individuals. Right?
  • 00:15:49
    And that's where I think the the most confusion comes
  • 00:15:52
    when we talk about a blessed world
  • 00:15:54
    and a thriving world and a thriving church
  • 00:15:56
    and a thriving family, we miss a really important part,
  • 00:15:59
    and that is the individual.
  • 00:16:00
    And we think about a DJ rig,
  • 00:16:02
    the individual is a lot like this software right here.
  • 00:16:04
    This software right here, if this isn't functioning,
  • 00:16:07
    none of this stuff works, nothing comes out.
  • 00:16:10
    This is one of the most overlooked parts
  • 00:16:12
    of a thriving world is the individual.
  • 00:16:15
    Because a thriving society
  • 00:16:17
    is made up of a thriving church,
  • 00:16:19
    that's made up of thriving families,
  • 00:16:21
    that's made up of individuals
  • 00:16:23
    who are taking God seriously and walking in His ways.
  • 00:16:27
    You can't have a thriving world
  • 00:16:30
    without people who are thriving,
  • 00:16:32
    and you can't have a godly world without godly people.
  • 00:16:36
    It blows my mind how we get so surprised
  • 00:16:39
    when chaos hits, when chaos ensues,
  • 00:16:41
    when we're not taking God seriously.
  • 00:16:44
    It blows my mind that we think that we can just,
  • 00:16:46
    you know, blame this, that and the other
  • 00:16:48
    and and make all these changes
  • 00:16:49
    without changing what's happening with us.
  • 00:16:52
    And lastly, I want to talk to the people
  • 00:16:55
    who maybe you don't know God, right?
  • 00:16:58
    Maybe you're like, "Yeah, this whole God thing,
  • 00:17:00
    I don't know if I really am into it or whatever."
  • 00:17:02
    Or maybe you're a little scared.
  • 00:17:04
    Maybe you take that word fear and you're like,
  • 00:17:06
    "Yeah, I'm actually scared of what might happen
  • 00:17:07
    if I actually get to know God,
  • 00:17:09
    if I actually make myself known to him
  • 00:17:12
    and get real around him."
  • 00:17:16
    I want encourage you with this, when you do know God,
  • 00:17:18
    when you do know God and walk in His ways,
  • 00:17:21
    you eventually realize that He wants good for you.
  • 00:17:24
    He has a future for you.
  • 00:17:25
    He's actually invested in your success
  • 00:17:28
    and your family's success and your church's success,
  • 00:17:31
    and your place in society's success.
  • 00:17:33
    He wants all of those things to thrive.
  • 00:17:35
    But it's got to start with you.
  • 00:17:37
    We need more people walking in the ways of God.
  • 00:17:42
    We need more people who understand what it's like
  • 00:17:45
    to take God seriously,
  • 00:17:46
    to bring it to the people closest to their lives,
  • 00:17:49
    to let that impact the local church,
  • 00:17:51
    to let that impact a society, not the other way around.
  • 00:17:55
    So my challenge today is that
  • 00:17:57
    you would examine your life,
  • 00:17:59
    take a hard look in the mirror
  • 00:18:01
    and see if there's anywhere in your life
  • 00:18:03
    where you aren't taking God seriously
  • 00:18:05
    and see if there's anywhere in your life
  • 00:18:07
    where you need to get to know God more,
  • 00:18:09
    you need to get to know more about what He says
  • 00:18:12
    about you, what he says about your future,
  • 00:18:15
    what it says about your life.
  • 00:18:17
    Because you can thrive.
  • 00:18:19
    Society can thrive if we take God seriously.
  • 00:18:23
    Let me pray for you.
  • 00:18:25
    God, I pray that we would walk in your ways
  • 00:18:27
    every single day and that we would see the fruit
  • 00:18:30
    of that decision in our daily lives,
  • 00:18:33
    with our families, with our friends,
  • 00:18:35
    with our churches, and with the world around us.
  • 00:18:37
    God, we don't want to throw our hands up
  • 00:18:40
    and give up and say, "Yeah, it is what it is."
  • 00:18:43
    No, God. We want to we want to pursue.
  • 00:18:45
    We want to bring your ways to the world.
  • 00:18:48
    We want to do what you've called us to do, God.
  • 00:18:50
    So I pray for every person watching this
  • 00:18:52
    that they would be renewed in their walk with you,
  • 00:18:56
    be renewed and their understanding of who you are
  • 00:18:58
    and they would see you for just how amazing you are.
  • 00:19:02
    You are good and we trust you. Amen.
  • 00:21:23
    - We're hoping you enjoy the message today
  • 00:21:25
    and hopefully you were able to get something
  • 00:21:27
    out of us going deeper in the Book of Psalms.
  • 00:21:29
    - That's right. This entire series is all connected
  • 00:21:31
    with an initiative that we've been doing
  • 00:21:32
    this whole year called the Bible Challenge.
  • 00:21:34
    - That's exactly right.
  • 00:21:35
    We as a community are going through the Bible
  • 00:21:37
    in the Crossroads App all week, reading,
  • 00:21:40
    diving into Scripture.
  • 00:21:41
    I'm there, Kyle's there, Brian's there.
  • 00:21:43
    - Everybody's there. Your mom might be there.
  • 00:21:45
    - Everybody's there. - A lot of people are there.
  • 00:21:47
    If you want to jump in,
  • 00:21:48
    just download the app and you're all set.
  • 00:21:50
    - That's right. So that's all we got for today.
  • 00:21:52
    We'll see you next time on Crossroads
  • 00:21:54
    and happy 4th of July.

Jul 1, 2022 22 mins 1 sec

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