The Truth About God | Anchored Week 1

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You were made to be brave.

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You were born to make a difference.

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God designed you for heart pumping, joy filled adventure

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and we're here to guide you to that adventurous life.

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Crossroads Church. - Hi, my name is Brian Tome.

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I'm the founding and senior pastor at Crossroads.

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I have to give my full title and the things that I do because some of

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you don't recognize me. Yeah, I've got a little -- a little this

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going on. A little scruffage going on, a little beard starter kit

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going. Why is that?

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That looks -- I know I'm going to get to it in just a little bit.

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I'll talk about that later. But I also want to talk about why it is

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you haven't seen me for a few weeks because

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here at Crossroads we believe that the voice of God

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comes through more than just one person.

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We believe that we need to hear diverse people

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and diverse perspectives to get a full understanding

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of who Got is, that's why I willfully and willingly

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give up teaching time for other people to do it

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who do just great job.

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Chuck has done great.

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Kyle's done great.

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And what's going on today is going to be

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really, really cool as well.

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And we want to connect with you. We know that there are so many things

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that are uncertain in our times.

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You know, if you're struggling, if you want to talk with somebody

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or just you've got nothing better to do,

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you want to hang out and find somebody laugh with,

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we could do that with you, too.

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Go to Crossroads.net and we will interact with you

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and pray for you or meet any needs that we can.

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Well, today we start a new series called Anchored.

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It's on the historic beliefs of the Christian faith.

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What is it that actually makes the Christian faith?

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We initially were going to call this series Creed,

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but we don't want to be confusing because

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some of you go, "Creed?

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Can you take me higher?"

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Remember that Scott's Stapp, Creed, get it?

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or Michael B. Jordan.

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Watch it. I'm telling you watch the Creed series.

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It is amazing.

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But the real creed, the original creed was the Apostles' Creed.

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It was this assimilation of core beliefs

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of non-negotiables that the early followers of Christ

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just saw if you're going to be a follower of Christ,

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if you're to be a Christian, this is what it is.

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This is what it means.

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And we're gonna cover those things during this series.

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Why is that? Because we live in turbulent times,

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because there are unsual abnormal, freaky,

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unexpected things that are happening all around us right now.

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It's not just what's been happening over the past nine weeks.

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Can you believe it's that long?

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Nine freaking weeks?

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It's not just the last nine weeks,

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it's what happens in the future.

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What's unemployment going to net out at?

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Is there going to be an economic recovery?

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Will I ever be able to do this again?

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Well, I do -- when do I?

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There is so much uncertainty that in times of uncertainty,

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with all the waves that are happening,

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we need be anchored.

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We need to know what it is we're rooted in.

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We need to know what is our source of life,

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what is our source of reality, what is our source,

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our filter for understanding

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all the things that are happening with us.

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Jesus is the greatest source, He is the greatest filter.

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He's the greatest anchor that anyone has ever known

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and that you can ever know.

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He is time tested.

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He is weighty, but there is a way to understand Him

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and to understand the God of the Bible.

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And that's we're talking about in this series.

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It's called Anchored.

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Let's get started. - In Ephesians 4:14, it says this:

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I'm Chuck Mingo, one of the teaching pastors at Crossroads.

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And for the next five weeks, we're gonna talk about

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what does it mean to be anchored?

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We're gonna do that by looking at the Apostles' Creed.

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You know, in the 2nd and 3rd centuries,

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followers of Jesus recognize there's a lot of confusing beliefs

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about who God is, who Jesus is,

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and they knew that a false faith wouldn't help anybody

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in a time of trouble. And so they put together a summation

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of the core fundamental teachings of scripture,

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about God, about Jesus, about the Holy Spirit,

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so that every follower of Jesus, not just in their day,

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but in our day, could have an anchor.

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Behind me is Old St George's church.

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This is a church that actually some years ago

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burned down and it almost was destroyed forever.

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It's been a great revival story to see this building

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once again be a church.

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And the reason is because it was built on a firm foundation.

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- In the 2nd and 3rd century, just like today,

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there were a lot of opinions on what it meant

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to believe in Jesus. His followers knew this was a problem,

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so they worked together to write formal statements

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about what those non-negotiable beliefs were.

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They called those statements creeds

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and one of the most well-known and enduring

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is the Apostles' Creed.

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For 1700 years, these are the truths

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that Christians have anchored themselves to.

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- And today, I want to talk about the anchor within the anchor,

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the first sentence of the creed which says

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I believe in God, the father almighty,

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creator of heaven and earth.

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Now, if you claim to be a Christian, you're like,

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"Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course I believe that about God."

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Hey, not so fast.

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I want to challenge you

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that you can be a Christian in name only

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and actually not believe in the God of the Bible.

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I once heard it said you can't outlive your beliefs.

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What that means is no matter what you say you believe,

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how you live your life is what determines

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what you actually believe.

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So many of us are being misled and we don't even know it.

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We're being misled by two very accepted

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and yet very wrong views of this God, creator,

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maker of heaven and earth.

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And in a minute, I'm going to tell you what those two are,

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because I don't want you to fall into either of them.

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There is a belief system that many people,

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even those who call themselves Christians,

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have fallen into for years.

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And it actually leads to utter hopelessness.

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I'm going to call it Jedi-ism.

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I'm standing in the bell tower of Old St George

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and just being here, I'm reminded of how big God is

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as I overlook the city.

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In fact, the only reason this bell tower is still here

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is because of the firm foundation of this building.

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You can see behind me where this was impacted in the fire.

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But it stands today because the foundation was firm.

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Yet as I look out over the city, I'm reminded

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that there are many people who would not stand in a fire.

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And that's because their foundation

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is really no foundation at all.

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The scientific term for this dangerous belief system

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is pantheism, but I call it Jedi-ism, like I said,

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because it's a belief that God is more of

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a general force than an actual person, a being,

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a personality that wants relationship with you and with me.

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And you might be a pantheist if

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you don't believe there's real evil in the world,

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but you just think it's all shades of gray.

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You might be a pantheist if you believe that

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all religions basically follow the same God.

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They just give that God different names.

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You might be a pantheist if you listen to the universe

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to speak to you or you think that fate is guiding your life.

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Or you might be a pantheist if you believe that

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God is everywhere and God is in everything.

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See, I call it Jedi-ism because let me --

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let me be clear, I'm a big Star Wars fan.

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I love Star Wars. In fact, Disney+, please accelerate the release

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of season two of Mandalorian.

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My family and I can't wait.

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What a great way to spend our summer.

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I'm a big Star Wars fan, and in the world of fiction,

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it's neat to think about a general force

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that's kind of out there.

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But in my nonfiction life, I want a God who is right here.

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I want a God who is present in my life.

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I don't want a force, I want a relationship with a being

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who can know me and who can love me.

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So why is pantheism so popular then?

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I mean, isn't it common to hear people talk about

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New Age spirituality or healing crystals

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or all these kinds of things?

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Yes, very popular.

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And you know why? Because with pantheism,

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I can say God is in me or God is around me

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and therefore, I get to determine truth

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so you can't question me.

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But wait, can we just pause and tell the truth?

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If you and I get to be the ultimate arbiters

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on what's right and wrong in the world,

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this world is in big trouble.

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That's why the Creed summarizes this core belief

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that I believe in God, the Father Almighty,

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Creator of heaven and earth.

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God is a person and He's a powerful person

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and He is the creator of everything.

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There's another dangerous belief system

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that many Americans fall into.

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Actually, 15 years ago, sociologists studied American teenagers.

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So these are people who are now 30 years old,

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they're adults, to try to describe

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what they really believe in terms of their spiritual faith.

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And they actually came up with a term for it:

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Moralistic Therapeutic Diesem,

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which basically teaches that God gave us

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moral demands early, you know, in the Bible,

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but religion is basically there to make us

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feel better about ourselves.

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And God is not involved in our everyday lives.

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And again, I know you're like, "I don't believe that.

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I don't believe that's true." But it's not what you say.

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It's how you live your life.

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So you might be a deist.

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You might be a deist if you only allow God to have an advisory role in

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your life and you're really not into total surrender,

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which is actually what God asks for.

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You might be a deist if you pray on occasion,

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but when nothing happens from your prayers

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you assume that prayer doesn't work.

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Or you may be a deist if when there's pain in life

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and things get hard, you actually accuse God

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and blame Him for not being present to take away your pain.

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I have to confess that last one really convicts me.

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I have to confess my own MTD.

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You know, nothing reveals what you really believe

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about God like difficulty and suffering.

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I would love to say that in the midst of the quarantine,

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with the challenges that I face relationally

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and other challenges in my life, that I've just been

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a strong Christian leader through it all.

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You know, always thankful, "God is good all the time."

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That is not true. I've had moments of failure.

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I've had moments of weakness. And I've had this through line of

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blaming God, of even accusing God.

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And you know what? I've had to repent and just say,

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"God, I'm not understanding who You are.

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I'm not operating in the belief of who You really are.

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You don't tell me that I'm going to have

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a life free of suffering, but You do promise

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to be with me in the middle of it."

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Maybe you can relate to that.

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Maybe you can relate to the challenges of believing

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that God is with you when things are painful

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and when things are tough.

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But I have to ask myself why.

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Why do I fall prey to this?

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You know why? Because, again, Deism is a great belief system

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in our modern sensibility, because Deism basically says,

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"All right, if God's not in control,

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then I get to be in control."

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Are you seeing the through line here,

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whether it's pantheism or deism?

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It always boils down to who's going to be

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in control of your life?

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So we could say that Deism is really me-ism

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and that's why the words of the Creed are so grounding,

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they anchor us in a deeper truth

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that God is the creator of heaven and earth,

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that He's above us, that He's in control even of our lives.

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Psalm 27:10 says this:

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I know if you've ever thought about this.

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I know for some of us fathers and mothers forsaking us

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is a part of our story, it's a painful part of our story.

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Maybe the father who wasn't present,

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maybe the mother who walked away, whatever it is,

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all of us eventually will be forsaken by our parents.

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I'm really thankful that I had 44 years to enjoy

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relationship with my dad.

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But you know what? My dad passed away last year

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and I've been forsaken in that way.

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My father, my earthly father is no longer present

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to meet the needs of an earthly father.

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We will all be forsaken by our parents at some point

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because our parents are finite and their lives will end.

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But God is infinite and God is still creating things.

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Or I should say this, not only is He creating things,

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but He is recreating things.

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Look at this building. I am standing on the balcony of Old St George

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Church. This is a church that for 25 years was not a church.

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This is a church that some five years ago

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had its steeples burned in a fire

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and people thought this building is done.

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But I am standing in what is a re-created space

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where, before the quarantine, every weekend

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there were thousands of people who experienced God here,

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who got to connect with God in this way.

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And, you know what? I believe it will be used for that purpose once

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again. This building is a visible and physical reminder

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that our God is not done, that our God is still

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in the business of taking the rubble of lives

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and rebuilding them. Our God is still in the business of healing

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and saving and delivering.

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In fact, it actually tells us this where it says:

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I love that.

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This work of salvation, the work that Jesus came to do

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in you and in me, of taking my broken soul

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that was separated from God and reuniting it to Him

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through grace, that work is an ongoing work.

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It doesn't say that I just was saved,

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but it says I am being saved.

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Right now I'm being saved.

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Right now I'm being renewed.

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Right now God is birthing new life in me

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and He's doing that in everyone who follows Him.

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1 John 4:16 says this:

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Do you know God loves you?

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Do you know how much God loves you?

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And do you believe it? I mean, like in your bones, believe it?

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Like right now things might not be going well,

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but you are not abandoned believe it.

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I mean, like right now, knowing that that thing

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that you think can never be redeemed,

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that God is in the process of redeeming it, believe it.

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Do you believe that? Because if you do, that will anchor your life

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and you will be able to rise up again.

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- God as Creator is really a powerful thing

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to say about God, because being creation is powerful.

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There's something you get to know about God

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when you get into a vast, wide open space.

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Oh, I hear a Dixie Chicks song.

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I've got to scruff on me because I just got back

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from a overland trip with some friends.

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We camped the whole time, we camped in six states.

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And when I get outside of my normal surroundings,

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like here on my front porch, when I get outside

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and see things, I see God, I experience God.

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This is just one of the things that I said

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when I got off the side of the road,

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they stuck and iPhone in my face

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that might mean something to you right now.

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I've been out in God's beautiful creation.

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I just keep thinking of the beginning of that Creed:

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God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

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Some people just get too upset about how did God create this?

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How long did God take to create it?

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What was the whole process? All that's fine.

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Truth is, He is the creator.

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Something created all of this.

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There was a design of beauty where God is both

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an engineer and an artist.

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And you can't help but be in a place like this

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and feel closer to the heart of God

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and more bewildered by His wonder.

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Well, just as God is Creator, we want to be like Him.

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That means that we get to be in the creation process

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or the re-creation process because

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there are broken things all over our world.

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And one of the ways that we engage the church

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is we step into the void

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and our generosity helps to fuel that.

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If you're a generous person or if you're a tither,

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they're giving back 10% of -- the first 10%

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of whatever God blesses you with to your home church,

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you can go to Crossroads.net

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or you can text Crossroads at 313131

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as we put those resource to work

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and as we try to be about the work of recreating

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this world that God loves so very, very much.

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So let's take a look at some of the things that we're doing,

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because your generosity has been utterly astounding.

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Tens of thousands of pounds of food

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have gone to hurting and hungry people

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right in our communities during this time.

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Let's take a look at what that looks like.

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- Hey, I'm Tim Senff and I'm the Mason community pastor

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here at Crossroads. And we're having a food drive this morning.

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And we got the word out, sent the bat signal out

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over social media, an email just a few days ago.

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And it's incredible to see people who are driving in,

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dropping off food with just a few days' notice

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and during a time when people are locking down,

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when people are isolating, we're saying,

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"Let's go be the church.

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Let's go be a blessing

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and let's surround our community with love."

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- When you root out false beliefs about God

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and replace them, anchor your life in the kind of

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truths that the Creed talks about,

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your faith will stand the test of time.

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Just like stained glass is an art form

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that has stood the test of time.

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I'm at classical stained glass studios.

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And the artist Terry told us something interesting

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about this art form that's existed for thousands of years,

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just like the Creeds have existed for thousands of years.

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He said stained glass is one of the few works of art

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that you will buy that will actually outlive you.

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These Creed's, these timeless truths,

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they will outlive us, but for our lives

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they become anchors that can hold in a storm.

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Hebrews 6:19 says this:

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What is that talking about?

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That curtain is actually a reference to

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the Old Testament temple where God lived,

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His presence live behind a curtain

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in what was called the most holy place.

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And no one was allowed to go there

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to be in the presence of God.

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But what this verse is saying is there is a way

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God has made for you and I to get behind the curtain

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and to experience intimate relationship with God Himself.

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You can be anchored in Him.

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And Thank God He exists.

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The Creed puts it this way:

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I believe in God, the Father Almighty,

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Creator of heaven and earth.

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Because, think about it, if God could be anything,

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wouldn't you want God to be personal?

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Wouldn't you want Him to be a God who

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actually cares about you, not a generic force

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out there in the universe somewhere,

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but a God who is a person, a being that

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you can have relationship with?

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And wouldn't you want him to be powerful?

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Wouldn't you want to know that He has

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the power to change things, to make things happen?

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And wouldn't you want to know that He is present?

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That He is available in your right here right now life?

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Because if you had a God like that, and I want

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to submit to you that that is exactly who God is,

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having a God like that,

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it gives you hope in hopeless times.

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It means that in the midst of your life in upheaval,

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you don't have to lose hope.

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You can be anchored to something firm.

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That also roots you and anchors you in purpose.

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Your life has meaning if that's the God who created you.

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And for you and I, it anchors us in an identity

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because I know now that the shape of my life

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is meant to look like the shape of my God.

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It's meant to look like Him in love.

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It's meant to look like Him in mercy.

00:25:52

It's meant to look like Him in justice.

00:25:53

It's meant to look like Him in truth and creativity

00:25:56

and beauty in caring about people, in growing.

00:26:00

That's what it means to be rooted in this kind of God.

00:26:06

You know, I used to read that verse in Hebrews

00:26:08

and think that it meant that God was the anchor.

00:26:11

But that's actually not what it's saying at all.

00:26:13

It's saying that hope in God is the anchor.

00:26:16

Having confidence in God is the anchor.

00:26:18

You know why Old St George is still standing

00:26:20

and still a church? It's because the foundation is anchored in rock,

00:26:24

immovable rock. Do you know why an anchor is able to keep a boat

00:26:28

solid in the middle of the storm at sea?

00:26:31

It's because it gets a chance to go down

00:26:33

to the bed of the ocean and grip itself,

00:26:35

root itself to the solid ground that is the ocean floor.

00:26:39

And that's exactly what God is for you and I.

00:26:42

God is not the anchor, but God is the solid ground

00:26:45

in which we can grip our anchor, we can grip our hope,

00:26:49

and it can sustain our lives.

00:26:52

Are you anchored? Are you anchored in God?

00:26:56

If you're not, you can be.

00:26:58

He's made a way for you to be anchored in Him.

00:27:02

In fact, the next line of the Creed says:

00:27:05

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord.

00:27:10

I don't have time to go into that today.

00:27:12

That's for next time.

00:27:14

But I will say this, if you want to be anchored in God

00:27:18

then you've got to do the hard work.

00:27:19

In fact, if you are a Christian,

00:27:21

if you are a person who follows Jesus,

00:27:22

I want to challenge you to do this work because

00:27:25

I think we can forget and we can get off

00:27:28

in different beliefs that are not the core.

00:27:30

They're not the anchor that we first came to God with.

00:27:33

So I want to challenge all of you,

00:27:34

no matter where you are in the spiritual spectrum,

00:27:36

to consider where you're placing your hope.

00:27:39

What are you anchoring your life to?

00:27:42

Is it this personal, powerful, and present God

00:27:45

or is it a general force?

00:27:47

Or are you buying into the lie

00:27:48

of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

00:27:50

and thinking that God is not involved in your everyday life

00:27:53

and ultimately religion is just here

00:27:54

to make you feel better about yourself?

00:27:56

I want to challenge you to do the hard work

00:27:59

and where you find those false beliefs to repent,

00:28:02

to change your mind, to turn from that lie to the truth,

00:28:07

the Life-Giving truth that there is a God

00:28:10

who is worth anchoring your life to.

00:28:13

Let me pray for us right now.

00:28:15

God, I just pray that You would be working like a heart surgeon,

00:28:19

that You would be revealing things in our heart

00:28:22

that are lies that are not true.

00:28:24

And as You expose them in love,

00:28:26

that we would just agree with you

00:28:28

and we would walk away from those lies

00:28:31

and we would live in Your truth.

00:28:32

I believe that whoever is listening right now

00:28:35

is invited into a relationship with you.

00:28:37

You love them and You have truth for them and goodness for them.

00:28:41

God, I pray that we would receive it and as a result,

00:28:44

our lives would be ready to stand and withstand any storm.

00:28:50

In Jesus' name. Amen.

00:28:54

Singing is one way we can respond to

00:28:56

the Life-Giving truth that God is worthy

00:28:59

of anchoring our lives to.

00:29:01

These ancient words remind us that God is a personal,

00:29:03

powerful, and present hope for all of us.

00:37:40

- That was good stuff today.

00:37:41

I hope you agree. It's great being re-grounded or ground for the

00:37:45

first time on exactly who God is.

00:37:47

Our God wants us to engage in our world.

00:37:50

One of the key things we've done as a church

00:37:52

for years and years and years and years

00:37:54

has been our one day serving blitz called Go Local.

00:37:58

It's going to be a bit different this year for obvious reasons,

00:38:01

but make no mistake about it,

00:38:02

we are not retreating inside of our homes.

00:38:05

We want to be a blessing to people in our communities.

00:38:08

To get ideas as to how to serve go to Crossroads.net/golocal.

00:38:17

It's going to be a big, big, important day for our communities.

00:38:21

Please do that. Next week we're going to get back to our series on

00:38:24

Anchored. We'll look at the next line in the Apostles' Creed

00:38:28

because they're trying to make sure that

00:38:31

no matter how much is swirling around here,

00:38:33

we're able remain stable in the midst of the storm.

00:38:37

Not just stable, but also able to thrive.

00:38:41

That can happen. That will happen.

00:38:43

We'll see you next weekend. - Hi, my name's Patty Abrams.

00:38:52

- And I'm Devron Abrams. - And we're part of the Crossroads Louisville

00:38:55

community. A couple of weeks ago, our neighbors basketball goal

00:39:00

blew over when we had a bunch of storm winds.

00:39:02

And after learning that their daughter is graduating

00:39:06

this year without a ceremony

00:39:09

and that she's practicing really hard

00:39:12

to stay conditioned for basketball,

00:39:14

Devron and I felt really calle- d to help them out.

00:39:17

So we took it upon ourselves to reach out

00:39:19

to our Crossroads community and ask, you know,

00:39:23

if anyone that would be willing to donate

00:39:25

and contribute to purchasing a new goal for this young lady.

00:39:28

- They all said they were in

00:39:31

and they all really enjoyed contributing

00:39:33

to give this girl something that we knew she would love.

00:39:37

So we went and bought a new basketball goal.

00:39:40

And we walked it over to their house

00:39:42

and they were just so grateful.

00:39:45

- She was immediately practicing, shooting around.

00:39:49

And her father and us also stayed around

00:39:53

to just kind of shoot around and kind of enjoy

00:39:57

the work that we put in setting up that goal.

00:40:00

- It was really cool to see our community pitch in

00:40:04

all together, to have those people that you could just say,

00:40:07

"Hey, we know somebody in need

00:40:10

and we feel like we're called to help,"

00:40:12

and they feel the same way.

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