What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Wiser

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- Did you know you can use Tabasco on your hemorrhoids?

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[buzzer] - Cut! No, Ew! - Cut.

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- Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads.

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We're so glad that you joined us.

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I'm actually getting ready to head out for my summer vacation

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and to visit some of our amazing Crossroads Anywhere community

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around the country.

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But as many of us take summer vacations and we find ourselves

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in different places than we would normally be,

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I just want to remind you, just because you leave home

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doesn't mean you have to leave your church.

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The beautiful thing about Crossroads is that

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you can take your church with you anywhere you go.

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So take time with us in the app and online,

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catching up on the weekend service, participating,

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praying for people and receiving prayer,

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connecting with your community and continuing to grow

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even while you take some much needed time off.

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We're going to start off our time today

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by singing some songs.

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This isn't just the soundtrack for your road trip or your day.

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It's actually the start of a conversation

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between you and God.

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So as we sing, turn up the volume, consider these words

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as the opening dialog in a conversation

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between you and a God who loves you.

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- That's right, He set us free once and for all.

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- That's right. That's the hope we have.

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I want to read these words to us from Paul,

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a guy named Paul, who was one of the earliest followers of Jesus,

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written in the first century. He says this:

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Can I get an amen?

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There's no more words to that verse, so just look away.

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We're just going to go on. Look at it.

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That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection,

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and, you ready for it?

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I don't know if you are. I don't know if I am.

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He's my living hope. I want hope and resurrection.

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Amen. Hallelujah.

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And then [Fx], hit the brakes, we share His suffering.

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That's -- That's on the secret menu.

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I didn't see that up there.

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I'm in for hope. I'm in for resurrection.

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Regardless of if this is your first time in here

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or you don't believe in Jesus,

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you could get behind, "I want more hope.

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I want to believe life can be resurrected."

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But those of us who follow Jesus, we say, "Yeah,

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that second part is true too,

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that I may share in His sufferings."

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We wrote this next song directly out of those scriptures.

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And you know what I said when we started writing it?

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I'm not kidding, this is no exaggeration from a stage

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because lights are on or because there's a microphone.

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No exaggeration.

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I sat right in the room back there side stage and said,

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"I don't know that our church can sing these words,"

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because I wrestle with them.

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Because I don't know if I'm ready to sing them fully.

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I had a friend recently who heard this song and he said,

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"Man, I love all the songs you guys have been writing,

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except this one."

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He's kind of new to his faith with Jesus.

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And he said, "Man, I'm all for know you

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and the power of your resurrection,

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but share His sufferings?

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I don't know about that. That's just weird."

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It is. Uncomfortable? Yeah. Odd? Yes.

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But the pathway to life that Jesus gave us is one where

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He stood in front of the superpowers of His day,

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in front of the extreme powers of Rome

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and the religious elite and the religious establishment.

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And you know what our King did? He laid His life down.

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And so every day I've found life by dying to myself.

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And so every day I say, "Then let me give generously

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and not hold tightly to my finances and my money.

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Lord, let me live humbly and lay my ego down, instead of pride.

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Lord, let me radically forgive those who wronged me

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instead of choosing hate."

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Death to myself so that I can have life in Jesus,

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that's the way we follow.

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We're going to sing these words.

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If you're not ready, it's okay.

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But man, if you are, there's life through it.

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There's life on the other side and I want that for you.

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- Father, I'll just say it because I just saw it:

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We want more of You.

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Our church wants to go into deeper waters.

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We want more of You, because the great mystery is that

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I find life when I die to myself.

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That at the death of me I found the life You offered.

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Not just once, Not 20 some years ago in Louisville, Kentucky,

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when I got baptized, but every single day.

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To say, let me get off the throne,

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let me lay my heart down on this altar,

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You take it and You lead me by Your hand.

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You have life to give and I want it fully, not half way.

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So I want Your death and I want Your resurrection.

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And I trust You through it.

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I pray all this because I've seen You real, Jesus.

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You changed my life. Amen.

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- There you go. Will you say Hi, Crossroads Anywhere?

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- Hi, Crossroads Anywhere.

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- Can you guys wave? Good.

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Hey, we're almost packed up and ready to go,

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and we just can't wait to see some of you guys

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over the next two weeks.

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We're actually on a road trip

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and we're going to be hanging out with you all

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in Kentucky, Tennessee, and then to Orlando, Florida,

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for our next big Crossroads Anywhere meetup.

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But Crossroads isn't just a video on a screen.

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It's a real church that you can belong to

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no matter where you are

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and no matter where your summer plans take you.

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A couple of ways for you to connect with this place

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over your summer.

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One is through the Crossroads Anywhere app.

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It's a really, really fantastic tool that gives you

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not just great content to watch,

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but great people to connect with.

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Secondly, hey,

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all of the great stuff that happens around Crossroads

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only happens because people are faithful

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and they give consistently.

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If you're interested in joining the team of faithful givers,

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who helps make Crossroads happen,

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or you've got questions about how we spend our money,

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hey, you can head to Crossroads.net/give.

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Now we're going to be talking about wisdom today.

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And it's one of those things that we often times associate

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with being old or gray, but that's because

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it's built through experience and even through difficulty.

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And today we're going to see how when we go through tough things,

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we can gain godly wisdom on the other side.

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- We all want a life that works.

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We buy books, we listen to podcasts, and we follow gurus

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who promise the secret to what we crave:

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A life full of meaning, connection, fun and adventure.

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We look to those who have done well before us

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and we ask ourselves, "How can I get some of that?"

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We seek knowledge and understanding,

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but we need something deeper.

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We need wisdom.

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The Bible gives us a path to wisdom

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laid out in three Old Testament books,

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often called The Wisdom Literature.

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job are the roadmap to understanding

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where godly wisdom comes from and what God has to say

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about how to live our lives well.

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- Hey, Crossroads, this is Brian.

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

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Sorry I can't be with you today.

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I'm in the midst of a summer break that I'm taking,

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so thank you for affording me the opportunity

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to stay off and stay fresh.

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I've lined up a real good thing for you today.

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We want to have great teaching every week at Crossroads.

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But this week I've gone outside and asked a friend

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to come and speak to us and push us all to the next level.

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His name is Matt Chandler.

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I've been at Crossroads, started Crossroads about 28 years ago.

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Matt, a similar situation, started a church in Texas.

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I've known of Matt, I've known about Matt for a long time

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because he's frankly one of the greatest teachers

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of our generation in the church today.

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He's a brilliant, brilliant guy. We've got a lot in common.

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Brilliance is not one of the things that we have in common.

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We're both hunters.

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That's the other thing we have in common.

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But I really look up to this guy.

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I appreciate him a lot.

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In the last few years,

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I've become personal friends with Matt.

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I love this guy. I trust him. I trust his integrity.

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He not only has a great mind, he's got a great heart.

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And I made a personal ask.

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I said, "Hey, man, would you come and build into

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the people of Crossroads?

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Because I think you've got a lot to offer us."

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And as a good friend would, he said, "Absolutely, man, I'm in."

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So bummed I can't be there with you and with him today,

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but you're in good hands.

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Just sit back, and here's my friend Matt Chandler.

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- Hey, guys. [cheers & applause] I'm not going to lie,

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I'm a little bit disoriented by the Taylor Swift reference.

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I don't quite know. It'll take me a while to figure out

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whether that's encouraging or discouraging, but we'll see.

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Hey, when my oldest daughter was around,

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I think she was probably around seven,

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I was doing something similar to Pastor Brian,

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I was taking a couple of weeks off and so we all got in our car

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and we're headed to a lake

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probably about two hours from my house.

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My daughter had been bitten by a spider or a mosquito.

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I don't know, everything tries to kill you in Texas.

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And so so we put a little medicine on it

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and then put her in the back in her car seat

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and we're heading towards the lake.

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And stopped about an hour in to get gas.

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And my in-laws were coming with us.

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And that's not the suffering

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that I'm trying to highlight in this talk.

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They're actually exceptional people.

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Some of our closest friends, they're awesome.

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Won the lottery on in-laws.

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And my mother-in-law, who I just want to say for the record

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and for the sake of this story is not on the spectrum,

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comes up and this is her grandbaby.

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So she raps on the door and sweet Audrey, I mean, you know,

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Gigi gives her whatever she wants, rolls down that window

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and points out her bump.

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And my mother-in-law, like, who raised children,

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says to my seven year old,

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"Oh, that looks like it's turning into a boil.

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They might have to lance that."

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Now, my daughter hadn't watched Gray's Anatomy or anything.

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She doesn't know what's happening,

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but she is inquisitive and so she asks what does that mean?

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And yet again, I want to praise the intelligence

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of my mother-in-law

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and then say maybe she just forgot some things

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because she answered that question like this:

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"It means they'll need to take, like, a scalpel, a kind of razor

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and cut it open so the bad stuff can come out."

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What do you think the next hour of our life

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was like in that car?

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So the whole way, the rest of the way, another hour.

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Like, I cannot get my radio loud enough to cover the screams of,

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"I don't want him to cut my leg. I don't want him to cut my leg.

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I don't want him to cut my leg."

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I'm like, "They're not going to cut your leg.

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They're not going to cut your leg."

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And we finally get to the lake house and we're unloading,

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and dadgummit, the bump's big, it's red, it's hot to the touch.

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And so I was like, "Oh, now I've got to get her to the doctor."

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And so we get in the car, and, you know, listen,

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she's not like, "I'm really excited about this."

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There ain't enough lollipops in the universe

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to cover up what she thinks is coming.

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And so we get there and they get us in this room

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and they look at it and the nurses confirm out loud,

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"Yeah, this is a boil."

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And so you can just feel it happening in the room.

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And this poor doctor, I mean, he's young.

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I mean, he maybe -- it's small, like, Mineral Wells, Texas.

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I think it was the vet in town too.

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And he comes in and he looks at my girl.

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Now, he doesn't know any of the backstory of today.

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He doesn't know what we've been through.

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He can clearly see my daughter is upset,

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but it's a seven year old in the E.R.

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Maybe that's just what seven year old's in the E.R. act like.

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He said, this guy says out loud,

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"We're going to need to lance that."

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Now, at that moment, my seven year old daughter

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somehow has the strength of a thousand suns and she decides,

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"Oh, no, you won't."

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And I know pastors are prone to hyperbole,

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but she picked up one of those nurses and body slammed.

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I mean, they could not pin her to that table.

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They're trying to numb it so they can lance it.

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And she ain't having it and she ain't having it having it.

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And so she's putting up a fight.

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I mean, it's like she's put some dude in a rear naked choke

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and just put him to sleep.

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I was like, "Oh, what are we going to do?"

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And the doctor looks at me and he says, "Dad."

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So I'm looking for Mom, frigging Lauren just like, left.

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Just like left the room, like in the waiting room.

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What kind of mom is that? Where are you?

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What kind of mom is that?

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So I have to get on this bed,

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tears and terror on this little girl's face.

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This little girl has my soul.

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Dads remember that that first thought

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when you held your baby girl for the first time?

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I realized then, "Oh, I'm still capable of violence."

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Like I held her and I thought

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I would physically kill a man with my hands.

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I hadn't had that thought in years.

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I thought Jesus took that out of me.

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I held Audrey and I was like, "No, I'll kill a guy.

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I'll kill a man."

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And now I've got to pin her with my forearm to this bed.

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Tears, betrayal. What are you doing?

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While they numb that and lance it so it doesn't poison her leg.

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And for just a second,

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just a second at this, like, tiny little space

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I think I understood God and suffering.

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Now the Bible, here's why I love the Bible.

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I love -- the Bible is such a grimey book.

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Like, if you'd actually read, read it, it is a grimey book.

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I don't know how it became fairy tales and children's fables.

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Right?

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You know, like you're tucking in your kid and you're like,

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and then God drowned everyone on Earth. Night-night.

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I mean, it's not -- it is a grimy, grimy book.

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And I'm telling you, every bit of disappointment,

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every bit of death, difficulty, disease, heartbreak,

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soul crushing, waiting on the Lord, long suffering pain

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that you have ever experienced, imagined or seen,

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it's in The Book.

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Like the Bible is not painting a picture of reality

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that is inconsistent with our human experience.

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Now you can cherry pick verses and you can create

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a whole new way of understanding the universe.

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But the Bible is grimy from beginning to end.

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The story of the Bible is not that there won't be a mess,

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but that God will be with you in it.

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That's The Book.

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And so if you would read it honestly,

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you would see this everywhere.

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And so really the argument of Scripture is this,

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and here's what I want you to take away today:

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Suffering is normal and Jesus is good.

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Suffering is normal and Jesus is good.

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Now you can clap because that --

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I know you're probably clapping for the second part of that,

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right?

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So one of the issues that we're having,

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one of the issues you're having and I'm having is we're living

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in one of the most unique moments in human history.

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In fact, never before has the default setting

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of human expectation been, "I'm primarily going to be happy."

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That's never happened in human.

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That is less than 100 years old.

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It has not been the driver.

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The driver has been survival.

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And now it's like the whole framework is is happy

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and that all days of year are going to be glad hearted.

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Well, sociologists are now finding out

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that you orient like that,

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you're actually going to move more into depression,

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suffering and anxiety and difficulty, not less,

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because our normal human experience isn't that

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Tuesday is going to be filled with happiness.

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You know what I mean by Tuesday?

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So like Monday is like, ugh,

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you know Monday is going to be tough, right?

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Friday is like, woo, Friday.

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Wednesday is like we're almost there.

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Tuesday, just -- it's just Tuesday.

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Like the normal outworking of life

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isn't going to be what you're scrolling through.

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And the sociological data is showing that this framework

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that I'm primarily going to be happy,

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I'm primarily going to have good times is actually poisoning us

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in a way that's leading to more heartbreak, not less.

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In fact, this is already starting to work its way out

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in popular level books

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that are on the New York Times bestseller list.

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Let me just give you some of them Amusing Ourselves to Death,

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The Happiness Trap.

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I'm guessing these aren't books you buy.

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I'm going to buy The Happiness Trap. Probably not.

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But a lot of people are as they're trying to make sense

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of why do I have all this stuff and I'm not fulfilled?

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Why do I have all the things I thought I needed

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and it's not working?

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Another one is called Antifragile.

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Another one is called The Coddling of the American Mind.

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And the last one's called Lost Connections.

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These are popular level books from a ton of sociological data

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that says if you orient your life's expectation on that

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I'm primarily supposed to be happy, then that usually means

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you're not only going to not be happy, but you're going to --

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you're not going to get the normal gladness.

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Now, the Christian response to that

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is not to become a bunch of Eeyors.

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All right?

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The Christian response is like, "No, we just -- life's hard."

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That's not supposed to be us either.

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In fact, we are a weird, strange people

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who, even in the difficulty can rejoice,

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makes us outliers in this strange world

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that says everybody's supposed to be happy.

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What we're saying is our life will be

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a mixture of happiness and sorrow,

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and our God is sovereign over both.

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And the sorrow and the joy are gifts of grace.

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That's how we orient.

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Now in the middle of the Bible,

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several people have already said it,

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in the middle of the Bible, there are these three books.

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They're called the Wisdom Literature.

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And really, the two that kind of are telling the same story

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from opposite directions are Ecclesiastes and Job.

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And here's what happens in Ecclesiastes.

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In Ecclesiastes, Solomon, King Solomon,

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wealthiest man on earth at the time.

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He says he sets his heart to discover

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if there is anything worth living for under the sun.

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And the first part of his life, you can read all about this

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in Ecclesiastes and you can see some of it in 1 Kings.

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He started out partying, and I don't know if you party.

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I don't know if your backstory is you got, you know,

00:36:06

a little, little -- you had a season.

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But my man went hard, hard, hard.

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And so here's how he did party.

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Here's how he wanted to test it.

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So he throws a party

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and you know what he says about the party?

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It was awesome, so he threw it again.

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And you know what?

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It was awesome. And then he threw it again.

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He was like, "I mean, it was awesome, but..."

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He just got used to it.

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So, you know, he did? Leveled up.

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Invited more people, added some live music.

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Awesome again. Incredible again.

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And then it kind of ran out of gas and he leveled up again.

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By the time Solomon gets to the end of his partying phase,

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you can read about what he was killing animal wise for it.

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And it would feed half of Cincinnati.

00:36:46

I mean, I'm not kidding, you just check it out.

00:36:48

You just go read that.

00:36:49

I mean, it's just like a thousand chickens and 42 bulls.

00:36:53

And I mean, it was just like the barbecue of all barbecues.

00:36:55

I don't know if you guys Q it up here in Cincinnati,

00:36:58

but this thing, this is big time, and it doesn't work.

00:37:00

Are you tracking me? He gets to the end of partying.

00:37:03

Can't get any bigger, can't get any better,

00:37:05

can't get any more getting after it and it doesn't work.

00:37:10

So then he turns his heart to pleasure.

00:37:13

There is not a single sexual experience

00:37:15

that he withholds from himself,

00:37:17

not a body type, not a hair color, not a shape, not --

00:37:21

You tracking with me?

00:37:22

I'm not going to get any more graphic than that.

00:37:24

All right? This isn't my church.

00:37:25

My church I might go a little further.

00:37:27

Not here, right? I'm in somebody else's house. Right.

00:37:29

So, no, he gives himself over to it.

00:37:31

And here's what he decides.

00:37:32

He has sex. He's like, that's awesome.

00:37:34

And I think the room would say, amen.

00:37:36

And then he has sex again. He's like, that was great.

00:37:38

And then he has it and he's like,

00:37:40

Well, that's not -- so let's mix it up.

00:37:41

And then what happens? It runs out of gas.

00:37:43

So then he gives himself over to kind of building an empire

00:37:46

and he gets into real estate, man.

00:37:48

And it's vineyards and it's real estate,

00:37:50

and he becomes the most powerful man imaginable.

00:37:53

He built homes and vineyards and ranches, and he gets to the end,

00:37:56

there's there's nothing more to build.

00:37:58

He's the CEO of CEOs

00:37:59

and he's like, "Dang, it doesn't work either."

00:38:02

Then he gives himself to leisure.

00:38:04

He just got a couple of PAs and a couple of EAs

00:38:07

and just gets that morning massage and then takes a nap,

00:38:11

flies to the ranch.

00:38:13

That's a text and then just hangs out at the ranch.

00:38:17

He gives himself to leisure.

00:38:18

And at the end of it all, here's what he says,

00:38:20

just a chipper little book: Meaningless. Meaningless.

00:38:25

All is meaningless.

00:38:28

And there is nothing under the sun

00:38:30

that will satisfy the hearts of men.

00:38:33

Now, Job loses everything

00:38:39

and finds out God is enough.

00:38:42

So Solomon gets everything you and I are chasing after

00:38:45

and will never achieve. You tracking me?

00:38:48

We're chasing it and we're not going to get where he got.

00:38:51

And he said, "Guess what? You don't have to.

00:38:52

I made it. It ain't going to work."

00:38:55

And Job lives into our greatest fears and says,

00:39:03

"When you've lost it all, He's enough."

00:39:06

And so these two books play off of each other.

00:39:09

And so I want us to look at Job again.

00:39:12

I can't believe this is what Pastor Brian gave me.

00:39:14

He's like, "You want to come?" I was like, "Sure."

00:39:16

He's like, "Job."

00:39:17

I was like, "Job, really?" Job in the summer?'

00:39:20

Here we are. Blame him.

00:39:22

Job 1:1:

00:39:36

He's a good dude. All right?

00:39:38

He ain't got some shady back life.

00:39:40

He ain't got some secret sin.

00:39:42

He ain't got, like, another family in Jerusalem.

00:39:44

This is like a good dude. He's upright.

00:39:47

The Bible called him blameless.

00:39:49

And then the book shifts to this kind of mind bending scene

00:39:54

where God is on His throne and the angels

00:39:56

are presenting themselves before the Lord and Satan shows up.

00:39:59

And so God says, "Satan, what are you doing here?"

00:40:01

And he's like, "I was looking around at the sons of men.

00:40:04

I was judging humankind."

00:40:06

And God says, "Have you considered my God Job?

00:40:09

Upright, blameless, fears my name."

00:40:12

Now, if Job knew what was coming,

00:40:13

he'd probably go, "You know what?

00:40:15

Don't worry about me, just kind of move on down.

00:40:17

Might maybe point somebody else out."

00:40:19

Because Satan answers, "Of course, Job loves you.

00:40:22

You've made him the richest man on earth.

00:40:24

He has more cattle, donkey, children,

00:40:26

money than anyone else on earth.

00:40:28

Of course he's going to praise You.

00:40:29

You've blessed him. You've made him untouchable.

00:40:31

You've put a hedge of protection around him

00:40:34

so that nothing befalls him that's difficult.

00:40:36

Of course he praises You."

00:40:38

And then Satan says to the Lord, "Let me take his wealth.

00:40:43

Let me take his reputation, and he'll curse Your Name."

00:40:49

And for reasons we will not understand, God says, "Bet."

00:40:55

I'm probably too old to say that, but deal, right?

00:40:59

The kids in the room was like, "Don't, bro, don't."

00:41:01

And then here's what we read, toughest day ever.

00:41:03

I don't know your backstory; this wins.

00:41:06

Here we go, Job 1 starting in verse 13.

00:42:28

What?

00:42:45

This man is better than us.

00:42:48

I have made charge against God for much less.

00:42:53

I have been frustrated at Jesus's sovereign reign

00:42:56

for not a 10th of this, not a fifth of this.

00:43:00

And so he loses everything that would have his reputation

00:43:03

and name attached to it, including his sons and daughters

00:43:06

in succession in a matter of a day,

00:43:10

and this man tears his clothes.

00:43:12

So he doesn't do that thing some Christians do, be like --

00:43:15

He works out all things together for the good of love

00:43:17

and call according to it. He doesn't do that thing.

00:43:20

He didn't slap some bumper sticker theology on it.

00:43:22

He falls on the ground and tears his clothes.

00:43:24

He shaves his head.

00:43:25

He doesn't put some sort of stupid spirit sprinkle on it.

00:43:28

It hurts. It's terrible. It's awful.

00:43:30

He falls on the ground and makes no accusation against God.

00:43:35

We were talking in the back,

00:43:37

some of us have made accusations against God

00:43:38

when when that Netflix password didn't work this past week.

00:43:42

How long, O Lord. Right?

00:43:44

And yet this man, he endures, like, you can't imagine.

00:43:48

I can't imagine this. I can't get my head around this.

00:43:52

And so then it's back to the throne room.

00:43:54

God's on His throne. Here come the angels. Satan shows back up.

00:43:56

And I love this because God talks a little noise.

00:43:58

I don't know how you picture God in your mind, but he's like,

00:44:01

"Hey, Satan, shh, shh. You're hear?

00:44:03

Oh, my gosh, is that Job worshiping me right now?

00:44:05

What's up, man?

00:44:08

Oh, naked I came, naked -- Yeah. See, my boy loves me.

00:44:11

So you touched him, and what's up? He's still worshiping.

00:44:13

I thought you said he would curse My Name?"

00:44:15

And so Satan says, "Oh, yeah,

00:44:17

it's because you've given him his physical health.

00:44:20

Let me touch his body and he'll curse your name."

00:44:23

And again, for reasons we won't get to understand,

00:44:25

but we will get some answer,

00:44:27

God says okay, but you will not kill him,

00:44:32

but you can touch him."

00:44:33

And so here's where we pick back up the story, Job 2:7-9:

00:44:51

This is just gross.

00:44:54

Now, listen to this, like things couldn't be worse.

00:45:05

I think I'd start to barter with the Lord.

00:45:07

I wouldn't have bartered until this moment.

00:45:09

And then I said,

00:45:11

"Can you give me back my dog and take this woman?

00:45:13

like this -- this is who you leave me?

00:45:15

Like this is like, man, give me one of those mini donks, man.

00:45:19

Those things are cute.

00:45:20

I could at least cuddle with somebody in this madness.

00:45:22

This is what you leave for me?"

00:45:23

I don't know if Job hadn't been sowing into date night

00:45:26

or something.

00:45:27

I don't know what's going on here,

00:45:28

but the only one that survives these waves is his bride.

00:45:32

And if you didn't read that, you'd be like,

00:45:34

"Oh, well, that's kind of nice."

00:45:36

Until she shows up, like, hearing you worship.

00:45:40

What are you doing? You still holding on to your integrity?

00:45:43

Curse God and die, you fool.

00:45:45

Now, I won't have enough time to say this, but when you suffer,

00:45:47

be careful of Job's wife in your life.

00:45:50

Be careful who you listen to.

00:45:52

Be careful who, even if they're supposed to be close,

00:45:55

be careful who you give your ears to when things get hard,

00:45:57

and things will get hard.

00:45:59

So now what happens next in the story

00:46:01

is Job's three friends come,

00:46:02

and there's a reason why you don't know their names.

00:46:05

And it's not because they're hard to pronounce.

00:46:07

They show up, like, it's what you would think.

00:46:09

Man, if it all hit the fan,

00:46:10

I would expect my boys to come be with me. Right?

00:46:13

And they show up and it looks like for a second there,

00:46:16

man, they're good dudes.

00:46:17

Like, they don't say anything for seven days.

00:46:20

They just weep with him.

00:46:22

Like, that's your boys right there.

00:46:24

Don't show up with bumper sticker theology.

00:46:26

They don't come with a bunch of bourbon.

00:46:28

They just kind of show up. Their hearts are broken for you.

00:46:31

They just weep for seven days.

00:46:35

The sight of their friend is so disorienting to them

00:46:38

that they just sit there and they weep.

00:46:41

And if that's all they would have done,

00:46:44

they would have been examples of how to walk

00:46:46

with brothers and sisters who suffer.

00:46:48

But they can't help it, and they open up their mouth.

00:46:52

And it's in the opening of their mouth that we begin to see

00:46:56

the frameworks that God wants us to live by.

00:46:58

So I'm going to call Job's friends.

00:47:00

I can't go through each argument because each of them

00:47:02

have multiple speeches and Job has responses.

00:47:04

And again, it's a book that I would preach in 12 weeks

00:47:07

and Brian gave me 35 minutes.

00:47:08

So I'm trying to do a book in 35.

00:47:10

So what I want to do is

00:47:11

I want to just kind of create this category.

00:47:13

Job's friends, what they bring to Job is what I would call

00:47:18

suffering and looking around, rather than looking up.

00:47:22

So these are philosophies in suffering that will land flat

00:47:28

and lead to more bondage and pain,

00:47:30

not the freedom of rejoicing

00:47:32

that belongs to the children of God.

00:47:33

And here's what that looks like.

00:47:35

The first one, if we're talking about Job's friends

00:47:37

and them coming in and we're like,

00:47:38

"Hey, you need to be careful of this

00:47:40

and watch out for this, and surely you did this."

00:47:42

Is this idea of fatalism.

00:47:43

And fatalism is when you just kind of just surrender

00:47:46

that your life's going to be terrible.

00:47:47

So think, I know I'm going to date myself here.

00:47:49

Think Cameron off of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

00:47:51

Yeah, that's it. That's fatalism, right?

00:47:54

Doesn't want to get out of bed.

00:47:55

Doesn't want to try. Doesn't want to work for it.

00:47:58

Why? Because he's going to fail. It's going to suck.

00:48:00

It's not, I mean, that's just --

00:48:01

it's fatalism. It's what happens.

00:48:03

And I'm telling you, I see this a lot, and it might even be you.

00:48:05

And I want to try to call you out of it.

00:48:07

It's when you start to identify with your suffering

00:48:10

in such a way that you become the suffering.

00:48:13

Hey, look at it, you're not your worst day.

00:48:16

You hear me? You're not that thing you did.

00:48:18

You're not that struggle. You're not that. That is not.

00:48:21

That is suffering. That's not you.

00:48:23

And when you identify with it like a fatalist,

00:48:27

you actually twist yourself up and step more into bondage,

00:48:31

not into the freedom that Christ has for you.

00:48:33

When you become the struggle you're navel gazing.

00:48:38

You're tracking with me? You're staring at your own navel.

00:48:41

This is not what the Lord has for us.

00:48:43

And on on top of fatalism, there's this.

00:48:47

I've noticed it and I notice it most in men,

00:48:50

but it's certainly not just men.

00:48:54

The second thing that we can often do with suffering,

00:48:56

especially if something went bad early.

00:48:59

So we experienced something early on.

00:49:01

We make this vow

00:49:03

that no one will ever hurt us like that again.

00:49:05

I won't get hurt like that again.

00:49:06

I won't be caught off guard like that again. I won't.

00:49:09

And what happens is,

00:49:10

rather than orienting ourselves like Christians,

00:49:12

we start to orient ourselves like Buddhists.

00:49:14

Now, I don't know what you've studied, what you know.

00:49:16

Buddhists would say

00:49:18

that suffering actually doesn't exist.

00:49:21

What the problem is is that you have too many attachments

00:49:24

and that if you would detach, then you wouldn't suffer.

00:49:27

So the idea is don't love too much.

00:49:30

You can love, but don't love too much. Right?

00:49:32

Don't enjoy too much. Don't own. Don't detach.

00:49:36

And then you won't suffer because you won't, you know,

00:49:38

your life won't be intertwined in this.

00:49:40

Now I'm just --

00:49:41

I ain't trying to start beef with the Buddhists.

00:49:43

What a terrible life.

00:49:45

Be careful not to love anyone too much?

00:49:50

What?

00:49:51

Don't enjoy the goodness of God's creation?

00:49:54

You know,

00:49:56

the Psalms are filled with enjoy the stuff that God's created.

00:49:59

So don't love too much?

00:50:01

The number of brothers I know, the number of men I know

00:50:04

who made some stupid vow because when they were a seventh grader

00:50:08

some jackass said something to them that wounded their soul.

00:50:10

And now they won't let their wife in.

00:50:12

They won't let other men in.

00:50:13

They're only making sure people see their strengths,

00:50:16

not letting anybody see their weakness.

00:50:17

They shrink and become almost a shell of what they could be.

00:50:22

Now women do this, too,

00:50:24

I just don't know exactly how it works. I'm not one.

00:50:28

But women do this.

00:50:30

This is like this idea of I'm going to pull back.

00:50:35

Suffering is too painful. I'm going to pull back.

00:50:38

And then on top of that, there's --

00:50:40

and Job's friends are the worst at this karma.

00:50:42

Well, you obviously did something.

00:50:44

I mean, if you're suffering, you obviously did something.

00:50:47

Now, here's something I believe.

00:50:48

I believe more than other people will say that about you,

00:50:51

you will say that to you.

00:50:53

Might throw out there

00:50:55

that probably no one is as mean to you as you are?

00:50:58

Do you know anybody that is down on you as you are?

00:51:01

Anyone who's betrayed you more than you have?

00:51:03

Anybody who's lied to you more than you lie to you?

00:51:05

Like when bad things happen, we're the first to go.

00:51:07

"Oh, man. I should have got up and had that quiet time.

00:51:10

Or Oh, man, this has to do with I know the other day

00:51:12

I just felt like I should have gave that guy money

00:51:14

and I didn't give him money and so now I got cancer."

00:51:17

I mean, it's just madness, but this is what we do.

00:51:19

Bad things happen

00:51:21

and we immediately go, "I must have done something."

00:51:25

Well, that's not the gospel.

00:51:27

We're not under karma. We're under grace.

00:51:29

We're not under wrath. We're under mercy.

00:51:31

This is not what we believe.

00:51:34

This is sideways. This is navel gazing.

00:51:36

And then lastly, that suffering is meaningless.

00:51:40

It is meaningless and it's random.

00:51:43

Now, that's one way to orient.

00:51:46

I call that whole way of orientation

00:51:49

looking around or navel gazing.

00:51:53

What we see happen in Job, what's fascinating about Job

00:51:56

is Job throughout, he hears the speeches of his friends

00:52:00

and then he says, "Not true.

00:52:01

Complete lie. I want God to tell me.

00:52:04

I need God to explain to me.

00:52:06

I want God to make sense of this for me."

00:52:09

And here's what's crazy, God answers him,

00:52:12

but He doesn't answer that question. Here's why.

00:52:18

The Triune God of the universe is outside of time and space.

00:52:23

Are you tracking with me when I say that?

00:52:25

Let me let me try to explain it like this.

00:52:26

The future isn't something God knows about,

00:52:29

it's where He is right now. Right?

00:52:33

He is here in entirety and He is there in entirety,

00:52:37

so that God is not prophetic in regards to the future.

00:52:41

It's a place that He already is.

00:52:44

Since that's true,

00:52:45

how are you and I that are here like a millisecond

00:52:49

ever going to comprehend how He reigns and governs?

00:52:53

I don't think we can.

00:52:54

It's like walking into a four hour movie for four seconds

00:52:57

and then expecting to understand the plot.

00:52:59

Man, you ain't -- you don't even to know who's good or who's bad.

00:53:02

You're going to guess all wrong.

00:53:04

And God in His infinite span

00:53:08

won't explain to Job the whys,

00:53:12

but lifts his head to show him the who.

00:53:15

In fact, Augustine's,

00:53:17

he's an ancient friend of mine. We've hung out a bunch.

00:53:20

And Augustine kind of described --

00:53:23

he described life on a fallen planet,

00:53:26

like having your face pressed against a stained glass window.

00:53:29

Like just right there.

00:53:30

So what you see is you see jagged pieces of glass.

00:53:33

But it's I mean, there's some red, there's some yellow,

00:53:35

but it's jagged and broken.

00:53:37

And we can't get back enough to see the beauty of it.

00:53:41

So rather than God trying to explain as infinite

00:53:45

to something that's here today and gone today,

00:53:48

that's how the Bible talks about us.

00:53:50

You know the old adage here today, gone tomorrow.

00:53:52

The Bible is like here today, gone by lunch.

00:53:55

You're like dew on the grass in the morning,

00:53:58

that by lunchtime is gone.

00:53:59

We're going to understand

00:54:01

all the intricacies of God's sovereign plan,

00:54:03

this one who knows every event that has ever occurred

00:54:05

and how those events create other events

00:54:07

that lead to other events,

00:54:08

that lead to other events that lead us to

00:54:09

this very moment in time without a strain on His brain?

00:54:12

I'm not sure where my keys are right now,

00:54:14

but I'm supposed to comprehend

00:54:17

why bad things might be happening?

00:54:19

So here's what he does.

00:54:21

He starts to orient Job around His God-ness.

00:54:26

He says, "No, no. Quit looking at your navel.

00:54:28

Quit looking around at your dumb friends. Look up here."

00:54:32

So here's what He does, He tells Job, "Oh, you've got questions?

00:54:35

Hey, I've got some questions.

00:54:36

Why don't you dress for action like a man

00:54:38

and I'll ask you some questions.

00:54:40

And if you can answer my questions, I'll answer yours."

00:54:43

It's not cruel. It's loving. Here's what he says: Hey, Job,

00:55:23

See what He's doing?

00:55:24

Like, where were you when I put the moon up there that

00:55:26

controlled the gravitational pulls of the ocean?

00:55:28

Where were you when I just told water to be and it was?

00:55:30

Surely you know.

00:55:32

Hey, why doesn't -- why doesn't water cover the whole earth?

00:55:35

Why does it stop in certain locations and boundaries?

00:55:37

You know, Job. Tell me about that."

00:55:39

And He just keeps going.

00:55:42

This is -- He does this for four chapters.

00:55:43

Guys, I'm only reading you a few verses.

00:56:31

Now for us, it's, like, "Why is God being so snarky?

00:56:34

Man, Job's had a tough week."

00:56:36

He is being unbelievably loving here.

00:56:40

If you look at you, if you look around you,

00:56:43

you're going to drown.

00:56:45

So let me reorient you around My greatness,

00:56:48

not your smallness.

00:56:50

Let me reorient you around what I know,

00:56:53

not what you do not know.

00:56:55

Let me show you the majesty and might of My reign

00:57:00

in a way where at least you can look to that

00:57:03

and trust in goodness despite the hurt and pain.

00:57:07

And this is what happens,

00:57:09

like, the Bible starts to when we look up

00:57:11

and don't look around, there are these promises

00:57:14

that start to be laid across our lives, like the 23rd Psalm.

00:57:18

And man, you don't even have to be a Christian

00:57:20

and you've got like a coffee cup

00:57:21

or a bookmark with the 23rd Psalm on it

00:57:23

in your -- you'd be a staunch atheist. [slurps]

00:57:25

They'll walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

00:57:27

It's just right there on that coffee cup.

00:57:29

And the 23rd Psalm says this:

00:57:31

that when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

00:57:34

we will fear no evil. Why? For you are with me.

00:57:37

The promise, if you look up, what you get is

00:57:39

the presence of God is with you.

00:57:41

So the good news of the gospel, and I'm big on this,

00:57:44

is not that if you give your life to Jesus

00:57:46

you're going to get everything you want.

00:57:48

Christ isn't your errand boy.

00:57:50

You ain't going to ring a bell and have Him fetch you a pillow.

00:57:52

The good news of the gospel is that if we give our hearts

00:57:56

and souls to Jesus, regardless of what comes,

00:57:59

we get God and we'll find Him to be enough.

00:58:01

That's the good news. That's what we're leaning into.

00:58:04

So if you're like, "I don't know about this Christianity thing,"

00:58:07

I want you to hear me say this Christianity thing

00:58:09

isn't give your life to Jesus

00:58:11

and all your dreams are going to come true.

00:58:13

In fact, the testimony of many of us, some things got harder,

00:58:17

but everything got richer and deeper and better.

00:58:21

And so we have God here saying, no, no, no.

00:58:22

And you know that the book of Hebrews says that

00:58:25

Jesus is an empathetic high priest.

00:58:28

How cool is that?

00:58:29

I have a good friend that says he knows it's scary to be us.

00:58:35

The Gospel of John, right before He raises Lazarus from the dead,

00:58:38

He steps in and the sisters are wailing and mourning,

00:58:40

and all His friends are heartbroken.

00:58:42

Lazarus has been dead for days.

00:58:44

And Jesus weeps. He weeps.

00:58:49

We have an empathetic high priest

00:58:51

who's with us in the mess.

00:58:53

This is what begins to orient in your hearts when you're in it

00:58:56

if you'll look up and not navel gaze or look around.

00:59:01

And then this is so big, the gospel when you look up

00:59:08

what you learn is that nothing is ever wasted.

00:59:14

Not a single tear. Not a single hardship.

00:59:17

Not a single heartbreak.

00:59:19

I don't know how you guys do things here at Crossroads.

00:59:22

I probably should have asked before I got here,

00:59:24

but I mean, on this front at The Village when we do baptisms,

00:59:28

we let people kind of share a little bit of their story

00:59:30

before we baptize them.

00:59:31

And one of the things, and I guess if you're a church person,

00:59:34

this doesn't resonate with you,

00:59:35

but like people get in the water,

00:59:36

they say some crazy stuff in that water.

00:59:39

Like we had some NC-17 stuff mentioned in the water.

00:59:43

I had my son one time on the way home

00:59:45

asked me what was wrong with swinging.

00:59:47

And I was like -- not, not, not what you do in the backyard.

00:59:50

That's a whole 'nother thing, right? Ask your mom.

00:59:52

And so, like, think about this moment

00:59:54

where people get in the water

00:59:57

and they testify to their darkest stuff. Right?

00:59:59

This is what -- I mean they get in front of thousands of people

01:00:02

that they don't know

01:00:03

and they're like, "Man, I was having an affair

01:00:05

with other men and other women.

01:00:07

And here's where Jesus met me."

01:00:08

"Or I was addicted so bad, I'd led to this. Man, I did."

01:00:11

And they're sharing these deplorable, wicked things

01:00:16

in front of strangers, like, what's happening?

01:00:18

Redemption is happening.

01:00:20

They're testifying in that moment that there is no sin

01:00:23

with more power than the Cross of Jesus Christ.

01:00:25

And then they're saying in the water that

01:00:28

they're not only not under wrath,

01:00:30

but they're a trophy of God's grace.

01:00:31

They're saying to everybody in the room,

01:00:33

"You have not out sinned the grace of God.

01:00:35

I have not out sinned the grace of God, and all the struggle,

01:00:39

all the suffering, all the brokenness,

01:00:41

redeemed and weaponized against the author of it all."

01:00:45

Right? This is redemption.

01:00:48

And then let me do this.

01:00:51

There are 66 books in the Bible, 66 books.

01:00:57

They all tell the same story. I don't know if you knew that.

01:01:00

That just blows my mind. 1500 years.

01:01:03

I mean, written on three different continents,

01:01:05

three different languages, all with crazy unity.

01:01:08

And if you wanted to distill the Bible down into three words,

01:01:12

here are your three words: God with us. That's the story.

01:01:17

So the creator, God of the universe creates man and woman

01:01:19

and puts them in the garden.

01:01:21

The Bible says He's walking with them in the cool of the day.

01:01:24

Sin enters the universe and fractures it.

01:01:26

Humanity spins into chaos, murder, death, perversion,

01:01:30

wickedness, twisted, nonsensical madness.

01:01:33

And what does He do? He moves towards them in love.

01:01:36

He rescues them, through Moses, out of slavery

01:01:40

and establishes a tabernacle right in the middle of them.

01:01:43

So here's what He did, He had all of them orient their tents

01:01:47

around this mobile center of worship

01:01:50

where His visible, tangible presence was.

01:01:52

And in the morning when you opened up your tent,

01:01:54

there's the tabernacle with either a pillar of fire

01:01:56

or a cloud resting on it to let you know God was there.

01:02:00

And because we're dumb, they rebelled again.

01:02:02

And what does God do?

01:02:04

He moves towards them in love by sending them David.

01:02:06

And David establishes the temple

01:02:08

and the glory of God falls on the temple.

01:02:10

And it's not like we do, like,

01:02:12

the visible manifest presence of God is in the temple.

01:02:16

And what do we do? Because we're dumb, we rebel.

01:02:20

And so God, the Son, second person of the Trinity,

01:02:23

co-eternal with the Father

01:02:25

condescends and puts on flesh and blood

01:02:29

and dwells among us.

01:02:31

Emmanuel. What does it mean? God with us.

01:02:37

And He goes to the Cross.

01:02:38

And on the Cross He absorbs all of God's wrath

01:02:41

towards all disobedience

01:02:43

to those who had put their faith in Him.

01:02:45

And He resurrects on the third day as evidence

01:02:48

that the bill has been paid in full.

01:02:49

If there is no resurrection,

01:02:51

we're all still stuck in our sins.

01:02:52

There is a resurrection, none of us are that believe in His Name.

01:02:55

He ascends to the Father and He sends the Holy Spirit

01:02:58

to dwell in the soul of the believer. God with us.

01:03:04

Jerusalem's cool.

01:03:05

You'll be no nearer to Jesus Christ in Jerusalem

01:03:08

as you are in your living room.

01:03:10

Why? Because the Spirit of God dwells inside of you.

01:03:13

The Spirit of Jesus

01:03:14

came to live inside of you when you became a believer.

01:03:16

This is the story of the Bible.

01:03:18

So I want you to watch how this starts to orient us.

01:03:21

So suffering comes. It's not if it comes, it's when it comes.

01:03:24

And it could be catastrophic

01:03:25

or it could just be death by a thousand cuts.

01:03:28

Are you tracking with me?

01:03:29

It's not a big thing. It's just like another thing.

01:03:32

And if we get this, like,

01:03:34

if we get this, what I'm sharing God with us,

01:03:37

then what ends up happening is

01:03:39

we can look to Christ on the Cross,

01:03:41

we can lift up our heads out of the situation

01:03:43

where we gaze upon the beauty of Jesus.

01:03:45

We can know that all of our sin,

01:03:48

all of it, past, present and future,

01:03:51

is fully, freely and forever forgiven.

01:03:53

All of your sin was future sin when Jesus died on the Cross.

01:03:57

Look at me. God does not love some future version of you.

01:04:01

It's you right now, like, it's you right now. [applause]

01:04:06

It's not -- He's not waiting for --

01:04:07

He's not looking at you now and wanting a mulligan.

01:04:10

It's not like you were a good idea 2000 years ago

01:04:13

and now He sees you

01:04:14

and He's like, "God, I wish I wouldn't have done that."

01:04:16

That is not our God.

01:04:18

He knew what He was buying on that Cross.

01:04:22

Why do you think it's so grotesque?

01:04:23

Why do you think it was so violent?

01:04:25

Why do you think it was so painful?

01:04:26

He knew what he was buying: you at your worst.

01:04:30

Not you at your best, you at your worst.

01:04:32

That's what the book says: that while we were yet sinners,

01:04:36

Christ died for us.

01:04:38

You know that memory that you try to avoid

01:04:39

that if you think about it you feel nauseous?

01:04:42

That moment that you did

01:04:43

more than you thought you were capable of?

01:04:45

That thing you're trying to always push out of your head?

01:04:48

He knows, and He's moved towards you.

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