How to grow spiritually

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- You can grow beyond where you are right now.

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Hey, my name is Brian. Welcome to Crossroads.

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Everyone likes the idea of spirituality,

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but, like, no one actually knows

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you can actually grow spiritually.

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That is the journey we're going on today.

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So glad to be with you.

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The King of spirituality is Jesus.

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Jesus actually claimed to be God.

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When it comes to spiritual growth,

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I think He is the most qualified person to teach us.

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In the Book of Matthew 13:3-9, He gives a scenario

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of different people where they are spiritually.

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It's pretty well known,

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but you may have not heard before,

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and I'm going to give you a little angle to this

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you might not have heard, if you've heard it before.

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Here's here's what it says:

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You know, we don't really understand a lot

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in our country about farming because

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very, very few of us actually do it.

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When you plant, when you plant seeds,

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it's all about the condition of the soil.

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It's about the prep of the soil.

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So, just imagine someone who is sowing seed.

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I've got some seed here.

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That doesn't mean a sewing machine,

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but you're actually casting the seed around.

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He said there's four different places where the seed falls.

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This is -- this right here, this is this is dream soil.

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I don't know why my house never has soil like this.

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I don't know.

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Every time I'm digging a post hole or something like that,

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it's always hard, rocky, crappy ground.

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This is amazing.

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Some seed, Jesus says, sometimes when the Word of God,

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when a spiritual truth falls, it falls on rocky ground,

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it falls on the path.

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And there's just -- if this thing falls on concrete,

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it just can't, it can't break open and germinate.

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And that's some of us.

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You hear something spiritual and you're like,

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"Whatever. What's my next Netflix movie?" You know?

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Sometimes the seed falls on rocky ground

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and it kind of takes, it takes.

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But because it's so rocky,

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the roots can't go down really, really deep,

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and therefore, as soon as there's bad climate,

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boom, it's gone.

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Some of us may have heard something about Jesus,

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something about God, we've had some spiritual fix,

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but there's no roots, there's no depth.

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So therefore, as soon as something wrong happens in life:

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I don't get the job that I want; my boss is a jerk;

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I have a divorce; I have --

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I'm in -- I'm in credit card debt,

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and I can't think of anything else other than that;

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our spirituality just withers and goes away

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because there's no roots.

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And then some seed falls down and it starts to grow,

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but there's all kinds of active thorns and thistles

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that come up and it just kind of chokes the seed out itself.

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This what happens when some people,

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they come to understand Jesus,

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they come into relationship with Him,

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they become a Christian,

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but the cares of this world overwhelm it.

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They put more time into thinking about their career path,

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their dating life, their whatever it is,

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and it goes away, their spirituality just dies.

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And then -- and then there's some the fall

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on this beautiful, beautiful soil and something happens.

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The problem with us is, like,

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we don't have an inherent understanding

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of how all this works because most of us

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have never eaten anything that we've actually planted.

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We've never gone out

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and we've never actually broken up soil.

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We've never weeded.

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We've never put the fertilizer down.

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We've never come back a year later

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and kind of brought it up to our mouth and eat it.

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We don't understand this process.

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You know, in America, 2% of us are farmers, 2%.

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That means 98% of all Americans

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are living off of somebody else's work.

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They're working and so I get to eat.

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This is very similar, I believe,

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to in the spiritual world,

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in the church world in our country, maybe 2% of us

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are actually working at our relationship with God

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and our spirituality, 2%.

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The rest of us are just kind of waiting around,

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hoping that some spiritual thing happens

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that make me feel good and give me a little extra edge.

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And that's not the way it happens.

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Here's the problem with this --

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with this parable that Jesus tells, the story He tells.

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You can be left to understand

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or come to the wrong conclusion of,

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"Well, it's all a matter of fate.

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Like, if I was born with good soil,

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then I guess I can receive the Word of God.

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But what if I have a heart that has bad soil?

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What if I'm in an era that things are just more difficult?"

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It's almost like fate.

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But that's not what Jesus is saying.

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To understand what He's saying, we've got to look

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at the total context of all of His teaching.

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First of all, why is this good soil here?

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It's good soil because there's a farmer some place

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who's been working on this soil.

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That's why it's good soil.

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The way you get good soil is in the totality

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of Jesus's teaching by what you do, what you work on.

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Because we haven't planted a crop

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and eaten amazing fruit, we're not aware

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of how to work and wait for beautiful, luscious fruit.

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This is the way it works in the spiritual realm:

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You work on things

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and then you wait for the positive benefits.

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In the Book of Second Timothy 2:6, it says

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that we should be all-hard working farmers,

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hard-working farmers.

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And what does a hard-working farmer get to do?

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Before anybody else gets any of the fruit,

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while he's on his tractor going back to the house,

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he's chomping on the tomatoes.

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He's tasting them because he got to taste the fruit first

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because he has worked hard.

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See, there's so many things in the physical realm

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that relate to the spiritual realm.

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In the physical realm I have to plant and work,

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work and wait over a long period of time.

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And then I get the fruit, then I get the fruit.

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That's the way it works in the physical realm.

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Also in the physical realm, I know that I can't grow --

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I can't grow my body.

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I can't grow my body unless I work on it and wait.

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I've got to do some cardio.

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I've got to do some push ups,

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like, I do some stuff, you know?

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That's why I have actually long sleeves on.

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I don't want to cause you to stumble

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by seeing my bulging biceps.

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No, not true.

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But that's how you get in shape.

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It's not like, "Well, you got the DNA lottery

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of being a person who's in shape.

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Well, you're just naturally in shape."

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No, you're not naturally in shape.

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You actually worked to get where you were and you waited.

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For you and I to grow spiritually

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there are things that you must do.

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There are things that you have to actually work on.

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This is the totality of His teaching.

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He talks about how to love people,

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how to serve other people.

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He talks about again and again how to get in community.

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These things that He talks about are the things

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that if you don't do them, you will not grow.

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If you do not work on it, you won't have spiritual fruit

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and a life that's lush and juicy and fresh

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and vibrant and close with God.

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Let's talk about what those seven practices actually are.

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- Man, I never thought I would get to see

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Brian working on a farm.

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- No. It's so weird because he's not quite a farmer,

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right, but he's on there, so by technicality, farmer.

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- Close enough. - Close enough. That's right.

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- Hey, my name is Andy Reider.

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I'm the community pastor for Crossroads Anywhere.

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- And I'm Hannah. Super glad that you're with us today.

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- Yes. Today we are looking at how we grow.

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And we don't grow by standing still.

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We grow by taking action.

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I'll just say, like, there's lots of different ways

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this has played out in my life.

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But one of them, one of the ways I found traction

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and movement and growth is by giving.

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If you've got questions around what does our money go to

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or how you can join the team,

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head to Crossroads.net/give for more info.

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-That's right.

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And before we head back to the message, Andy,

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we've got a treat for folks because I know

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everyone is wondering why Andy and I

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are not moving like Brian told us to.

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We're not growing right now.

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We're actually sitting still, and watching this tree grow.

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And that is because we are doing something amazing

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called The Journey.

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And for several years it is the thing

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that our church does that I believe propels us forward.

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This year all about growth.

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And we've got an explainer to share how you,

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yes, you can get involved right now.

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- There are three parts to the journey.

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Step one: Attend the weekend

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and receive weekly teaching at a site or online.

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Get inspired with the good news.

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Step two: Do your guide work.

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You get your very own printed guide.

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We can even mail one to you.

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It'll help you create a plan of action to grow deeper.

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And step three: meet with your group.

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During the Journey we meet in groups

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to talk about what we're learning, grow deeper together.

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Go here for more.

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Come Grow!

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- Now before we get into these proven practices

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that we've got to work at if we want to be close to God,

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I've got to say this real clearly.

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The way to initially come to close to God,

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to come into relation with God is not by your work.

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That's actually by the work of Jesus.

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Jesus who goes on a Cross. He dies for us.

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He pays the payment for all of our garbage

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so that we don't have to do that.

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That payment and that work is done.

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What we're talking about here is the work that you do

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once you have a relationship with God through Jesus,

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to actually grow it, to deepen, to intensify it,

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to make sure you have fruit.

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And you also can actually be doing these things

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if you're not in a relationship with Jesus

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and Him actually come to you in the midst of these things.

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Because this is the kind of stuff

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that really turns Him on where He is.

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So here we are, 7 proven practice real quick.

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Number one: connect with God daily, every day.

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Do you know what it is you're doing today

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and tomorrow to connect with God?

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It can't be accidental.

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"Well, I hope today I feel God. I hope, I hope today ;;"

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No, what is it you're doing today

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that you know you're going to try to connect with God?

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Sometimes you don't feel it,

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but if you don't have a system, you will never feel it.

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One of the things I do,

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I do a number of things every day.

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One of them is I go to the Crossroads App, I open it up.

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There's a chapter of the Bible.

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I'll look at it, I'll journal some things in there.

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I'll read what other people say.

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I'll pray for some people who are in there.

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That's one of the ways I connect with God every day.

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Do you know what it is for you?

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Connect with God every day.

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Two: is to receive teaching weekly.

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Every day people are teaching us.

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If you're in school, obviously people are teaching you,

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your friends are teaching you.

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They're trying to push you into mold

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and put their worldview on you.

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Your news feeds, all of our news sources,

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whatever your news source is, they're teaching you.

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They're not innocent purveyors of objective truth.

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No, there's a reason why they choose certain stories,

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certain articles, have certain people saying what they say.

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We're being taught all the time.

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Every week to try to counteract that and overcome it,

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you've got to know where am I going

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to get a big, solid block of teaching

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where somebody is having an agenda

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to get me closer to God.

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A church worship service, something online,

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something where this is like clockwork,

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this is what I do.

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Again, physically, I can't get some place new

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if I don't know what it is I'm doing daily and weekly

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to get to a new place spiritually, physically.

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And you can't get anyplace different spiritually

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unless you know what you're doing daily and weekly.

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Thirdly: share your story. Share your story.

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You know, in our culture,

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we're increasingly cynical of this.

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We like our spirituality just be private.

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It's just between you and God.

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And definitely don't tell anybody about

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how you came to faith, if you have faith,

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because that would be proselytizing.

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And this is part of the problem.

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We're all keeping this close to us because

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we're kind of operating in shame.

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I don't want to tell you what's going on with me

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because maybe I'm embarrassed.

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And if you tell me what's going on with you,

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maybe I'll feel like I don't stack up to you.

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It could be a trigger to me feeling unworthy.

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This is ridiculous, man.

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We all have different stories.

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We've got to talk about it.

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Jesus said go into all the world.

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It was The Great Commission.

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We've got to share our story.

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My story was, part of my story is

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I grew up in a very religious, dead Presbyterian home.

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I don't mean the Presbyterians are dead.

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There's a lot of Presbyterians, there's dead Presbyterians,

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a lot of Baptists, dead Baptists,

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alive, non-denominational churches,

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dead denominational churches.

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But this one was all about rules,

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all about pomp and circumstances.

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And I just -- I didn't feel God. I didn't.

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So, I was on my way to being an atheist or an agnostic.

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Someone invited me to a weekend camp

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by an organization called Young Life.

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I thought I was going to play football for the weekend.

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We played a little football, but really

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it was hearing the story of who Jesus was.

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I ended up becoming a Christian.

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I accepted Jesus into my life.

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I got filled with His Spirit

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and my life changed drastically.

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The next several decades of my life

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have been an amazing growth, lush experience.

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You've got to share your story with somebody

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at some point.

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Get baptized.

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Every person in the Bible who grows spiritually

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in the New Testament, they get baptized.

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I'm not talking about being a little kid.

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You got water sprinkled on you. That's fine.

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I'm not anti that.

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But the only reason I never got baptized

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until I was older is because I was embarrassed.

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I was a little --

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I don't want to be wet in front of people.

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I didn't -- I actually didn't want to look like

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a pastor who had never been baptized.

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Yeah, I was a pastor, not baptized.

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And I got convicted, like, this is work.

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This is a practice that I have to do,

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and I got baptized in my thirties.

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And it was awesome. It was great.

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Some of us are not growing spiritually because

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this key marker, this key gateway,

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this key practice has not been done.

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Join community is another proven practice.

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Who are the people that you meet with

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and you know when you're meeting with them,

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you know why you're meeting with them?

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I've got groups that I get with weekly, monthly.

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These are the folks I hang with

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when I need somebody to encourage me.

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I know I'm likely to get encouragement from them.

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When things are rough and I need help,

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I know these folks are going to help me.

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When I just need to laugh, which is like all the time,

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I've got to be in a community

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where there is a good level of laughter.

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These folks come around me.

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Join a community.

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Who is it you're with that you know

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they're going to go after God

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and they want to get the most out of life?

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Live generously.

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We're not going to talk about this one

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in the midst of this series, but live generously.

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It's an idea of God has resources, He pours them into me

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and I funnel them out to others.

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I want to live generously,

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whether that's blessing people with meals,

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whether it's blessing people with encouragement

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and time, blessing people with stuff that I have.

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I'm not going to sell on Facebook Marketplace.

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I'm just going to give it away.

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Based on how I'm going to treat my money to my church.

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Living generously.

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We're not going to talk about that one in this series,

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but it's a key, key, critical, proven practice.

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And then the last one, we're also not going

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to spend a lot of time on this one either,

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is serving others.

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Being outside of ourselves,

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looking to lift somebody else up and help them.

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Now, these seven proven practices.

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Now, I say proven,

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I keep saying that because they're proven.

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There's not a single person in the entire Bible

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that is a hero that doesn't do these seven things.

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There isn't.

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There's not a single person you know

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that's a spiritual rock

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that doesn't do these seven things, not a single one.

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You may know people who are spiritually smart,

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they can lay down a good argument.

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They can debate you.

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But come on, come on, that's different

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than somebody who walks close with God,

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somebody who's got this just this

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leafy, rich, vibrant structure to their life.

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The kind of person who,

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when you ask them to pray for you, they actually do.

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And they get more yeses than you do

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because they're rooted solid with God.

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The kind of people who go, "You know, I was just

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thinking God might want you to be reminded of,"

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boom, and a piece of gold comes your way.

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The kind of people who've got decades,

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decades of consistency and relationships with them.

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Not the latest flash in the pan on social media

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who's got a bunch of followers,

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but no people who've been with this person

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and know this person and for decades

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or years and years and years.

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And they're consistent and solid as a rock.

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People who they don't -- they're not detonating their life.

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They're not making bad decisions

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because they're walking with God,

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they're getting with God.

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They're sensing God and they're growing.

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That's what I want for you.

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I don't want this from you, I want this for you.

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And I know you do, too.

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You've been created to want this,

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to be closely connected with the God

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who loves you so, so, so much.

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But we've got to get connected.

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These are the practices that we do.

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You do these things and your life will change.

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I want all this.

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I want more of God and I want to go deeper.

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And I hope you do, too.

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That's why we're going to do a song right now

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that's talking about going deeper.

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Let's go deeper.

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Let's dig down and let's experience this song together.

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- I love how Brian talked about those seven practices.

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It's not some long laundry list,

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but something that over the past 2000 years

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has shown us it's a proven way that leads to abundance,

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that leads to life, that leads to growth.

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And I'm excited about it. - That's right.

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We want you to experience this Journey alongside of us,

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not just by watching stuff.

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It's by moving, it's by taking action.

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So, I have two steps for you.

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One, I want you to get a guide

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so you can experience Journey as well.

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So, head to Crossroads.net/Journey

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where you can sign up.

00:21:57

We will get one of these bad boys into your hands.

00:21:59

And secondly, I want you to join a Journey Group

00:22:02

because we don't grow alone. Right?

00:22:05

- We can't It's not possible, you can't.

00:22:06

- We grow when we're moving

00:22:08

and we grow when we're together.

00:22:09

So, get a guide and get a group

00:22:12

and let's do this Grow Journey together.

00:22:14

- See you next time on Crossroads.

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