Daily Time with God | Grow Week 1

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- Welcome to Crossroads and welcome to the Grow Journey.

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I'm Brian.

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Before we get started, just what exactly is this Journey thing?

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Well, let me start with the word "grow."

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In the Bible, we see seven practices that Jesus does.

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And when we unlock these proven practices in our own lives,

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we grow, we advance, we go to the next place,

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we feel closer to God.

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Each week of this series, we will be looking at

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a different one of the seven proven practices

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and figuring out how to apply to our individual lives.

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That's the grow part.

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The Journey part means

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that we're going on a journey together,

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a bunch of people going step by step through a process

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of self discovery and sharpening one another

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and sensing God moment by moment, week by week.

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As a church, we're all doing it,

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and we do it by meeting in groups

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and going through the guidebook,

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as well as having something to see online

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or in a building.

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We'll show you how to do that later in the episode.

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I'm glad you're watching.

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And I believe if you engage,

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you're going to grow closer to God

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in the next 20 minutes.

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Now let's get started.

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If you're happy with the way your life is going,

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just keep doing what you're doing right now.

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But if you want something different for your life,

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you're going have to do something different

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in your life.

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That's what this Journey is about. It's about growing.

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And when I want to get some place where I'm not right now,

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I'm going to do something that I'm not doing right now.

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We're going to walk together

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through the process of how you grow.

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Around me are familiar faces

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worn out places worn out faces

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Bright and early for the daily race

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going nowhere, going nowhere.

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I find it hard to tell you

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I find it hard to take

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When people run in circles

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It's a very, very mad world,

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mad world

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Little darlin', I feel that ice is thawing

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Little darlin', it feels like years since it's been here

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Here comes the sun,

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Here comes the sun,

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Here comes the sun,

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Here comes the sun,

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Here comes the sun,

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Here comes the sun,

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Sun, sun, sun, here it comes,

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Little darlin', the smile's returning to their faces

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Little darlin', it seems like years since it's been here

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Here comes the sun

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Here comes the sun,

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Sun, sun, sun, here it comes

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- How do I have daily time with God?

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- I start my morning off with a cup of coffee and my Bible.

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- I take a 10,000 step walk with God every day.

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I just call it my prayer walk.

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- When I have my phone out and I'm praying,

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I'm just typing in my notepad and I'm talking to God

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and it actually feels like I'm texting God.

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- I love spending my daily time worshiping.

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I love spending the morning singing, worshiping,

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and just asking God what He wants to speak.

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- Sometimes I like to pick a chapter of the Bible

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that I never read before.

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- In the morning before my sister and I go to school,

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my family does a devotional together.

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- What you do every day dictates your day

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and delivers your life.

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That's what we're talking about today.

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Hey, I'm Brian. Welcome to Crossroads.

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I'm in a chair that I sit in every morning.

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Well, I say every morning.

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There's a few mornings here and there I miss.

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But this is a habit.

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It's a routine that happens with me every day.

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Every day I get up and I sit in this chair

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and I spend time with God.

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That's what we're looking at today:

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How to have daily time with God.

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In the Book of Matthew 6:11, it says this.

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And you may have -- you may have heard this verse before.

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You may have prayed this verse before.

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It's kind of crazy, a lot of high schools

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still use this verse

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in a football locker room before a game.

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It doesn't make any sense to me in a football context,

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but, hey, if it works for you, great, it works for you.

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I'm not going to read it.

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I'm just going to quote it the way I remember learning it.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

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Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,

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on earth as it is in Heaven.

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Give us this day our daily bread,

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and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

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And us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil.

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For Yours is the Kingdom and the power

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and the glory forever. Amen.

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This is known as the Lord's Prayer.

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It's the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray.

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It has all the elements in it to get you

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and your day going the right way,

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especially the part I want to focus on right now.

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It said: Give us this day our daily bread.

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I know people who have these little lizards as pets.

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It doesn't make sense to me either.

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Praying the Lord's Prayer

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before you go crush the other team in football.

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That doesn't make a lot of sense,

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but if it works for you, great.

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Another thing I don't understand is like having a pet lizard.

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I don't understand that one.

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But that works for you, that's fine.

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Some lizards, they will only eat

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if you give them two portions of food every day

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because they always want to make sure they have

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one portion of food that's right there at all times.

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When Jesus talks about daily bread,

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that Jewish audience remembered way, way, way back

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in their national history, God would bring manna.

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Every day manna would come down from heaven

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and it would fill up the ground

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and they would be able to eat that.

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And then they would go on their day,

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and the next day more manna will come down.

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Only enough manna could they take for that day.

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They weren't lizards.

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They couldn't store it away.

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Only enough for that day.

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This lizard, apparently, from I understand it,

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won't eat unless it sees it has two days food.

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I find that with us God doesn't deliver us

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multiple food for a week's time in one setting.

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We have to go to God every day to just get what we need.

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That's what Jesus is talking about,

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about give us this day our daily bread.

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God wants to give you enough this day

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to get you through this day.

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And this day will dictate your destiny.

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And this time, in this chair dictates my day.

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It's important when you have time with God to just

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know where it is I'm going to spend time with God

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and what time of day I'm going to spend time with God.

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I like spending time with God in the mornings.

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There's some biblical precedent for that.

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But the most important thing is knowing

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what time in the day you're going to meet with God

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and where you're going to meet with God.

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I've got this chair that I sit in

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and I try to only sit in this chair

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when I'm going to actually meet with God.

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If I want to surf the web, I'll go to another chair

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because I want this chair to cue me up

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to when I sit down it's kind of like a keystone habit.

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All of the other start falling in place where I say,

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"Oh, this is time with God time.

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That's what I'm doing right now."

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When I get into this place, I want to do a couple of things.

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I want to read the Bible

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or I want to read the Crossroads App

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that actually has the Bible in the app.

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I want to read that and see might I read something

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that God's going to give me?

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When I get something from God,

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I often times want to write it down.

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Most recent years, my journals have been electronic,

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digital because I'm on my phone,

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so I have been using my phone for my journal.

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But recently I've been going back to old school.

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Old school paper, like this is right here the Journal I use

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and put stuff in and you can see I got stuff,

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I just write it in. It's where it is.

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And there have been day after day, week after week,

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month after month, year after year,

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decade after decade of journals.

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I've got just a list of these,

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a variety of these right here from previous years.

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Oh, I don't even know what year this is.

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This is just a random assortment.

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Let's see, maybe -- maybe do a little journal roulette.

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Let's just see what I said on a specific day.

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Let's go here.

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Okay. This is 7/15.

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It doesn't even tell me what year it was.

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Well, let's start at the beginning of it.

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7/15, I'm going to guess this is about 1992.

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Here's what it says, "Good morning, Lord.

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The quietness is great,"

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because it's always quiet in the morning.

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"Interesting insight to Mark 6, where Jesus --

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where Jesus feeds 5000 people with bread

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and then walks on the water.

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Both of these things are mosaic in nature.

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Moses was around." That's fascinating.

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God led me to this right here to share with you,

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because this was in my journal decades ago.

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Moses was the leadership when the Manna came down

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and then Moses split the water with the staff

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and Jesus walks on water.

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He's tying into all the great leaders of the past.

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"Having just cross reference Jesus's words

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of taking up our cross, which is in Psalms 49 as well,

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I'm again reminded and convicted

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to not pursue love of earthly things.

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You alone can bring my soil satisfaction

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and brings significance to my life."

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Oh, my gosh.

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I pick one about you bring my soil satisfaction

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while I'm in a freaking greenhouse

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where there's soils all over.?

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Let me tell you that I believe God had me right this here,

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right then, way back when,

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knowing I was going to randomly pull this one out

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to help his children, which is you right now.

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So, you know that journal entry that Brian just opened up?

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- Hey, you need to know that that was totally not planned.

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That was like one of those beautiful,

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serendipitous things that just happen sometimes,

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not planned, totally happened right in the moment.

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- The soil of your life, that's your heart.

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Are you tending the soil of your heart?

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Are you breaking up the things in your heart

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and your mind to be able to have fresh seeds from God

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that come inside of your heart?

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This is why every day, every day

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you have to get with God.

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Every day you've got to meet with Him.

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Every day you've got to see if He's got

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some bread for you that day to get you through that day,

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or even to plant seeds the might bear fruit

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even decades in the future,

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like this journal did right here, right now.

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Let's take a break. Let's hear this.

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- To hear Brian talk about connect with God daily

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is so encouraging because it reminds me that it's a practice.

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And you know what? Something about practice, Kyle.

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You've got to practice even when you don't feel like it

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because you want to grow. And that's my story.

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Sometimes every day I'm like,

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"Oh, do I need to put in the hours?

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Do I need to put in the work?"

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But I know that's the only thing that leads to growth.

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You've got to do it.

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- I -- look, there's seven proven practices, right?

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They're all they're all important. They're all.

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- Yeah. - They're all great.

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If I'm honest, I think this one's, like,

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at the foundation for me. - Absolutely.

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- If this is happening, everything else is happening,

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everything else makes sense.

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It's when I stop connecting with God daily,

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where I start to drift and things just kind of get off.

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- Try to reconnect with yourself daily,

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your own desires and your own things.

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That's what you do daily. - Right.

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- You don't put that under the submission of God.

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It's good.

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- I remember things, like, God is good. He is for me.

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- That's right. - He's my provider. - Yeah.

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- And that kind of thought process, that's essential

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because that's what enables me to go, like,

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"Oh, right, you know what? God gives to me.

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I want to be like Him. I want to give to other people.

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- I see how you through that other practice in there.

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I like that.

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- Hey, if you want to jump in,

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if you want to give to Crossroads, we would love that.

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It helps support this and so much amazing work

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that happens around the world.

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You've just got to go to Crossroads.net/give and jump in.

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- That's right. And let's head back to Brian

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as he continues to talk about connecting with God daily.

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- Your decision on what you do every day

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will impact your destiny.

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Jesus was as great as he was, in part

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because of what He did every day.

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And we see every day He would get with His God.

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Now, sometimes when we get with God,

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there isn't lights and whistles.

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Sometimes there isn't anything.

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It's just, like, we sat there and read

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and did some things that we wouldn't do during the day.

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That happens a lot, actually.

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But you have no shot, no shot of hearing from God

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and building ourselves spiritually

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if you don't do that.

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Jesus, in the Book of Mark 1:35,

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we see this was a daily thing for Him.

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Here's what says:

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Very early in the morning while it was dark

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He was off by Himself.

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The implication, understanding here is

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this is what He did in the mornings.

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He carved out time and He got with God.

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And they couldn't find Him.

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They were like, "Hey, dude, we got stuff to do.

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Chop, chop, let's go. We got places to go.

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People want to see us."

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Jesus says, "Oh, people want to see me.

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They want me to be a productivity machine over here?

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Okay, I'm going to go over here instead."

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This is what we do.

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We're like, "Hey, man, I got stuff to do today.

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Chop, chop, chop. People want to hear from me.

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People want to inform me on my social media feed.

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I've got projects to check off my list.

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I got stuff to do, I got stuff to do."

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And we choose those things

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instead of meeting with the God who created us

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and is in charge of those things

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and can change those things.

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But He can only change those things

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if He's got our full attention, our full heart,

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our full power engaged.

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All of these plants that are here,

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every single one of them, they look really good.

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You know why they look good?

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Because someone is coming in here every day

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and making sure they look good.

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Someone's coming in here and weeding things

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and they're watering things.

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They're making sure everything is right.

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Someone is taking care of this on a daily basis.

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Part of the reason why I don't have a garden,

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I hate gardens because I don't want to spend time

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on a stinking garden.

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It's not worth it to me.

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But I tell you what, I know my heart is a garden.

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I know my life is a garden and I have to tend it every day.

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One of the ways we have to tend it is to know

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where we go to hear from God and to talk with God,

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and to tap into a spiritual power that isn't ours.

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It's His power that's flowing in us.

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God has more for you than you can even imagine.

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And one of the ways He gets more for you

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is understanding Him better and spending time every day

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to try to hear from Him.

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During this Journey it's multisensory, tactile,

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all different angles, trying to get you closer with God.

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That's what this journal is about.

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We don't want anything from you.

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We want something for you.

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We want you to hear from God,

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to grow to be the person He's designed you to be.

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That's called spiritual growth.

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Now, you know, I have a place I go to every day

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and I have a time I do it every day.

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You need to find your place, you know your time.

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But you know what happens sometimes?

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I miss, whatever reason, I just miss.

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What I don't do is beat myself up that day and just quit.

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No. The next day, I got another shot at it.

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When you miss something, you just start again.

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We're going to fail.

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But we can make a decision this day,

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tomorrow, to go forward.

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That's what I want for you.

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I want you to grow.

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I want you to be the person God designed you to be.

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I want you to have all the things

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that God wants to give you.

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But you've got to get with God

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for Him to start giving you those things.

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That's what this Journey is about.

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Let me pray for you right now so that happens.

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Lord, You're good to give us this Journey.

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Thank you for it as a gift.

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We're looking forward to seeing

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what You're going to do in our lives

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as a result of having our time with You.

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I pray You'd bring a season of growth to all of us.

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Just come through our lives, take the weeds out,

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bring the water in, grow us to be who You want us to be.

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Thank you for doing so.

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I pray these things according to the character

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and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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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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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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I don't know how long we've been doing the journey at Crossroads.

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Like a super long time.

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But I'm just going to be honest and say

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I can directly tie breakthroughs

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that still are in effect in my life today to the journey.

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Like years and years ago we did one,

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I think it was called The Journey Home,

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and it was all about like, who are you really?

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- Yeah.

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And now in my life, people will say, like,

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"Hey, you're a confident guy. How did you get that confident?

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But hopefully not overly confident,

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just like the appropriate amount of confident.

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- The amount you need to make it through.

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Yeah. "Tell me about that. When did that happen for you?"

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And I can directly tie that to the Journey Home

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and that breakthrough has lasted in my life.

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That's so good.

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You know, we probably got some skeptics at home right now.

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If you're a skeptic, that's totally okay.

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You're like, what is this thing? Doesn't really work?

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I'm going to tell you, the only way to find out is to try it.

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We're in the journey. This is week one.

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You can still hop in,

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you can still get one of these awesome guides

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and you can get in a group by going to Crossroads.net/Journey.

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You can take two steps, two very tiny steps

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that can lead you towards growth in your life.

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And we want to see you do it.

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That's right. - Absolutely. Do it.

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So we'll see you next time on Crossroads.

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