Reflect and Move

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- Hey, do you know what the most dangerous

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thing in your life is?

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I promise you, it's not what you think.

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It's not a disease. It's not AI.

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It's actually the small decisions in your life

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that you're not even aware that you're making.

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These are the things that can make your life

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or derail it completely.

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We're going to be talking about that in a little bit.

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But first I just want to welcome you to Crossroads.

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There's two things I want to let you know about.

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First, Crossroads is a church that believes, well,

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church is bigger than anyone building, any one city,

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any one place on the map, or day of the week.

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And two, that means wherever you are watching from,

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wherever you are right now, that you can be

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a part of more than just watching content,

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you can be a part of a global community of people

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who are earnestly and honestly and humbly

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running after God as best we can.

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- That's right. And hey, my name is Emily

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and I am the Crossroads Anywhere student pastor.

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And actually, tomorrow I am leaving

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for Crossroads Students Middle School Summer Camp,

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which is super exciting.

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Andy, did you know that we're bringing

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about 1200 middle schoolers to camp this year?

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It is wild. It's crazy.

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Just a couple of weeks ago, we had so many high schoolers

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that were from all over get baptized

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and God is definitely doing something so special.

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It's really cool to watch.

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- Yeah, students from six states, instant friendship.

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Just awesome. Love, love, love seeing it.

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Now, actually, today we've got something special

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and a little different for you.

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We've got somebody different doing the teaching today

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out of the life of David, it's Joel Firebaugh.

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Who actually leads all of our student pastors,

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all of our work from 0-18.

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He's got an incredible message for us from the life of David.

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- And we are about to enter into a time of worship,

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which is actually my favorite part

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of all of our student summer camps.

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There's actually a song you're about to hear

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for the first time in the Crossroads adult stage,

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and it's called Goodbye Yesterday.

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And it talks about leaving the things of the past

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that are holding us back behind

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and stepping into what God has for us.

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- That's right, that's right.

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Get up on your feet. Put your hands together.

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This song is all about

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remembering what God's done in us,

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who we used to be, and who He's making us to be right now.

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Goes like this.

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- That's who you are, Lord, a God full of power,

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full of authority.

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God, you are able to look at our problems

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in a different way than we are, because You are the King

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and You reign over these things

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that we experience in this world: doubt, fear, stress.

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And they're very real, but we don't wrestle

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with these things on our own because

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that's not the way to do it.

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No, we bring them to a King who's more powerful than them

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because You're good.

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You see, everything we going through

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when You see the end and You're trying to get us there.

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So God, will we use a song like this to lean into You

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and trust You, that Your power is good,

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that You have all authority

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above anything we could ever worry about.

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But we bring it to You, a good God.

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God, we sing to You. We worship You.

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We're reminded that You have all power.

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And we'll do all we can to trust and lean into You.

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I thank You. It's in Your Son's name that we pray.

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Amen and amen. Come on.

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- Man, these songs are just that,

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they're an opportunity for us to make room for God.

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Because we don't just want to know things about God.

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We want to know God. We want to experience Him.

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We're going to hear teaching in just a moment.

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But first, this is the part where I tell you about

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all the stuff, all the stuff that's going on

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around our church so that you don't email me later

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saying, "Hey, where's all the stuff?

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And how do I know what's going on?"

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I'm telling you right now.

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Hey, first, while we are a global community,

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there are a few specific times a year

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where we actually invite everyone to come to one place,

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and it's some of the most fun we have all year.

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We call it Anywhere Weekend, but this year

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we're doing it a little bit differently.

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We're actually bringing everybody together

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for a revival.

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On our Base Camp land, tens of thousands of people,

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our entire church joining you, our Anywhere community

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for an incredible weekend of teaching, of worship.

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It's just awesome. We want you to be there so badly.

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- Yeah. And we do want you to be there so badly

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that we are willing to make any barrier possible

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go away to get you there.

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If you are joining us from our Anywhere communities

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and you have to travel in, we'll help you.

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We'll pick you up from the airport, we'll cover your food.

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We got special spot for you on the land.

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We will do all. We have events set up for you

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to meet people from all over the globe.

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And personally, I was at The Revival last year

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and I know it was great, but it would be even better

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with all of you there with me.

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And even if you just show face, I'll be happy.

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- There we go. Yeah, and now's a part of our service

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where I would normally talk about giving

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and why I think it's good and biblical

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and important for our church.

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But I'm not going to do that.

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I feel like you guys hear from me enough.

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I actually want you to hear from

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another part of our community, some good friends in Texas.

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Here's Gemma and Otis.

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- Hi, I'm Gemma. - And I'm Otis.

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And yeah, we started tithing with Crossroads

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back in May of 2021.

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At that time in our life, we were, you know,

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going through some difficult times.

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We had a couple of miscarriages.

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Then there was this moment

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we were watching Crossroads and, you know.

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- Yeah, Bryan was talking about the tithing challenge.

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This isn't the reason that you do it,

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but we everyone sees, like,

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great things happen in their lives.

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So we were like, "Well, let's give it a go.

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You know, we want to be more faithful.

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We want to be more obedient.

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This seems like great timing and a great challenge for us."

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So after we've been doing it for a few months,

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um, I got pregnant. It was a successful pregnancy.

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We now have two kids.

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And not to say that that was a direct result of tithing,

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but honestly, it feels like that was a catalyst

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for just so much good stuff in our lives.

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- The way I look at it is

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no one sees what you do with your money.

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I don't even feel comfortable talking to

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all you people about our money.

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But like even when once you start being faithful

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and you're tithing showing that like, "Hey God,

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I'm not afraid. I'm going to trust You over my fear.

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I'm going to be obedient."

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Then there's new challenges

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because God is going to give you more.

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I'm not saying it's going to give you more,

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but like we got more and then at some point

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there is this kind of like conversation of like,

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"Well, should we keep doing that?"

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- Yeah, it's a continuous, a continual test

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to be faithful every month.

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But I honestly can say I don't think there's anything

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that could happen in our lives

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that would make us not do it every month.

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- We would just encourage you to give.

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And if you want to start your giving,

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you go to crossroads.net/give and start giving today.

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Put it on, uh, automated giving

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and you don't have to think about it.

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It's super easy when you're not thinking about it. So yeah.

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- I love that. I love how Gemma and Otis's story

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isn't just about money,

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it's actually about obedience and trusting God.

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- Hey, how are we doing, Crossroads?

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Good. I love you guys.

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My name is Joel. I'm the director of next gen,

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all things kids, students and young adults.

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Which means I get to be a part of stories like that

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and future stories like middle school camp tomorrow.

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But I also occasionally, like today, get to talk to adults

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and we're gonna have some fun.

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So today we are talking self-reflection. All right?

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We're kind of picking back up.

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Kyle, last week if you were here,

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he talked about inner self.

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But even more than that, we're going to talk action.

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So I figured I would start with a story

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where I was looking in a mirror.

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This actually happened last time I talked here.

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So backstage here in Oakley is like this tiny little bathroom.

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It is, there's like a toilet, a mirror, a sink, and that's it.

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And, uh, the staff kind of abused this bathroom.

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We use it as, like, our pooping bathroom kind of mid week.

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And so Brian Tome, that's our Lead Pastor, if you know him.

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He was like, "No, more. Like, unless you're speaking,

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stay out of my bathroom. All right?"

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And so we're, okay, you know?

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And so last time I talked, I told my wife I was like,

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"I get to use the bathroom.

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Like, I get to sit among the greats.

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Like Chuck Mingo uses this thing.

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This is a big -- This is a big deal."

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And so literally last time I spoke, I went back to use it.

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I was like, I was -- I was kind of nervous, you know?

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And I opened the door and everything is sopping wet.

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And I'm like, "Dang, they, like, cleaned this thing

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in between users. Like, this is --"

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So I didn't take it as a sign, but I did,

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I got like, my nervous pees out, you know?

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I went and I looked in a mirror.

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Now, do you know we'll talk about

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this mirror all service long.

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But do you know how long you look in a mirror?

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- [indiscernible] - I love Snow White. Yeah.

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It didn't answer the question, but I do love Snow White.

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Do you know how long we look in the mirror?

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No, no, till it gets better. That's the truth.

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So my face is about to be on

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the great American sized wall, you know?

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And I'm like, all right, so I'm looking in the mirror,

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and all of a sudden, the toilet I just flushed

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starts making noises, you know? Whatever.

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And an explosion happens.

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Porcelain nails me in the back.

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A like fire hose of water sprays out and like nails my back.

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It starts spreading all along the floor.

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I open the door. It floods into the backstage room.

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Literally, someone goes, "Joel, you're on in 30s."

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And so I looked at my friend Deborah and I said,

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"Can you tell, like, my back is really soaked?"

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And she goes, "Yes."

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And then I went on and spoke.

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After it was cleaned up, here's a picture of the toilet.

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That just -- I know, you thought I was lying. No.

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The whole thing, all I could think of when I was on stage,

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I was like, I'm fired.

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Like, it's just plumbing issues.

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But I was like, I felt like they tried to get Brian.

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Like, "Dang it. This guy is --" You know, I don't know.

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But it's funny because as silly as a story analogy it is,

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I looked in this mirror, right?

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Don't think of anything else.

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Now I leave

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and then very literally crap hits the fan. Okay?

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Not -- Okay, you get it.

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But I think of this because today

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here's what we're talking about.

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We're talking about self-reflection,

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looking in the mirror.

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But we leave oftentimes, this is actually

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this is westernized evangelical church.

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You leave the church service and there's real stuff.

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And so you leave what happened in the church service

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in the church service.

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And we do some self-reflection.

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Like we feel, Kyle talked, I said, inner self,

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you like feel it, but then you're like,

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crap hits the fan on the other side

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and you just don't do anything about it.

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Today we're going to just be in agreement that

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today we are going to continue doing some self-reflection.

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But if we don't leave and act on the other side,

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then we're never going to see an awakening.

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If we don't leave and act and move,

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then we're never going to see a revival.

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And so today we're going to continue looking,

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yeah, in the mirror at our reflection,

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whether we like what we see or don't.

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And then we're going to act and move.

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So let's do this. So grab your phone out. All right?

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If you're an iPhone, grab your iPhone out.

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Let's look, let's look. IPhone you can do front camera.

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Android like there's other good churches around here

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that you can check out too. And uh -

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Again, all carriers all, like, get the front camera out.

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I'm gonna go over to my big mirror,

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because what's even clearer than a front camera

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is a mirror.

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And just stare at yourself. Okay?

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Do that for me, just stare at yourself.

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Good, bad and ugly. Just do it.

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It's lovely. Y'all are great.

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And while you do this, I'm gonna read a passage

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from the brother of Jesus about looking in the mirror.

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Here's what it says: Do not merely listen to the word.

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This is James 1:22.

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And so deceive yourself, but do what it says.

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Are you still looking?

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Anyone who listens to the word

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but doesn't do what it says

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is like someone who looks at their face in a mirror,

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or front camera,

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and after they've looked at themselves, goes away

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and immediately forgets what they've looked like.

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You can put your phones away. All right.

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You are all in one of two categories.

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The minority there went, "Woo, I look good."

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Like you took a picture. Like you weren't just looking.

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Like, you were like, yeah.

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Like you switched over to snap, like it was a whole thing.

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And then the majority of us looked and were like,

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"Yeah, shoot." Like, yeah, you zoomed in on the blemish

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and yeah, you're like, I gotta --

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I'm gonna look until it's better.

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What a metaphor for what we do at church.

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Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes we step in and we praise God.

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Life is good. It's moving. He's moving.

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Like, I love this.

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And there's a whole portion of us that sits here

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and goes, "Gosh, God is talking to me," and we leave.

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And as the brother of Jesus says,

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we forget what we look like and we never do what we said.

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Today we absolutely are going to pick up

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on self-reflection, but we're going to move.

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And to do this, I have the best, I think,

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illustration of somebody who does this.

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His name is King David.

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He does some self-reflection later in his life,

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but then he does something about it.

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And because he does something about it,

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guess what King David is known for at the end of his life?

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Anyone know?

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It says this right here

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in the book of Acts talking about David.

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Says this: David, son of Jesse, is known as

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a man after the heart of God.

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He will do whatever I want him to do.

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I love this because you'll be known for something

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at the end of your life, right?

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You could be selfish. It could be selfless.

00:28:09

It could be generous. It could be kind.

00:28:10

It could be a good parent. It could be an absent.

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It could be like at your funeral you'd be known for something.

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And what if it was this:

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a man or woman after the heart of God?

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I mean, that could change everything.

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That could mean everything.

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And I think some of you, like David,

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we're going to get into the kind of juice of his story.

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But you're like, "That can't be me, though.

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Like, not what I've done."

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Well, wait until you see what what David's done,

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that's what the story is.

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But after the self-reflection, everything changes.

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So do this with me, kind of transform yourself

00:28:38

back to the beginning of David's life.

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Well, actually, we're going to pick up with him in his 50s.

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He is king, and do you know what King means?

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It means you can't be told no.

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In fact, this is about a thousand BC in the palace.

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And God actually didn't want Israel to have a king.

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God was like, man, because you can tell the judge no,

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you can tell a prophet no, you can tell the servant no,

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but you can't tell the king no.

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And so David does what he wants, and he is a godly king,

00:29:04

but still this gets him in trouble.

00:29:06

In fact, in his 50s, he decides to stay home from battle,

00:29:09

which is like the primary part of a king.

00:29:12

But it's not that big a deal.

00:29:13

He's kind of put in his work and his time.

00:29:15

Okay, no big deal.

00:29:16

But you can imagine him in this entire palace, right?

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Just alone, all his friends are at war.

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And you can imagine a king with all the power

00:29:26

in the world that gets bored. What could happen?

00:29:29

So this is actually a reimagination

00:29:31

of the Palace of David.

00:29:32

Right now there's ruins, but this is pretty

00:29:34

much probably what it would have looked like

00:29:36

or what people expect it would look like.

00:29:38

And there's a passage in 2 Samuel

00:29:39

where he goes up to the roof,

00:29:41

you can almost see it.

00:29:42

And he looks out and he sees a woman bathing.

00:29:46

Now he knows this woman's husband is off at war.

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And so he says to his servants, "Hey, bring me that woman."

00:29:54

Now the servants remind him like, "Hey, like,

00:29:56

you know this woman's husband.

00:29:57

Like, he's one of your main men. His name's Uriah."

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But you can't tell the king no,

00:30:02

and so they bring the woman to him.

00:30:04

And this is the story of David.

00:30:05

Something that starts not that big of a deal,

00:30:07

and then it just snowballs into a little bit bigger

00:30:10

and a little bit bigger thing.

00:30:11

And he keeps messing up his mess up.

00:30:13

You've ever done this? You ever messed up your mess up?

00:30:17

Never. Yeah, me neither. No.

00:30:19

Recently I was watching Netflix.

00:30:21

We have Netflix subscribers?

00:30:23

I've been watching Quarterback.

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Have you guys watched this, even Lexington, with Joe Burrow.

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It's fantastic. Now, do we have any of that,

00:30:28

you watch Netflix, but you don't subscribe?

00:30:31

It's, like, your like brother's or friend's or parent's?

00:30:33

I love that you're safe enough to, like, admit that.

00:30:37

But I'm going to be honest, when we get to heaven,

00:30:39

we're all going to have all the streaming services

00:30:41

you're just gonna have, like, Touched by an Angel.

00:30:43

That's what I think. That's it, just on a repeat.

00:30:45

And if you're too young for that, you'll like it at first,

00:30:47

but then it'll get old. All right.

00:30:50

So no, no, I'm watching Netflix, and, uh, this is no big deal,

00:30:53

kind of like David.

00:30:54

I'm literally I'm watching Quarterback,

00:30:55

like, great, just stay home from work.

00:30:57

Except I'm supposed to be

00:30:58

watching my 17 month old daughter.

00:31:02

This is my 17 month old daughter right here.

00:31:04

Her name is Navy, like the color.

00:31:07

I know. I love her.

00:31:08

And I also love Joe Burrow.

00:31:11

So, um. What? My wife's working.

00:31:15

I'm watching, you know, these two things at the same time.

00:31:17

And she texted me that she's on her way home,

00:31:19

and I just slowly mess up my mess up.

00:31:20

Like, you guys have probably done this.

00:31:22

I just rush around and I'm clean and stuff, like I was,

00:31:24

but I keep the show on and I put a pot of coffee on.

00:31:28

Except I have the maker, but I forget to put the pot in.

00:31:31

And I get it, some of you have like, bougie coffee pots

00:31:35

where you're like, "Doesn't it stop?"

00:31:37

Not Black and Decker. All right, I'll tell you that.

00:31:40

Made an entire pot of coffee on the kitchen cabinet and floor.

00:31:44

And again, because I'm just messing up my mess up,

00:31:46

like I just got my wife these white towel,

00:31:48

but I used them to clean it up and I throw them away.

00:31:51

And honestly, she didn't even know about it

00:31:53

till right now because I keep messing up my mess up.

00:31:55

Okay, this is the story of David. It really is.

00:32:00

This is the whole story.

00:32:01

He just slowly messes up his mess up.

00:32:04

So this girl on the roof, he sees bathing,

00:32:06

actually has bath in her name.

00:32:08

Her name is Bathsheba, if you're looking for a child name.

00:32:10

And he calls her over, and, uh, I don't know.

00:32:15

I don't know if his intentions were, like, tricking himself.

00:32:18

Like, we'll just talk or, I don't know,

00:32:20

but they spend the night together,

00:32:21

if you know the story, probably nights together.

00:32:24

And you can assume what happened, especially because

00:32:26

word gets back that she's pregnant. I know.

00:32:30

Love Island ain't got nothing on 2 Samuel. That's it.

00:32:33

That's just -- that's what I'm saying.

00:32:36

And so, David, you see the trajectory, right?

00:32:39

He just messed up his mess up.

00:32:40

And now David does what we've all done.

00:32:43

He goes, "I can fix this."

00:32:47

Instead of, like, you know, repenting

00:32:48

or instead of, like, asking for forgiveness or bringing it

00:32:51

he just comes up with this plan.

00:32:53

So he calls home the husband, his name is Uriah, from battle.

00:32:56

Kind of wins and dines him, you know,

00:32:58

hoping one thing will lead to another.

00:32:59

But Uriah is too good of a man, so he stays outside.

00:33:02

He's like, nah, my men are at war.

00:33:04

He sleeps on the concrete.

00:33:06

And David again ha messed up his mess up that he's messed up.

00:33:10

And David is supposed to be a godly king.

00:33:12

That's actually important.

00:33:14

David's supposed to be known as this godly king.

00:33:16

And so he's like, I can't get this word out.

00:33:18

So he can't tell the king no.

00:33:21

He decides to go ahead, and at war,

00:33:24

have Uriah the husband killed.

00:33:26

So it looks like they had gotten pregnant before he went.

00:33:30

In fact, here's the wildest part of the story.

00:33:32

In 2 Samuel, he writes the letter.

00:33:34

They don't have phones in that day.

00:33:37

Seals it and sends the letter

00:33:38

saying he's supposed to be killed at battle

00:33:40

with Uriah to hand to the general.

00:33:43

And the general puts everyone up at the front,

00:33:46

asks everyone to retreat except Uriah,

00:33:48

and he's killed at battle.

00:33:49

And David thinks he gets away with it.

00:33:53

In fact, he looks like the hero.

00:33:54

He brings in, like, this widow and their child.

00:33:56

She's pregnant, you know, and like.

00:33:58

He looks like the hero.

00:33:59

The problem is, in that day,

00:34:01

the walls of just the palace, like they talked.

00:34:04

In fact, more than that, not only did servants know

00:34:06

and people know, God knew.

00:34:08

And He put on the heart of a prophet named Nathan

00:34:10

to come to David.

00:34:12

And this is really where we pick up in the story

00:34:15

in 2 Samuel and we see the first time

00:34:18

David more or less looks in the mirror.

00:34:22

And he calls him out with some story,

00:34:24

and watch David's response right here.

00:34:26

David's response right here says this, 2 Samuel chapter 12.

00:34:30

Then David said to Nathan, "I've sinned against the Lord."

00:34:35

You can kind of see by the response here

00:34:37

the next part of just how anguished, like, David was.

00:34:42

I picture him tearing his clothes,

00:34:43

which is a sign of remorse because the friend Nathan

00:34:46

replied, "The Lord has taken away your sin.

00:34:48

You're not going to die."

00:34:50

Like, this shows, like, his place of remorse.

00:34:53

"You're not going to die, dude. Like you're the king.

00:34:55

It's not the end of the world."

00:34:57

Now, this is a big part in the self-reflection process.

00:35:01

Today as we go from self-reflection to action

00:35:04

there's kind of a three step process.

00:35:06

And it starts with what David just showed right here,

00:35:09

which is the simple step of recognizing,

00:35:12

like, yeah, I messed up. Yeah.

00:35:15

When you compare me to a perfect God, yep, we are different.

00:35:18

That is the step of recognize.

00:35:20

Now I like this because David at some point

00:35:23

I don't think he did recognize.

00:35:25

I think he just realized, you know,

00:35:26

he's just going from one thing to another.

00:35:28

I can fix this. No one will know.

00:35:29

And when his friend calls him out,

00:35:31

you almost see how far he's drifted.

00:35:33

And you see him recognize his sin, his mistake.

00:35:37

Now I used the word drift on purpose

00:35:40

because I don't think David was like,

00:35:42

"I'm going to stay home from war and kill a guy like.

00:35:45

It just happened. It just drifted.

00:35:48

And so for me, I know all about drift.

00:35:50

I grew up middle school in high school

00:35:51

outside of Galveston, Texas.

00:35:54

A random person here from Galveston, Texas.

00:35:57

And back in my day, Galveston was known as,

00:36:00

the beach was the Gulf of Mexico.

00:36:02

But they just changed childhood names on you now

00:36:05

and now it's different.

00:36:06

And this is this is not Galveston,

00:36:08

but this is a good imagery of what would happen with me.

00:36:11

We would go and my mom would park up by the lifeguard stand.

00:36:14

And my mom would say, "Hey, I'll be right here.

00:36:17

You and your friends go play in the ocean, in the Gulf."

00:36:19

So I would go and I'd hang out in the Gulf.

00:36:21

You know, we're playing. We're playing.

00:36:22

I told you, there's a current, you know, we're playing.

00:36:25

We're playing. All of a sudden, 30 minutes would get in

00:36:27

and I would look up and every time, it was crazy,

00:36:29

a group of people would dig up the lifeguard stand

00:36:31

and move it 100 yards.

00:36:35

The lifeguard stand didn't move, I moved.

00:36:38

This is exactly how it is so often with God.

00:36:42

We're at a great place or what feels like a great place.

00:36:45

And then all of a sudden we miss a Sunday.

00:36:47

All of a sudden

00:36:48

we haven't cracked our Bible open in months.

00:36:50

All of a sudden, you know, like, all of a sudden

00:36:52

we're with the wrong group of people.

00:36:54

All sudden it's not that big of a deal.

00:36:55

And we look up and we're like, "God, where'd you go?"

00:36:58

He says, "I didn't -- I didn't move, you moved."

00:37:00

Now it didn't feel like moving because it was drifting.

00:37:02

I love the phrase, I didn't come up with it,

00:37:04

but I love the phrase:

00:37:05

sin feels a lot like freedom, drifting, until you try to stop.

00:37:11

Because that's exactly how it was with the drift.

00:37:14

Trying to turn that. Yeah, that's when it gets tough.

00:37:16

And so the step of recognizing is important because

00:37:18

here's what a lot of us do, and I'm guilty of it.

00:37:20

We recognize but we say, "Yes, I see that,

00:37:23

and it's a lot easier to drift.

00:37:26

So I'm going to keep drifting."

00:37:27

It's why it's only the first step in this process.

00:37:30

And it's happened with all of us.

00:37:32

We all make these big explanations.

00:37:33

We have these big plans or dreams,

00:37:35

and then it just didn't go that way.

00:37:37

I think of it for myself and my wife.

00:37:38

My wife and I, we just celebrated 10 years of marriage.

00:37:42

It's great. Yeah, we got married at nine.

00:37:43

And, uh, but we did celebrate ten years of marriage,

00:37:46

and I think back often to our honeymoon

00:37:51

because it was it was not good.

00:37:53

I'll ruin it for you. Nothing went as planned.

00:37:56

And like, four days before our honeymoon

00:37:59

I had made promises, call them vows,

00:38:01

that you guys would have ugly cried at. Okay?

00:38:03

They were great, but they were lip service.

00:38:07

Because days later, all of a sudden,

00:38:09

we go on this honeymoon and I was young when I got married,

00:38:12

and I just think I'm on a vacation,

00:38:14

and I'm used to living by myself.

00:38:15

And there's food and there's drink

00:38:16

and there's, you know, like, we're hanging out and, like,

00:38:19

I'm the worst husband on this thing.

00:38:21

Now, it wasn't as far as David's affair,

00:38:24

but there was a moment where we went off.

00:38:26

I was mad at her. Our air conditioner was broken.

00:38:28

We went off resort, we were in Mexico,

00:38:30

and just into the city.

00:38:32

And we get in this fight and I say things to her,

00:38:36

I'll call a spade a spade. I said things at her.

00:38:39

We were -- I got so mad, I just left.

00:38:42

Now we're off resort in Mexico,

00:38:44

speak a different language, don't have cell service.

00:38:47

I just made vows to be a protector and, you know?

00:38:50

And I go back to the resort.

00:38:52

She doesn't know her way back.

00:38:53

And I remember being on the beach,

00:38:55

and I remember thinking this line, "What's wrong with me?"

00:38:59

Which is different than like, "Hey, what did I do?"

00:39:01

"What's wrong with me?" Now, I told you the ending,

00:39:03

like, there had to be a shift because

00:39:05

there's a good chance my wife could have left me right there,

00:39:07

but she didn't. We're celebrating ten years.

00:39:09

What's the difference? What's the difference with David?

00:39:11

I told you the end of David's life

00:39:13

he's a man after God's own heart,

00:39:14

yet he's drifted all the way over here.

00:39:16

What's the difference?

00:39:17

And it's the second step of this self-reflection process.

00:39:20

Recognizes one thing,

00:39:21

but to recognize and drift, that's easy.

00:39:24

The second step is a word called repent. Repent.

00:39:29

You see, repentance is when you recognize your sin

00:39:32

and say, "I'm going to stop doing it.

00:39:35

I'm going to turn the -- I'm going to fight this drift."

00:39:40

Now we see the life of David,

00:39:42

we have a great example of repentance.

00:39:44

He wrote a bunch of the Psalms.

00:39:46

And we see in Psalm 51,

00:39:47

an entire Psalm all about repentance.

00:39:50

And I'll read you just a portion,

00:39:51

and then we'll get into really what repentance means,

00:39:54

because here's what David says right here, Psalm 51:10:

00:39:58

Create in me (David) a pure heart, O God,

00:40:03

renew a steadfast spirit within me.

00:40:06

Do not cast me from your presence

00:40:08

or take your Holy Spirit from me.

00:40:10

Restore to me your joy of your salvation.

00:40:12

Are you catching, he's not just sorry he did it

00:40:14

or sorry he got caught, he wants to turn the other way.

00:40:18

In fact, watch the language at the end:

00:40:19

Grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

00:40:22

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

00:40:24

so that sinners will turn back to you.

00:40:29

I love that. If you drifted all the way over here,

00:40:31

like, recognizing is knowing, "Oh, gosh,

00:40:34

I know this is a problem. I'm gonna keep drifting."

00:40:36

Repentance is turning back.

00:40:39

This is the story of David.

00:40:41

You see, he turns back and we're going to get even more to it

00:40:45

and we see a whole different ending to his life.

00:40:48

Now, was this easy? No. It's easy to drift.

00:40:52

Repenting, turning back. That's difficult.

00:40:54

Since we're talking self-reflection,

00:40:56

I want to really illustrate this.

00:40:58

I love this illustration all the way to the end.

00:41:01

It's kind of a three part illustration as well

00:41:03

of just what it looks like to recognize and repent

00:41:06

and then get to our final step,

00:41:07

which I'll get to in a little bit here.

00:41:09

But let's start with the recognized one. All right?

00:41:11

Do you guys know the way you view yourself in the mirror,

00:41:14

right, you get your phones out all that,

00:41:15

like, that's going to impact the way you live.

00:41:17

We know that?

00:41:19

There's a verse a lot of our team quotes a lot,

00:41:21

which is as a man or woman thinketh they are-eth.

00:41:24

You know, so I'll start. I'll start ridiculous

00:41:26

and then we'll get into some real stuff.

00:41:28

But if I were to write a word up here.

00:41:29

So I'll write my least favorite word in the dictionary,

00:41:32

which is in the dictionary, it says rizz. All right?

00:41:36

Now, um, this word just means charisma, shortened for it.

00:41:40

But there is an eight year old out there

00:41:43

who has gotten internet famous because of this word.

00:41:46

Because this man, his nickname is The Rizzler,

00:41:49

he, I guarantee you, he has no business acting like this.

00:41:54

But when he looks in the mirror, I mean, you just know this.

00:41:57

It's just -- It's just what. I give you another one.

00:41:59

Um, this word right here says bad, which means good.

00:42:02

If you're bad, you know, or if I add an IE, the baddie.

00:42:05

Oh, you know what? Here, if you don't know what a baddie is,

00:42:08

this is what a baddie is, in case that helps at all.

00:42:14

At some point, I'm trying to lose my job.

00:42:16

This is, uh, this is our Senior Pastor Brian Tome,

00:42:20

and if you're new, please come back. He's great.

00:42:23

All right. It's fun, it's fun, it's fun

00:42:27

when they're like that first half

00:42:28

when you look in the camera and you like what you see.

00:42:31

Sure. But what about when they're not good?

00:42:34

What about when there's something like this.

00:42:39

This says failure.

00:42:42

Now, a couple things, I understand I have

00:42:45

the handwriting of a doctor, not the salary, but halfway there.

00:42:49

Secondly, I like this because I think this is David.

00:42:56

I don't think David thought he failed.

00:42:59

He's on the ground, told him, "What's wrong?

00:43:01

You're not going to die."

00:43:02

I think David thought he was a failure.

00:43:06

Because if you read Psalm 51, it's almost gut wrenching.

00:43:10

You just say it this way because maybe this is --

00:43:12

Maybe this is more you. Mistake.

00:43:16

See, this is what I see a lot, this is where I've been.

00:43:19

We don't think we made a mistake.

00:43:22

We think we are that mistake.

00:43:25

I'll just name, okay, what are some of the failures?

00:43:27

What are some of the mistakes?

00:43:29

Financial failure. Okay.

00:43:34

I know many, many, many of us have self-identified

00:43:37

and really resonate with a failed marriage

00:43:43

or maybe it's not the marriage,

00:43:45

maybe it's just a relationship with a kid,

00:43:48

with a friend and it's failed and that's now who I am.

00:43:52

I am a failure, or maybe it's, you know,

00:43:55

what comes with it. Maybe it's this word. This is shame.

00:43:59

You see, this is what the enemy loves to do, right?

00:44:02

You go back to this drift scenario.

00:44:04

We start drifting and we start with

00:44:07

I'm watching Netflix, I'm in the palace.

00:44:09

And you hear the enemy tell you it's not that big of a deal.

00:44:13

So you do it and you drift.

00:44:15

And then he comes over to this ear and he whispers,

00:44:18

"I can't believe you did that. Keep that buried."

00:44:22

There's shame, you know?

00:44:23

Maybe it's what I mentioned happened to me on my honeymoon.

00:44:27

Maybe it's anger.

00:44:30

Gosh, I could fill this mirror up with our room.

00:44:34

There's doubt, lust.

00:44:37

I mean, we could fill this mirror up with stuff

00:44:40

that we know, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've drifted.

00:44:44

And guess what? This is the step of recognize.

00:44:47

You look at it and you know it's there.

00:44:49

And you make a decision: Am I going to keep drifting

00:44:54

or am I going to repent?

00:44:55

You see, the step of repent is this,

00:44:58

you actually highlight these words.

00:45:00

In fact, you bring them into the light.

00:45:02

So for this part of the analogy,

00:45:03

go ahead and shine some light on these things.

00:45:07

This part right here, this is difficult

00:45:12

to bring some of these into the light.

00:45:14

Now, think of the life of David.

00:45:16

Do you know how much easier it would have been

00:45:17

if just early on, instead of trying to fix it

00:45:20

and trying to mess up, or messing up his mess up,

00:45:22

he just brought some of this into the light.

00:45:25

It's eventually going to catch up with us.

00:45:27

And the bummer about sin is we don't get to choose

00:45:29

how it prepackaged itself and delivers it to us.

00:45:32

But repentance is our choice

00:45:36

and we get to bring into the light.

00:45:38

It's hard. Gosh, this is hard,

00:45:41

but it's the only way to get to step three

00:45:43

of the self-reflection process, which is redemption.

00:45:47

Redemption. It very rarely goes from recognize,

00:45:50

you're just drifting away, to just a fully redeemed story.

00:45:53

Recognize. Repent.

00:45:55

And then we see God do what God does,

00:45:58

because what's impossible with man is possible with God.

00:46:02

It's the only answer for the life of David.

00:46:04

It's the only way homeboy ends up at the end of his life

00:46:07

with a man after the heart of God.

00:46:09

You heard his story. There's an affair.

00:46:11

There's a child out of wedlock. There's a murder.

00:46:13

Like, the only way he ends through that

00:46:15

is not just repentance, but the redemption that God brings.

00:46:20

In fact, as David turns back and begins to go the other way,

00:46:24

he actually marries Bathsheba.

00:46:26

In fact, beyond marrying Bathsheba,

00:46:28

they have a future kid together

00:46:30

and the kid's name is Solomon.

00:46:32

Now, Solomon, actually, maybe you've heard that name.

00:46:36

He's all over the Bible.

00:46:37

He wrote the book of Ecclesiastes,

00:46:38

most of the book of Proverbs.

00:46:40

He's one of the wisest, not just men,

00:46:42

but he becomes king, kings to ever live.

00:46:45

He builds the temple. He has financial success.

00:46:47

But it gets so much more cool than that even.

00:46:50

Not just is he a king, his mistake, his story, his life,

00:46:55

David all the way to Solomon

00:46:57

leads us to the ultimate King of Jesus.

00:47:00

In fact, if I were to take you to any of the gospels,

00:47:02

you can see the genealogy, which is basically

00:47:05

like it leads, it ends with Jesus.

00:47:06

So it's the grandparents and great, great, great,

00:47:08

great, great, great, grandparents above Jesus

00:47:11

all the way through Mary,

00:47:12

who had the virgin birth all the way up.

00:47:14

And guess who some of those great, great grandparents are.

00:47:18

David, Bathsheba and Solomon.

00:47:23

I know there's many greats in between there,

00:47:25

but I think that's wild to think, like,

00:47:27

the way Jesus knows was shaped

00:47:29

could have been affected because of Bathsheba now.

00:47:32

Like, that God could literally use mistakes made

00:47:35

and then redeemed them.

00:47:37

Now that's just the physical side of it.

00:47:38

The spiritual side is so much greater than that.

00:47:41

In fact, I'll show you some of the stuff

00:47:43

that happens through Solomon here.

00:47:45

I think the language is important.

00:47:47

2 Samuel 12 says she, Bathsheba, gave birth to a son.

00:47:53

They named him Solomon, which means God's peace.

00:47:55

I love this line: The Lord loved him.

00:47:58

Had to give him a new spiritual name,

00:48:00

which means God's beloved.

00:48:03

How could God love something that happened

00:48:04

out of a mistake and out of sin?

00:48:06

Because that's the heart of God.

00:48:09

In fact, I said earlier, what if we could be known

00:48:11

after the heart of God? What is the heart of God?

00:48:14

Well, let me take you and show you.

00:48:16

The same author, Luke, who in the book of Acts

00:48:19

writes what the heart of David is,

00:48:21

he writes what the heart of God is. Luke 15:3. He says:

00:48:24

I tell you in the same way there will be

00:48:26

more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents

00:48:30

than 99 righteous people.

00:48:32

The heart of God? Sinners, mistakers.

00:48:37

This right here is is God's heart.

00:48:41

In fact, if you've never heard the story of Jesus,

00:48:45

this is so much His heart that this is why He came to earth.

00:48:48

This is why he was born through the Virgin Mary,

00:48:50

that this whole line happened because He knew

00:48:52

a perfect God up in heaven and His people here

00:48:54

that were so far from Him and drifted so far

00:48:56

that maybe they couldn't fight the drift themself.

00:48:59

And so He came to us, and He came to this earth,

00:49:02

and He came and lived a perfect life,

00:49:03

and then died on the cross.

00:49:05

So much so in John chapter 19 it says his final three words,

00:49:08

I love this, "It is finished." What does that mean?

00:49:13

Well, after He rose again, proving to be Himself,

00:49:15

it meant that this sin is finished.

00:49:19

It meant that the failure that you have so long held on to,

00:49:23

it's finished.

00:49:24

That the lust that you feel like you can't be, it's finished.

00:49:27

This stuff no longer has authority over you.

00:49:30

Which takes me into the last part of kind of this analogy,

00:49:33

because this means now that when God looks at you

00:49:37

these real things, He doesn't see these things.

00:49:41

In fact, he doesn't see your past.

00:49:43

He sees the past of Jesus.

00:49:46

In fact, He doesn't see what you did.

00:49:48

In fact, go ahead and close these lights

00:49:50

and zoom this from this angle because I like this.

00:49:53

He doesn't see what you did, He sees what Jesus did.

00:49:57

So I love this because if you can see

00:49:59

the reflection of the mirror on the ground,

00:50:01

the recognized step there, the repent.

00:50:03

Yeah, I brought them into the light,

00:50:05

but the reflection and redeem step is that

00:50:07

we're now living in the identity of Jesus

00:50:10

and what He did, not what we did.

00:50:12

In fact, when God looks at us He no longer sees what we did.

00:50:19

It's there. There might even be natural consequences.

00:50:22

But He sees what He did.

00:50:23

And this is why we have any availability

00:50:26

or proximity to God in general, because of what Jesus did,

00:50:30

and because we're now walking in His reflection.

00:50:32

The Bible calls it image bearers of Jesus.

00:50:36

Now I know that the words are it is finished,

00:50:41

but I like that language specifically because

00:50:44

unfortunately this is now action of reflection.

00:50:47

It doesn't mean you're finished.

00:50:49

It doesn't mean your life is finished

00:50:51

with what you've believed that

00:50:53

it's too far from God that you hold on to,

00:50:56

and it doesn't mean your next steps aren't finished.

00:50:58

I believe every single person at every location right now

00:51:02

is in one of these three step

00:51:04

tiered process of self-reflection.

00:51:07

Recognize, repent, or redemption.

00:51:10

The good news is in the redeem step

00:51:12

we have so many stories that I know at the end of your life

00:51:17

you'll be known as a man or woman after the heart of God

00:51:19

because you're a living, walking redemption story.

00:51:22

I actually kind of have a theory that, like,

00:51:24

some of the people with the biggest limps,

00:51:26

like spiritual limps, like, they're the ones

00:51:28

that are going to be the closest,

00:51:30

like, have the heart of God

00:51:31

because they're the ones who've been redeemed of the most.

00:51:34

And some of you, that's your story.

00:51:35

You are a walking redemption story.

00:51:39

Others of us were all the way at step one. Recognize.

00:51:42

I love that we don't just get these stories,

00:51:45

we now because of what Jesus did on the Cross

00:51:47

if we put our faith in Him

00:51:49

the Holy Spirit of God now comes into your life.

00:51:52

And with the Holy Spirit, this means

00:51:53

He can speak to you, talk to you.

00:51:55

And I think some of you right now,

00:51:56

there's stuff going on in your life

00:51:58

that you were drifting of that you just didn't even recognize.

00:52:01

And some of you, like David,

00:52:02

it's this early step of recognize

00:52:04

and you can turn back here, it's going to be a lot easier

00:52:07

than after you've drifted your ways down.

00:52:09

And today, I think God is going to put on

00:52:11

some people's heart and life some some things that

00:52:14

the word is conviction

00:52:15

that maybe you just need to recognize.

00:52:17

But for probably the majority of us,

00:52:20

so you know you're in a safe place,

00:52:21

we're in the middle center step.

00:52:24

I don't know about you,

00:52:26

for me, repentance is a daily step.

00:52:30

And there's stuff that we recognize,

00:52:32

some large, some small that today you just need to say,

00:52:36

"God, I turn back, I turn back.

00:52:39

Why? Because I want to see it fulfilled.

00:52:42

I want to see redemption. I want to see movement.

00:52:45

I want to see awakening. I want to see revival.

00:52:47

God, I want to see what only You can do be done."

00:52:51

And so today here's how we're going to close.

00:52:53

We're going to give you a moment at all locations

00:52:56

to self-reflect, put yourself in one of these steps.

00:52:59

We're actually going to do it through a song.

00:53:01

So I want you to stand with me and I want to give you

00:53:03

some of these lyrics before we sing it.

00:53:05

Because this isn't just lip service.

00:53:07

All locations can stand. This isn't just lip service.

00:53:09

This is something we believe God can redeem.

00:53:12

You see the words of the song we're going to start with

00:53:14

I lay it all down, every burden, every crown.

00:53:19

And this is the step of recognizing and repenting.

00:53:24

There's a part of the the song that says

00:53:28

Your way is better. Do whatever You want.

00:53:30

I recognize and repent, but now I want to see You redeem.

00:53:34

Because, like David, I've tried.

00:53:35

I've tried to fix it and tried to fix it.

00:53:37

And guess what? I find myself further down the ocean.

00:53:40

And today, God, I lay it all down.

00:53:41

The word later is even I surrender every burden,

00:53:44

every crown and, God, now, after I recognize and repent,

00:53:46

Your way is redemption. Your way is better.

00:53:49

Don't just sing this, mean this, reflect this, believe this,

00:53:53

and let's see what God does across locations.

00:59:25

- Father God,

00:59:27

thank You for being full of mercy,

00:59:33

for not treating us according to our mistakes,

00:59:38

but treating us according to Your righteousness,

00:59:44

Your redemption.

00:59:48

Thank You for being slow to anger

00:59:51

and abounding in steadfast love to thousands

00:59:54

and thousands and thousands of generations.

00:59:57

Your love is never ending.

00:59:59

From where we are right now, remind us

01:00:03

of what Your love takes us towards

01:00:06

and the life You have for us.

01:00:10

May we meet the same God David met then.

01:00:15

May we meet You today and walk with You today.

01:00:20

You're amazing. Thank You for that, Father.

01:00:24

I pray this because of You, Jesus. Amen.

01:00:29

- Man, Joel had so much great stuff to share with us

01:00:31

from the life of David that, man, just reminds me

01:00:34

that it is the small things.

01:00:35

It's like the small daily decisions

01:00:37

that are going to determine whether I end up way off course

01:00:40

or in alignment with who God made me to be,

01:00:43

and what He has for me.

01:00:45

I don't know what that stirred up for you.

01:00:47

Questions? I don't know, parts of your history,

01:00:49

things you'd love prayer for.

01:00:50

Whatever it is, we're here for it.

01:00:52

We'd love to pray with you or talk with you.

01:00:54

And you can do that by clicking the chat button

01:00:56

on the website or in the app.

01:00:58

And it's real people like us and friends of ours

01:01:00

and people on our team who you can talk with and pray with

01:01:03

or by just emailing anywhere@crossroads.net.

01:01:05

Now, before you go, Emily's going to tell you

01:01:07

a little bit about how you can get fewer emails.

01:01:10

- Yeah. One of the biggest bummers about Crossroads.

01:01:13

We love this place, we love you, our community,

01:01:15

everything about it, but there's so much going on all the time.

01:01:18

It's a lot and sometimes you can get lost

01:01:21

knowing where to look for information.

01:01:22

So if you text Anywhere to the number 301301,

01:01:26

it'll all get consolidated. We won't blow up your phone.

01:01:28

You're going to get one text a week,

01:01:30

and hopefully we can make your life a lot easier.

01:01:32

- Hey, thank you guys so much for joining us.

01:01:34

We'll see you next week.

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