The Strength To Stand | Unbreakable Week 1

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Hello and welcome to Crossroads, which comes to you today

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from one of the harshest and most unforgiving environment

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on all of planet Earth, the desert.

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Blazing sun and scorching heat by day,

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bitter cold and frigid temperatures at night,

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biting wind pretty much all the time.

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Oh, and it's full of stuff that could kill you

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like scorpions and snakes.

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I've been told to watch out for the green ones,

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apparently to kill you in like five minutes or something.

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Also, there's biting ants, there's some just over there.

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So why am I here? What's in this box?

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Why are we in the desert?

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Swell, we're here in the desert,

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because I know you're in the desert.

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How do I know? Well, I read your mail,

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like your actual mail, your all your e-mail.

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I know from the stories you send me

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that you find yourself in a place of the desert of purpose,

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where you had dreams, but the dreams have dried up.

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You had ambitions, but the ambitions have evaporated.

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All the opportunities are gone.

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Now others of you are in a marriage

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that used to be thriving and incredible

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and all the joy has just disappeared into the sand.

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Others of you are apathetic, lonely, bitter.

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Some of you are just tired of life and all the stuff.

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We're all in a desert somewhere.

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The good news, you don't have to stay here.

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In fact, at Crossroads we exist to guide you

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out of the personal desert you find yourself in

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to the adventurous life that God has made you for.

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Now, to that end, I've invited my three friends

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and fellow teaching pastors Brian, Chuck, and Alli

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out here to join me in the desert.

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I've asked them to give us the strength to stand,

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the courage to move, and the endurance to last.

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Outside of those three things,

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they know very little of what's about to happen.

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Like what's inside this box?

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Which should make all this very much fun for us.

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Here they come right now.

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- Say hello to your cousin. There's my cousin.

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- I'm with you, we're a team.

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Let's get this stuff out.

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We can do this, we can do this.

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- I did not expect this wind, Chuch,

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I'm not going to lie to you. Look at my hair.

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- Here's the thing we need the heat.

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I believe you're supposed to make him into dinner.

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- Oh, oh.

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- What is going on?

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- Are we ready to play today?

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- Get in here, Chuck.

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- I hiked all the way from Ohio.

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- Are you trying to look like a dork?

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- Well, some some things I can do effortlessly.

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- Do you want to know why you're here?

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- Yes. - Yes. - I would love to know why.

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- I just need to know. Please tell me no snakes.

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- Oh, lots of snakes, Chuck. (crosstalk)

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Also, scorpions.

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- He screams like a girl.

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- Listen, you're here in the desert

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because our community's in the desert.

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I know that you guys get the same texts,

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the same phone calls, the same emails that I do.

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People are dried up,

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they are worn out, and they need our help.

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And that's where you guys come in.

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You guys are going to be the guides

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to get us out of the desert.

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Here's how this is going to work.

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Each of you has the challenge of delivering

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a powerful, profound, actionable message to get us out.

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Brian, we needed you to give us the strength to stand.

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- Great.

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- Chuck, the courage to move. - All right.

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- Alli, the endurance to last. - Okay.

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- To get us all the way out.

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- All in all the time.

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- Awesome. Now, here's the next part.

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All of you will be using the same source material,

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the same section of the Bible.

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One of the most powerful, profound places in scripture,

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a pillar of the entire story of God, the book of Exodus.

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They were in desert, we're in a desert.

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(crosstalk)

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- Wandering in the desert.

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- Yeah, that does make sense.

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- Kyle, they got out.

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- Some of them, Chuck. - Well, not all of them.

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- And also 40 years. I can't give it 40 years here.

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- Well, here's the thing, it did take 40 years

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and most of them didn't actually get out.

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- Most of them didn't.

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- Your challenge is to get us out in about 25 minutes a piece

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and leave none of us behind.

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- No problem. - Okay. - In.

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- Then here's the last part: This box.

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The nation of Israel faced challenges on their journey,

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weird things, bizarre things, strange -- oh, stop --

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strange things.

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- I'm making sure nothing is hissing at me from this box.

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- And just like they faced challenges,

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you'll face challenges,

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task that you have to complete together

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to better understand what they went through,

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help us understand what they went through.

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And honestly, it just sounded like a lot of fun to me,

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so I just thought I'd make you do it.

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To you. - Yeah.

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And to everybody watching as well, probably not to you guys.

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So that's the challenge. Are you in?

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- In. - Yes. - In.

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- Okay, awesome. Expected nothing less.

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Then it is time to open the box.

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- All right. - Oh, man.

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- There you go, Alli. - Nice.

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- Good teamwork already. - There we go.

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- Your enthusiasm is admirable, but we'll see if it lasts

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once they open the box and start the challenges.

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Like I said, this should be fun for us.

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- I mean, obviously. - The Bible.

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- You will need to use that. - This is cool.

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- OH what, Revelation 20. This is the end of the story.

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(crosstalk)

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- I like all this stuff. - What in the heck is this?

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- Is that a sextant? - Who knows? - A what?

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- I think it's a sextant.

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I do not know how to use it, but I think --

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- Yeah, we have GPSs now. Do we have a GPS?

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- Can we use our phones? - No phones.

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- Okay, so what's this?

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Okay, those, everyone grab one.

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You'll find your name on it.

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Each of you will have a challenge in your message.

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Do not open that until you begin your message.

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You'll take it out,

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whatever it says on the inside, you'll do it.

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Is there anything else in there?

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- Wait, there is this here, a map.

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- That looks very important. Here, let's -- put that up here.

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What do we got? - Hold it down.

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- Where's the beginning? - You are here.

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- Okay? - You are here in the middle of nowhere.

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- Yes, we are. - Okay, so here it is.

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The first thing is strength to stand, week one. That's me.

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Survive the desert, week one challenge.

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- Okay. - Okay.

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- So we're not just preaching, we're actually doing things.

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- While you preach your week one message,

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Chuck and Alli, you'll go to that location on the map

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and do the challenge. - Okay.

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- That's how it will work every week.

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- All right. - All right. (chuckling)

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- There is a literal, very big crack we have to go through.

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- There are several, yeah. - Wow, all right.

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- While these are actual locations on the map,

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you will notice it's not the scale.

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And we weren't quite sure about the distances.

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- Hundreds of miles.

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- I mean, there better be some palm trees around here.

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- Yeah, I agree.

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Listen, we have full confidence in you.

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- Okay. - I think it's time to head out.

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- All right.

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Brian, why don't you grab your envelope.

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- Let's go. - Head off to your location.

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Chuck and Alli, head off to find challenge number one.

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Where's my location? - I don't know.

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You have the map. - This direction.

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- Chuck's got the map, I don't know, talk to him.

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I thought we made that clear. - Let's do this.

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- This is going to be amazing, I think.

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As Chuck and Ali set off to find their challenge,

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Brian began his Strength to Stand on message

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by charging up the hill

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and shouting down the wind, literally.

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- I'm in a wind tunnel right now.

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I need the strength to stand.

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I know from interacting with so many people

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that if you're anywhere close to normal,

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your life doesn't measure up to what you wanted it to be.

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The wind keeps buffeting you in the face

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and it's difficult for you to stand,

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let alone take some ground.

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What we need is the X factor of the presence of God.

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He gives us something that we don't have

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in and of our own natural abilities to be in the midst

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of a natural windstorm in a dry and arid place.

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When you get that, you get to become unbreakable,

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not shaken, not broken in half, not blown over,

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but standing tall. That's what we're doing today.

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I had the strength to stand up on that ridge

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with that wind blowing,

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but my vocal chords didn't have the strength to endure.

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So now we're down in place that's a little more serene.

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And the thing that we have --

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- Right here, the thing you have to do is work in this challenge.

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Brian, it's time to open this up and see what's inside.

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- All right, let's see what we've got here

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in our little Indiana Jones satchel.

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- I'll take that. - Thank you.

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This is a story from someone watching right now,

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they're in a desert in their life,

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and your job is to teach your message to them

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and help them get out of the desert.

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Whenever I get something, I always go to the very end

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and see who it is, Derek is his name.

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I also go through emails real quick to see

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if it's negative and going to be cracking on me.

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Do you normally do that? I do that all the time.

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I'll go, "Okay, they're not cracking on me."

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Here's what it says:

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My wife and I have been going through troubles.

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We both used to be very religious,

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but over time walked away.

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But I wish God would give me guidance.

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I've been stuck between what I feel God is calling me to

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and my responsibilities as a husband.

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How do I find adventure in the day to day?

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What should I do in my marriage? Derek.

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Okay, Derek, I got you here.

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Let me just talk about the religion piece first.

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Religion tries to tell us if we do all these things,

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then God's going to be okay with us

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and He's not going to smite us.

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So go to church, do the right things,

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and magically things are going to be okay.

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It's kind of a sense of controlling your morality.

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And there's some good things about that.

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Great, go to church and control your morality.

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But that's different than tapping into the X factor

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of the power of God who can enable you

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to not just stand in the midst of a difficult marriage

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or a difficult season in your marriage,

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but to actually endure, to actually thrive.

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God makes normal people abnormally strong.

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But we have to embrace the X Factor or the presence of God,

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not the rules of religion, but to know and embrace God Himself.

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My experience is that most people don't enjoy their life.

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Most people are frustrated with their marriage.

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They're frustrated with their business.

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They're frustrated with their finances.

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We can be frustrated with those things

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and still experience God in the midst of those things

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and have a different life while loving God,

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not loving religion, but loving God.

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Let's talk the rest of our time about Moses,

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who was one of the iconic leaders in the Bible.

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This is a guy who had wind buffeting his face year in,

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year out through different challenges of his life.

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And he not only stood, but he actually was unbreakable.

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He is a leader in the nation of Israel.

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He wrote much of the Old Testament.

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Jesus Himself in Mark 7:10 quotes him.

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Moses was a Jew at birth

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and he's born in this really strange time.

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The nation of Egypt has their whole country in oppression.

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Pharaoh sees that all these Jewish women

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are having children, he's afraid of a future coup.

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So he issued a demand to the midwives

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who are helping the Jewish women deliver.

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He says whenever you have a little Jewish boy

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that comes out of the birth canal,

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I want you to eliminate that life.

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When Moses gives birth --

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when Moses is born, rather, by his his mother,

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that midwife said, "I don't want to do this.

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I can't do this with this little child."

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Moses' mother nurses him, breastfeeds him,

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about three months old, though he's a bit large

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and making fusses and she's got to get rid of him.

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And the way she does that, she puts him in a basket,

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floats him down the river.

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And down river, whether she knew this or not,

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we're unsure of, down river is Pharaoh's house

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and the women of his house

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are hanging out by the stream one day.

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They see this basket, they pick up this basket,

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see this little baby.

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And as many women do, "Oh, I need this child,

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I need to save this child."

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And Moses, this little Jewish baby,

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ends up growing up in Pharaoh's household.

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Pharaoh probably had a pretty sweet crib

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on the side of the river.

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He didn't live in a van down by the river.

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He would have had an amazing house right there.

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Moses gets an ideal situation where he's brought up

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in this amazingly wealthy family.

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And his mother actually enters the picture

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and actually nurses him as his nursemaid,

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even though Pharaoh's household doesn't really know this.

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I really identify with this situation,

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because as Moses is adopted and it's amazing

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that he has a chance at life

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and in the midst of all these opportunities

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that pharaoh's household would have given him,

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there's still a primal wound.

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I'm adopted and most of us who are adopted

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would understand that there is a primal wound that happens

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when you are separated from the person

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you've been inside of for nine months.

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You feel alone. I don't remember this.

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I don't remember feeling alone.

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But psychologists would say there was a primal wound

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when the person who I knew had abandoned me.

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The person who I knew in the womb did

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an amazingly loving, generous thing

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by giving me a shot at life.

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Amazing, amazing. But as a little creature

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you can't reason through that and understand that.

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This is why myself and many people who were adopted

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have a hard time with feeling rejected.

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We're concerned that people are going to like us.

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We sometimes stiff arm people,

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we stiff arm people before they can stiff arm off us.

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It's sort of a mode of protection to keep ourselves

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from being hurt again because we're just trying to stand.

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Moses, if he's at all like me and others who are adopted,

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he's just trying to stand.

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He's just trying to make it through life.

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But God keeps giving him opportunities

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and responsibilities that would blow over the normal person.

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But they don't blow over him. He's actually unbreakable.

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If you could manufacture the ideal leader

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in our culture today,

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that person might not look like Moses,

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a person who was by nature perhaps immature,

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a person who was separated from their family of origin.

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But yet those things might have caused him to lean into God

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and make him be a better man with the better future.

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It's our difficulties, it's the wind that we have,

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it's the shots that we take to the mouth that strengthen us

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and give us the ability to do things

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that we couldn't do if we just had a fairy tale existence.

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We have to change the way that we see our circumstances,

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to stop feeling bitter about the circumstances I'm in

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and see our circumstances is actually

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wind that strengthening us.

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You might have heard the illustration years and years

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and years ago they had what was known as a biosphere

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when they tried to take plant life

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inside of a controlled environment of a dome

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and make the perfect environment.

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They found that the trees inside of there were bending over.

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And they thought, why is that? Why are they bending over?

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They're bending over because there wasn't any wind

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and trees needed the wind, the pressure of the wind

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to be strong and to actually stand.

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Derek, the wind you're feeling right now could actually be

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the strength that you could receive from God

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to have a better marriage and a better life.

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It's weird the way that works, but person after person

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has found that that is the way that life works.

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- With Brian off to a strong start,

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let's check in on Chuck and Alli.

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- All right. - This must be it.

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- This is challenge number one. - What do you think is in here?

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- I have no idea. I have no idea.

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- Looks like we have to get in again.

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- I just wonder if we're going to have to build something.

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- I hope not, no. We are not skilled.

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- Let's try this. - Okay. - Go ahead and get us in there.

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- I'm sorry in advance if I hammer you.

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- Oh, no, that's good. Okay.

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- Okay, it says Survive the Desert week one challenge.

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In the Book of Exodus,

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the Israelites wandered in the desert

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for 40 years in search of the Promised Land.

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We have provided you a limited supply of rations,

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basic navigational tools and supplies to help you survive.

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- Okay.

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Please use them to set up camp. - Okay.

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- Start a fire. - Okay. - And make dinner for the group.

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- We can do this. We can do this.

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- I'm so glad you're up for it. - We can do this.

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- This says -- wait -- dinner. - This is dinner.

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- So we won't, do you -- - Oh. - Oh.

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- There's something in that. - What is that?

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- There's something alive in there.

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Okay, so why don't we just leave this here for now.

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- I think dinner goes in there, Kitty tent.

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- Hello Kitty tent. All right. Rusty knife. Oh my -- Oh!

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- No. - You think? - No, that's not happening.

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- I hope not. I sure hope not. That's firewood, flour.

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- Some flour.

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OK, so this this reminds me of the manna in the desert.

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- The Israelites were wandering in the desert.

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So what did they do for food? Right?

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- Right. And God provided them manna.

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It looks like we sort of have the same.

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- We do. We have Gold Medal.

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(crosstalk) - Packages dropped straight from heaven.

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- Exactly. So we could make something with that.

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- I hope you have a recipe in your head.

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I think we should start with the tent.

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- I do too. So here we go.

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- Sorry. - Oh, man.

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All right, so let's get this tent going here.

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- There I just my part. - Stakes.

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- All right.

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- Still not quite sure. Oh. - Our tent. - We lost our tent.

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- Yeah, I did not expect this wind, Chuck.

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I'm not going to lie to you. (crosstalk)

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Look at my hair.

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- Not off to the best of starts,

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let's hope things go better for Chuck and Alli

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and get back to Brian.

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- Life can be incredibly frustrating for us.

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Let's think about our yearbook.

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Go way, way back to your high school yearbook

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or go way, way back to the Facebook posts

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of your friends when you were in high school.

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What are some of the dreams were articulated there?

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May be dreams like: I'm going to be a physician.

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I'm going to be a surgeon.

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I'm going to work with inner city schools.

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I'm going to start a business.

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I'm going to be an inventor.

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How many of those things actually come to pass?

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Very few, which is why many of us are very frustrated in life,

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because the things that we we thought we would have,

00:19:34

we don't have.

00:19:35

And then we go into a downward spiral

00:19:38

of feeling bad about ourselves

00:19:40

and feeling we're constantly playing defense

00:19:42

instead of seeing that what we've experienced

00:19:44

could be the very wind that's strengthening us for the future.

00:19:49

Author Max Lucado writes this:

00:20:15

I'm hoping you stop looking back.

00:20:18

I'm hoping you stop looking inward.

00:20:21

I've heard people say, "All the answers we need

00:20:23

are inside of ourselves." No, they're not. No, they're not.

00:20:28

They're outside of ourselves. They're forward.

00:20:30

That's where God is.

00:20:33

God is not trying to give us the past that we wished we had.

00:20:37

He's trying to give us a future

00:20:38

that we can only have when we have the X factor of Him.

00:20:45

- You know what? I'm with you, we're a team.

00:20:48

Let's get the stuff out. We will just move to the next thing.

00:20:51

We do have wood, so we can do -- let's make a fire.

00:20:54

Get this. We can make this work with this.

00:20:55

- All right.

00:20:56

- Okay - I'm going to watch how you do that.

00:20:58

- I'll light this rope on fire. - I'm going to sit right here.

00:21:04

- There's a spark.

00:21:10

Who are we kidding? - We're not going to get this.

00:21:12

- We didn't start the fire. - No, we didn't.

00:21:14

- I don't think we can. All right. So --

00:21:16

- Whatever. - We have dinner in here.

00:21:18

This is concerning to you. I know.

00:21:19

- I don't really want any part of this.

00:21:21

- There's a bird in here. You can see it.

00:21:23

- I just saw an eyeball. - Yeah, there's a bird in here.

00:21:25

- An eyeball.

00:21:26

- Is there anything else in here?

00:21:27

No, just the one bird. I see you.

00:21:29

- I don't want to hurt it. We're not going to hurt it.

00:21:32

You're not hurting this bird.

00:21:33

I'm just telling you that right now.

00:21:36

- All right, so here we go. - Okay, bye, birdie. Oh, oh.

00:21:40

- Oh. Look at it. That is a quail.

00:21:44

Quick hit the hammer. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

00:21:48

- We are not hurting-- - We're not gonna hurt the bird.

00:21:50

We're not going to hurt this bird.

00:21:52

- Hey, Chuck, hey, Alli. - Kyle. - How's it going?

00:21:55

- Would you like to meet my new little friend here?

00:21:58

- Does he have a name? - Not yet.

00:22:00

Not yet. We're not sure.

00:22:02

- Okay. I believe --

00:22:04

I believe you're supposed to make him into dinner.

00:22:06

- Oh, no, it's not happening. - Okay.

00:22:08

- Chuck's going to find some other way to eat.

00:22:10

- We'll just do bread.

00:22:11

- Weren't you -- didn't you also have a shelter?

00:22:13

What happened to your shelter? - It flew.

00:22:15

- Had, yeah, past tense. We had a shelter.

00:22:16

- Didn't expect the wind out here.

00:22:18

- Where's your fire at? - We're getting there.

00:22:20

- We think we could work on that.

00:22:22

We think that one has potential.

00:22:24

- Well -- (crosstalk)

00:22:25

- Hours and hours of struggle.

00:22:26

- Why don't you come back to--

00:22:28

- Oh, birdie. - Whoa, whoa.

00:22:30

- Oh, you guys.

00:22:32

- Like I could probably catch him.

00:22:35

- Where did you get that thing? - He's gone.

00:22:38

- I'm kind of mad at you right now.

00:22:39

- You know, maybe try the bread, that's all.

00:22:41

Remember, we're helping the people.

00:22:43

- Did you put the bird in the box?

00:22:44

- Remember we're helping the people.

00:22:45

I'm not going to confirm or deny that I put the bird in the box.

00:22:48

His name is Petey, so just I would make the bread.

00:22:52

- I'm supposed to get bread? - Uh-huh. - If that bird --

00:22:54

- Here's the thing, we need to eat, so...

00:22:57

- I know. I understand that God gave the Israelites quail, I do.

00:23:01

- Uh-huh.

00:23:02

- They were kind of grumbling about it. You remember, right?

00:23:05

- Just kind of like you and Chuck

00:23:06

about this whole thing. Right?

00:23:07

You got to, Chuck, catch that quail.

00:23:09

- I'm working on it.

00:23:11

Kyle? - Yeah.

00:23:12

- I'm not going to kill that quail.

00:23:14

- I know, Alli.

00:23:15

- It's not going to happen. - I know.

00:23:16

- I'm working on the manna, but I'm not killing a bird.

00:23:20

- It seems like you and Chuck

00:23:21

are finding this challenge very challenging.

00:23:23

I sure hope Brian's doing a little bit better.

00:23:25

Let's check back in with him.

00:23:36

- Moses had that X factor and he needed it

00:23:39

as life kept blowing him problem after problem,

00:23:44

strange circumstance after strange circumstance,

00:23:47

led to him still standing strong,

00:23:50

even though sometimes he did run.

00:23:53

In the Book of Exodus 2:11-14, it says this:

00:24:39

Somewhere along the line, Moses comes to recognize

00:24:41

that while he's in an Egyptian home, he's actually a Jew.

00:24:46

When he finds this out, we don't know when he finds this out,

00:24:49

but something primal inside of him comes out

00:24:51

when he sees an Egyptian beating one of his own people by birth

00:24:55

and he just unleashes pain on them and kills the guy.

00:24:58

Next day, similar situation with two Jews

00:25:01

and one of them just cracks on him and he realizes,

00:25:04

"Oh, no, I've been found out. If Pharaoh and everybody else

00:25:08

finds out my family of origin story, I am going to be dead."

00:25:12

And so he leaves. He runs away.

00:25:16

He's a murderer and he's a fleer.

00:25:18

He's in some ways running from his problems.

00:25:22

I have a good friend of mine who has got a good bit of resources,

00:25:26

and his daughter in high school was having a lot of pressure

00:25:30

with some of the friends that she had

00:25:33

and some of the other things that were going on.

00:25:35

And I'll call her Sue, even though her real name is Connie.

00:25:41

And as he tells me the story, he says to his daughter,

00:25:45

"Sue, you can't run from your problems."

00:25:47

When he told me that I was encouraging him

00:25:50

to take his daughter and put her in another school,

00:25:52

because he had the resources.

00:25:53

And I said to him, I said, "Yes, you can.

00:25:56

Yes, you can run from your problems.

00:25:58

Sometimes you ought to go to your problem --

00:26:00

away from your problems rather than get blown away

00:26:03

by all the pain that's coming your way.

00:26:04

You can still stand if you can get away from a problem

00:26:07

you can't handle in that season."

00:26:11

As Moses runs away from his problem,

00:26:14

right in this area where the Egyptians are,

00:26:17

he spends time out in the desert,

00:26:19

he gets married, he has a child.

00:26:22

And here's what Exodus 2:22 says:

00:26:26

She gave birth to a son and he called his name Gershom,

00:26:29

for he said, "I have been a sojourner in a foreign land."

00:26:35

Moses ends up giving his son a name that exemplifies his life.

00:26:41

Everywhere he's gone he's been a sojourner.

00:26:43

He hasn't fit in. He's felt rejected.

00:26:46

He's felt like an outsider.

00:26:47

He felt like he can barely stand it another day.

00:26:51

And yet he is still standing and he is wandering

00:26:55

and he is connecting with his God as best that he can.

00:26:59

You can feel like an outcast, blown all over the place,

00:27:03

and yet still stand.

00:27:05

The New Testament tells us when he was 40,

00:27:09

that's when he was a murderer.

00:27:12

So from 0 to 40, he was sojourning in an Egyptian home,

00:27:16

even though he was a Jew.

00:27:17

Then from 40 to 80,

00:27:19

he's sojourning in the desert like this,

00:27:23

having a child and trying to figure out his next run of life.

00:27:26

And then at the age of 80,

00:27:31

he has another fascinating encounter with God.

00:27:35

Now, before I tell you about that encounter that he had,

00:27:37

I want to make sure that you and I understand

00:27:40

that he had problems. He had difficulty.

00:27:44

He had wind that was blowing in his face.

00:27:45

He had all kinds of obstacles he had to overcome.

00:27:48

His life was not easy.

00:27:49

He would have never, ever, ever

00:27:51

scripted his life to be this way.

00:27:53

Nobody would.

00:27:54

And life was getting late for him, too.

00:27:56

It's not like looking back at high school.

00:27:58

He's now way later in life, and yet he's still standing

00:28:04

and he's still strong.

00:28:06

Before I finish the story on him

00:28:08

and give you some things are going to help your life,

00:28:10

I think it's appropriate for us to pause and sing to God.

00:28:14

Let's worship together

00:28:16

to this song that talks about being strong.

00:31:42

- Have you noticed that nearly every adventure

00:31:44

that God calls someone to, like Moses,

00:31:47

starts as a place that they don't want to go?

00:31:49

Now I don't know anybody

00:31:50

that wants to be generous in their life,

00:31:52

that wants to see their money leave their bank account

00:31:55

and go somewhere else.

00:31:56

But it's an adventure that God calls every single person

00:31:59

who wants to follow Him to take.

00:32:01

Now, I know that can sound self-serving

00:32:02

for a church to say that.

00:32:04

We've designed a way for you to do this risk free.

00:32:07

Honestly, it's called the 90 Day Tithe Test.

00:32:09

The idea is if you give for 90 days, we believe that

00:32:12

God will show up and take you on a new adventure in your life.

00:32:15

You'll feel His blessing and His presence.

00:32:17

And if you don't, get this, we'll give all your money back.

00:32:20

If you want to go on that adventures,

00:32:22

go to Crossroads.net/give.

00:32:24

Let's keep going with a story of Moses.

00:32:28

As Brian starts the final push of his message,

00:32:31

what he doesn't know is that I'm about to jump in

00:32:34

with a question every sane person has to ask.

00:32:39

Let's see if he'll have a good answer

00:32:40

or get completely tripped up.

00:32:45

- Powerful words from that song,

00:32:48

even more powerful when there lived.

00:32:51

The last thing I want to look at in Moses' life

00:32:54

comes from Exodus 3:1-5. Here's what it says:

00:33:46

Moses is in -- - Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait.

00:33:49

This story is getting a little crazy, okay?

00:33:52

Are sane people really supposed to believe

00:33:55

that God talked to a guy out of a bush that's on fire?

00:34:00

- Um...

00:34:01

Yes, I'm going to explain it in just a moment.

00:34:03

Maybe they'll understand

00:34:04

if you don't interrupt me at the wrong part.

00:34:06

But if we -- if we're to expect that there is a God

00:34:09

who is real, has an X factor of power,

00:34:11

we should expect X power, unusual events to happen

00:34:14

from time to time.

00:34:16

Moses experienced them.

00:34:17

I want more of us to experience them every once in a while.

00:34:20

- Great answer. Okay, keep going.

00:34:22

- Okay, so he's out in this dry, arid, humid environment.

00:34:27

Wind is blowing, all kind of stuff is happening.

00:34:29

He's just doing his chores one day and he sees

00:34:33

way off in the distance a bush that's burning.

00:34:36

Now, it's interesting here that he might have seen

00:34:39

bushes burning a number of times

00:34:41

because in dry air environments it happens.

00:34:44

But this one keeps burning,

00:34:46

it's burning and the bush isn't consumed.

00:34:49

That's what catches his eye, not the fire,

00:34:52

but that it's not going out.

00:34:53

Like a little bush or was a huge bush, we don't know what it was,

00:34:56

but it just kept going and going.

00:34:58

He said something unusual is happening here.

00:35:04

When you want God to break into your life,

00:35:07

bring you an X factor, give you ability to stand,

00:35:10

there's a number of things that Moses does

00:35:12

in this story that you and I need to do.

00:35:15

Derek, this is for you.

00:35:16

One, turn the noise off.

00:35:19

When Moses came in an environment like this,

00:35:21

he didn't have the same distractions

00:35:22

he would have had elsewhere.

00:35:23

You had time to think. He had time to pray.

00:35:26

He had time to process.

00:35:27

We need to stop being so stimulated in our lives

00:35:31

that God can't stimulate us.

00:35:32

He can't break through the clutter.

00:35:34

We've got to get to places that are calm and quiet

00:35:36

to actually hear and sense the presence of God.

00:35:40

Number two, to take your shoes off.

00:35:42

God tells him to take his shoes off because

00:35:44

the place where you're standing is holy ground.

00:35:47

Not that that dirt itself was more special

00:35:50

than the dirt a mile away,

00:35:51

but it's special because God is there.

00:35:55

The carpet in a church isn't any more holy

00:35:58

than the carpet in your home, unless you're hearing from God

00:36:02

in that church, in that building, or in your home.

00:36:05

We need to recognize that when God does break through

00:36:07

and He might be breaking through to you, Derek,

00:36:10

or anybody else here right now.

00:36:11

When He breaks through, you've got to recognize

00:36:13

this is really important.

00:36:17

This is a special sacred moment.

00:36:19

Soak in what you're sensing, what you're feeling,

00:36:24

and recognize that the calmness that you're having

00:36:28

or the ideas that you're having

00:36:30

or the newfound resilience that you're having

00:36:32

is actually the presence in the gift of God.

00:36:35

It is the X Factor.

00:36:38

And number three, take off on an adventure.

00:36:44

Moses doesn't just have a little Kumbaya circle with God

00:36:47

that's a nice thing to have in your memory book.

00:36:51

He is getting equipped

00:36:53

and motivated for his next adventure.

00:36:56

And adventures are not climbing these mountains,

00:36:59

though that may be adventuresome.

00:37:01

The adventures that are most important to you

00:37:03

are the adventure that Derek has.

00:37:05

How do I keep my marriage going?

00:37:08

The adventure of how do I live on

00:37:11

my meager resources I have right now?

00:37:13

The adventure of how do I break chemical addiction?

00:37:17

The adventure of how do I break my pornography fixation?

00:37:22

The adventure of how do I find the right employer

00:37:26

that's going to meet my needs and get me to a new place?

00:37:29

These are the adventures that would define your life

00:37:32

and where you can encounter God in the midst of those.

00:37:35

You might actually have more in common with Moses

00:37:39

than you think of.

00:37:40

You're never going to write parts of the Bible.

00:37:42

You may never encounter a bush that is burning

00:37:46

and you've never seen it consumed.

00:37:48

But if you've ever felt like you are alone,

00:37:53

that you can barely stand, that wind is blowing you down,

00:37:57

you and I can be like Moses.

00:37:58

We can have the strength to stand.

00:38:01

We can be used in powerful ways.

00:38:04

But you have to believe that.

00:38:06

You have to believe that you're not just a powerless slave

00:38:10

that's blown all over the place.

00:38:12

But you're a very child of God and He has a purpose for you.

00:38:15

He has dreams for you.

00:38:16

And you're not going to know those dreams maybe,

00:38:18

or the fullness of them for some time in the future.

00:38:21

But where you are right now, you can stand, you can stand.

00:38:25

You will say, "I will be different. I will hear.

00:38:28

I will listen. I will notice.

00:38:30

And when it's ready, I will go."

00:38:33

Isaiah Chapter 40:29 says that:

00:38:45

There is one who can increase your strength

00:38:49

even when you feel that you are about to faint.

00:38:52

He has done it with Moses, He's done it with me in my life,

00:38:57

and he's done it with countless others

00:38:59

who are just normal Joes and Joanns

00:39:01

who didn't think they could take another punch,

00:39:04

and yet they did because of the X Factor of the power of God.

00:39:10

Stop the excuses. Stop thinking you can't do it.

00:39:14

Stop thinking that if only you had this

00:39:17

or if only you could see that or if only I could be Moses.

00:39:19

You're not Moses, you're not going to have his experience.

00:39:21

Stop the excuses, stand where you are.

00:39:25

It will pass and God will use you

00:39:28

and you will sense Him in a powerful way if you just stand.

00:39:32

Let me pray for you right now.

00:39:34

God, I'm thankful that you use normal people

00:39:37

like Moses and like Derek, like me

00:39:41

and like everybody else who's with us today.

00:39:44

God, we need this and we needed this noise to be turned off

00:39:49

and the wind to come down

00:39:51

and we needed to have a clarity about our future.

00:39:54

I believe you've given that to us today.

00:39:55

We're not just going to stand, we're going to walk into it.

00:39:58

I pray these things in Your name, Jesus. Amen.

00:40:04

- We're not going to starve our first night in the desert.

00:40:08

- What happened to the bread, guys?

00:40:09

- I'm kind of proud of that. - I think so.

00:40:12

- Hey, guys. How are you doing?

00:40:13

- Well, you know, we lost our shelter. Tent flew away.

00:40:17

- You did a shelter? - We did, but --

00:40:19

- We did, we got it up, but the wind took it.

00:40:22

- Yep, but we got quail. - We made dinner.

00:40:24

- Just like the Israelites in the story of Exodus,

00:40:26

we got rotisserie quail. - You have quail?

00:40:28

- We turn the manna into bread.

00:40:30

- You made that? - Rotisserie quail. Yeah.

00:40:32

- Because it looks like it's cooked,

00:40:34

but I don't see any remnants of an actual fire here.

00:40:37

- Well. - For safety reasons.

00:40:39

Yeah, I mean --

00:40:40

It definitely didn't just come prepared from the crew.

00:40:42

I mean, that didn't happen. So it got cooked.

00:40:45

- I don't really know that's exactly

00:40:47

what a quail would look like, even.

00:40:48

- It was big.

00:40:49

- You don't know what a quail looks like.

00:40:51

- I know it doesn't look like that.

00:40:53

I've gone quail hunting. Have you gone quail hunting? No.

00:40:56

What is scratching around in there?

00:40:58

- That's noisy. - Nothing.

00:41:00

- Nothing in that box.

00:41:01

- I can hear something scratching.

00:41:02

- You guys, you didn't leave it in the box, did you?

00:41:05

Did you leave it in the box? - Dinner? - Oh, darn it.

00:41:09

- There's something alive in here.

00:41:16

- Oh, look at that. Aww!

00:41:19

- Come here, little boy or little girl.

00:41:21

Come here. Come here. Come here. - There it is.

00:41:26

- Oh, say hello to your cousin. Here's my little cousin.

00:41:32

That's what -- that's what you would have looked like,

00:41:35

except smaller if someone knew how to make a fire.

00:41:38

- Don't hurt it.

00:41:40

- We couldn't do it. We couldn't do it.

00:41:41

- All right. All right.

00:41:43

You get a reprieve today. You had strength to stand.

00:41:47

Strength to stand is what you had,

00:41:50

strength to live another day.

00:41:52

- Okay, I think we've got enough here.

00:41:54

(crosstalk)

00:41:56

- Give the knife here. - No.

00:41:59

- Keep the knife away from him.

00:42:00

Hey, I hope you had a great time here today with Crossroads.

00:42:03

We'll be back next week with another episode

00:42:05

in this Unbreakable Series: Learn to Become Unbreakable.

00:42:09

By the way, we've about a lot more

00:42:10

than just whatever happened here today.

00:42:12

There's all kinds of care and content

00:42:14

and access to amazing experiences and opportunities

00:42:16

available to you no matter who you are, where you live.

00:42:19

Go to Crossroads.net/new to find out all about that.

00:42:22

We'll see you right back here next week.

00:42:25

- Pretty bird, pretty bird. (all yelling)

00:42:33

- Don't miss next week on Crossroads

00:42:35

when Chuck gives us the courage to move.

00:42:38

We see in the sweeping story of Exodus

00:42:41

everything that plays out in the entire story of the Bible

00:42:44

and the story of how God is engaging in your life

00:42:47

and my life.

00:42:48

Today there's this the struggle from slavery to freedom.

00:42:51

There's this longing for a rescuer/deliver, right?

00:42:54

And beautifully it ends with the finding of a Promised Land.

00:42:58

There is something that happens

00:42:59

at the end of this journey that encourages you.

00:43:01

So listen, you're going to find the courage to move.

	Whats In The Box? 📦 👀	5:03
	💨Stand Against The Wind...Literally💨	7:29
	⛺️Chuck And Alli Set Up Camp⛺️	16:30
	Stop Looking BACK!	18:55
	Dinner Time 🐓 🍽	20:44
	Wondering In Your Desert 🐪	23:36
	BE STRONG 💪	28:21
	3 Steps For Strength To Stand	32:44

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