What Happens When You Die?

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- Well. Hey, welcome to Crossroads, everybody.

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We are so glad that you're here.

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Hey, my name is Andy Reider.

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I'm the community pastor for Crossroads Anywhere,

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which just means I get to work with

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our amazing community meeting all over the globe,

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meeting in bars, dorm rooms, cafes, even prisons,

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and homes all over the globe.

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And man, this is actually really special,

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really special to get to be in one of our physical locations.

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So if you guys could humor me,

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I'd love your help with something.

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I want us here at our Oakley campus to say hello

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to all of our friends and our church family online.

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So if I count to three, will you guys all with me

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say we love you, Anywhere? All right?

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On the count of three, we love you, Anywhere. Got it?

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All right. One, two. Three.

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- We love you, Anywhere!

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- Yes, man. Hey, if you are here with us,

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maybe for the first time or the first time in a long time,

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you are in for a treat.

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This is going to be an incredible time

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for us to hear about death and life

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from a New York Times best selling author,

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but I'll get to that later.

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First, we're going to spend some time worshiping.

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And we love to keep it sort of loose and free.

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And so you guys can actually step out of your aisles,

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out of your seats if you want, and come down front.

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I love my 18-24 crew to come down front

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and to sing these songs.

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And I just want --

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I want to brag on these guys for a little bit.

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These are not just musicians.

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They're not just talented artists.

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They're not just people, you know, doing a gig.

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These are people who are seeking to live out

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the truth of who God has made them to be every day,

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when things are good and when they're not,

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when things are really easy

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and when they are profoundly challenging.

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And so these songs, for whatever your week has been like,

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can be the soundtrack to you connecting with a God

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who wants to bring you fresh hope

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and fresh life and fresh joy.

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So stand on up and let's sing together.

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- Let's go.

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Let's sing a song of anticipation, a song of freedom,

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a song of invitation. Sing this together. Come on.

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- I believe we have a generous God.

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He comes towards us.

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- Revelation 21 Jesus says, "It is finished.

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I am the Alpha and the Omega,

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the beginning and the end.

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And for all who are thirsty,

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I will give freely from the springs of living water."

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With these words I say, "I believe you."

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- Let me pray for us.

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Jesus, I just take You at Your Word.

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That's what I do, I just take You at Your Word,

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"It's finished." Separation is gone.

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The alpha. You're the omega.

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You're the beginning and the end. My creator.

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And the one who I get for all of eternity.

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You're so good, generous.

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You don't just say I'm the Alpha, Omega

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and leave it at that, but You say,

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"I'm the Alpha and the Omega.

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The beginning and the end.

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And I will give freely to all who are thirsty,

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freely, from the living water.

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I take You at Your Word and I say,

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"Today I want to receive You, living water.

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I need You. I don't need more of myself.

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I need more of You."

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I pray all this because of You, Jesus. Amen.

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It's going to be a good day together.

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If you're brand new here with us

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here's the thing, for me and my family,

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I don't just sing these songs,

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but we actually try to live it out.

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So I want Him to be in control of all my talents,

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all my skills, all my thoughts, all my words,

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and even my finances.

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So my family and I, we give to Crossroads.net/give.

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If you're here for the first time, great.

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Enjoy today. Love it, love it.

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If you're joining online, it's great to have you with us.

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If you're in the room, why don't you

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make your way back to your seats?

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If you're sitting next to somebody, why don't you say,

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"Hey, glad you showed up today.

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Glad to be here with you."

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- Yes, yes. Man, that was so great.

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Man, can we say thank you to the band one more time?

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[cheers & applause] Gosh.

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And if you guys online skipped that

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and jumped to message, man, you missed out.

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Hey again, my name is Andy and I want to talk to you

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about something that's coming up

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right around the corner for our community

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and really for followers of Jesus all over the globe

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for the last few thousand years.

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And a little confession before I get there.

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Like I say this as a pastor, like, as a guy

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who's been -- who should know better.

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But a few years ago, I had this moment.

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It was Easter evening, and I got to the end of the day

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and I was like, "I think all I did was just

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went to church and had a nice brunch and that was it."

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Like, the true, like, meaning and depth

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and beauty and impact of Easter just sort of, like,

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went over my head.

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And come to find out, that's not just me.

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That has been something that followers of Jesus

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have wanted to prevent against for a few thousand years.

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And so they developed a tradition called Holy Week.

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And Holy Week is the week leading up to Easter,

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filling that with moments with beautiful experiences

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to be reminded of the impact and the importance of Easter.

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And so Crossroads, in true fashion, has followed

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this really, really ancient tradition to create

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and curate an amazing collection of experiences

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for you and for your family,

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to have an incredible Easter

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and the entire week leading up to it.

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So at Crossroads.net/HolyWeek, there's all the details.

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But we have amazing experiences starting with

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Palm Sunday next Sunday,

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with a Last Supper and communion experience,

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Good Friday services and Easter services,

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daily worship online, reading plans in the app,

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all kinds of fantastic stuff

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designed to help you connect with God this Easter.

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All the details again at Crossroads.net/HolyWeek.

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And, man, at all of our sites and online we will have,

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we don't expect, we are certain we will have

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thousands and thousands of new people,

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and we want them to have the most incredible,

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not just experience, but encounter with a God

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who loves them as possible.

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And we'd love your help pulling Holy Week off,

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making it great and meaningful.

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So I would love for you all to be bold,

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for you to be aggressive, for you to serve

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this Holy Week and this Easter.

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If you go to Crossroads.net/volunteer,

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all the details,

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all the info is there for you to sign up

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and help make this an incredible,

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and I'll just say it,

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life changing experience for one of your friends,

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one of your family members, and one of your neighbors.

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And I'd also love if you just think about it, like,

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how did you end up here tonight?

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Odds are, odds are just statistically,

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it's because someone invited you.

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Someone cared about you enough to say,

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"Hey, you want to come join me?

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Or you want to check out this thing called Crossroads?"

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We have some really, really helpful language

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and tools and even a video to help you invite

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your friends, your family, your coworker to Easter.

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So if you just pull out your phone, go ahead

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and get it out, pull out your phones

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and text invite to 301301.

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Again, you'll get some sample language

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to make it really easy to invite that nosy neighbor

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or coworker, and we'll even,

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so you don't have to explain what Holy Week is,

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we'll show you this video

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so you can help them understand what's in store.

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Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem,

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where He was met by cheering crowds.

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While they were eating, Jesus took bread,

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and when He had given thanks, He broke it

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and gave it to his disciples, saying,

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"Take and eat, this is my body."

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The Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests

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and the teachers of the law.

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They will condemn Him to death

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and will turn Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked

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and flogged and crucified.

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On the third day He will be raised to life.

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They found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

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Why do you look for the living among the dead?

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He's not here. He is risen.

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Join us on a journey through four unique

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and immersive experiences, designed to give you

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a glimpse into the most important week in history:

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the profound life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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Details and service times at crossroads.net.

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- Yeah, that's going to be a great week.

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A little story behind the story.

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If you know anything about our reputation

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of the church, we like to grow.

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We like to reach new people, especially people

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who don't know who God is, are seeking,

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who don't understand who Jesus is

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and if He's different from Buddha or not.

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And that that goes from start to finish

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everything we do around here.

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But we made a change last year with Easter.

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We realized that we have a lot of our friends

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are up for coming on Super Bowl service

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or Christmas or Horse Weekend or something like that.

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But Easter was a very big weekend,

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and it was because all of the believers

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make sure they come that week,

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which is great, which is awesome.

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All to say, we said, "Why don't we just take

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the whole week and just give it exclusively

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to Christians and just speak and build into people

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at these sacred moments that many have forgotten

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and don't understand?"

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We tried it last year it was really profound

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and I'm so excited about it.

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This year you want to be a part of this.

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I'm telling you, all week, going to be a part of it

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in some way, shape or form, whether it's volunteering,

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attending, it's going to give you a serious lift.

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And that's what we want. We want to give you a lift.

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We want to give you a blessing if you're a Christian,

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if you're a believer, if you're a part of our church.

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And if you're not a believer, you're still welcome.

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We're just making this for other people.

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So glad to have you with us.

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Hey, by the way, my name is Brian, if we haven't met.

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I'm what's known as a Senior Pastor around here.

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And I'm going to hand off the microphone in just a moment.

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But I got one more thing to tell you about.

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I'd like to do a lot of different things.

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If you know anything about me, I like to camp.

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Do we have any people who like to camp in here?

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Just some? Some? Okay.

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I'm pretty well known for being into Man Camp.

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Well, I started that with some others.

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It's been growing. It's been really crazy.

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But here's a little secret some people don't know.

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Of all the camping things that I do,

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you know the one I like the best? Couples Camp.

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Yes, somebody's been to Couples Camp.

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Yes, Couples Camp is my favorite camp of any camp I've done.

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And let me tell you, one is, I get to be with my wife

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and camp with my wife all weekend. That's wonderful.

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The other reason is because I know if you're married,

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you get, like, no help from the world for your marriage.

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None. Zero. Zippo. Nada.

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Now, you could maybe pay for

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an hour of marital counseling, which is great. Do that.

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For less than that you can have

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a whole weekend experience and your marriage

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will go way beyond what a counselor

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is going to do for you in an hour.

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I promise way, way beyond.

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There's just nothing in our country that builds marriages.

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It tears us down. It separates us.

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So I'd ask you, if you're married,

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what's the last aggressive move you made

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to build into your marriage,

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the most important team you'll ever be on?

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We're going to make Couples Camp as easy as possible.

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We're giving a 10% discount if you sign up this weekend.

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Go to CouplesCamp.US.

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And we're making it very easy for you.

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Some of you are going like, "Couple Camp.

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I camp at the Days Inn when there's no Wi-Fi."

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Like I haven't heard that before.

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I understand some of us aren't into camping.

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We want to lower it.

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It's about couples more than camping.

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So we're going to allow car camping this year.

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That's right. [cheers]

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You want to drive in with your car instead of hiking in?

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You want to bring 500 pounds of pillows

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and meats and and heaters and whatever? You're fine.

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You want to sleep in your minivan,

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you can sleep in your minivan.

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You want to put a tent up five feet away

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from your minivan, you can do that.

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You want to set up your stuff, get all your stuff,

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and do three trips 200 yards away to where your camp is

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and talk with people.

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We're doing -- I'm telling you, I have a heart for you

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if you're married, and you're single,

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but this one, I'm for you if you're married.

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This is the best we got for you. And it's great.

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Do we have any Couples Camp alumni in here

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who can vouch for that? It's great. [cheers]

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So that's it. All right.

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Let me tell you what we're going to be doing

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right now with my friend John Burke.

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He's been a friend of mine for over 20 years.

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He started church in Austin, Texas,

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the same time I started Crossroads

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that started in Cincinnati.

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And he's gone on to exceed me in a bunch of different areas.

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One of them is in writing.

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Like he actually makes the New York Times best seller list

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with Imagined Heaven.

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I had him on my podcast, The Aggressive Life.

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I had a bunch of people on my podcast,

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Matthew McConaughey, I had him on my podcast.

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He was the most listened to podcast I had.

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And then John came along

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and blew by him in about three weeks.

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And it still grows because this message

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of heaven being real and talking with people,

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John has interacted with 2000 people.

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He's the foremost authority in the world

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on near-death experiences.

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Nobody has spoken firsthand with 2000 people

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who have gone to the next level,

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the next realm, and come back.

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He has, and he understands the scriptures.

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He's made ties that are just amazing.

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But of all those folks, he's got 70 stories

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inside of his new book Imagine the God of Heaven.

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Let's look at a couple of them.

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- Hey. Welcome, Crossroads. Great to be back.

00:28:43

Well, welcome everybody that are online,

00:28:45

the different campuses.

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And you just heard from some of the people

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that I have interviewed who clinically died,

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you know, no heartbeat, brainwaves stopped.

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And yet when they were resuscitated,

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they came back talking about a life more real than this one,

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in a place far more beautiful and in the presence of

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a God of light and love, who they never wanted to leave.

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And now I know what some of you are already thinking.

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You're thinking, "Oh now, this is just weird.

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This guy talks to dead people?"

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No, I talk to them when they're alive again.

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And it's actually way more normal

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than you would ever imagine.

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Do you know that in 2019, a study was done

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by the European Academy of Neurology

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across 35 countries, and they found that

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5% of the population, when clinically dead,

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had what's called a near-death experience,

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like these people you heard from.

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I mean, that's millions of people all over the globe.

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And I believe that God is giving testimony

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of global evidence of His great love

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and grace offered to all nations.

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But if you're still skeptical, I get it,

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because when I first started studying these,

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I was a skeptical engineer.

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My dad was dying of cancer.

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Someone gave him the very first research

00:30:02

on near-death experiences, and I saw it

00:30:04

by his bedside table, picked it up, read it in one night.

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And I said, "Oh, my gosh, this God Jesus stuff may be real."

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I was an agnostic.

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And not long after that, I came to faith in Christ.

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And over the last 35 years, as Brian said,

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I've studied thousands of these near-death experiences.

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And in 2015, I wrote a book, Imagine Heaven,

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showing how the commonalities of these experiences

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perfectly align with what the Bible

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has been telling us about the afterlife all along.

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And recently I wrote this book,

00:30:35

Imagine the God of Heaven, because of all the people

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I interviewed they would say consistently

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of all the wonders and beauty of heaven,

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of all the glorious reunions, nothing could compare

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to being in the presence of God.

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He is the love you've always wanted.

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And if you don't believe that,

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I want to stretch your imagination today.

00:31:01

You know, this new book is really about God.

00:31:06

And some of you may be saying,

00:31:08

"But how do you know that this is true?

00:31:09

I mean, how do you know these experiences are true?

00:31:11

How do you know they're not hallucination

00:31:13

or like endorphins flooding the brain

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or anoxia, lack of oxygen?

00:31:18

Just a trick the brain is playing as as we die?"

00:31:21

And I deal with all of those alternate theories

00:31:25

in chapter two, and I list the ten points of evidence

00:31:28

that convinced me as a skeptical engineer,

00:31:30

but also have convinced many skeptical medical doctors

00:31:33

that this is grounded in reality.

00:31:35

Like, for instance, when people die,

00:31:39

they are out of their bodies, but they still are

00:31:42

in the room watching the resuscitation,

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and they can see things happening that later,

00:31:48

when they come back, can be verified.

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And statistically, they're like 98% accurate.

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Second, blind people, when they have

00:31:59

a near-death experience, they can see

00:32:00

and they see all the same things that sighted people do.

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And then when people die, many times on the other side,

00:32:07

they meet a deceased person that

00:32:09

they didn't even know had died until they come back.

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And seven other points of evidence.

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But let me ask you a question:

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Has God just started revealing Himself like this

00:32:21

across the globe in our age of

00:32:23

modern medical resuscitation and NDEs?

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Of course not.

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And what I'm really trying to show in this new book

00:32:31

is that the Bible is actually God's love story.

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The Bible is God's love story for all nations

00:32:38

from the very beginning, that God created every person

00:32:41

for a love relationship with Himself.

00:32:44

But all of us, at some point, we push God away,

00:32:46

we reject His love.

00:32:48

And yet, from the beginning, 4000 years ago,

00:32:51

before any world religion was put down in

00:32:53

a sacred writing, God calls Abraham and Sarah

00:32:56

and says, "I will make you into a great nation,

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and I will bless you and all peoples on earth

00:33:02

will be blessed through you."

00:33:05

And through the Jewish nation God foretells

00:33:08

through His prophets that He's going to send

00:33:11

this Messiah who will be the Savior of all the world.

00:33:15

And then Jesus comes

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and He dies for the sins of the whole world.

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And then in the last book of the Bible John says

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he's taken up into heaven, and he sees:

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before Jesus.

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And then it says, there's a great wedding.

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It's bizarre and mysterious.

00:33:39

But you see, the Bible is really God's love story.

00:33:43

He's in love with all people of all nations.

00:33:47

And He also says:

00:33:56

And I'm going to let you hear from --

00:33:58

There's 70 NDE testimonies that I interviewed

00:34:01

from all across the globe in the new book,

00:34:03

Imagine the God of Heaven.

00:34:04

But I want you to hear how these things are true.

00:34:07

So I've brought eight of them on video.

00:34:09

So watch some of them.

00:38:20

Why would a 16 year old Jewish girl

00:38:24

who grew up hearing that Jesus was a hoax

00:38:27

see Jesus when she dies and know that

00:38:30

He was the God she had prayed to her whole life?

00:38:34

And how do you explain why a Muslim Imam

00:38:38

would come back from this beginning of

00:38:42

a hellish experience at his burial proclaiming

00:38:46

that Jesus saved him, and today he's an Anglican pastor

00:38:49

who's had seven attempts on his life

00:38:51

because he will not shut up about Jesus? [applause]

00:38:58

And how do you explain a Hindu manufacturing engineer

00:39:02

describing the exact same city of God

00:39:05

that John describes in Revelation chapter 21,

00:39:09

when he said that:

00:39:25

And Santosh came back seeking God with all his heart.

00:39:28

He was like, this is --

00:39:30

This was not like the Hindu gods I learned about.

00:39:33

Who was this God of tenderness and mercy

00:39:35

and love and compassion?

00:39:37

And he kept praying, "God, I want to know You. Who are you?"

00:39:39

And two years later, his daughter,

00:39:41

who was a choral major in college, was invited

00:39:44

by a friend to sing in a choir at Easter in a church.

00:39:48

Santosh goes to hear her.

00:39:50

When he walks into the church,

00:39:51

he feels the presence of this loving God.

00:39:54

And here's what the message was on that day, Matthew 7:

00:40:03

And John 10:

00:40:12

And Santosh told me he went home,

00:40:14

started reading the Bible and said,

00:40:16

"Everything I experienced was in there."

00:40:19

How do you explain this?

00:40:22

And I'll tell you, friends, God brought me testimony,

00:40:27

70 people that I've put in the book

00:40:29

from every continent from Tehran, Singapore,

00:40:33

India, China, Africa, Australia, all over the globe.

00:40:37

They are testifying about the same God.

00:40:40

And what Peter discovered when God saw

00:40:42

the heart of Cornelius, a Roman soldier,

00:40:45

and sent Peter to tell him about Jesus.

00:40:59

And Peter goes on to explain what Jesus did.

00:41:12

Now, sometimes I find this confuses Christians.

00:41:16

They say things to me like, "Well, are you saying

00:41:18

that everyone goes to heaven?"

00:41:20

No. No, in fact, near death experiences

00:41:23

of those who come forward, 23% come forward

00:41:26

talking about a hellish experience they had.

00:41:29

Half the people you're seeing in these videos today,

00:41:33

they first started seeing a hellish reality

00:41:36

before they saw a heavenly reality.

00:41:39

And this is a very important thing to understand.

00:41:42

NDEs are not eternity.

00:41:46

30% of NDE-ers say there was a border or boundary

00:41:49

in their experience they knew they couldn't cross

00:41:51

and still come back to Earth.

00:41:54

And what that means is they have not crossed over

00:41:56

into either eternal life or eternal death.

00:42:00

Instead, this is just a peek into the reality of both.

00:42:05

And we shouldn't be surprised that people

00:42:07

who don't even know Jesus would see God.

00:42:11

After all, think about the apostle Paul.

00:42:14

He didn't believe in Jesus.

00:42:15

He was having Christians arrested and persecuted.

00:42:19

In Acts 9 he's on the Damascus road

00:42:22

and the same brilliant God of light appears to him

00:42:24

that appeared to all these NDE-ers.

00:42:26

And he says, "Who are you, Lord?"

00:42:27

And He says, "I'm Jesus, who you're persecuting."

00:42:29

Now notice something,

00:42:31

Jesus does not explain the gospel to him.

00:42:34

He later sends Ananias to explain it to him,

00:42:38

because Paul still had a free will,

00:42:41

and Paul could either turn and follow Jesus,

00:42:45

but he had a lot to lose. He was a wealthy Pharisee.

00:42:47

And that's the same with these NDE testimonies.

00:42:51

They come back. They don't always understand fully.

00:42:55

But when they seek, they find,

00:42:58

but they still have a free will.

00:42:59

They still have a choice to make.

00:43:01

Now, what these NDE-ers are, I think,

00:43:04

is more like if I visited Buckingham Palace, right?

00:43:07

I can see the place, I can visit the place,

00:43:10

but that doesn't mean the Royal family

00:43:11

is ready to adopt me and have me move in forever.

00:43:15

And that, I believe, is what these NDEs are like.

00:43:20

All right. So what is God like?

00:43:22

That's really what I spend the majority

00:43:25

of this new book talking about.

00:43:27

And let me just say, those of us who know Jesus,

00:43:30

we kind of think we know what God is like.

00:43:33

But I want to challenge you because the truth is,

00:43:37

all of us put God in a box. We have to. We're finite.

00:43:41

And so we have walls to how we imagine God.

00:43:44

But the truth is, God is far more mysterious

00:43:48

and beautiful and powerful and majestic

00:43:51

and all these big, huge words than you've ever imagined.

00:43:54

But He's also far more relatable and personable

00:43:58

and enjoyable and even fun.

00:44:01

And maybe that hits the wall of your box.

00:44:03

I want to challenge you

00:44:04

to start to expand your thinking today.

00:44:09

You know what God wants is just honest relationship.

00:44:14

And the more you understand how God feels about you,

00:44:18

the more you're going to want to move toward Him

00:44:20

every single day.

00:47:51

- You know, God is far more personable and loving

00:47:55

and relatable and even fun than you have ever imagined.

00:48:01

You know, so many of us, we think God is

00:48:04

like this killjoy, this party pooper.

00:48:06

"He doesn't get us. He's distant and unrelatable."

00:48:11

And nothing could be further from the truth.

00:48:13

No one else gets you like He does.

00:48:16

No one has been with you through it all except Him.

00:48:20

You know, the scriptures tell us that:

00:48:39

You know, not only can God relate to you,

00:48:42

but He's kind and He's merciful,

00:48:44

just as Santosh and Swidiq discovered.

00:48:48

And you know, there's nothing too small

00:48:50

and there's nothing too large that

00:48:52

God doesn't care about that you can take to Him.

00:48:54

You know, people will say, "Well, 8 billion people

00:48:57

on the planet, He can't care about me."

00:48:59

But that's how great He is.

00:49:02

Not only does He care about you,

00:49:03

there's no one else like you to Him.

00:49:06

And you know you think, "Billions of people praying,

00:49:08

He doesn't hear my prayers."

00:49:10

He hears every single one

00:49:12

and answers every prayer from your heart.

00:49:15

And that's part of what I'm trying to stretch

00:49:19

your mind to see God is mystery and majesty.

00:49:23

He's far greater than you and I have ever imagined.

00:49:28

You know, the Bible talks about how God is imminent.

00:49:32

He's always with us.

00:49:33

But He's also transcendent. He's beyond it all.

00:49:36

It says in Ephesians 4:

00:49:43

In other words, God is the very life force of you

00:49:46

and of everything that exists and He's infinite.

00:49:50

He's everywhere all the time.

00:49:52

But He's also over all.

00:49:54

He transcends and He's beyond what He created.

00:49:59

You know, all those big words in the Bible that you read:

00:50:02

Omniscient and omnipotent and omnipresent

00:50:04

and holy and eternal and infinite,

00:50:07

you know, they all mean something,

00:50:10

but we read them and we don't get it.

00:50:11

But when you hear it through the words of these NDE-ers,

00:50:15

what that's like, you realize, "Oh, my gosh."

00:50:19

It's like this 112 year old girl

00:50:21

who had a near death experience and she's there with Jesus.

00:50:26

Interestingly, she said, sitting on His lap.

00:50:28

And then she sees the glory and the majesty of God.

00:50:33

And she said all those big words, they mean something.

00:50:37

And I experienced it and all I could say is, "Whoa, just whoa."

00:50:43

And what's also fascinating is this 12 year old girl,

00:50:46

and Heidi, she was 16, you know, when she encountered Jesus.

00:50:50

Both had no knowledge of the Bible,

00:50:52

yet they experienced one God,

00:50:55

but Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

00:50:59

Wild, right?

00:51:01

And you know, in the book, I talk about the Trinity

00:51:06

and how these NDE-ers can help us because, you know,

00:51:08

we hear the Trinity, one God, Father, Son and spirit,

00:51:11

three persons and that sounds like

00:51:13

a contradiction to us, right?

00:51:15

Because three persons can't be one.

00:51:18

And so I use an analogy of imagine if I created

00:51:24

a flat, two dimensional world, all right.

00:51:26

And I stick my three fingers

00:51:27

as a three dimensional creator into that world,

00:51:31

like this, they would see me as three round slices, right?

00:51:35

They would see me like, can you go to the next one?

00:51:40

And the next one after that.

00:51:42

They'd see me like that, three round slices. Right?

00:51:45

But what if I told them, I'm not actually three round slices?

00:51:49

I'm actually one being."

00:51:50

But that would be a contradiction in their world,

00:51:53

because three round slices can never stack up an arm

00:51:57

into one being because there is no up.

00:51:59

There's only back and forth and side to side.

00:52:02

So what if in our finite limited dimensions

00:52:07

it's a contradiction, but God,

00:52:09

the Father, Son and Spirit connect up somehow

00:52:13

in dimensions far beyond ours or beyond dimensions?

00:52:18

Funny little story is when I was in a writing deadline and

00:52:22

I thought, "You know, I need a picture to explain this,"

00:52:25

and it was too late.

00:52:27

But my son-in-law Dom is in high tech

00:52:30

and he's really good with computer graphics.

00:52:32

I called him, I said, "Hey, I need this computer graphic

00:52:35

and I need it tomorrow. Can you do it?"

00:52:37

And he said sure. And he sends that to me.

00:52:39

And it went in the book.

00:52:41

And now the book is being translated

00:52:42

in multiple languages and all that.

00:52:45

And I thought that was computer generated.

00:52:47

And he said, "Oh, no, I was sitting in the bathroom.

00:52:50

I just took a picture of my hand." [laughter]

00:52:53

I was like, "That's your real hand

00:52:55

and in the bathroom?" You know?

00:52:58

And so I joke with him now, I said,

00:53:01

"Well, if high tech sales don't work out, you know,

00:53:03

you now have experiences in international hand model."

00:53:08

He likes to say, "I have a hand in that book."

00:53:13

Dr. Ron Smothermon is a neurologist

00:53:16

and psychiatrist that I interviewed.

00:53:18

He was attacked by one of his patients

00:53:20

who had a psychotic break, stabbed 13 times.

00:53:24

He showed me the wounds, even through his neck.

00:53:27

And right before the 14th blow to his heart,

00:53:29

he said, "It was like time stopped and there before me

00:53:32

was this divine God of light."

00:53:35

Listen as first Dean and then Ron describe

00:53:39

the mystery and the majestic qualities of this God.

00:56:43

Now, Jesus said, "I am the light of the world."

00:56:46

And then He said:

00:57:01

You know, friends, if you imagine God

00:57:03

as this taskmaster, demanding, impossible to please,

00:57:08

always wanting more from you, that's not God.

00:57:11

You need to let Him out of that box.

00:57:14

You need to imagine God as He actually is.

00:57:17

He actually wants to walk with you to ease your burdens.

00:57:20

He's humble and gentle.

00:57:23

And, as Ron noted, even humorous and fun.

00:57:28

You know God is joyful and enjoyable.

00:57:33

Does that stretch your imagination a little bit?

00:57:36

Does it surprise you that I interviewed many people

00:57:38

who said they laughed with God?

00:57:42

And you know, I'll be honest with you,

00:57:44

when I first heard Heidi tell me about

00:57:47

surfing this wave of light at the speed of light with Jesus.

00:57:51

Remember, she was a 16 year old when this happened.

00:57:53

And I thought to myself, "Yeah, probably not."

00:57:57

I don't believe everything everybody tells me.

00:58:00

I wait to see do many of them say the same thing?

00:58:05

So I kind of just set it on a shelf.

00:58:06

And then I interviewed another young girl. She was 12.

00:58:11

And she talks about with Jesus and in a similar way,

00:58:14

kind of like flying and the funnest thing she's ever done.

00:58:17

And then a little boy who was four years old,

00:58:19

who died in a hospital when he was little

00:58:21

and kept telling his parents, "I want to go run

00:58:23

and play with Jesus in the fields again."

00:58:26

And suddenly I realized, why not?

00:58:31

I mean, who do we think created us

00:58:35

with the ability to enjoy life

00:58:37

and adventure and pleasure?

00:58:39

Do we think we made it all up?

00:58:41

No.

00:58:42

God is the most joyful, enjoyable being in the universe.

00:58:47

C.S. Lewis says, "Joy is the serious business of heaven."

00:58:51

And you know we shouldn't be shocked.

00:58:52

Do you know, in the Old Testament,

00:58:54

God had the nation of Israel

00:58:55

throw seven national street parties, seven of them,

00:59:00

every year for like weeks at a time. And he said this:

00:59:07

And Jesus' last night on earth, He said,

00:59:16

And you know, joy is actually your birthright

00:59:20

if you are a child of God,

00:59:21

if you've given your heart to Jesus.

00:59:24

And NDE-ers remind us that joy

00:59:27

is not dependent on circumstances, i

00:59:29

t's only dependent on you staying connected

00:59:32

to the source, to God.

00:59:34

And you stay connected very simply by prayer.

00:59:37

Prayer is not some rote, you know, ritualistic thing.

00:59:41

It's just talking to God from your heart.

00:59:43

Do you know that NDE-er tell us

00:59:45

every prayer from your heart,

00:59:47

doesn't matter how silly or trite or whatever

00:59:49

He hears it and He answers it.

00:59:52

And do you know that every prayer

00:59:54

is recorded in heaven as well

00:59:57

so that one day you'll see

00:59:59

how God answered that for your good.

01:00:03

And God is so good.

01:00:05

You know He desires to give you the desires of your heart.

01:00:09

You know, Psalm 37:4 says:

01:00:16

And now I don't think that means

01:00:17

if you're happy about God,

01:00:18

you'll get the Lamborghini if you want it.

01:00:20

You know, I don't think it means

01:00:22

we get everything we want in this life,

01:00:25

but I have interviewed so many NDE-ers

01:00:28

that I've started to realize that in the life to come,

01:00:32

God really does delight

01:00:34

in giving us the desires of our heart.

01:00:37

And the truth is, if you ever thought

01:00:39

that following God would make you

01:00:41

miss out on something, you're wrong.

01:00:45

You won't miss out on anything.

01:00:48

You know, Jim Woodford discovered that God is good

01:00:51

even to those who don't deserve it.

01:00:54

He's a commercial airline pilot,

01:00:56

owned several multi-million dollar businesses,

01:00:58

very wealthy man.

01:00:59

He had an airplane, a yacht, a horse farm

01:01:03

and 19 British sports cars in his garage,

01:01:06

and none of that mattered

01:01:08

when he died of an opioid overdose

01:01:12

that he was taking for Guillain-Barré disease.

01:01:15

And he told me, he said,

01:01:17

"You know, you know when you're dying."

01:01:18

And he was sitting in his truck

01:01:20

and he suddenly had this realization that he was dying.

01:01:23

And his wife was a Christian who had been praying for him.

01:01:26

He had never prayed in his life.

01:01:27

And suddenly he realizes,"

01:01:30

I've never thanked God for this life

01:01:32

that I thought was my own making,"

01:01:34

and he realized it wasn't.

01:01:36

And he said as his head was hitting the steering wheel,

01:01:39

he cried out, "God forgive me."

01:01:42

I love to joke with Jim,

01:01:44

"I think you beat the thief on the cross

01:01:46

for last minute conversion, buddy."

01:01:48

He said, "That's who I identify with, actually."

01:01:53

But listen as Jim talks first about,

01:01:57

many times I find when people last minute cry out to God,

01:02:00

He first lets them see where they were going

01:02:02

and then takes them to where they're going to be

01:02:05

because of His forgiveness.

01:02:08

But listen as Jim talks about the goodness of God,

01:02:12

even when we don't deserve it.

01:06:09

- You are His child and what He wants is

01:06:13

for you to know Him and love Him and trust Him

01:06:17

and then walk through this life daily with Him

01:06:20

so that you can experience more and more of His joy.

01:06:24

And all He needs is your willingness, your heart.

01:06:27

Have you ever given Him your heart?

01:06:30

Have you ever just said,

01:06:31

"God, I want what Jesus did on the cross to count for me.

01:06:34

I want Your forgiveness and Your leadership."

01:06:37

And maybe you have. Maybe you've wandered from Him.

01:06:41

Well, come back, you know,

01:06:44

and start walking with Him daily

01:06:47

because I guarantee He is what you want.

01:06:50

Let's pray together.

01:06:53

God, thank You so much for stretching our imagination

01:06:59

to understand that You're greater

01:07:01

than we've ever conceived in every way.

01:07:05

And God, some of us never knew that relationship

01:07:09

with You is a gift You want to give us that we have to receive.

01:07:13

And if that's you and you want

01:07:15

relationship with God tonight,

01:07:16

just right now in your heart, tell him,

01:07:18

"God, I want what Jesus did to count for me.

01:07:21

I want Your forgiveness and leadership."

01:07:24

And God, thank You, You tell us that is all You need

01:07:27

to never leave us or forsake us.

01:07:30

And God, some of us have, we've turned away from You

01:07:33

even though we know that.

01:07:34

And we want to turn back right now, God,

01:07:37

and commit to walking closer to You every day.

01:07:42

Just like you told Santosh,

01:07:43

You want relationship 365 days a year,

01:07:46

just being honest.

01:07:49

And thank You, God, that You have

01:07:51

so many good things in store for us.

01:07:54

There's nothing we've ever loved about this life

01:07:57

that You haven't already given,

01:07:59

and there's so much more yet to come, and we thank You.

01:08:02

In Jesus name, Amen. [applause]

01:08:11

- You know that's so moving, because hearing things

01:08:16

from people who've experienced something

01:08:17

that are consistent, it just resonates with us.

01:08:20

You know, there wasn't irrefutable data

01:08:24

that was shared today.

01:08:26

There wasn't things you could go tell somebody about

01:08:30

and they wouldn't have, "Well, yeah, but what about?"

01:08:34

There wasn't -- I don't know if you could have

01:08:37

won a debate today with a Christopher Hitchens

01:08:39

or something like that. But you know what I know?

01:08:43

I know there's some people in here right now who know,

01:08:46

that's what I know.

01:08:48

And what all those folks have experienced

01:08:51

is a sense of boldness that changed them.

01:08:53

And you start your walk with Christ

01:08:56

with a moment of boldness, not a passive belief,

01:08:59

but a moment of boldness that marks you as being different.

01:09:05

So I don't know, last time I've done this,

01:09:07

but we're going to do is right now.

01:09:08

I'm going to give you a chance to be bold

01:09:10

and have God see you right now and step over the line

01:09:13

and mark your future.

01:09:15

And if you've never done that,

01:09:16

if you've never given your life to Christ,

01:09:18

I want you to stand right now.

01:09:20

Right now. Come on, come on.

01:09:22

I know there's somebody in here.

01:09:23

I know there's people who are bold in here right now.

01:09:26

Come on. That's right.

01:09:27

Of course it'd be a young man.

01:09:29

Of course it'll be a bold young man.

01:09:31

It's not your emotions, dude.

01:09:33

Come on. Who else is bold in here? Who wants it?

01:09:35

Yes, you do? Yes, you do want to, miss. Yes.

01:09:38

Come on. Who else?

01:09:40

Who else wants to cross over in here?

01:09:42

Yeah. You do. Of course you do. Why wouldn't you?

01:09:46

Everything else you know is untrue relative to this truth.

01:09:50

Everything else you know,

01:09:51

there's nothing as real as this or as important as this.

01:09:54

Now, for all of us who have stood and went around,

01:09:57

just put your hand towards them. We'll pray for you.

01:09:59

And those of you who are standing,

01:10:01

those of you are standing right now,

01:10:02

just say something like this:

01:10:03

God, Jesus, I want You now. I ask You forgive me.

01:10:08

I give You my life and I ask

01:10:12

You to fill me with Your Holy Spirit.

01:10:14

I'll follow You as best I can. Amen. Amen.

01:10:19

All right, grab a seat. Well done. Welcome to family.

01:10:24

Your life review just got different.

01:10:29

Now there's others of us who walked in here,

01:10:31

were we were stale, very stale.

01:10:36

The world does that to all of us.

01:10:39

I'm sitting over there and I've got tears in my eyes

01:10:42

because, you know the purity and the rawness

01:10:49

and the simplicity and the visceral nature

01:10:54

of these experiences that line up with the Bible,

01:10:57

it's like shakes up my cobwebs, like, "Oh, my gosh,

01:11:00

I keep getting carried away with things

01:11:02

that I shouldn't get carried away with."

01:11:05

I just wonder if you've just gotten stale

01:11:08

and you want the God of heaven to see you

01:11:12

and to know that you're going to a different place.

01:11:15

You need a moment of boldness too.

01:11:18

I just ask you to boldly stand right now.

01:11:21

Let me pray for you. Stand right now. Come on now.

01:11:23

Come on. That's right. Come on.

01:11:25

God is just excited about what's happening to you

01:11:28

as anybody before because He loves you

01:11:31

and He's for you and He's with you and He's died for you.

01:11:36

So here we go. Let's pray right now.

01:11:38

God, God, I ask right now -- Just say this.

01:11:40

God, I ask right now, refresh me.

01:11:45

And I turned from the things that delude me.

01:11:49

I want the scales off of my eyes and off my heart.

01:11:54

I want You and only You, Jesus. Amen.

01:12:03

Hey, how about -- I'll be out of key,

01:12:06

but we'll pick it up.

01:12:08

How about anything that's good, that's good comes from You.

01:12:16

Anything that's good, it's good comes from You.

01:12:21

Why don't we stand, let's sing us together.

01:14:14

- One more time. One more time on the anything.

01:14:16

One more time on the anything.

01:14:17

All right. Sing anything that's good.

01:14:54

- Amen.

01:14:57

- So I know right now, wherever you are,

01:15:00

that there are people that this message

01:15:02

has just come through in a fresh way,

01:15:04

that something about the way

01:15:06

that John presents the hope and the light and the life

01:15:09

and the joy and the peace that Jesus offers,

01:15:12

like, it's like a door has been unlocked

01:15:14

or like something has clicked for you.

01:15:17

And if that's you, and I want you

01:15:19

to just say a simple prayer with me.

01:15:22

I want you to be aggressive.

01:15:23

I want you to be bold,

01:15:24

and I want you to actually respond right now,

01:15:27

wherever you are, and say this prayer.

01:15:30

Father, I'm grateful.

01:15:32

I'm grateful for the gift of Your Son.

01:15:35

I acknowledge that I am broken

01:15:38

and that I am in desperate need of a Savior.

01:15:42

Jesus, You are my only hope.

01:15:45

You are my only redemption.

01:15:47

And God, as best as I'm able, from this day forward,

01:15:51

I'll spend my life following You. Amen.

01:15:57

Hey, if you just prayed that prayer with me,

01:16:00

amazing, amazing. I could not be more excited.

01:16:03

And I want to hear from you.

01:16:05

Don't let this be a thing that you just do on your own.

01:16:07

The spiritual journey is not meant to be walked out alone.

01:16:11

It's meant to be done in the context of community.

01:16:13

So just send me an email Andy.Reider@crossroads.net.

01:16:17

I'd love to hear with you, connect with you,

01:16:19

and help you take your next step on your journey with God.

01:16:24

And if you've made this decision, hey,

01:16:27

it might be the perfect time for you to be baptized.

01:16:30

This coming Easter, we're actually going to be

01:16:32

celebrating the resurrection of the new life

01:16:34

that Jesus brings with baptisms.

01:16:36

And so no matter where you live,

01:16:38

you could be on the other side of the globe,

01:16:40

we will help make it happen.

01:16:41

We will get someone to you,

01:16:43

or we will come to you ourselves

01:16:44

to help you mark this moment

01:16:46

and cross this just momentous line

01:16:50

as a part of our community

01:16:51

and in your own just journey and relationship with God.

01:16:55

We love you and we'd love to help make that happen.

01:16:58

We actually have an info session,

01:16:59

if you're watching this in real time.

01:17:01

We have an info session today, March 17th.

01:17:04

You can go to Crossroads.net/anywhere

01:17:06

for the information and get any questions

01:17:08

you have about baptism answered

01:17:10

and help you prepare for this awesome, awesome step.

01:17:13

Now John had tons to share.

01:17:15

He actually is about to lead a Q&A session.

01:17:17

We're also going to be posting that online.

01:17:19

You'll be able to check it out as well

01:17:21

at crossroads.net/watch.

01:17:23

And as we said, Holy Week starts next week with Palm Sunday.

01:17:28

Don't miss it and make sure you check out

01:17:30

Crossroads.net/HolyWeek

01:17:32

for all the incredible experiences to help you

01:17:34

get the most out of this really special season.

01:17:37

We'll see you guys next week. Thanks for watching.

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