The Courage To Move | Unbreakable Week 2

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Welcome to episode two of Unbreakable.

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Where are we? Why are we here?

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Let's start at the beginning.

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Hello and welcome to Crossroads,

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which comes to you today from one of

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the harshest and most unforgiving environment

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on all of planet Earth, the desert.

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Blazing sun and scorching heat by day,

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bitter cold and frigid temperatures at night,

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biting wind pretty much all the time.

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So why am I here? What's in this box?

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We're here in the desert

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because I know you are in the desert.

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Good news, we don't have to stay here.

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In fact, at Crossroads, we exist to guide you

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out of the personal desert you find yourself in

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to the adventurous life that God has made you for.

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Each week, our teachers will deliver

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a powerful message using the Book of Exodus.

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They were in desert, we're in a desert.

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(crosstalk) - It makes sense now.

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- Follow the map I've given them

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and complete surprise challenges along the way.

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- So we're not just preaching,

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we're actually doing things.

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- So what's this? - Take it out.

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Today, will Alli conquer her fear?

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Will Chuck give us the courage to move?

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Will Brian, stop trying to touch people with animals?

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Let's get started with episode two of Unbreakable.

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- Today, we're going to start with

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the truth that you need to hear: God is unbreakable.

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And that's good news because

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life tries to break us all the time,

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but an unbreakable God can give you the courage

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to break through what holds you back.

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I don't know what's holding you back.

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I don't know where you feel stuck.

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Maybe it's indecision.

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Maybe you know where to go,

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but it's just hard to figure out the first step.

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Maybe it is fear, maybe it is uncertainty.

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Maybe you don't feel qualified for the thing

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that you're wired and called to do.

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But I want you to know this today:

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today if you'll hang in there with me,

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[]you're going to get the courage to move.

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God wants to give you the courage to move.

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- All right, Chuck, time to open it up.

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- All right, man. Are you sure --

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there's no snakes in here, right?

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- No, you're fine, just trust me, just open it up.

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- I've been freaking out about snakes since I heard about it.

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OK, so here we go.

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Let's open it and see what's in here.

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Oh, no snakes. It's actually it's a letter.

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It's a letter, actually says this is a story

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from someone watching right now.

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They're in a desert in their life

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and your job is to teach your message to them.

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Okay, and help them get out of the desert.

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So I've got a letter from a guy named Nick.

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He says: Over the last year,

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I've faced terrible mental health problems.

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I spent the better part of 2020 in bed

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or in the hospital,

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all while working a demanding sales job

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and raising three young children.

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It's crazy. To most I'm a normal person,

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but inside I feel like I can't breathe

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multiple times a day.

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How will it ever be okay?

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Hey, Nick, I'm glad you're watching

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and I want to encourage you.

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I don't know exactly what you're going through.

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I wouldn't presume to know what it's like

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to live what you've lived over the last year.

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But I will tell you this:

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I believe today you're going to find the courage to move.

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I hope that from this message, you, or Nick,

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if there are people that can relate to Nick's story,

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that you're going to be encouraged to move.

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You know, I'm on a journey in my life

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and I know what it's like to wake up with an uncertainty.

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I know what it's like to wake up fearful, uncertain,

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wondering do I have what it takes to move forward.

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And I can't think of any story in the Bible

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that's better for if that's where you find yourself

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than the story of Exodus.

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We've talked about this in this series that

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the Book of Exodus is a foundational story in the Bible.

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It's a foundational story because we see

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in the sweeping story of Exodus everything

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that plays out in the entire story of the Bible,

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and the story of how God is engaging

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in your life and my life today.

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There's this, the struggle from slavery to freedom.

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There's this longing for a rescuer/deliver, right?

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And beautifully, it ends with the finding of a promised land.

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There is something that happens

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at the end of this journey that encourages you.

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So listen, the next few minutes,

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if you'll hang in there with me for the next few minutes,

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you're going to find the courage to move.

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There are amazing stories in Exodus.

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It's crazy. There's a death dealing angel.

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There's a miracle working staff,

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the sea that becomes a highway.

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But if you're going to find the courage

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and if this story is going to connect with you,

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then you got to know what got you stuck.

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You've got to know what's in the way.

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And I just want to tell you,

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we see this all throughout the Bible.

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There are three things that keep all of us stuck:

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shame, guilt, and fear.

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In fact, let me ask you a question.

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Think about where you feel stuck right now.

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Nick, I want you to think about this.

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And I bet you it boils down to

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one of these three things, Shame, fear, or guilt.

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You know why? It's because you have an enemy.

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You have an enemy that wants to keep you stuck.

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We're going to see today that

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the nation of Israel had an enemy.

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There were people who were trying

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to keep them from moving forward.

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But here's the thing, if you feel stuck

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by shame, fear or guilt,

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if you're stuck believing your life doesn't matter,

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if you're stuck not knowing if you have what it takes,

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I want to encourage you today,

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God says to you, "It's time to move."

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- Chuck has to be one of

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the most empathetic people on the planet.

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Right off the bat he's in our corner and encouraging Nick

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and there's way more to come.

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For now, let's hop over to Alli and Brian

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as they discover their challenge for the week.

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I put a surprise in the box

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that I know will get a reaction

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and also they get me kicked off

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at least one of their Christmas card lists.

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- I hope Chuck is doing well.

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- Yeah, look, I think this is what we were looking for.

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- Finally. The sun is killing me. Talk about crispy.

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- I know.

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- All right. Let's see how we got here.

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I'll trust you again. - All right.

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- All right. Here we go. - I got some practice.

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- You did a good job last time.

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- Oh, that was close.

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Good thing there's a target guard there.

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- I got a little excited. What do we have here?

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- (chuckles)

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- No thanks. - Umm, yeah. - All right. - Yes.

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- Here's our card. - Yes. What does it say?

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In the Book of Acts, the nation of Israel

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was set free from captivity in Egypt.

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God used a series of plagues on the Egyptians

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to get Pharaoh to "Let my people go."

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In order to get out of the desert

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and get to the next set of food rations,

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you two will need to survive the plagues.

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- I think I see where this is going.

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- I think I do. How about if I lift this up

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and then get the board and get it set back up on there.

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So what we have here looks like a box of plagues.

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- All right. So...

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- We have frogs here. Is that frog turds?

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You see the frog turds in there?

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- The challenge here is to move each and every frog,

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both of you, from this case into the wooden case.

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- He can't do them all?

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- Once you've done that, you can enjoy

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your daily food ration and dessert.

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Very generous of us.

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- Go ahead. - I'm not. This --

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- This is very --

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- No, they're moving.

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- They are moving. Frogs do that.

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What do we have in here?

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We've got some Neapolitan ice cream

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because, of course, God provides ice cream.

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What is -- What is this?

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That has small lettering.

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You can read up better than I can. What is that?

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- Food ration, one day's norm of food.

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- Well, it's probably like --

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- This is our survival kit.

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- Probably like manna fell down from heaven fed them for a day.

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- We're being provided for, praise the Lord.

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Praise be.

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- All right. Do you want me to go first?

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Let me -- - Putting them in this thing --

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- Whoa! - You dropped it. You hurt him.

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- He's all right. Look -- (sound effect) (laughs)

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I'm going to put it on you. - Put the frog down.

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- This could be your prince. Why don't your kiss it,

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because you have no idea what'd happen if you --

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- Put it down.

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- Okay, go ahead, you do one, you do one.

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- You should have known better, Kyle.

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- I'm just going to wipe this off.

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- Just stop, get out of my way. - Go ahead, all right.

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- I'm doing it. - All right.

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- I don't like this. - Push yourself, Alli.

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- But I will do it.

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- It's not slimy, it's not -- it's just --

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Don't even think about it.

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Put your hand on it and scoop it up.

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They're actually very mellow.

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You're strong, you're courageous.

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You do not have fear of things like these.

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I'm dead serious here.

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(Kyle) Okay, this is why I love being part of Brian's team.

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He's one of the strongest encouragers I know.

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Watch his words to Alli give her the courage to move.

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- There you go. You got him you got him, you got him.

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Yeah! Awesome.

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- I could feel his little bones.

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(Kyle) Any time we choose to act and move

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despite fear, it's a big moment.

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Well done, Alli.

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(Brian) Shoot, sorry, buddy.

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(Kyle) As Brian and Alli work on

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the rest of their challenge,

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let's head back to Chuck, who doesn't know

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that in a few minutes I'm going to throw

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a curveball question at him

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that I'm certain you'd ask if you could.

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- So let's start with a little bit

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of background on the Exodus story.

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The Exodus story starts with the nation of Israel

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in Egypt where they have been for 400 years in slavery.

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It's harsh work. It's a horrible life.

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And God uses Moses and calls him to be

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the one that rescues them from slavery.

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So after 400 years, can you imagine that?

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After 400 years, God finally is going to fulfill

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this promise that He's made to set His people free.

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This is what He says in Exodus 6:1. He says:

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Pharaoh was the king of Egypt.

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He was the one that was keeping them enslaved.

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And he says with this:

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You know what God saying?

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God is saying, "In the place where you felt stuck,

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it's time to move."

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God is giving them a vision of a life

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that doesn't look like slavery anymore.

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It's a life of freedom and the stagnation is over.

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But you know what? Like I said,

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there are three things, three roadblocks

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that Israel is going to face, that you and I face,

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when it comes to going forward in courage:

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shame, guilt, and fear.

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Let's talk about shame.

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Shame is what we see Moses, the leader,

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the one that God has called struggling with big time.

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See, Moses struggles with shame because

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he had a speech impediment.

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We don't know what it is, we just know

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that Moses said himself, "I'm not great with words.

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I'm slow of speech."

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And so right away we see him being hit with shame.

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You know, he goes to Pharaoh, the king.

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He says, "God gave me a message.

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The message is you have to let my people go."

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And Pharaoh just is like, "Whatever, whatever.

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I don't know who you are

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and I certainly don't know who your God is.

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I'm not changing anything."

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And Moses just feels so defeat in the moment.

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And Moses is stuck in shame and he begins

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to say these things over himself that

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are just so self limiting and self-defeating.

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You know, this is the way shame works.

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If you struggle with shame,

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you've got to be careful about

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the words you say about yourself.

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We see Moses repeating the shame statements

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over and over again in the story.

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In Exodus 6:12 it says, this is Moses talking:

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See Moses had rehearsed his shame.

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And what happens when you rehearse shame

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is it becomes your identity

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and it robs you of the courage to move.

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But look at what God does.

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If you're stuck in shame,

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God will come right at your wounded identity

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and in that very place He will speak a redeemed identity.

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So in Exodus 4, look at what God says to Moses.

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Very specific, he says:

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Who has made man's mouth?

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Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind?

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Is it not I, the Lord? Now, therefore, go --

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And listen to these very specific words He says to Moses.

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"I will be with your mouth."

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He doesn't just say generally I will be with you.

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He says, "I will be with your mouth

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and teach you what you shall speak."

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Shame won't get the final word,

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that's what God is saying to Moses.

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God says, "I get the final word,"

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and He goes directly to the point of his shame

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and says, "I will be with your mouth."

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I can relate to this because in my life

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I have struggled with shame.

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I've struggled with the shame that comes from

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a life of addiction after addiction,

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specifically a pornography addiction

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that almost take my marriage before it ever began.

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And so for me to think about being a person

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who could be in front of a screen

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talking to you about following God,

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I just saw myself as damaged goods.

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I didn't think this is something I could do.

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And I would say over myself, "I will never get over this.

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I will always struggle with this."

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I was stuck in those same shaming statements

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so I can relate to how Moses was feeling.

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And you know what God said over my shame?

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God said the very place where you feel wounded

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and you feel like damaged goods,

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I call you a wounded healer.

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God literally has called me to be very open

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about my struggle so that other people

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who have the same struggle or a different struggle

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or a similar struggle can see that there's a guy --

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there's a guy who's not perfect.

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There's a guy who hasn't had it all figured out.

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But God can be with you at the point of your shame.

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I don't know who I'm talking to,

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but I just want you to know if you feel like

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you've gotten a death sentence because

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of shameful things in your life, you don't.

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You don't. I'm a living example of

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how an unbreakable God can help you break through shame

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and move forward with courage and with purpose in your life.

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So in the story of the nation of Israel,

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as Moses struggles with his shame,

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he continues to go to Pharaoh.

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He continues to speak.

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He continues to use his mouth,

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and God is with him.

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Pharaoh is still not budging.

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Pharaoh still not having it.

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Pharaoh is like, nope, not letting them go,

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not going to do it.

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And then God starts to do these incredible miracles

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to get Pharaoh's attention.

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Make no mistake about it, these are crazy, crazy things.

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The water turns the blood in Egypt,

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so they lose their water supply.

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And then frogs come and dominate the land.

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Then there's gnats and then there's flies

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and then livestock starts dying en masse.

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Later on, boils come and infect everybody's skin.

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Later on, it's hail

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and then locusts come and eat up all the crop

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and finally darkness falls over the entire land.

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Now, you would think -- you would think

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after these nine things,

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Pharaoh would start to wake up, right?

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He'd start to say, "All right,

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maybe I need to change my mind."

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But he is so hard hearted, he is so hard hearted

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that he actually says, "Even with all of the things

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that are happening, I'm not changing a thing."

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And then there's a tenth plague.

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And see, this tenth plague is the one

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that will cause Pharaoh to relent.

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I don't know about you, but I think

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it would have caused me to relent as well.

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And it's through this plague that we actually

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see how God deals with guilt, because what happens next

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is a powerful picture that, again, we see played out

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not just in the story of Egypt,

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not just in the story of Exodus,

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but throughout the entire Bible of how

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a perfect God deals with the guilt

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of imperfect people like you and like me.

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In Exodus 4:21, God says this to Moses. He says:

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God warned Moses that, hey, this guy

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is not just going to up and say,

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"Great, I'm ready, let them go."

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And he says, though, "Then you will say this to Pharaoh,

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'Thus says the Lord, Israel is my first born son.'"

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This is really important that we see that

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the relationship to God has to these people of Israel

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is not just this random amalgamation of people

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that God generally cares about

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because God generally loves all people.

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No, you know what?

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God says, "This nation is like my first born child."

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I'm a father of three. I love all of my kids.

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But I can tell you something, man,

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when you have your first born,

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it is a special, powerful moment.

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And God says that's the kind of relationship

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I have to the nation of Israel.

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And He says to pharaoh, "So let My son go.

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Let My son go so he may serve Me."

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And if you refuse, God makes this crazy,

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really direct, clear warning to Pharaoh,

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"I will kill your firstborn son."

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(Kyle) Whoa, whoa, wait!

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Weird enough, the river turns to blood,

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the gnats, the frogs, all that stuff.

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We're supposed to believe that God said

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He would kill the first born of everybody in Egypt?

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I thought He was the loving God.

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You've got to help me understand this, Chuck.

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What's happening?

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- Yeah. You know, man, I get it.

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And here's the thing, God is loving. He's also just.

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Right? And so God is working a bigger story

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of justice for people who have been enslaved.

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And He says to this leader, Pharaoh,

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who has the chance to actually bring freedom

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to these people or to let them experience freedom,

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"These are high stakes."

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It's a very clear warning.

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And God is saying to Pharaoh, "If you continue

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to turn your heart away from me,

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there will be consequences."

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- Okay, good. Thank you. Keep going. Keep going.

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- All right. I've already said a mouthful

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and we're talking about some really weighty things.

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Talking about shame, that's a weighty thing.

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And now I just want to unpack what I mean

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when I talk about guilt.

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You know, feeling guilt is actually

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a normal human response and it's a good thing

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that we have it, otherwise there would be things

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that we would do without any remorse around.

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However, here's what the problem is:

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feeling it is one thing,

00:17:27

wallowing in it, that's not a great place to be.

00:17:31

You know what's maybe even worse?

00:17:33

Thinking we can work it off

00:17:34

if we just do enough good things,

00:17:36

if we just balance the scales.

00:17:38

I know this because, again, this is something

00:17:40

that I have wrestled with.

00:17:41

So people pleasing is a way

00:17:43

that guilt has shown up in my life.

00:17:45

Well, let me put it this way,

00:17:46

because I'm guilty, I try to please people.

00:17:49

See, here's what I think is broken thinking,

00:17:52

is stinking thinking, if you want to call it that.

00:17:54

But it's absolutely been my thinking.

00:17:55

I thought that the way that I could make up

00:17:57

for all the ways that I am doing

00:17:59

these shameful things in private was to try

00:18:02

to be like the perfect model citizen in public.

00:18:06

Somehow believing that if I could just please enough people,

00:18:09

if I was seen as the good person,

00:18:11

it kind of balanced the scales behind

00:18:14

all the private broken things that I was doing in my life.

00:18:16

But here's the thing, that never works,

00:18:20

because you know who you can never fool?

00:18:22

Yourself, you can never fool yourself.

00:18:24

So then what is the alternative?

00:18:26

We feel guilty.

00:18:27

How does that guilt not keep us from being stuck?

00:18:31

And this is what now happens in the story,

00:18:33

God gives Moses this commandment

00:18:37

and this thing happens in the story

00:18:39

that is all about how a perfect God

00:18:42

deals with the guilt that you and I feel.

00:18:44

In Exodus 12:21 it says this:

00:18:53

This is going to be the ceremonial thing

00:18:55

that happens today in the story, but will continue

00:18:58

to happen year after year in the life of the nation of Israel.

00:19:01

"Take a bunch of hyssop,"

00:19:03

which is something that would be adhesive,

00:19:15

He's saying, "Look, you have to stay

00:19:16

in the place that is protected by the blood,

00:19:20

and the Lord will pass over the door

00:19:22

and will not allow the destroyer

00:19:23

to enter your house and strike you."

00:19:25

God is about to do this tenth plague

00:19:27

and it is something that we just can't even fathom.

00:19:31

There is an angel called the destroyer

00:19:33

and God is going to release it

00:19:35

and He's going to release it to kill the first born,

00:19:38

not just human, but even livestock,

00:19:41

in every home that isn't protected by the blood.

00:19:46

What is it about this blood, what is that about?

00:19:48

Well, here's the thing, God is illustrating

00:19:50

that He and only He can make a way to cover the guilt,

00:19:55

to cover the guilt that we feel when we fall short,

00:19:58

to cover the guilt that we feel when we do

00:20:00

what the Bible calls sin.

00:20:02

And God makes a commitment that if you have been faithful

00:20:06

and you have followed through on what He has asked

00:20:09

you to do with this blood, He is not going

00:20:11

to count the guilt in that home against that family.

00:20:15

Why?

00:20:16

Well, it's just simply a sign that God chooses

00:20:19

to illustrate, because these folks who do this

00:20:21

are demonstrating that it's an act of faith

00:20:24

and trust in Him.

00:20:25

See, this story is the first Passover

00:20:27

and Passover is celebrated every year

00:20:30

by Jews all around the world.

00:20:32

In fact, what we know is that Jesus would have

00:20:35

celebrated the Passover every year of His life,

00:20:38

and particularly He celebrated the last year of His life.

00:20:41

So think about it, this story of Exodus

00:20:42

was so powerful that every year and still every year

00:20:45

all across the world, Jews remember the story.

00:20:48

They remember the story of being slaves,

00:20:50

slaves not just in Egypt, but slaves to sin,

00:20:54

slaves to brokenness, slaves to shame and guilt.

00:20:57

And they remember the delivery

00:20:59

that God brought through Moses, through the rescuer.

00:21:03

And part of that meal is they eat a lamb,

00:21:05

they eat a lamb that reminds them of how

00:21:08

God made a way through the blood of the lamb.

00:21:11

See here's the thing, if you struggle with guilt,

00:21:13

if you're wallowing in it, or if you're thinking

00:21:15

you need to work it off, you need to know that

00:21:16

an unbreakable God gives you the courage

00:21:18

to break through the guilt that holds you back.

00:21:22

Did you know that Jesus was actually killed,

00:21:26

He was crucified during the Passover 2000 years later.

00:21:31

In fact, the Last Supper, the time when Jesus

00:21:33

sat with his disciples and said,

00:21:35

"I'm going to break my body for you,

00:21:37

I'm going to spill my blood for you."

00:21:38

He was actually having

00:21:40

a Passover meal with His disciples.

00:21:41

And the very next day He became the final Passover Lamb.

00:21:45

God sent Jesus to be the final Passover Lamb.

00:21:48

He sent Jesus to be the final blood

00:21:50

that would cover over our guilt.

00:21:52

This is how our guilt gets resolved.

00:21:54

It doesn't get resolved by working it off.

00:21:57

It doesn't get resolved by wallowing in it.

00:21:59

It gets resolved when we trust in the final

00:22:02

and finish work of Jesus.

00:22:04

In the New Testament in the Book of Romans,

00:22:07

it says this in Romans 3:32, it says:

00:22:10

"For all have sinned," meaning everybody's guilty,

00:22:20

Listen to this.

00:22:27

I love Romans 8:1 which says it this way:

00:22:34

So if you've been stuck in shame,

00:22:36

it's time to move forward in courage.

00:22:38

If you've been stuck in guilt,

00:22:39

it's time to move forward in courage.

00:22:41

Nick, I'm thinking about you right now because

00:22:43

I would imagine that as you've just wrestled

00:22:46

with the challenges that you've had physically

00:22:47

and you talked about your mental challenges,

00:22:49

that there's a sense in guilt.

00:22:50

There's probably a sense of guilt as a father

00:22:52

that you haven't been able to be the dad

00:22:54

that you've wanted to be for your three kids,

00:22:56

that you haven't been able to be the worker

00:22:58

that you want to be

00:22:59

and all of the other things that make up your life.

00:23:01

And, Nick, if I could tell you anything

00:23:03

that would help encourage you in this moment,

00:23:05

I would just let you know

00:23:06

God is not expecting you to do it all.

00:23:10

God is not expecting you to be able to solve this for yourself.

00:23:14

That in the same way that Jesus's finished work

00:23:16

on the Cross is what made it possible for you

00:23:19

to be free from the guilt of sin, trust in Jesus, Nick.

00:23:24

He doesn't want you to trust in yourself.

00:23:26

He doesn't even want you to trust in medical doctors.

00:23:28

I'm all for that and I hope that

00:23:30

you're finding help in all those places.

00:23:31

But just know that as you go through this journey,

00:23:34

you can move forward in courage

00:23:36

because you can trust in Jesus.

00:23:38

He will be there for you.

00:23:53

- God calls us to have the courage to move.

00:23:55

And why do we need courage?

00:23:56

We need courage because the place

00:23:58

that God's calling us to is scary.

00:24:00

God talks a lot in the Bible about finances

00:24:03

and He calls us to be generous.

00:24:04

And I know that that's scary. I know it's strange.

00:24:07

But here's the good news, God doesn't ask us to go alone.

00:24:10

He actually says this journey of generosity,

00:24:12

He will go with us and bless our life.

00:24:15

I know that sounds crazy and maybe self-serving.

00:24:17

We actually designed a way for you

00:24:19

to test God at this risk free to you.

00:24:21

It's called the 90 Day Tithe Test.

00:24:23

You sign up, you give for 90 days,

00:24:25

if at the end of that 90 days

00:24:26

you don't experience God's blessing,

00:24:28

we'll give all of your money back.

00:24:30

If you want to jump into that, go to Crossroads.net/give.

00:24:34

Let's check back in with Chuck on the courage to move.

00:24:39

- So let's get back to the Israelites.

00:24:42

After the powerful experience of the first Passover,

00:24:45

pharaoh relents and God fulfills His promise.

00:24:49

Amazing, end of story,

00:24:51

and the Israelites lived happily ever after, right?

00:24:55

Well, is that how it ends in your stories?

00:24:58

Of course not. Of course not.

00:24:59

We talked about shame

00:25:01

and how God can give you the power to break shame.

00:25:03

We talked about guilt and how

00:25:05

through the work of Jesus He solves for guilt.

00:25:08

But what about fear? What about fear?

00:25:11

Now, here's the thing, the Israelites go

00:25:13

from 430 of slavery to an immediate exit.

00:25:17

Exodus 12:33 and 39 says:

00:25:24

Wouldn't you after having experienced

00:25:26

the death angel coming through, the death of first-born?

00:25:32

- Which is cakes that they don't allow to rise with yeast -

00:25:44

Do you remember what God said to Moses?

00:25:46

Remember what He said with a strong hand

00:25:47

pharaoh would thrust them out?

00:25:49

This is what God was prophesying.

00:25:51

It actually happens. It's crazy. It's beautiful.

00:25:55

Are the Israelites happy?

00:25:56

You better believe they're happy, but are they also scared?

00:25:59

They sure are. Can you imagine?

00:26:01

Just think about the last time if you've ever moved,

00:26:03

all the logistics that went into a move for a family of,

00:26:06

I don't know, one, two, five,

00:26:08

however many you have in your family, ten.

00:26:10

But a million people leaving overnight,

00:26:14

having had no memory of any life other than slavery.

00:26:18

Can you imagine the anticipation?

00:26:20

Can you imagine the nervousness that

00:26:21

the Israelites might have been feeling?

00:26:24

You know what?

00:26:26

We have to be really mindful that

00:26:28

we can get comfortable in a living hell.

00:26:32

Seriously, we can get comfortable with circumstances

00:26:35

and situations that are not what God has for us.

00:26:38

And there's so much more,

00:26:40

so we have to be careful not to settle.

00:26:42

They had to move. You know what?

00:26:43

They had to do it scared. They had to do it scared.

00:26:45

You ever had to do that? You ever had to take a move?

00:26:47

You ever had to make a decision in your life,

00:26:49

but you had to do it scared, without a plan,

00:26:52

without preparations, without a safety net?

00:26:54

That's where the Israelites find themselves.

00:26:57

They go and God, because He's such a kind, kind shepherd,

00:27:01

knows that the nation of Israel is fragile.

00:27:04

Their courage is fragile.

00:27:05

And so in Exodus 13 it says:

00:27:25

See, God is such a good shepherd.

00:27:27

He calls Israel His first born son, and He knew

00:27:29

that their courage was frail, their faith was frail.

00:27:31

They were taking the first steps of a journey.

00:27:33

And maybe that's how you feel.

00:27:34

You're taking the first steps of a journey.

00:27:36

And God knew if a first a couple steps in

00:27:38

they had to face war with another country

00:27:41

just coming out of slavery that might have broke them.

00:27:44

So God, in His graciousness, sends them another way.

00:27:47

And He does this, in Exodus 13:21 it says:

00:28:01

God gives them a physical, a literal, tangible sense

00:28:05

of His presence in this cloud by day

00:28:07

and this fire by night.

00:28:09

Now you might say, "Boy, my life would be

00:28:11

a lot easier if God did that for me,

00:28:13

if God gave me a physical, tangible way to experience Him."

00:28:17

Well, guess what, He has, it's called the church.

00:28:19

And I don't mean the building the church,

00:28:20

I mean the people the church. That's why we need community,

00:28:23

because when we have people around us

00:28:25

who are encouraging us to make moves,

00:28:27

we are experiencing the physical,

00:28:29

literal body of Christ encouraging us.

00:28:32

But even though the Red Sea was an easier path,

00:28:34

it was about to get a lot more difficult for the Israelites,

00:28:37

a lot more difficult.

00:28:39

See, Pharaoh changed his mind.

00:28:40

After saying, okay, they can go.

00:28:42

Once they're in the desert, Pharaoh changes his mind.

00:28:44

And what does Pharaoh do?

00:28:45

Pharaoh musters up all of his army.

00:28:47

He gets all of his chariots and he is on a warpath

00:28:50

to destroy the nation of Israel,

00:28:52

at minimum to bring them back into slavery

00:28:55

after they had just been set free.

00:28:58

And here's the thing, God had taken them to the sea

00:29:02

and so they find themselves in this situation

00:29:04

where they're trapped.

00:29:05

In front of them is an impassable sea

00:29:07

and behind them, giving chase is Pharaoh and his army.

00:29:11

And they become afraid. Wouldn't you be afraid?

00:29:14

You ever felt trapped?

00:29:15

You ever felt like, man, I took a couple steps

00:29:17

and now I'm in no man's land.

00:29:19

And God, I don't know what's coming next.

00:29:22

The people were in a panic,

00:29:24

but listen to what Moses says to them. He says:

00:29:38

See, I want you to see that in this story

00:29:40

of God parting the Red Sea, there are two miracles here.

00:29:43

There are two miracles.

00:29:44

Yes, he parts the Red Sea.

00:29:46

There's a song we sing, it says you turn seas into highways.

00:29:50

Like man, he did that.

00:29:51

He literally took a sea and a split it in half

00:29:53

so they could walk through on dry land.

00:29:55

But here's the thing., He makes a way where there is no way.

00:29:58

But God also does something incredible, incredible.

00:30:00

This Angel of the Lord, the Bible says,

00:30:03

had been traveling with the nation of Israel.

00:30:05

And then we know that God was also with them

00:30:07

through this pillar of fire or this pillar of cloud.

00:30:09

Look at what happens as Egypt and their armies

00:30:13

are closing in from the back and God separates the sea,

00:30:17

making a way where there is no way,

00:30:19

it says this in Exodus 14:

00:30:47

Here's the thing, you may have heard this story before,

00:30:50

and we can focus on the fact that God part the Red Sea,

00:30:53

and we should, because that's amazing.

00:30:55

But don't miss the fact that God literally gets behind them.

00:30:59

God has their back.

00:31:01

See, if you feel stuck, if you feel like you can't move,

00:31:03

I want you to know God literally has your back.

00:31:07

If you're willing to do it scared, God has your back.

00:31:09

If you're willing to take a step, even in faith,

00:31:11

God has your back.

00:31:12

If you're willing to walk forward, God has your back.

00:31:15

He makes a way where there is no way going forward

00:31:18

and He's got your back as you take that step.

00:31:22

See, I asked you a question at the beginning

00:31:23

and I want you to consider it now.

00:31:25

Where is God calling you to move?

00:31:28

What is holding you back?

00:31:31

Is it shame? Is it guilt? Is it fear?

00:31:34

An unbreakable God can give you the courage

00:31:37

to move forward against whatever holds you back.

00:31:40

God speaks a different word in your very place of shame.

00:31:44

He removes your guilt with the blood of His Son Jesus,

00:31:46

and He literally has your back as you move.

00:31:51

So if you've been stuck in shame, it's time to move.

00:31:55

If you feel stuck in guilt right now, it's time to move.

00:31:58

If you have been stuck in fear, God's got your back.

00:32:01

You can move.

00:32:02

An unbreakable God is fighting for you.

00:32:06

And I want to leave you with this:

00:32:08

all of these miracles, all these incredible things

00:32:10

that God has done caused what we see in the Bible

00:32:13

for the first time, a song of praise to be sung to God.

00:32:16

This song that is sung by Miriam, who was Moses' sister.

00:32:20

And it talks about the fact, it says,

00:32:22

"Who is like you, Lord, who is like you,

00:32:24

majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?"

00:32:30

God does wonders for people who have the courage to move.

00:32:33

He does wonders when we trust Him.

00:32:35

And I want you to know this:

00:32:36

God can do wonders in the place where you feel stuck.

00:32:40

You know, thousands of years later, we still sing songs

00:32:43

to remind us of how faithful God is.

00:32:45

And we're going to do that now

00:32:46

because God is encouraging you to move.

00:35:51

- Want to do this guy? He's pretty easy.

00:35:52

- No, you take him. I'm going to go here, survey my options.

00:35:55

- Yeah, while you survey your options.

00:35:56

- I'm going to do another one.

00:35:57

We all have to do things we don't like.

00:36:01

- You got him, got him, good job.

00:36:03

I'm going to do a twofer.

00:36:06

- I'm going to go. I'm going to go again, it's fine.

00:36:08

- It gets easier every time, doesn't it?

00:36:10

- Well, pretty yucky, I'm not going to lie.

00:36:13

I'll go to you. I don't like this.

00:36:14

- There you go. Good. Only got one more, there you go.

00:36:17

When you don't want to do something,

00:36:18

that's a time to move on it.

00:36:20

And you just did it. We just did it.

00:36:22

That's pretty great. Seriously, that's pretty great.

00:36:24

- I don't want to be someone who just goes --

00:36:28

I mean, believe me, I'm all eww about this.

00:36:30

I don't want to have anything to do with it,

00:36:32

but also it's fine. - Yeah.

00:36:35

- Like, I just I'm going to be a person

00:36:37

that does things I don't want to do

00:36:38

because sometimes that's the deal.

00:36:40

- Sometimes you've just got to power through it.

00:36:42

- Well, I mean, goodness, I don't think

00:36:43

you can read the Bible and come up with the idea

00:36:45

that God is somehow interested in keeping us comfortable.

00:36:48

So that's clearly not the case.

00:36:51

- But he is up for -- - Ice cream?

00:36:53

- Giving us Neapolitan ice cream.

00:36:55

- There's frog poop on me.

00:36:57

- I would start with dessert. I think you deserve that.

00:36:59

- I can't imagine this is remotely good.

00:37:02

- It looks awful. It looks like the desert.

00:37:04

- That's not -- - No, that's weird.

00:37:07

Mine's pink. You got chocolate?

00:37:09

Is it tasty?

00:37:10

- I don't know, let's find out. - No, it's not.

00:37:12

- It looks like a bar of soap.

00:37:14

- It's not worth whatever calories are in there, yuck.

00:37:16

Utterly awful.

00:37:18

- You know what? I'm going to take this to Chuck.

00:37:20

(crosstalk)

00:37:22

- Hey, MINGO. - What is that? - Just in time.

00:37:25

- Oh, just for you. Look at that.

00:37:28

- That's like desert ice cream?

00:37:31

- That's supposed to be that. Yes.

00:37:32

And this is a whole day for --

00:37:34

you can you can live on this for a whole day supposedly.

00:37:37

All right.

00:37:38

Do you want a bite of ice cream? Oh, you got one.

00:37:40

- I have one, yes. - Not all people eat ice cream.

00:37:42

Look, these guys, this is what we had to do.

00:37:47

- Oh. - We had to take them from here

00:37:50

and transfer them into that other container.

00:37:52

I struggled a little bit, I'm not going to lie.

00:37:54

- Did you do it? - I did not want to touch them.

00:37:56

- Did you move? - I moved. - I love it. I love it.

00:37:58

- Not just 1, not 2 --

00:37:59

- Alli didn't stay stuck, she moved.

00:38:01

- She absolutely did.

00:38:02

- How do you know you're not tasting frog on your ice cream?

00:38:04

Maybe you don't even know what the ice cream tastes like.

00:38:06

(crosstalk)

00:38:10

- That was frog juice you were eating right there.

00:38:12

- I feel like today was mission accomplished.

00:38:15

The challenge was tell the people,

00:38:17

give them the courage to move,

00:38:19

help us get out of the desert, become unbreakable.

00:38:22

I feel like that happened today.

00:38:23

I hope you enjoyed our experience.

00:38:25

We sure did, at least parts of it.

00:38:27

Maybe not the extreme of the frog so much.

00:38:29

We had a great time.

00:38:31

We'll be back next week with another episode.

00:38:33

One of the ways you might need to show courage to move

00:38:35

is move towards help if you need it.

00:38:37

And if you do need help in any way,

00:38:39

we'd love to be there for you.

00:38:40

You can click the chat button in the corner

00:38:42

of our website, crossroads.net.

00:38:43

Or you can email me. This is my actual email address.

00:38:46

I'll do my best to get back to you in 24 hours.

00:38:48

Next week, we continue the story,

00:38:50

the incredible story of Exodus and show how it merges

00:38:53

in powerful ways with the story of Jesus,

00:38:56

the story of Easter.

00:38:58

We'll see you then.

00:39:07

Easter is a radical story of rescue,

00:39:10

more meaningful today than ever.

00:39:14

The past year has felt like a storm in the desert.

00:39:17

It tried to break you.

00:39:19

Isolation, loss, fear, a future out of your control,

00:39:23

sometimes it felt like you would not survive.

00:39:27

But one man weathered the storm.

00:39:29

One man suffered its wrath for you and beat death.

00:39:34

Easter is the promise of that power

00:39:37

now living in you, the power to survive the storm,

00:39:40

the power to be unbreakable.

	The 3 Things That Keep Us Stuck	1:18
	Ribbit 🐸	5:10
	Break Through Shame	10:20
	Overcome Guilt	17:11
	Conquer Fear	25:05
	🙌When You Make A Way We Go	32:49
	Ice Cream Party 🍦 👩‍🚀	35:56

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