You Can Change | Faithful in a Faithless World Week 2

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Hey, happy New Year. Welcome to Crossroads.

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My name is Kyle, and this year, 2022,

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we at Crossroads want to guide and equip you

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for the adventurous life that God has for you.

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And that might sound like, "That sounds great, Kyle.

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But all I'm hoping for this year

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is a better year than last year."

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If that's where you're at, I'm exactly with you.

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My 2021 ended with a thud. It was terrible.

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Right before Christmas, like the day before,

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my middle child decided to jump down our basement stairs

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and cracked open his head.

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Ended up in the ER getting staples in his head.

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That wasn't great.

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And then on Christmas,

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I got a gift I didn't ask for: COVID.

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It was terrible.

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Listen, whether you had a terrible end of your 2021

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like I did or you just read the headlines about Omicron

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and all this stuff, it'd be really easy right now

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to assume it's all just going to suck,

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no matter what I do.

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Just throw our hands up. Whatever.

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But what we're going to talk about today

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is that there is a different way to live your life

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that leads to a better life.

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And you and I, good news,

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have more control over it than we think.

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The key to all of it is time spent with God.

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That's why, as a community we're doing something

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this year, for the entire year,

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we're calling the Bible Challenge.

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I'm going to tell you more about that at the end.

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But today we're going to kick it off

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with our senior pastor Brian in the book of Daniel.

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Here's just a little bit more about that book.

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- The book of Daniel is a story of a faithful man

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and the unmatched power of God.

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Today's setting is right after

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Babylon's first attack on the city of Jerusalem

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about 597 B.C. and the city is left in ruins,

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plundered, utterly destroyed,

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and any other way to say it was crushed.

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Like any conqueror of the time,

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King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon takes

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as many things as he can from Jerusalem,

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including some people.

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Among them some of the Israelite royal family.

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That guy named Daniel and three of his good friends

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were the cream of the crop, the bee's knees,

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all that and a bag of chips.

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And do people even still say that?

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Anyway, you get the point.

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They were the best of the best and some.

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And they were chosen to serve the king.

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Today we explore their story

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and what it means for our life.

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- Hey, my name's Brian, welcome to Crossroads.

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The big idea for today is this:

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you control your life and you can improve your life

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and your walk with God.

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Yeah, you do.

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You have more control than you think,

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and you can improve yourself

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and your walk with God more so than you think.

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I think this is part of why we're so drawn

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to New Year's resolutions.

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We get frustrated with them.

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Like this graphic shows, it looks the same

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from year to year, but we're like, "Oh no,

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this year I really mean it.

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Even if we're not saying what we mean,

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I really mean it this year."

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If you look at some of the people

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who have inspired us over the years,

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they include people like Mother Teresa

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who died, you know, many years ago.

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But we can learn something from her life

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and this way and an odd learning

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you might have never come across before.

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Mother Teresa had a spiritual confidante,

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the Reverend Michael Vander Peete.

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And in her correspondence, an old letter,

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here's what she says to him. She says:

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Wow. Is this Mother Teresa admitting

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that she doesn't hear from God,

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that she doesn't feel God,

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that she's spiritually dry?

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Apparently so.

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Time Magazine in 2007 says this:

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What does this mean?

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Does this mean Mother Teresa was a sham?

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Does this mean that we can't really feel God,

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because if Mother Teresa doesn't feel God,

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how does somebody like me have any shot?

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Mother Teresa can't control life

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and can't control her walk with God,

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just like you and I can.

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I'm trying to encourage you to do

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some creative things in 2022,

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like actually read the Bible.

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Mother Teresa, think about this,

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for her whole life she did the same thing

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day in, day out. There's something good to that.

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Same thing day in, day out.

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Served of the same people, the same country,

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listen to the same sermons,

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the same Catholic theology,

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the same Gregorian chants, all that stuff.

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That's fine.

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But here's what we need, every once in a while,

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we need to try something different.

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That's what I like about resolutions.

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We're trying to say I want something different.

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You know what Mother Teresa needed?

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She probably needed to listen,

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instead of the same Catholic 15 minute homily,

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she probably needed some T.D. Jakes,

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give her something fresh and new.

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Instead of another Gregorian chant,

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she probably would have been well served

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with Maverick City.

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We need to try new things.

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If you want the same things you had last year,

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keep doing the same things you did last year.

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But if you want to take control of yourself,

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control of your spiritual formation,

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you're going to have to try new things.

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That's why I'm trying to get you to try new things

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like Read the Bible regularly in 2022.

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We're going to look at the Book of Daniel today

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and for the next several weeks.

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Daniel is a crazy, crazy situation.

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Here's what's happening in the world at his time.

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It's around 600 B.C.

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King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon

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marches on the city of Jerusalem

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and they capture the Nation of Israel,

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or known as the southern Kingdom of Israel.

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Daniel is one of these captives.

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And the Babylonians, they take everything.

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They take the holy objects inside the temple.

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They try to take their traditions.

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It's an early form of cultural appropriation.

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They take, they take it all.

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And when they get Daniel,

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they want to take even more from him.

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Have you ever felt like our culture

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is trying to take from you?

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It's just take, take, take, steal, steal, steal.

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Trample, trample, trample.

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You may feel that way, but that was

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what actually happened with Daniel

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and we can learn something from him

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and even taking control of our life

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in our walk with God in the midst of it.

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Here's what says in Daniel 1:3:

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This guy, who's a eunuch,

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he's going to come up a number of times.

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I'm just explain this.

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In the ancient world, when you served under a king,

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the king wanted to make sure that

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there wouldn't be any coups.

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So he would require once you got to

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a certain level in his administration,

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if you were a male, that you castrated yourself.

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Because the belief was this would disincentivize

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you from leading a coup because

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you could never have your own royal household,

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because you never could have your own offspring.

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So eunuchs were very senior ranking officials.

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That's the case with this guy.

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So Chaldeans, by the way,

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are the hyper spiritual types of the Babylonian empire,

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the people who can prophecy, see in the future,

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this kind of thing, or so they believed.

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This is an executive training program

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that King Nebuchadnezzar sets up.

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He says, "I want you to go get the best of the best.

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Bring them here. Bring them over here to me."

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And Daniel is selected

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because he has hit the DNA lottery.

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When's the last sermon you heard on,

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"Hey, if you hit the DNA lottery

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of having a wonderful complexion

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and being good looking, God has a plan for your life"?

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There's very few people who are like that,

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and those that are we just don't like, you know/

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Like, I don't know a Kardashian say

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or Tom Brady who's just annoying.

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Very impressive, Tom Brady, very impressed.

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But dude, you're getting like, you're getting older,

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as I'm getting older, and you're not making me look good

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because I'm feeling like a slacker when I look at you."

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DNA lottery, whatever it is,

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unbelievable what that guy's done.

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How many people has he dated or married

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who are supermodels?

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Man, it drives a lot of guys crazy.

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Daniel. Daniel would have basically have been

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the Tom Brady of his day.

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It's why he's selected into this group.

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Now, here's the deal:

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We've got to know our identity.

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Two big ideas today, one is this: Know your identity.

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I'm going to give you the name of Daniel

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and his three friends.

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You might have heard of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego

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if you've been around churches

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or in Sunday School.

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Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,

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that's actually not their name.

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They are given a new identity by the Babylonians,

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who do not want to respect them.

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Let me read the verse for you right now.

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Daniel 1:4-7 says this:

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So if you've heard the names

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Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,

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that's actually not their name.

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That's not the name that their parents gave them

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or the name that reflected their identity before God.

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That was a power grab by the Babylonians

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to change their ways and who they were.

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The Babylonians are trying to get them

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to forget who they actually are,

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forget who their real God is.

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Daniel, his name means in the Hebrew God is my judge.

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The right God, the real God, God is my judge.

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Changes to is the Belteshazzar,

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which means "bel protects his life."

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Bel was a foreign false deity.

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Hananiah means Yahweh has been gracious,

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and his name is Shadrach, which means

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"command of the moon God."

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The Moon God is a false God, not a real God.

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See, the Babylonians are trying to say,

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"No, not the God over here you serve.

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No, this is the one. This is who you are."

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Mishael means who is like God.

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Who is like him? You ever think that?

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Sometimes you think about who God is, you're like,

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"Who is He who keeps giving me grace and favor

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and forgiveness like that and provide, who is He?"

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That's what his name means, but he's given the name Meshack,

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which means "who is what Aku is,"

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another force foreign deity.

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Azariah means God has helped,

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and Abednego, the new name he's given,

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is "servant of Nebu."

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Let me tell you the same thing

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happens in our culture today.

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No, you're not a Christian. You are a consumer.

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No, you know, no, no, you are an extremist.

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No, you're you're a liberal.

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You're a conservative.

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You're a Democrat. You're a Republican.

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You are enlightened. You are non enlightened.

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You are a deplorable.

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You are an elite. You are whatever.

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You know who you are? Your name is forgiven.

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That's your identity.

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To know your name means to know your identity.

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If your last name is Smith,

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somewhere in your background is a silversmith

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or a blacksmith was with you.

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Tome is my last name.

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Some of my background meant somebody

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was doing a lot of stuff with books,

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because tome means a big volume of books.

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My name Brian Douglas Tome.

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My parents gave me that name because they thought

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it sounded good, which is cool. That's fine.

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Most of us will give names because they like it.

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Brian Douglas Tome.

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But there wasn't any deep spiritual meaning

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to those words, but it is part of my identity.

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Crazy story.

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I'm adopted. I met my birth parent,

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my birth father, a few years ago.

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You know what his name is, his first name?

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Douglas.

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My parents unknowingly gave me

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the middle name of my birth father.

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Wow. You've got to know your identity.

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You are a child of God. You are a son of God.

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You're a daughter of God. You are forgiven.

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You are accepted.

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You are him in whom he is well pleased.

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These are all basic Bible statements

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about who you and I are, which is why

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we've got to be in the scriptures because

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the scriptures give us our identity.

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Fox News and CNN is never going to give your identity.

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Never, never.

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You've got to know who you are.

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You have to take control of your understanding

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of yourself and walk in it.

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- Real quick, I'm going to interrupt here

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to talk about giving, and I'm going to do it

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in less than 30 seconds. Ready, go.

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You know, here at Crossroads, we're trying

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to lean into the ways of God

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that actually lead to a better life.

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And one of those ways is giving.

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Giving is something that's a spiritual act

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that actually supports things in the world

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here and now, help heal the world

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instead of tearing it down.

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If that's something that interests you,

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you can learn more at crossroads.net/give.

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Back to the message.

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- The second thing, the second thing we do

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is we have to know our identity

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and we've got to know our disciplines.

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What is it that you do to keep yourself clear headed?

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What is it that you do to make sure that you are healthy

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physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally?

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What is it?

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Do you know what those things are?

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One of the things we're doing this year

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to get ourselves healthy and know what it is,

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is, Hey man, I am going to be a Bible reader.

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That's one of my identities.

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It's one of my disciplines is to read the scriptures.

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Faithfulness to God is completely countercultural.

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Daniel makes a bold decision in the midst of

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a culture that's going the opposite way

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of the ultimate true God

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to not accept the king's food while in the palace.

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Even though he's got external pressures

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and those foods would taste good,

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he decides he's not going to give in.

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Daniel 1:8-10:

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You can learn a lot here from Daniel

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in how to deal with a culture that's at war with us,

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if you feel like the culture

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is at war with you spiritually.

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Daniel, he doesn't like protests

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and he doesn't just get belligerent.

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He gets diplomatic. And the eunich is like,

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"Man, I've already lost one part

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of my body voluntarily, don't make me lose my head.

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How can I make sure the things are going to be OK here?"

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Daniel doesn't want to eat the king's food

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or drink his drink. Wine is the case.

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Why is that?

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We're not -- we're not sure exactly why that is.

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There's positive references to alcohol in the Bible.

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Jesus's first miracle is turning water into wine,

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so it's not that alcohol is hyper, hyper negative.

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Was it that the alcohol was prepared

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in a non-kosher way outside the dietary guidelines

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of the first five books of the Bible? Maybe.

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Was it that the alcohol or that wine

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was just a sign that Daniel was under the thumb

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of a foreign entity and he didn't want to cave to it?

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Maybe.

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But Daniel says, "Look, I would like instead

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to have my own drink."

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That's some high quality H2O right there.

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He decides he wants something different.

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Alcohol consumption has risen sharply

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since COVID started, about 20%.

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We have new phrases like gray drinking,

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where we're now, people are talking about drinking.

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Is it bad to drink, like, if I have

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a Bloody Mary at 10 o'clock in the morning

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when I'm working from home like every day,

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can I have a martini or a mixed drink at four o'clock?

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Can I have two and three drinks every single night?

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Can my new normal be never less than two drinks

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every single day?

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We're asking alcohol questions, at least we should,

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because we're getting carried away.

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I don't think it's just how we drink.

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It's also how we eat, what we consume.

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Daniel says instead of all these foods,

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who knows what they were, fatty french fries

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or something like that? We don't know.

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Let me have my vegetables. Mm-hmm.

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I mean, let me eat some of these guys.

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Let me eat some things that are yummy to my taste buds

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and are actually going to increase my capacity,

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take control of myself.

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Lost somewhere and all of the furor in our country,

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here's another identity,

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identity of vaccinated or unvaccinated.

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That is not an identity.

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You may be vaccinated or you may be unvaccinated,

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but that is not an identity.

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Just like, say, that's who I am.

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That's not our primary identity.

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It's I am a child of God, is what I am.

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But lost in the whole debate over the vaccination,

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is the truth that we are a sedentary country

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of overeaters, with 48% of us being classified as obese.

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And for type two diabetes, those of us

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who unfortunately have that, we would rather

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have a pill than actually change or have insulin

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than actually change our physical habits.

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Dr. John Abramson said recently:

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By your life, you're not a victim.

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You're not a victim of what's happening out there.

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80% of your health is dictated by your choices,

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your decisions. You choose your life.

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And I believe this is true about your spiritual life.

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If you're feeling distant from God,

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80% of that's on you. Why 80%?

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Because the whole other thing that you can't control

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is God going to speak that day uniquely?

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We don't know.

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Am I going to read something in the Bible

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that's going to be in my situation?

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I don't know, but we have to control it.

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We have to step into it.

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This unique is uncomfortable allowing Daniel

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and his friends to try something different.

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And yet that's exactly what they do.

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And let's see whether or not it works.

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Book of Daniel Chapter one says this:

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That is good stuff. It works.

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They took control. They diplomatically did a test.

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And they said let us try this and see how we look

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and like, "Man, you look great. In fact, you've gained weight."

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Back in the old times they wanted to gain weight

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because they were also thin because food wasn't as abundant.

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So it was actually a good thing

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to have a little bit of fat on you.

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So they actually gained weight.

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That was a positive and great thing.

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Where are you appropriately gaining mental acuity?

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Where you are you appropriately gaining

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emotional resilience?

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Where are you growing in your mass?

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Most of us are not seeing growing because

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we're not taking control of our life

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and we're not feeling closer and closer to God.

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You know why?

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Because we're mindlessly following

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the patterns of everybody else.

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Google time spent in front of a screen.

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You can find your own results.

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I'll tell what I just found,

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I looked at it just a few hours ago. Spooky.

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You know how many?

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How much time we spend in front of a screen?

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666 minutes a day.

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666 minutes a day. Wow.

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Last week I talked about the mark of the Beast.

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Mark the Beast wasn't vaccinations or barcodes.

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Who knows, maybe the mark of the Beast

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is our our device.

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I'm not ready to say that.

00:21:31

I'm saying this, though.

00:21:32

If you're spending 666 minutes a day,

00:21:35

11 hours a day, you're going to go nowhere, nowhere.

00:21:42

You're not going to advance spiritually.

00:21:44

You're not going to advance physically.

00:21:46

You're not going to advance mentally.

00:21:47

I'm trying to motivate you.

00:21:49

I'm saying, "Come on, man,

00:21:50

if you don't like where your life is,

00:21:52

you can change it simply by cutting that,

00:21:54

I don't know, in half?

00:21:56

Cutting it by 90%, shoot, cut it by 10%.

00:21:59

Cut an hour out of all the social media updates

00:22:02

and all the streaming and all this,

00:22:04

just kind of cut a portion of it out.

00:22:06

And if you put that into your version

00:22:08

of water and vegetables, your life will be amazing.

00:22:14

Amazing.

00:22:15

In fact, if you just cut out 40 minutes,

00:22:19

just 40 minutes of that and you read the Bible,

00:22:22

you realize the 90 days you get through

00:22:23

the entire Bible in 90 days.

00:22:25

40 minutes a day,

00:22:26

you get through the whole Bible in 90 days.

00:22:29

I'm not asking you to do 40 minutes a day,

00:22:32

but I am saying this: you ought to get in

00:22:34

the Bible Challenge with the rest of us.

00:22:36

Four times a week.

00:22:37

The very word of God to saturate your mind

00:22:40

and saturate your heart and saturate your spirit

00:22:44

to give you the life that you actually want,

00:22:48

a life closer to God and a life that actually works.

00:22:51

Let's learn from Daniel.

00:22:53

He felt oppressed.

00:22:54

He was under judgment from others.

00:22:56

He was stuck in a situation

00:22:58

he was not happy with under Babylonian rule.

00:23:01

And yet he took control of his life.

00:23:04

He dealt with the things he could deal with.

00:23:06

He was diplomatic.

00:23:07

And as we're going to see in the weeks ahead,

00:23:09

he has a powerful and profound impact,

00:23:12

not just on his life, but on the nation of Israel

00:23:16

and actually the future of the world.

00:23:21

- Listen, I know this sounds crazy,

00:23:23

but you can't imagine the impact

00:23:25

your life could have if you take a page from Daniel

00:23:28

and you do what he did.

00:23:29

And as we'll see in future weeks,

00:23:31

the key to Daniel's impact was his dedication

00:23:35

to spending time with God on a daily basis.

00:23:37

One time in his life

00:23:38

it even got him thrown into the lion's den.

00:23:40

We're going to hear that story in a few weeks.

00:23:42

But for now, I want to invite you

00:23:43

to join us in the Bible Challenge.

00:23:46

It's really simple. You need two things to do it.

00:23:48

One is download the Crossroads Anywhere App.

00:23:50

It's completely free wherever you get your apps.

00:23:54

When you do that, you're going to click right here

00:23:56

and open up the section on scripture.

00:23:58

You'll be able to read scripture and journal,

00:24:02

and by the way, see what people like me and Brian

00:24:05

and others around the community

00:24:06

are hearing inside of the scripture.

00:24:08

So you're not doing it alone.

00:24:10

The second thing you need is this:

00:24:12

it's a field guide of sorts that we put together

00:24:15

that's a commentary, context, history.

00:24:17

It gives you all the stuff that you need to know

00:24:19

about the Book of Daniel to follow along and understand

00:24:23

and get the most out of what you're reading.

00:24:25

And the best news about this is it's also completely free.

00:24:27

To get it just go to Crossroads.net/BibleChallenge.

00:24:31

And when you do that, me and the team at Crossroads

00:24:34

will be praying for you.

00:24:35

Praying that you don't just have

00:24:37

another routine to add to your life.

00:24:39

Another thing that you have to do every day.

00:24:40

Check the box.

00:24:42

That's not what we're doing here.

00:24:43

Our prayer is that you meet God in scripture.

00:24:47

You get encouragement you can't get anywhere else.

00:24:49

You find hope you're not going to find anywhere else.

00:24:51

You find power and peace in your life

00:24:54

that you did not find last year.

00:24:55

That 2022 is a year that you get the most out of life

00:24:59

and experience the adventurous life

00:25:01

that we know that God has for you.

00:25:02

Join the Bible Challenge

00:25:04

and we'll see you next week on Crossroads.

00:25:08

- 2022, best year ever.

00:25:10

How? Let's all do the Bible Challenge?

00:25:14

- Hello? - What is it, you might ask.

00:25:15

- I didn't even -- I didn't --

00:25:17

- It's this challenge to read the Bible

00:25:20

every week in 2022.

00:25:22

- That's a lot of pages, right?

00:25:24

- Here's how. Okay, first, you experience the weekend,

00:25:26

either in-person or online.

00:25:28

Every series will teach from a book in the Bible.

00:25:30

It's good news, it's inspiring and all that.

00:25:32

You'll love it. - I love -- I love good news.

00:25:34

- And then the Bible challenge really happens

00:25:36

in the Crossroads app.

00:25:38

Every day in the app, read from the Bible

00:25:40

and write a journal entry on what you learned.

00:25:42

The research says if you do it

00:25:43

at least four times a week,

00:25:45

you'll really start to see a difference in your life.

00:25:47

If you have a group, you'll find a weekly study

00:25:50

in the app based on the same scripture

00:25:51

for your group to discuss.

00:25:53

When you opt in, you also get a field guide

00:25:55

to help you understand the book even more.

00:25:58

- Oh, like I notebook, like a journal, like a GPS.

00:26:00

- And if you engage with the Bible in the app

00:26:02

at least once a week during a series,

00:26:04

we'll mail you a sticker to commemorate the milestone.

00:26:06

A little encouragement to keep it up.

00:26:08

- I love stickers.

00:26:09

- For real, the Bible Challenge will help you

00:26:11

find the best way through 2022.

00:26:14

Get started today.

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