The Step Every Follower Must Take

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- Welcome to Crossroads.

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I'm Andy and I'm so glad you've joined us today.

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Every week we learn from a book in the Bible,

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and today we're reading from

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the book of Mark as a church together.

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And specifically we're focusing in

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on the idea of lines and circles.

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Now, what do lines and circles

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have to do with Jesus in the Bible?

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Hey, we'll get there in just a little bit.

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Right now we're going to spend some time worshiping together.

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We believe the lyrics that we sing

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are actual truths about God,

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and that we can do this wherever you are,

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whenever you're worshiping.

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Let's do this together right now.

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- Here's the story of His love for us.

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- There's nothing more that I want for you today

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than to hear the invitation of Jesus.

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Listen. Listen to the circle

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that He puts around all of us.

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His words says this Jesus said,

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"Who needs a doctor, the healthy or the sick?"

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I'm here inviting outsiders, not insiders.

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That's me. Anybody else?

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An outsider, not an insider.

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An invitation to a changed life.

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Changed inside and out.

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It's because Jesus has changed my life inside and out

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that I'll sing these next words.

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They're a response to His invitation

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and it never grows tired.

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When I forget it, I need to come back to it

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and say, "Okay, every time we sing these words,

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I'll throw my hands up.

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Every time we sing these words, I'll throw my heart out.

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And I'll put my voice out there and say,

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'You're my king because of what You've done.'"

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My response to Him.

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- Jesus, I don't -- I don't attempt to--

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I don't attempt to speak for everyone in this space.

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But you are my king because You've changed my life,

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because You've brought hope when there was hopelessness,

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because You've healed things that were broken,

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and because You keep inviting me in

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to more and more life, more peace,

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more strength, more perseverance.

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All of it comes from You and I've found that to be true

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and so You are my king. I praise You, Jesus, above all.

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I do all this because of You. Amen.

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So good. So good to be with you today.

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Hey, that's not just a statement that's just

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on a screen that many of us in this space just say.

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I don't throw words around lightly in my life.

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I don't throw those words around lightly.

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So my decisions, my choices, my actions,

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I want all of it to say He's my king.

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Not perfect, not at all.

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But that's where I'm aiming my life at.

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And my wife and I, my family, we do that also with our wallets.

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So we say, I want my money to be where my heart is

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and You're my King, so You can have it.

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We put our money to His work, not ours.

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And we do that at Crossroads.net/give.

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And if you're back from Super Bowl,

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if it's one of the first times you've been in here,

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great. You're in the right place.

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Don't worry about that.

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But if you're saying Jesus is my King,

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it shows up also at crossroads.net/give. Right?

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Glad you're here. Why don't you grab a seat,

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make your way back to your seats.

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Tell somebody around you, "Man, I'm glad to be here with you."

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If you're online, glad you're joining us, too.

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So the money we give fuels things that change

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this community and changes communities around the world.

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What you're about to see is a story

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not of a place that we just give, but a place we go.

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- Nestled along South Africa's stunning coastline

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and rolling hills, a less visible

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but profound struggle unfolds,

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a battle against poverty and educational disparities.

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Post-apartheid, deep rooted inequalities

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have created two drastically different worlds

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for children inside the country

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when it comes to access to education

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and basic necessities.

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- Amid these challenges,

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hope shines through groups like Build the Future.

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- Transforming communities and bringing

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lasting change to children's lives

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by helping make their dreams of bright futures accessible.

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Crossroads partnership with Build the Future

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ensures funds for education and the aid

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of thousands of volunteers coming alongside

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these communities, fighting for the future

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of South Africa's youth.

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As South Africa transforms, we stand by these children.

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Every child deserves a chance to learn,

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grow, and reach their potential.

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Investing in their education means investing in

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a brighter, more inclusive South Africa

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for generations to come.

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- For over two decades, God has called Crossroads

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to go and change the world.

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When it comes to solving the really big problems

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of injustice, poverty, and exploitation,

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people often think that someone else will step in.

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Well, hey, congrats! Your name is someone else.

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We believe that the church, and not just Crossroads,

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but the church everywhere, is God's plan

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for restoration and healing. That's why we go.

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And serving others is one of what we call

00:21:13

seven proven practices that lead to growth.

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The work including aiding vulnerable children,

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at risk communities, and exploited individuals,

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it's always done in partnership with organizations

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local to that area that understand

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how to implement sustainable change.

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You can check out all of our Go Trips,

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both global and domestic to the US

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at crossroads.net/Trips.

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This really is an invitation

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to step into an adventure with God,

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to be a part of changing someone's life,

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and it might even change your own life.

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Now, today begins our first week going through the book of Mark.

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We'll see in Mark that Jesus was really good

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at drawing lines, or put another way,

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providing clarity between two different viewpoints.

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Jesus was all about challenging people

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to something better, asking them

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to cross over the lines into His Kingdom.

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And it's always through an invitation

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to anyone that's interested.

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- Some of us see lines as divisive,

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limiting and restrictive.

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Others see lines and think, "Sweet.

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Now we know exactly where to go and what to do."

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In their purest form, lines provide clarity

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about the space between two points.

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What if I told you that

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Jesus was really good at drawing lines?

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He was all about challenging people to something better.

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Jesus constantly challenges people

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to step over the line, to receive more.

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When we choose to step over the line Jesus draws,

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we are stepping into more of His goodness.

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Circles, on the other hand, they're just lines that curve.

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A circle shows us

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where the energy is concentrated in the middle.

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A circle surrounds and identifies what is valued.

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Everyone wants to feel valued and known.

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All throughout history, Jesus has been weaponized

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or minimized by people who want Him to fit into

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their circle, club, or the in-crowd.

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Jesus drew His own circle, and it turns out

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it was bigger than anyone could have ever expected.

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Whether you resonate more with lines or circles,

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Jesus calls you

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to step into more of His concentrated goodness.

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Jesus wants all of us to step over the line

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into His giant circle.

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- Well, hey, just like that video said,

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today we are starting a new series in the book of Mark

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and looking about how Jesus drew circles and lines.

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If we've never met, I'm our Lead Pastor, Kyle.

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I also did lose the Super Bowl of Preaching this weekend.

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Uh, just in case you were there, for the record,

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for the record, we did six of them live,

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and me and Alli and Hannah, we actually won three of them.

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It's just the one that went online is the one where we lost,

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which my kids were very disappointed about.

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I came home and they were like, "Did -- dad, did you win?"

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I was like, "No." And they're like, "Well, why not?"

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I was like, "Hey, relax, kids, relax."

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Speaking of kids, I know a lot of people I feel like

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right now who are about to have their first kid.

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Anybody else know somebody expecting,

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about to become a new parent for the very first time?

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It's a very exciting time to become a parent

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for the very first time.

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You know, a lot of people will tell you

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you need to grow and expand in things like love and patience.

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And those people are right,

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but they're hiding half the truth from you

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because there are other things

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you're going to need to grow and expand in.

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For instance, your hostage negotiation skills

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will have to go up if you want to be a good parent.

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Another skill you're going to need to improve, lying.

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You're going to have to get way better at lying

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if you want to be an effective parent.

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You're like, "Really, lying?" Yes, lying.

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Here's what's going to happen.

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Your kid at some point is going to draw you a picture,

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and they're going to walk up to you

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with that picture like it's the Mona Lisa.

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Go, "Look, isn't it great?"

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And in that moment, your words, your face,

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your body, everything is going to have to lie

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and go, "Yeah, wow, that's great."

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My kids are walking up to me with things

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that they've drawn, you know, like, "Daddy, look at this."

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I go, "Oh wow. What -- What is it?" You know?

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And they say guess. And this is the part I'd always hate.

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Like, "Guess. Okay. Um, to be honest,

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it looks like a rabid grizzly bear

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eating a horse made of spaghetti. Is that what it is?"

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They're like, "No, it's a picture of mommy."

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Like, "Oh. Okay, let's not ever show it to her.

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That's not gonna -- That's just.

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It's so good, you know? You can't show it to her."

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That's kids. It's amazing.

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One of my favorite Instagram accounts

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is this guy who takes pictures of his kids' drawings

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and then makes them into realistic images like this one.

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I don't know if that's a sheep or a llama.

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I'm not entirely sure. That's amazing.

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That I think is a squirrel.

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I don't know, very realistic. Giraffe. Great.

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You can practice right now. Wow. It's great.

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Just practice. You've got to practice your lying.

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That's a bird, I think. Um, I'm not sure.

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And then that's the Mona Lisa.

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That's what their drawings look like.

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It's amazing. It is very funny. Right?

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When a kid hands you a drawing, it's very, very funny.

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You can't -- You can't understand what it is.

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You don't know what it's supposed to be.

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But there's a deep truth in here that I want us to see.

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It's this: It is very possible to look at

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a picture that someone has drawn

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and not see what they intended you to see,

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and this is actually what happens

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for a lot of us with Jesus.

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Jesus draws pictures with words

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and we don't see what He intended us to see.

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And when this happens, the problem is

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we don't just miss the words that He said,

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we miss who He is and who He says that we are.

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It's a tragedy to miss what He's saying. It's tragedy.

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Now to understand what His words are,

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we have them recorded, they're in

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the four authorized biographies of His life:

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Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

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That's where we can get His words.

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And the key to understanding them,

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the key to understanding the pictures He's drawing

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is what you've heard and saw in the video just a minute ago.

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It's this: Jesus always draws circles and lines,

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always together, circles and lines.

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What's a circle? A circle is an invitation to belong.

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It's a gift. Oh, come in here. Belong.

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You're welcome here. That's the circle.

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And a line is a line of demarcation,

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like a line in the sand.

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As in cross the line or go no further.

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Another way to think about it is His grace and truth.

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Grace is the circle. Welcome.

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Let me give you more than you deserve.

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And truth is the line.

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Here's a truth you must face and agree with,

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or you can go no further.

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Now, in our culture, most of us, we tend to be

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either a grace or a truth person.

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Think about yourself at work.

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Maybe you're a manager at work.

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How would you know if you're a grace or truth person?

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Well, are you the kind of manager

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who struggles to give your employees candid feedback?

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Like they really messed up and you want to tell them,

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but you don't want to hurt their feelings.

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You're just going to cut the corners a little bit.

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Are you a parent who struggles to discipline your kids?

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You might be somebody who errs towards the grace side.

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Or maybe you're on the other side of the equation.

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You're the manager who's like, "Everybody works for me

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knows exactly what I think of them.

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I always like I'm tough."

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Okay, well, you might want to encourage sometimes.

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You might be on the truth side of the spectrum.

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See, every one of us defaults to one or the other.

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But part of what makes Jesus in His Words

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and the pictures He draws so unique is that

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He came full of both grace and truth,

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not deficient in any way.

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This is from John 1:14:

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And the word became flesh, that's Jesus,

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and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory,

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the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,

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full, full of grace and truth.

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This is where the idea of this series stems from.

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I heard somebody say a few months ago,

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they made a comment like, you know,

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"Jesus drew circles, not lines."

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And I thought, "No, no, he didn't. He he drew --

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He drew both, He drew both."

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But see, this kind of view of Jesus, I think,

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is becoming increasingly common for a reason.

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It's because we increasingly live in a sound bite culture.

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Everything's a sound bite.

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Think about the last time you actually clicked

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on an article online and you read the whole thing.

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I couldn't tell you. I read the headline.

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I read the first sentence, I skip down,

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I read some stuff, I skip to the bottom,

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and then I'm on to the next one.

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This is how -- this is how we digest stuff.

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And what it leads to is misjudgments,

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half baked hot takes, and missing the true story.

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We have an epidemic of an attention span

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that is being eroded and eroded and eroded away.

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And I think we're all generally aware of this,

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but did a little bit of research to kind of study

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about how it's been changing,

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because it feels like it's changing faster than ever.

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And the truth is that it it is.

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You take social media, for instance, best practice

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for making a social media video

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only a couple years ago was measured in minutes.

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How many minutes did you want the video to be?

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Well, now best practice is measured in seconds.

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In fact, the people who are best at doing TikTok

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will tell you that the best length for

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a TikTok video is between 10 and 15 seconds. That's it.

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The National Institute of Health recently

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named a new condition, it's called TikTok use disorder.

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There was a study, it's a real one.

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It's actually in there. You can go look it up.

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It does not take much Googling to find these stats.

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It does not.

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There is a study that came out that kind

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of put some numbers and quantified

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to what is TikTok use disorder,

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how is it eroding attention span.

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And what it found is that for teenagers who use TikTok,

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their average attention span is nine seconds.

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That's the longest they can hold attention.

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Now, for teenagers who don't use TikTok,

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the average attention span isn't a whole lot better,

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it's about 12 seconds.

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And before we make this about somebody who's not us,

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let me just say all of us are in this boat.

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I'm not immune. I live in the same culture.

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I might not digest TikTok all day long,

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but I love me some YouTube reels. It's the same thing.

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It's the same thing, everybody.

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Like I watch Instagram. Same thing. It's the same thing.

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And the problem is that we take

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this 21st century attention span and we apply it

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to the life of Jesus and the words that He has in Scripture.

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We are doomed, doomed if we take that approach

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to try to understand Him, we never, ever will.

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At best, we'll get a part of the picture.

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At best, we might glimpse a little bit of grace,

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but not even all grace, and completely missed truth.

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Or at best, we might glimpse just a little bit of truth,

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but not even the whole truth, and never even touch grace.

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And so we have to do, if we want to understand

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the way that Jesus describes life and reality

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and what we're made for and what He thinks about us,

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we have to slow down so much.

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And that's what we're doing in this series.

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We're slowing down to take a look at the life of Jesus

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and the gospel of Mark, how he described

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that the way that it works, because we want you to know,

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I want to know and follow the real Jesus.

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Not a picture that I imagined, not a fake version,

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but the real version of Jesus.

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And before we go further, let's pray that

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that happens for all of us a little more today.

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God, I'm asking that You'd show up,

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You'd give me Your Words to speak and that all of us

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would move a step closer to you today. Amen, Amen.

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So we are in the book of Mark.

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A great question to start with is

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who wrote the book of Mark?

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What do you think? Not -- a guy named Mark.

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Not a guy named Steve? Doug? Any Doug, votes for Dougs?

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What about John? Anybody votes for John?

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Anybody? What do you think? Sticking with Mark?

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Okay, we're I'm hearing with sticking Mark.

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Um, actually you're wrong. It was John.

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I'm not even kidding.

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The author of the book of Mark is a guy named John

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who has a secondary name, Mark.

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He's a guy who is not one of the 12 apostles.

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He shows up later in the New Testament in the book of Acts.

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Here's the first time he appears, Acts 12:11 says:

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Why? Why does he have two names? I have no idea.

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Let me warn you today that we're going to encounter

00:33:48

several characters who are AKAs.

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Not the sorority, but people who have multiple names.

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It's going to happen a couple more times.

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He's John, also called Mark.

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Now, he was not an eyewitness of Jesus's life.

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He wasn't one of the 12 apostles.

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He's somebody who heard about His life second hand

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from the apostle Peter,

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who was one of Jesus's three closest friends.

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And so when we read the book of Mark,

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I want you to know that what you're reading

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is what John Mark wrote down from

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Peter's first hand eyewitness account of Jesus.

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Now, Mark is significant in that it's also,

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historians agree on this, was the earliest recorded gospel.

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And so as we're in this series,

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as we're reading these words today,

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I want you to know that these are

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the earliest recorded sayings and instructions of Jesus.

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And so we're going to look at and start with

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the earliest written instruction that Jesus ever gave.

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It's exactly six words long, and it comes from Mark 1:15.

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These are the six words Jesus said:

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repent and believe the good news.

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He gives a line in a circle.

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His first teaching, by the way,

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is the spine of every single teaching He ever gives

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forever after, a line and a circle,

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repent and believe the good news.

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And the line is the word repent.

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It's metanoeo in Greek, and what it literally means

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is to change one's mind.

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That happens when you and I walk up to a line of truth,

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we're going along our day and we're just coming along,

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and we go, "Whoa, okay, that's -- that's not what I thought."

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And what it means to repent, to change your mind,

00:35:31

is to go, "Okay, I've been wrong,"

00:35:33

which means I believed a lie

00:35:35

and crossed the line of truth,

00:35:36

having adopted it into your mind.

00:35:38

That's what it means.

00:35:40

And the circle is believe the Good News.

00:35:44

Now, if you go through the Greek of Good News,

00:35:47

it's euangelion, and what it means is

00:35:49

a reward for good tidings, a reward for Good News.

00:35:53

See, believing the Good News actually has a reward to it.

00:35:56

When you cross the line and you say yes to the new truth,

00:36:00

what happens is there's a reward.

00:36:01

There's a circle that happens in your life,

00:36:03

there's a new grace given to you,

00:36:04

there's new experiences that you can have.

00:36:06

There's new favor that God puts on your life

00:36:09

after you cross the line, repent and believe the Good News.

00:36:13

Now there is a first time, there's a first time

00:36:16

in your life where this will happen for you,

00:36:18

where you'll cross the line of faith.

00:36:20

You'll say, "Jesus, yes, I do believe

00:36:21

that You are who You say You are."

00:36:23

And in that moment you'll step

00:36:24

into the circle of the family of God.

00:36:26

There's a first time, but this is not, not, not

00:36:29

a one time instruction.

00:36:30

The call of Jesus isn't repent and believe

00:36:33

the Good News once, when you were five or 15 or 25.

00:36:37

No, this is a daily active thing.

00:36:40

Every day repent, every day believe the Good News.

00:36:44

The life of following Jesus is the life

00:36:45

of constantly, constantly, constantly being brought

00:36:48

to new lines and invited into new circles.

00:36:52

That's the way that it goes. We'll never stop.

00:36:56

Now, when you read Mark, you'll see this.

00:36:59

And that's our hope is to help you

00:37:01

see these circles and these lines.

00:37:02

Let's take, for instance, just to start off with

00:37:05

the calling of Peter himself, who, by the way,

00:37:09

is another dude with two names.

00:37:11

I'm going to read you, you're going to see the word,

00:37:13

the name Simon, it's Simon Peter.

00:37:15

Why does he have two names? I don't know.

00:37:17

I think Jesus gave him Peter later on as a nickname.

00:37:20

It's still like two first names. I don't get it.

00:37:22

But there we go. He's a two name guy.

00:37:24

This is his re-counting of his own calling from Jesus

00:37:29

as told to John Mark. Mark 1:16 it says:

00:37:31

As He, that's Jesus, walked by the Sea of Galilee

00:37:34

He saw Simon and Andrew, his brother,

00:37:36

casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

00:37:38

Then Jesus said to them, "Follow Me," that's a line,

00:37:42

"and I will make you become fishers of men."

00:37:45

That's a circle.

00:37:46

They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

00:37:49

Now follow me is a line, because it's a moment of truth.

00:37:52

When you walk up to follow me,

00:37:53

what's required to cross it is to believe and go,

00:37:56

"Oh my gosh, follow You? I've been following me.

00:38:01

I've been living a self-directed life."

00:38:03

And the truth you must embrace is

00:38:05

"I'm not the best person to lead my life.

00:38:07

I better follow Him. I think he is."

00:38:10

And what Simon does is he crosses the line

00:38:13

and starts following Jesus.

00:38:14

And when he does that, he's invited into the circle

00:38:17

to become something more than he was.

00:38:19

He was just a normal fisherman

00:38:21

working on a normal fishing boat,

00:38:23

bringing in a normal catch.

00:38:25

And Jesus says, "I'm going to make you more than that.

00:38:29

I'm going to make you something

00:38:30

you can't even possibly imagine."

00:38:33

Later on, He says to Peter, He says,

00:38:34

"Upon this rock I will found My church."

00:38:36

Peter, by the way, means rock, little, little rock.

00:38:39

He gives him this amazing position. Amazing position.

00:38:44

Now there is a line here, right?

00:38:46

If you look in the life of Jesus

00:38:48

when He calls His disciples, He always starts this way.

00:38:50

He says, "Follow me," and they have a decision to make.

00:38:53

What we don't know is how many people He said follow me to.

00:38:58

It was probably more than 12.

00:39:01

What we know is that people who followed H

00:39:03

im, their lives changed.

00:39:05

What we don't know is the people who did not cross the line.

00:39:10

Now, the other story we're going to look at

00:39:12

for the rest of our time is our last

00:39:14

two named character to introduce for the day.

00:39:16

Thank goodness. His name is Levi, AKA, Matthew.

00:39:21

And right after John Mark records

00:39:24

Simon and Andrew's following of Jesus,

00:39:27

he records what happens with Levi.

00:39:30

He says this in Mark 2, he says:

00:39:32

Once again Jesus went out beside the lake.

00:39:34

A large crowd came to Him and He began to teach them.

00:39:37

As He walked along, He saw Levi, son of Alphaeus,

00:39:40

sitting at the tax collector's booth.

00:39:42

That was his profession.

00:39:43

He was a tax collector, which was not a good thing.

00:39:46

Okay, not not great.

00:39:47

Right now you're like, "I don't want to admit

00:39:49

that I work at the IRS."

00:39:50

Yeah, it was way worse than that.

00:39:52

It was so much worse, he's a tax collector.

00:39:54

"Follow me," Jesus told him,

00:39:57

and Levi got up and followed Him.

00:39:59

He draws the line. Will you follow Me?

00:40:01

Will you admit that you're not the one to lead your life?

00:40:03

And Levi crosses the line and follows Him.

00:40:06

And the next thing that happens

00:40:08

is Jesus goes to Levi's house.

00:40:11

And Levi has this party, seemingly.

00:40:12

There's all these people there.

00:40:14

It's a lot of tax collectors and sinners.

00:40:16

It says this in Mark 2:15:

00:40:18

While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house,

00:40:20

many tax collectors and sinners

00:40:22

were eating with Him and His disciples,

00:40:24

for there was many who followed Him.

00:40:27

Basically, what happens is Jesus shows up

00:40:29

and he, oh, there it is. Here we go.

00:40:32

He invites them all to a table. It's an open table.

00:40:35

Now, at this moment, just to be really clear,

00:40:38

this is a circle where Jesus sits with people

00:40:41

who, when you're a rabbi, you're not supposed to be around.

00:40:44

You don't want to be around the sinners

00:40:46

and the tax collectors.

00:40:47

That's not where you're supposed to be.

00:40:48

But Jesus invites them in.

00:40:50

It's a circle of sorts.

00:40:51

This is the kind of church, by the way,

00:40:54

that we aspire to be, this kind of place

00:40:56

that we say this often,

00:40:58

and I'll never get tired of saying it

00:40:59

because it's so true.

00:41:00

No matter who you are, no matter what you believe

00:41:03

about God or church or any of it, you are welcome here.

00:41:07

That's basically the moment with Jesus.

00:41:10

They get to enjoy Him. They get to be around Him.

00:41:12

We are such a "you're welcome here church"

00:41:15

that it oftentimes makes other churches uncomfortable,

00:41:18

other Christians uncomfortable.

00:41:20

Earlier you heard about the opportunity

00:41:22

to go on a Go Trip. That's a mission trip.

00:41:24

Now for most churches to go on a mission trip,

00:41:27

you have to have crossed the line of faith

00:41:30

that Jesus is who He says H

00:41:31

e is. But at Crossroads we say, "No, man,

00:41:33

your motivation for going to serve

00:41:35

might be different than mine, because I believe

00:41:37

Jesus called me to go love my neighbor as myself.

00:41:40

That's why I go. He called me to change the world.

00:41:42

That's why. You might have a different motivation,

00:41:45

but if you want to go, man, you're welcome.

00:41:47

You truly are.

00:41:49

But I want to be abundantly clear

00:41:51

because you can sit in this auditorium,

00:41:53

or you can sit at home and watch these videos

00:41:55

for years and years and years,

00:41:58

and you can walk up to the line of faith

00:41:59

and believing Jesus is who He says He is,

00:42:01

and it's possible to never cross it.

00:42:03

And I just want you to know,

00:42:04

while we are so excited that you're here,

00:42:07

there is so much more for you that you will not get

00:42:10

if you never cross the line.

00:42:12

There's more in the family of God

00:42:14

that you will not enjoy, that you won't experience

00:42:17

if you never cross the line.

00:42:19

This place is built for you to come to the table

00:42:21

and step into the family of God.

00:42:23

That's the good news. That's the good news.

00:42:26

See, when you when you join the family of God,

00:42:28

you have a place at God's table forever.

00:42:31

It's actually a place you can never, ever lose,

00:42:34

which, by the way, makes it different

00:42:36

than the kind of circles that the world draws.

00:42:38

Because the world draws circles and lines.

00:42:41

Now, in the world circles, you have to do

00:42:44

the right things to maintain your place at the table,

00:42:46

to stay in good standing.

00:42:48

Sometimes it's literally as simple as

00:42:49

you got to keep paying your membership dues,

00:42:51

and if you don't, you're kicked out of the club.

00:42:54

Sometimes it's you got to maintain the right beliefs

00:42:56

or the right behaviors, the right actions

00:42:57

or the right attitudes, otherwise you get fired.

00:43:00

You get kicked out. You're no longer one of us.

00:43:02

This is how the world's circles work.

00:43:05

But Jesus has a different kind of circle.

00:43:07

It's one in which no matter what you do,

00:43:09

you always have a spot.

00:43:11

You don't have to earn and maintain your identity.

00:43:14

And the reason for this is because

00:43:16

God the Father's grace is very different

00:43:19

than us earthly fathers and our grace.

00:43:22

Which brings me back to being a parent.

00:43:24

As a father, I've experienced some things,

00:43:28

and I oftentimes will hear new fathers to be

00:43:32

or parents who are thinking they'll do things

00:43:34

that seem critical to me.

00:43:35

We've all been in the moment, right,

00:43:37

where we've been out to dinner and our kids are going crazy.

00:43:39

And us veteran parents, what do we do?

00:43:42

We hand them our phone. "Here you go, kid. Calm down."

00:43:47

And sometimes I'll spy somebody in the corner of my eye.

00:43:49

And, you know, just maybe I'm making it up,

00:43:51

but it feels like brand new parent

00:43:52

who's looking at me, judging me with a thought

00:43:54

in their mind that when they have kids,

00:43:57

they're not going to do screens.

00:43:59

And if that's your goal, that's awesome.

00:44:02

That's so -- I don't mean to poo-poo on your goal.

00:44:04

I find it so cute and naive. There's just --

00:44:10

That's okay. There's something you don't know yet

00:44:12

about the universe and I'll share it with you.

00:44:14

It's that screens aren't screens.

00:44:16

Screens are free babysitters. That's what they are.

00:44:19

Screens are like wine for kids.

00:44:22

You know how wine calms you down, that's what --

00:44:25

That's what a screen is.

00:44:26

And you could give your kid wine,

00:44:28

but the parent protective services

00:44:30

would probably be called on you.

00:44:32

So you give them screens.

00:44:34

Another thing I think new parents imagine

00:44:36

is that bedtime will be awesome. You know?

00:44:39

Kids thrive on routine

00:44:40

and so we're going to have the best routine.

00:44:42

We're going to light a candle at 7:00.

00:44:45

We're going to sing a little song.

00:44:47

It's going to be beauty.

00:44:48

It's going to be like the Von Trapp family.

00:44:49

It's going to be like this when they go to bed it's going to --

00:44:52

- So long. Farewell. Auf Wiedersehen. Good night.

00:44:56

- I hate to go and leave this pretty sight.

00:45:02

- That's what it's gonna be, right?

00:45:03

That's what you think?

00:45:05

You want to know what's actually like?

00:45:08

It's like this. Those little monsters.

00:45:11

- All right, come on, come on. Get on my back.

00:45:13

- Trying to get him in there.

00:45:15

You're just trying to get him upstairs.

00:45:18

And they're just fighting and clawing

00:45:19

with everything they got.

00:45:21

That's what it's like, wrestling a lion.

00:45:23

That's what it's like.

00:45:25

I've been a parent for 13 years.

00:45:27

Every single night, bedtime is like

00:45:31

it's my kids' first time ever doing it, you know?

00:45:34

First time. That's that's their general attitude.

00:45:36

They're like, "Hey, dad, relax. It's our first time.

00:45:39

And we're new at this."

00:45:41

I'm like, "Okay, no, we're not. We're not new at this.

00:45:43

We're not new at this."

00:45:44

There are exactly three rules to Ranson bedtime.

00:45:48

They have always been the same.

00:45:49

They have never changed. They are these:

00:45:52

Rule 1: go upstairs.

00:45:54

Rule 2: Stay there.

00:45:57

Rule 3: You may only come out of your room

00:46:00

if you have to pee or have an emergency.

00:46:04

Qualifier: An emergency is not

00:46:07

I have an urgent question about koala bears.

00:46:09

I need -- no, that can wait till tomorrow.

00:46:12

Actually, we're fine.

00:46:13

An emergency is I am actively and profusely bleeding.

00:46:16

If that happens, you may come out of your room.

00:46:19

Otherwise, go upstairs and stay there.

00:46:22

These are the rules.

00:46:23

But every single night, they don't do it.

00:46:26

Every single night they don't do it.

00:46:27

And as a parent, at some point,

00:46:28

all of us would just have enough, right?

00:46:30

We just sort of run out of patience,

00:46:32

run out of grace, run out of mercy for them.

00:46:34

Why? It's because we have human mercy.

00:46:38

Human mercy is something like a pie, you know,

00:46:41

imagine a pie. This is mercy right there.

00:46:45

Let's say it's apple.

00:46:46

And the basic experience is that

00:46:48

your kids do something you don't like.

00:46:51

And so you cut off a piece of the pie

00:46:53

and you give it to them, and then you put the pie away.

00:46:56

And then the next day they do the same exact thing.

00:46:59

So you cut off a piece of the pie

00:47:00

and you give it to them, and you put the pie away.

00:47:03

And again and again, day after day,

00:47:05

after doing this again and again and again,

00:47:07

what you're left with is this:

00:47:09

a bunch of sticky goo and nothing, nothing, nothing.

00:47:13

This is the human experience of giving grace.

00:47:17

But God is very, very different than this.

00:47:20

God's grace never runs out. Lamentations 3:22 says:

00:47:24

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

00:47:28

His mercies never come to an end;

00:47:30

They are new, new every single morning.

00:47:34

Great is your faithfulness. What does this mean?

00:47:37

It means that when God gives mercy,

00:47:39

God comes out and He's like, "Okay, here you go.

00:47:43

You need some mercy? All right, here you go.

00:47:45

You messed up. There's some grace for your day."

00:47:47

Awesome, pie goes back in.

00:47:50

Next day, pie comes back out. Pie is whole.

00:47:52

This is mercy. Every single day.

00:47:57

See, I think there's something to us

00:47:59

who've been following God for so long,

00:48:01

we think we've understood all there is to understand of grace.

00:48:04

We think we've received all the grace we can possibly receive.

00:48:07

That at some point, God must get sick of us.

00:48:09

I felt this way as a dad and I made a joke about it.

00:48:12

But man, sometimes I just get so mad at my kids

00:48:14

and so angry and I've been trying to work on anger

00:48:16

and trying to get better.

00:48:17

And I see some growth and I see some some progress.

00:48:20

But some days I'm just like,

00:48:21

"God, you must be sick of me as a dad.

00:48:23

You must just want to give up on me."

00:48:25

Yet every single day God goes, "No, man.

00:48:27

It's a brand new mercy. Brand new mercy."

00:48:30

You know that God is love, you've heard that before?

00:48:32

That's from the book of 1 John, by the way.

00:48:34

It says God is love.

00:48:36

If you go to 1 Corinthians 13, it describes God as love.

00:48:39

You know what it says about Him?

00:48:40

It says that love/God keeps no record of wrongs.

00:48:43

Fresh baked mercy, day after day after day after day.

00:48:51

That's what you get when you cross the line.

00:48:54

Let me be really clear, you don't get it

00:48:57

if you don't cross the line, you have to cross the line.

00:49:00

Crossing the line is to face the truth,

00:49:02

the truth about who you are,

00:49:03

the truth about who God says you are

00:49:05

is to face the truth.

00:49:06

Now, at that same dinner party where they were eating

00:49:09

with the tax collectors and the sinners,

00:49:12

it's Jesus and Matthew. They're all hanging out.

00:49:15

These Pharisees show up.

00:49:16

These are the guys who are anti-Jesus.

00:49:17

They think He's crazy.

00:49:19

"How could you ever eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

00:49:21

They say stuff like that.

00:49:22

They're the self-righteous people.

00:49:24

And this is Jesus's response to them, Mark 2:17:

00:49:27

On hearing this, Jesus said to them,

00:49:29

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

00:49:34

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

00:49:37

Jesus throws two lines at them that are the same.

00:49:41

He goes, "Look, man, I'm a doctor

00:49:43

and I'm here for sick people.

00:49:45

And if that's not how you identify,

00:49:47

then I guess I'm not for you.

00:49:48

Hey, look I'm here for sinners.

00:49:50

If that's not how you identify,

00:49:51

then I guess I'm not here for you."

00:49:53

See, the line is really clear:

00:49:55

to get the doctor's help, you must admit that you are sick.

00:49:59

To get Grace, you have to admit that you are a sinner.

00:50:04

And some of us who get up to the line and we balk at it.

00:50:07

We balk at the line.

00:50:09

Now the world also has lines. The world has lines,

00:50:12

but the world's lines are different than God's lines.

00:50:15

And I think sometimes we look at God's lines

00:50:17

and we apply the world's standards and practices to them.

00:50:20

And it gets very confusing and it makes us not like the line.

00:50:23

Why? Well, it's because the world draws lines

00:50:26

that are very exclusive that some of us just can't cross.

00:50:30

That's the lines the world draws.

00:50:32

You got to have the right resume.

00:50:34

You got to have the right GPA to get in.

00:50:36

Got to have the right background, the right pedigree,

00:50:38

the right skin color, the right voting record,

00:50:40

the right whatever, you got to have the right something.

00:50:43

And some of us are just totally excluded.

00:50:46

I learned a few years ago about a practice called redlining.

00:50:49

You can look this up. This is a historical fact.

00:50:51

It started in 1935.

00:50:53

The Federal Home Loan Bank board basically set out,

00:50:57

and they commissioned a team to go out

00:50:59

and look at the top 239 most populous cities

00:51:03

in the United States.

00:51:04

So basically every city of any size and go outline

00:51:07

all of the neighborhoods inside each of those cities

00:51:10

and rank them based on their risk to give a loan.

00:51:14

And they did this. They did four tiers.

00:51:16

There was green, blue, yellow, and red.

00:51:18

Red was the lowest. If you lived in a red zone,

00:51:20

you were not going to get a loan.

00:51:22

You were too risky.

00:51:23

Do you know that only six African American neighborhoods

00:51:26

in the entire United States were not redlined?

00:51:30

And you might hear that and go like, "That's crazy."

00:51:32

You can look it up. And you might go, "That's impossible."

00:51:36

Is it? This is what the world does.

00:51:38

The world draws lines that exclude some of us.

00:51:42

But Jesus's lines are the opposite.

00:51:45

Jesus's lines are inclusive lines. Why?

00:51:48

Because anybody can cross it.

00:51:50

Anybody from slave to king, and the cost is the same.

00:51:54

I believe You are who You say You are.

00:51:56

That's all it takes. I believe I'm a sinner.

00:51:59

I believe I'm sick. That's all it takes to cross the lines.

00:52:02

Jesus invites every single one of us across.

00:52:05

The question is, will you cross? Will you cross it?

00:52:10

Now, I think the other reason we kind of rebuff

00:52:13

against these lines is we live in a truth avoidance culture.

00:52:16

We don't we don't like the truth a whole lot.

00:52:18

It scares us. We don't love it.

00:52:20

Now, an unwillingness to face truth,

00:52:22

just so we're clear, won't just hold you back spiritually.

00:52:25

It will hold you back in every area of your life.

00:52:28

I was reading a shareholder letter

00:52:30

that Jeff Bezos wrote a number of years ago.

00:52:32

And he talked about this, about how as a business,

00:52:35

you have to face reality if you want to get ahead,

00:52:38

and if you're unwilling to face the truth,

00:52:40

you will not make it where you want to go.

00:52:43

And he used a metaphor of a friend of his

00:52:46

who wanted to learn how to do a handstand.

00:52:48

And this friend couldn't do it,

00:52:51

and so she hired a handstand coach,

00:52:53

which is apparently a thing.

00:52:54

If you are a handstand coach in here. Congratulations!

00:52:56

I did not know your profession existed

00:52:58

until I read this letter. Very exciting.

00:53:01

They hire the handstand coach

00:53:02

and this is what the coach said:

00:53:34

How hard is it going to be?

00:53:36

You know, long before Jeff Bezos,

00:53:37

Jesus had the same view of facing truth, same exact view.

00:53:42

It was absolutely essential.

00:53:45

That's why He always drew lines of truth.

00:53:46

And for some of us, they're not pleasant,

00:53:48

and so we kind of balk at them.

00:53:50

We kind of rebuffed them.

00:53:52

But we have to understand Jesus's point of view.

00:53:55

Truth is not meant to hold you back or put you in your place.

00:54:01

The point of the truth line is to set you free.

00:54:05

He says this in John 8.

00:54:07

So Jesus said, "If you abide in My Word,

00:54:09

and you're truly My disciples,

00:54:10

then you will know the truth,

00:54:12

and the truth will set you free.

00:54:15

This is mind blowing to some of us.

00:54:16

It's not the circle that creates freedom.

00:54:19

It's the line. It's the line. Why?

00:54:22

Well, because we're bound by lies, all of us are.

00:54:25

Lies that we believed about our mistakes,

00:54:29

how they'll follow us forever,

00:54:30

how we can't get past them.

00:54:32

Lies we believe about how we'll always be alone,

00:54:34

how we're never be enough.

00:54:35

All of us are bound by lies.

00:54:37

It's because right after He talks about

00:54:38

the truth will set you free, Jesus says

00:54:40

it's because you have an enemy.

00:54:41

It's the father of lies, and he's got you all bound up.

00:54:45

But as we've been talking about today,

00:54:47

the truth of God is a line.

00:54:49

And I want you to know it's a sharp one, like a sword.

00:54:53

It's actually the only thing

00:54:54

that can free you from a lie is the truth of God,

00:54:58

also known as the Word of God.

00:55:01

Hebrews 4:12 says:

00:55:02

For the Word of God is living and powerful,

00:55:04

sharper than any two edged sword,

00:55:07

piercing even to the division of soul and spirit.

00:55:10

Like I said,

00:55:11

all of us have different places that we're bound.

00:55:13

Some of us it's I'll always be alone.

00:55:16

Some of us it's I'll never be enough.

00:55:18

Some of us it's I'll never get past my mistakes.

00:55:20

Some of us it's I can never be forgiven.

00:55:23

Some of us it's no one will ever want me.

00:55:25

We all have these mistakes in our lives.

00:55:27

I don't know what yours is. Put it on this one.

00:55:30

And we think that we can never get over them.

00:55:33

Never, ever, ever.

00:55:34

But see, the line, just like the circle

00:55:36

is better than we could ever imagine, so is the line.

00:55:39

Because the line, the line is actually a conveyor belt

00:55:43

that takes all of that away from us.

00:55:46

Where do I get that idea? Psalm 103:12, it says:

00:55:50

As far as the east is from the West,

00:55:52

so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

00:55:55

See, when you walk up and you face the truth,

00:55:58

what happens is the line kicks on

00:56:00

and all that stuff goes away. It doesn't come back.

00:56:06

It's a one way street and it's gone forever.

00:56:08

It just falls off into nothingness.

00:56:10

This is going to fall off on the stage over there,

00:56:12

so if you're in this room and you're like,

00:56:14

"It's still there," I know, I know, it's still there,

00:56:18

but this is what happens for us.

00:56:19

God says, "I will separate all your mistakes

00:56:22

and every lie as far as the East is from the West."

00:56:25

It's gone, gone, gone, gone, gone.

00:56:28

See the whole picture that He gives,

00:56:31

repent and believe the Good News

00:56:33

is better than you can possibly imagine.

00:56:36

My question to you is where in your life

00:56:39

are you not wanting to face the truth?

00:56:42

Where in your life has God been poking on you?

00:56:45

Maybe it has something to do with your habits.

00:56:47

Maybe has something to do with your body.

00:56:49

Maybe has something to do with your beliefs.

00:56:51

I don't know.

00:56:52

Maybe it's -- Maybe it's the way you use money.

00:56:54

Where is God pressing on you?

00:56:56

Where have you seen a line of truth already

00:56:58

that you haven't yet crossed?

00:57:00

Whatever it is, I want you to know His invitation

00:57:03

to you is not to limit your life,

00:57:04

it's to set you free.

00:57:06

Will you step across the line?

00:57:08

See, repent is a gift. It's a gift.

00:57:12

I was named Lead Pastor, as you probably have all heard

00:57:15

a couple weeks ago, I don't know, early January or so.

00:57:19

Now there's a service in which we announced that,

00:57:21

but the time that became public for the first time

00:57:23

was that a staff training.

00:57:25

We had all Crossroads staff

00:57:26

in the room that I'm in right now,

00:57:27

and we told them that this was happening.

00:57:30

That was the moment

00:57:31

I was sort of publicly the Lead Pastor.

00:57:33

Now, that's significant because of

00:57:35

what happened right after that was announced.

00:57:39

See, the day before that meeting,

00:57:41

I had had a meeting with our music team,

00:57:42

Justin and Robbie, who lead it,

00:57:44

and it was one of those, like, rushed meetings.

00:57:46

You know, I had 15 minutes, probably needed like an hour.

00:57:48

And so I just rolled in, like,

00:57:50

"I got to cut to the chase. I'm a busy guy.

00:57:51

Here's what I don't like. Here's what I want you to change."

00:57:54

Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom, and I left, gone.

00:57:57

And they responded fine. It was fine.

00:57:59

But the next morning I showed up to our staff training

00:58:02

and it's amazing, we get to start

00:58:03

with 30 minutes of worship together as a staff.

00:58:05

One of my favorite times of the week.

00:58:07

And I'm looking at people on this stage

00:58:08

exactly where I am right now, our worship leaders,

00:58:11

our music team that Justin and Robbie have led so well,

00:58:13

and they're doing an amazing job.

00:58:15

Not just like performing really well,

00:58:17

but genuinely worshiping.

00:58:19

And I felt this conviction in that moment from God.

00:58:22

I felt this conviction, He's like, "Hey, man,

00:58:24

sometimes it's okay to move fast.

00:58:25

Sometimes it's okay to give candor,

00:58:28

but you are full of truth with no grace.

00:58:30

That's not okay. That's not okay.

00:58:32

You need to apologize. You need to repent to them."

00:58:35

So in the moment I texted them, I said,

00:58:37

"Hey, some things are about to happen.

00:58:39

As soon as this meeting is over,

00:58:40

I really need to talk to both of you."

00:58:42

So the meeting happens, I get announced,

00:58:44

I walk off the stage, I go find them.

00:58:46

And I say, "Hey, guys, I'm so sorry.

00:58:47

I need to repent to you.

00:58:49

I should have been more gracious.

00:58:50

I should have told you what a great job you're doing.

00:58:53

I should have told you how awesome the music is.

00:58:55

I should have told you how songs like

00:58:57

God of the Breakthrough and Always Moving

00:58:58

have blessed me personally, have blessed my family personally.

00:59:01

I'm so thankful for you."

00:59:03

And they are so gracious. They said,

00:59:05

"Hey, man, it's fine, don't worry about it."

00:59:07

Then I went back to my desk

00:59:08

and it was probably an hour or so later,

00:59:11

all of a sudden this thought hit me.

00:59:13

I was like, "Oh, forever and always,

00:59:16

the very first thing I'll have ever done as Lead Pastor

00:59:20

is apologize for make a mistake, is repent."

00:59:25

And my first thought was like, "Ah, dang it,

00:59:28

that kind of sucks, you know?

00:59:30

That's like a bad sign, right out of the gate,

00:59:32

you mess up, it's the first thing?"

00:59:35

And then I remembered the first six words

00:59:38

Jesus ever gave as instructions:

00:59:40

repent and believe the Good News.

00:59:43

And all of a sudden I thought, "You know what?

00:59:45

Maybe that's exactly the way it should be."

00:59:48

See, every day God's invitation to me is

00:59:52

to repent and believe the Good News.

00:59:54

Every day there's a new line.

00:59:56

Every day there's a new circle.

00:59:58

Tomorrow there'll be another one.

00:59:59

Every day in your life

01:00:01

God's going to give you a line in a circle.

01:00:04

Today there's one and tomorrow there'll be another one.

01:00:07

And the question for each of us is, will we trust Him?

01:00:10

Will we believe that He is who He said He is,

01:00:12

that He's good, that He has more for us

01:00:14

than we can possibly imagine, and step across the line?

01:00:17

Will we be willing to embrace grace and truth?

01:00:22

If we will, we'll experience something

01:00:25

few people get to experience: the real Jesus.

01:00:27

We'll see something few people get to see:

01:00:30

the actual God of the universe,

01:00:33

full of grace, full of truth.

01:00:36

That's our hope of what happens in this series.

01:00:38

Let me pray for you before we leave.

01:00:40

God, thank You so much for everybody.

01:00:41

Thank You for the the time to talk about You.

01:00:43

Thank You for the unbelievable reality of You.

01:00:46

Thank You for the moment to step out of

01:00:48

our culture of soundbites and quick hits,

01:00:50

and to dig deeper into You.

01:00:52

I pray that you would use this time

01:00:54

to change all of us, make us more like you. Amen.

01:00:58

- Hey, thanks so much for watching.

01:01:00

But you should know Crossroads isn't just content to watch.

01:01:02

We are a community that you can belong to.

01:01:04

And if you want to grow, I'd highly recommend

01:01:07

you check out our upcoming cohorts.

01:01:08

These are opportunities for growth and connection

01:01:10

that you can do on your own time,

01:01:12

but still alongside other people.

01:01:14

They involve small daily challenges,

01:01:16

some weekly input and training, and way more

01:01:18

to help you get traction in a specific area of your life.

01:01:22

Starting in just a few weeks, we have

01:01:23

21 days to build a marriage you'll love,

01:01:26

led by my wife, Rachel and I,

01:01:27

and also 21 days to Better Dating.

01:01:30

If you want to make the step from watching church

01:01:32

to being a part of this church,

01:01:33

we're also hosting a Digital Connect event

01:01:35

led by my buddy and teammate Daniel Montgomery

01:01:38

on February 18th, 12 p.m. Eastern Standard.

01:01:41

We'd love to see you there, connect with you personally,

01:01:43

and help you get connected to others in the community.

01:01:46

You can head to Crossroads.net/anywhere

01:01:48

to find out more. We'll see you back next week.

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