You are a King or Queen

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- Welcome to Crossroads Church. I'm Andy.

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And crossroads is a church that

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you can be a part of no matter where you live.

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In service today, we're going to see that with baptisms.

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Baptism is this really amazing moment

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when you tell the world, "I belong to Jesus."

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It's an outward expression

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of an inward transformation

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that's already taken place

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through personal faith in Jesus Christ

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as our Lord and Savior.

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And it's a declaration that you're going

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to follow Jesus as best you can.

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This symbol represents a commitment that you've made,

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and when I say that you can be

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a part of Crossroads from anywhere,

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you might be like, "Well, how are you

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going to baptize me through this screen?"

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No, we're not, but we actually have people

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all over the world getting baptized

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as a part of this community.

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We have regional leaders all over the country

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that when someone wants to get baptized,

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man, we will come to you

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and we will help make it happen.

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Some of my favorite moments over the last year

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have been seeing friends, seeing community members

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get baptized on multiple continents

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and states all over the country.

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It has been a beautiful thing.

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One of my favorite moments was actually

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getting to baptize my buddy Sean in a pool in Florida

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and then like the next week, see folks get baptized

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in the snow in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

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It was really, really wonderful.

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Man, some of these stories of people

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all over the country who've been baptized.

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And if you're a follower of Jesus

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and haven't publicly declared that through baptism,

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you can just head to Crossroads.net/baptism

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or look at the happenings in the app,

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and we'd love to walk with you on that journey.

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Now, as we sing these songs,

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we're going to be seeing people make this decision,

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and this is a huge celebration

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of what God is doing in their lives today.

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Let's get started right now.

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This is our prayer.

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Sing it again!

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This is what our response sounds like.

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- Isn't that amazing?

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I love seeing what God is doing

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in lives all across our church.

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If you're interested in getting baptized

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or just want to learn more, hey,

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you can head to crossroads.net/Anywhere

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and click on the baptisms link there

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or in the Crossroads Anywhere app.

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And we would love, I would love to help you

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take the next step on your journey with God.

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Now this holiday season, we want to make sure

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that every kid experiences joy and love,

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so we're helping with families

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that can't afford gifts.

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Christmas Gift Drive is about empowering parents

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to be the heroes for their kids this Christmas.

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You can also help create a Christmas miracle

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for kids whose parents are incarcerated,

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some who haven't actually seen their parents in years,

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and you can be a part of a special Christmas event

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where they get to spend some quality time together

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and the parents get to hand their child a gift.

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Go to crossroads.net/CGD to learn more.

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And thanks to everyone who participated

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in the Thanksgiving Food Drive.

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Because of you, we had 10,212 boxes filled.

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That means over 10,000 families

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will be able to have a more meaningful

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and stress free Thanksgiving this year.

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Thanksgiving Food Drive and Christmas Gift Drive

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are really big ways that our community

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is generous around the holidays,

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but generosity in this place is a year round

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characteristic of who we are as a community.

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The Bible lays out this principle time and time again,

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that we are blessed so that we can be a blessing.

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So, week in and week out, people like us

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constantly give back to God

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through this place called Crossroads.

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If you'd like to join in that,

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you can heat it Crossroads.net/give,

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or you can give in the Crossroads Anywhere app.

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And today we're continuing in

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our Real Encounter series, and we actually

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filmed this earlier this year

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before the war started in the Middle East.

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But we still think it's important to show this series

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because God's story is revealed through

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the very land itself, and it still has importance

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for our lives today. Let's get started.

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- The Story of God told through the land of Israel

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is written in the pages of Scripture

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and carved by the very finger of God into the land itself.

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Join us on a journey to discover your spiritual roots.

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Uncover the six essential elements

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of identity deep within you,

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revealed through the life of King David

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and perfected in the life of Jesus.

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The fourth season of Real Encounters with God: Downline.

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All new on location in Israel.

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New places, new encounters, real encounters with God.

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- We are back with real encounters here in Israel

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talking about this primal DNA,

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these six essential elements of identity.

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Today, is king and queen, something you say

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God wants inside all of us. Talk about that.

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- The king, if you're a male,

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queen, if you're a female, does two things.

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They want to create order. Kings create order.

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And they also want to expand their territory.

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This is not to say that all of us should aspire

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to run a corporation or, you know,

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be a political leader. No, it's not that.

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It's you have a domain where God has placed you,

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and that domain needs to be ordered,

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and God wants you to grow that domain.

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That's in us.

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It's not like responsible we have to do.

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You already have the capacity to do that. It's in your DNA.

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- Well, I know that I think about this idea

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of being a king or a queen, and I get maybe

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a little like, "Oh, I don't want to be royalty."

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But maybe you're saying that

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this is actually in someone like me.

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- Yeah. This is this is a problem

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where our images of royalty, king, queen

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is always of somebody abusing people

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or taking too much taxes. - Right.

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- That's awful. We're not talking about that.

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We're talking about in its purest form

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what you're meant to do.

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Jesus was a king, right? He was a king, obviously,

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but he didn't abuse that.

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We're not talking about abusing people

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or building up your own kingdom

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for your personal financial war chest.

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We're just saying you have to steward something.

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There's something that God has given you

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to take care of and grow.

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There's a realm or a sphere

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you need to be king or queen of,

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all kinds of things that we were laughing,

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not laughing, just noticing really affectionately.

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Whenever we get out of Tsuriel's van, he gets out,

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or when we've been away for a while

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and he comes back to it, he gets out. What's he do?

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- He gets it. He makes sure

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I haven't been having any coffee in it.

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- He walks around the van

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seeing if there's any new dents on it.

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Every time he picks us up in the morning,

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it's always clean because that's part of his kingdom.

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And he, like, he has to have it in order.

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And of course, his kingdom, he wants to grow his business

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and have more people like us over and all that stuff.

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It's just natural. It's in him.

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No one ever said to you, "Hey, take care of your van

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and try to grow your business."

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It's part of our spiritual DNA and it's good.

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- Well, where do we see this in, like, David?

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I mean, he's called King David, obviously,

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so probably everywhere.

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- Probably seeing his name, King David.

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- The question is, where do you go to talk about it?

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Where did he -- he ordered chaos, as you've said.

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Where has he done that?

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- Okay. We thought about, of course,

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the city of David, Jerusalem.

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You know, the capital city he was already a king before.

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But we see that something is changing there

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when the entire nation actually received him

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as their king, and he need to do some order.

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You know, he need to rule over everyone.

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It's not only his personal tribe.

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So the city of David, when you go there

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and you understand what he was building there

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and what he was doing, and how from that place

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he was actually controlling not only in this region,

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but all over, he expand his kingdom.

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This is a great center of command,

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I would say, for his character as a king.

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- You already mentioned Jesus as King.

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- Yeah, well, right, He's a king of a kingdom.

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Of course, He was mocked for that.

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And they made fun of Him for that.

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But King of the Jews over His head

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while He was being crucified.

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They mocked Him, because to your point earlier,

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He didn't do the things that normal kings do.

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He didn't try to subvert people.

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He didn't power up on people.

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He didn't try to bring wealth to Himself.

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And they didn't understand, what,

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you could actually be a king and not do those things?

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They were making fun of Him.

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If you were a king, You would call in armies

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to save yourself, and He never did that.

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So we're talking about a different kind

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of king and queen that our culture needs.

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And really we need to do it.

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When we're not operating in this, our life doesn't work.

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- So Tsuriel what's a location that reflects

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that in the life of Jesus?

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- Well, you know, we would say if we would expect to,

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to have a king, maybe to go to a palace,

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but this palace that we are choosing

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and we do choose a certain kind of a palace,

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it wasn't Jesus' palace, although He came as a king

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in a different way, of course.

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We going to go to the palace where Herod used to be.

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Of course, we're not talking about Herod himself,

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but it was Herod's palace that Pontius Pilate was at

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when they bring Jesus.

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You know, now He's been taken.

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He was beaten. He was humiliated by the people there.

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And He was taken to a palace,

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which we're going to go to David Citadel in Jerusalem

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and to understand what was going on there.

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- I love that.

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- On our way to Herod's palace, Tsuriel took us

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to an amazing archeological discovery

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at the Temple Mount, the spot where Jesus

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had to choose between the earthly kingdom

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and a spiritual one.

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- So Hannah and Kyle, here we are in Jerusalem,

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the capital city of Israel, and we're looking now

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at where the temple used to stand,

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meaning we are talking about Mount Moriah.

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Today we see mostly walls, of course, stones, massive stones.

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But behind those stones, these are supporting walls,

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actually, for a huge complex that was built

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by Herod the Great. Okay?

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So he wasn't the person who built the Second Temple,

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because there was already a second temple built

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by the people who came back from Babylon.

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But he takes the second temple that was quite poor,

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and he turned it into a beautiful complex, you know,

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with a huge platform up at the top of Mount Moriah

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that tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands

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of people can all come and worship over there together.

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- Wow.- Okay, so they are coming and they pray here.

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Of course, for the Jewish people,

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this is the most important site because

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it's relevant to Abraham and Isaac and Mount Moriah.

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And later on, David, you know, the king and Solomon,

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his son, who is building the first temple

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being destroyed, and the second temple

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that is being built up there by the people

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who came back from Babylon, and later on,

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the famous one that is known by Herod the Great.

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So there is a lot of archeology over here.

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- Okay, so I know just on the other side of that wall

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is the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall.

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- Right, just behind it.

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- There's Jews there probably praying right now.

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- Right.

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- Why does that matter so much to the Jewish people?

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- Because for the past 2000 years,

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there were many centuries the Jews were not allowed

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even to go up there.

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Even today, they are not really allowed

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to go and pray, only Muslims are allowed to pray.

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Jews can go and visit. - On top of it.

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- On top of the Temple Mount.

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But Jews are not allowed, Israel prevent that

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because of political reasons, of course.

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So through those centuries they were always looking

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for the closest place they can get to the temple.

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Now remember, when we speak about the actual temple,

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the most holy part of the temple

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was the western side of it, the Holy of Holies.

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So if you place the temple up there

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on top of Mount Moriah, the Holy of Holies

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would be as close as possible to the Western Wall.

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That's why. Okay, so there is more to see.

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We will go and we will see there is a stone,

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a specific stone that was found here

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after big parts were excavated. Okay.

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We will call it a corner stone, although

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it's not the corner stone that you put at the bottom.

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It was the one that was up at the highest point.

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And I just want you to see that.

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- Okay. - Okay. - Let's go.

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So here we are looking at that stone

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that we were just speaking about that used to be

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up at the top at the highest spot where there

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those two massive giant walls are joining together.

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And you can see the shape of it.

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It was at the corner up there,

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and there are Hebrew letters here,

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the same Hebrew letters that we read today.

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Jesus used to read the same Hebrew letters,

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which is an amazing thing for me.

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And we see it says to the House of Trumpet.

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What does it mean? Probably over here,

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when the Shabbat was about to start,

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they will blow the trumpet from this corner

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of the temple so the people of Jerusalem

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would hear that and they would know, "Okay,

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we have to stop whatever we are doing,"

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because during Shabbat you're not supposed to work,

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right? - Right.

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So that's the way that they would be announced,

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the Shabbat is entering with several blows,

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and this is the letters that represent the whole thing.

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Now we're looking at the street,

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this beautiful street, and of course,

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when the Romans are destroying the temple

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in the year 70, the first thing they do,

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they push those massive stones from the top

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down to the street that was down here.

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And you can see how it was damaged from the weight

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of this massive stones that fell down below.

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And you can see those pile of stones,

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which is also 2000 years old stones

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that are still piled there.

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The whole thing was covered.

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So only in the 20th century when it was excavated

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they finally found this stone down at the bottom.

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We read about the temptation of Jesus.

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Satan is taking Him after He was baptized

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by John the Baptist in the Jordan River.

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And one of the three things that Satan is doing

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with Him is bringing Him to the temple,

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to the highest point in the center, to the pinnacle.

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Now, was it this one or not?

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We don't know if it was at the eastern side

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of the temple or the western side of the temple,

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but he bring Him over here, and he start

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with trying to tempt Him not to achieve

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or not to get eventually to the Cross.

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- So, this is the place where Jesus

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could have skipped that walk to the Cross and chose not to?

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- Yes, it's one of several.

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Yeah, I think through His three years of ministry,

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Satan offered Him again and again.

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Also when He was in Galilee feeding the 5000,

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He saw that the crowds were so happy

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they wanted to turn Him to their king.

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This is what it says. So he left.

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So there is always that temptation.

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And I think we are also tempted in this world.

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Satan is the genius, you know,

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master in offering us those temptations.

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Don't go to where you supposed to go.

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Don't follow the track you're supposed to follow.

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And we just need to always focus on the target,

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which is Jesus. That's it.

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- I've got to say that that whole explanation

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changes this from just being a big blob of a rock

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to being the place where Jesus, who is King,

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could have chose a different way to have a kingdom.

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And he didn't; He chose to die, so that changes the game.

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- Right. He chose to walk a different path.

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I find it fascinating that we don't know

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the actual path to the Cross,

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but we do know the destination.

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This is the Holy Sepulcher right behind me.

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It's a place that serious scholars and historians

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do not debate as the location of the Cross and the tomb.

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For 2000 years, this site has been marked and it's firm.

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See if you want to follow Jesus as a king or a queen,

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wherever you are, the call is really simple.

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He put it this way in Matthew 16:

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To follow in the downline of David

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and the downline of Jesus as a king or a queen

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is very, very simple, it's take up your cross,

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lay down your life for the people

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who you are called to serve every single day.

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See, you don't have to travel

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to the other side of the world to do this,

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you can do this wherever you are right now.

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The reality is there is a spiritual kingdom,

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but God also gives each of us

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our own physical realm to rule.

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Brian takes us on a trip 14 generations back

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to the location where David ruled his earthly kingdom.

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- Here in the city of David, this is

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where David starts establishing his kingship.

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Two things that kings do, and all of us

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are kings or queens or rulers,

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whatever you want to call it in our primal DNA

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is the need for two things.

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And this is who you are: one, to bring order;

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two, to expand territory.

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David is king.

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When Saul finally dies, he is king.

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He's down towards -- in the tribe of Judah,

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that's where he's hanging there.

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But the other tribes of the nation of Israel,

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they're not accepting him as king.

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It's not until about seven years

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after he becomes king of Judah that

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the other tribes actually accept him.

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And so he does a really politically smart move.

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He takes his basic castle, if you will,

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and moves it right here to this area,

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to what is now known as the City of David.

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It was an area that was held by the Jebusites

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that was a warring faction, not an Israel faction,

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but a warring faction that the nation of Israel

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just could never get control of, because

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it's a very fortified city and walls.

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You're seeing these walls here right now.

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David, he's a warrior, it's one of his identities.

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All of our identities, too.

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David has this creative plan.

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He figures out how to get in.

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Some people think he came up through

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the water shaft and the drainage system.

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However he does it, he gets in here

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and he takes the city.

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So we're entering in right now inside of

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one of the ancient water shafts.

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They've got nice stairs here, but this shaft,

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they believe, is where all the water would come to eventually.

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And so David's men, whichever shaft that they used,

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his mighty men to come into the city, which is what they did,

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they snuck into the city, his mighty men.

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And then they got to the gates, opened the gates,

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and then David's army could come in and take the city.

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However, they got in the initial water shaft,

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they in all likelihood eventually made their way

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to this water shaft, which you can imagine

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what feat of strength that would have been,

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climbing up these steep walls,

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basically in your Birkenstocks with water around.

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They were true bad asses.

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Fascinating being in history

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and seeing what a person can do

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when they're driven to take territory.

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One archeologist, his name was Warren,

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he discovered this shaft,

00:31:24

therefore, it's known as Warren's Shaft.

00:31:26

And it was believed for the longest time,

00:31:28

and a lot of people still do believe right now,

00:31:30

that this was the shaft that David's men

00:31:33

initially climbed up in order to

00:31:35

get into the city and overtake it.

00:31:38

Again, if it wasn't this specific shaft,

00:31:40

it would have been something like this

00:31:42

and a massive element of adventure to take territory.

00:31:53

This is known as the Canaanite Pool.

00:31:55

It was water that was at David's time

00:31:57

and before his time, and again, we're just looking

00:32:00

at the feet of adventure and massive wildness

00:32:04

that his mighty men had.

00:32:05

They likely came into this

00:32:07

where it was filled with water at that point,

00:32:09

came into it, swam up into it,

00:32:11

got up around these walls or crags,

00:32:13

and just kept climbing and looking for any shaft

00:32:15

that would take them up into the city.

00:32:17

Love that.

00:32:20

Oh, man, we are in it right here.

00:32:22

It was actually in these waters in this place

00:32:25

where Solomon was anointed king. Pretty wild. Woo-ooo.

00:32:34

Deeper and colder. Pull these pants up a bit.

00:32:51

Whew! That was an adventure. Good stuff.

00:32:58

It's amazing that this is preserved for us

00:33:01

here in Israel, that we can see what this looks like.

00:33:05

These would have been the walls,

00:33:08

the fortification for the Jebusites,

00:33:11

and the things that David had to overcome

00:33:13

to take this territory, and the things that

00:33:16

enabled him to maintain order

00:33:19

as he expanded his territory,

00:33:21

the nation of Israel's territory

00:33:23

here at the city of David.

00:33:27

Man, I'll tell you what, I want to help you today

00:33:31

figure out how to get water in your life,

00:33:33

create order, and how to increase your territory.

00:33:38

Both of these things are critical.

00:33:40

Both these things are seen in David's life.

00:33:42

Both these things are seen again and again

00:33:45

and again through the rest of the Bible

00:33:46

and in the life of Jesus.

00:33:52

So the city of David marks the place where

00:33:56

David really cemented his political kingship.

00:33:59

But to be clear, David was a king

00:34:02

before he was a political king.

00:34:06

In the book of 1 Samuel 17, David talks to Saul

00:34:10

before he goes into battle against Goliath

00:34:12

about what he's done, how he's kept order in the past.

00:34:16

1 Samuel 17:34-36:

00:34:29

He said, "Look, I brought order.

00:34:32

I brought order to my flocks.

00:34:33

When something was coming in to dismiss

00:34:36

and eliminate life, I brought order

00:34:38

and eliminated that life. I can do this."

00:34:41

Kings create order,

00:34:43

whether they have political office or not.

00:34:45

When Goliath was creating chaos

00:34:48

against the nation of Israel,

00:34:49

David stepped in and brought order

00:34:51

and brought Goliath down. That's what they do.

00:34:54

We need order.

00:34:55

I mean, I'm reminded of that right now.

00:34:56

Over here we see on the other side

00:34:58

of the Kidron Valley, there's a valley here

00:35:01

on the other side of the city of David.

00:35:03

You can see how people live.

00:35:05

There's got to be order for how these houses are.

00:35:08

And actually, these houses are

00:35:10

a modern day representation for what

00:35:12

the wall would look like here in the city of David,

00:35:16

which, by the way, would have the wealthiest people

00:35:19

at the top because they were the upper class.

00:35:22

The upper class and lower class

00:35:24

all was about where you were on the wall

00:35:27

in terms of your house, because the uppus class,

00:35:30

that's a word, I like making up words.

00:35:32

Upper class is the King's quarters himself in the top.

00:35:36

So the closer you were to him, the more money you had.

00:35:39

Kind of fascinating as you take a look at

00:35:41

a bit of that archeological history.

00:35:43

There has to be order in the kingdom.

00:35:45

However it comes about, there has to be order.

00:35:47

And the book of 2 Samuel 5, it says this:

00:36:13

Here we see again David was seven years in Hebron,

00:36:18

south of here, the Nation of Israel

00:36:20

started to come to order when

00:36:21

all the elders and rulers realized,

00:36:23

"Hey, we've got to have a king."

00:36:25

And David establishes his kingship here in this area

00:36:28

and brings order everywhere.

00:36:31

Order is critical,

00:36:33

but you can't just discipline yourself to order.

00:36:37

You have to recognize you already have this in you.

00:36:39

God has put it in you. It's in your spiritual DNA.

00:36:42

He doesn't use these terms, but James Clear

00:36:44

is basically talking about this.

00:36:46

He's kind of the modern guru on habit formation.

00:36:49

He wrote Atomic Habits.

00:36:50

He's got some really great stuff to say.

00:36:52

Here's one of the things that he says:

00:37:12

I'm helping you to believe that

00:37:15

what you are is a king or queen.

00:37:19

That's who you are. It is.

00:37:21

We have to understand that's our identity

00:37:24

and bring that into reality to start

00:37:27

ordering all of our world,

00:37:29

whatever your world looks like.

00:37:31

When I was 22 years old I had the identity of a king,

00:37:34

but I was not ordering as a king.

00:37:36

I was a slob.

00:37:38

I was actually a 22 year old boy

00:37:40

who had just had a messy room my whole life

00:37:42

and then had a messy apartment.

00:37:43

One of the worst fights Lib and I ever had,

00:37:45

we were not dating yet.

00:37:46

I was 22 and she comes into my apartment

00:37:50

and it is -- it is trashed.

00:37:53

I mean, just trashed.

00:37:54

Me and my buddy lived in that apartment.

00:37:56

I didn't like to do dishes.

00:37:58

I hated dishes, still don't like them to this day,

00:38:00

but I do them because I want to bring order.

00:38:02

And so we would just not do dishes ever.

00:38:05

And sometimes I would say, "Well, I got to

00:38:07

get rid of these dirty dishes."

00:38:08

So I would just throw them away and buy new dishes. I

00:38:11

don't want to pay for garbage pickup,

00:38:13

so we just take our garbage

00:38:15

and keep putting it outside our door

00:38:17

until finally it was stacked up chest high

00:38:20

and we had a mice problem all over the place.

00:38:22

Yeah, that's right. Sorry, landlords.

00:38:25

I was an awful tenant because I was a boy

00:38:29

who didn't understand he was actually a king

00:38:31

who would bring order today.

00:38:33

I'm not hyper neat, hyper nitpicky,

00:38:36

but I don't like going into my garage

00:38:38

and stuff is -- it is sometimes,

00:38:40

but it always drives me crazy.

00:38:42

I don't like seeing dirt around my house.

00:38:45

I don't like in my office things to be in disarray.

00:38:48

I don't -- the organizations I lead,

00:38:50

there's got to be order. That's the way we are.

00:38:53

It's not that I'm telling you

00:38:54

to take on an identity that you're not.

00:38:56

I'm saying this is who you are because

00:38:59

God says this is who you are.

00:39:00

When God creates human beings,

00:39:03

He creates kings and queens.

00:39:05

Genesis 1:28 puts it this way:

00:39:07

God blessed them.

00:39:20

God talks about our need to reproduce,

00:39:23

to expand our kingdom, which I'm going

00:39:24

to talk about in a moment.

00:39:26

But He also talks about us to have dominion. Dominion.

00:39:30

That doesn't mean to have destruction.

00:39:32

It means to have dominion.

00:39:34

All of us should be environmentalists

00:39:36

of some way, shape or form because

00:39:38

God has blessed the earth

00:39:39

and He's blessed the earth with kings

00:39:42

and queens to take care of the earth,

00:39:45

to have dominion over the earth,

00:39:47

to bring order to the earth,

00:39:50

to bring order to your apartment,

00:39:51

bring order to your business.

00:39:52

Bring order to your dating relationship,

00:39:54

bring order to your marriage,

00:39:55

bring order to wherever you are.

00:39:57

Because when you go there, the king has arrived,

00:40:00

the queen is on on the premises.

00:40:03

Mother Teresa, she was a queen.

00:40:05

I went to visit her place in Calcutta, India.

00:40:08

Man, she's trying to bring order to

00:40:13

the poverty situation on those streets.

00:40:16

And when you go to her place,

00:40:17

I snuck a photo of her living quarters,

00:40:21

a little itty bitty bitty one room.

00:40:22

And she had her motivational speech

00:40:25

written on a door that she saw every day.

00:40:28

It was a quote from her spiritual mentor.

00:40:30

And it said, "My vocation is love."

00:40:34

We're not talking about powering up

00:40:37

and dominating people and pushing people down.

00:40:40

We're seeing that she was a queen

00:40:43

who brought order to the streets,

00:40:46

and she did it out of love.

00:40:49

Let's not be thinking about

00:40:50

all the awful kings and queens who abused people.

00:40:53

That's not who you're meant to be,

00:40:54

but you're meant to bring order.

00:40:56

In fact, when there's chaos, it's because

00:40:58

there's not a queen that's doing her job,

00:41:01

and there's not a king that's expanding that order,

00:41:04

which we're going to look at right now.

00:41:12

We're in one of the coolest places

00:41:15

in all of Jerusalem.

00:41:17

We're at the top of the city of David.

00:41:19

That means, the top of it, we're actually

00:41:22

in the palace of David himself.

00:41:25

That's what most archeologists believe.

00:41:28

I believe that because there's

00:41:29

a big, big, wide open area here

00:41:31

that only a king could afford

00:41:33

and would need to entertain people,

00:41:35

have royal events, all that stuff.

00:41:37

And they would have these big beams that

00:41:38

would span the top that were the cedars of Lebanon.

00:41:41

When the Bible talks about the cedars of Lebanon,

00:41:43

it's talking about this beautiful high end feature

00:41:47

that only somebody who's really, really rich could have.

00:41:53

When David took the city of David from the Jebusites,

00:41:58

he expanded his territory,

00:41:59

he expanded the territory of the nation of Israel.

00:42:02

When God tells all human beings to be fruitful

00:42:06

and multiply, he's basically telling us

00:42:09

as kings and queens, expand your territory.

00:42:12

Now, not everyone's going to have a family

00:42:14

to expand the territory of.

00:42:16

Very few people are going to lead

00:42:17

an organization to expand the territory of.

00:42:19

But wherever you are, whatever is under

00:42:22

your auspices, your purview,

00:42:26

that needs to be ordered and you need to expand it,

00:42:30

however that takes, whatever that looks like.

00:42:33

This is the area of one of David's

00:42:37

most bitter mistakes, most awful sins.

00:42:40

And it started a whole avalanche

00:42:45

of negative things that took place.

00:42:47

Here in this palace the nation of Israel

00:42:50

is coming into springtime, and during springtime,

00:42:54

that was when kings would head out into their lands,

00:42:58

because the marauders would come onto their lands,

00:43:01

and they needed spring time to thaw out the ground

00:43:04

and have the chariots be able to go out there.

00:43:06

And they would beat back people had taking their land

00:43:08

and expand their territory more.

00:43:11

That's the background for this passage in 2 Samuel 11:

00:43:29

Did you hear what it said?

00:43:31

It said, times when kings go to war,

00:43:35

basically David didn't. He stayed in Jerusalem.

00:43:39

David is a warrior king on top of that.

00:43:42

Normal kings go out to war.

00:43:44

David didn't, he stays back.

00:43:46

He starts to coast.

00:43:48

I tell you what, whenever a person starts

00:43:50

to be happy with what they have, it's a bad sign.

00:43:54

A really bad sign.

00:43:55

Now we should be content in all circumstances,

00:43:57

the Bible tells us to do that.

00:43:58

But I know a lot of people use that Bible verse t

00:44:00

o be content in all circumstances,

00:44:02

to justify their immobility and justify

00:44:05

their lack of pushing out and expanding things.

00:44:08

You're meant to be fruitful and multiply.

00:44:09

You're meant to be a king who has a territory

00:44:12

that is growing, and when you're not on that,

00:44:16

you're going to have more time

00:44:17

to do more stupid things

00:44:19

and bring more pain to your life.

00:44:20

This is what happens with David.

00:44:22

He sees up here on the top of the city,

00:44:26

highest, highest part in the city,

00:44:28

he sees a beautiful woman, Bathsheba.

00:44:31

And he sees her and he propositions her

00:44:34

and they have a adulterous affair

00:44:36

and it leads to him killing somebody in cold blood,

00:44:39

her husband, his friend to cover up his sin.

00:44:41

It's just awful, awful, awful.

00:44:44

And it all starts because he chooses

00:44:47

to stay home and not expand territory,

00:44:49

which is what a king is supposed to do.

00:44:51

Is David a good king?

00:44:53

He's known as a good king.

00:44:56

Actually, he's known as

00:44:58

the greatest king in the nation of Israel.

00:44:59

He's known as a man after God's own heart.

00:45:02

All that stuff is true.

00:45:03

But let's be clear, when we call him

00:45:06

a man after God's own heart, it's because

00:45:08

he was willing to repent of his sin.

00:45:11

When he's known as the greatest king

00:45:13

in Israel's history, he's known that way

00:45:15

because the holistic trajectory of his life

00:45:19

was to honor God, and he was really impressive.

00:45:22

He had some amazing times expanding the kingdom

00:45:26

of God, bringing order to the nation of Israel.

00:45:29

It was really, really impressive.

00:45:31

But after this Bathsheba passage,

00:45:33

the rest of his kingship is really checkered.

00:45:35

He never really gets back on his game.

00:45:38

He never expands the territory.

00:45:39

In fact, chaos erupts

00:45:41

and he never really returns to the king

00:45:44

he could have been taking territory

00:45:46

and bringing order. It doesn't.

00:45:48

This sin with Bathsheba just marks

00:45:51

just a negative turn in his kingship,

00:45:54

and really, for the most part, for the rest of his life.

00:45:57

Let's take note of this, friends.

00:45:59

It is not good when a man or a woman

00:46:00

doesn't want to expand whatever God's given them.

00:46:02

Not good.

00:46:04

There may be a time when you've got

00:46:07

to bring order to what that thing is,

00:46:10

but if all you're doing is bringing order

00:46:12

and cleaning things up and reimagining things

00:46:14

and reorganizing, that's all you're doing,

00:46:18

you're not honoring the call of God to be a queen.

00:46:22

You're not.

00:46:23

Why do I say this?

00:46:24

Because God said it in Genesis 1

00:46:26

and Jesus said it in Matthew 28.

00:46:28

He says this:

00:46:40

Go therefore, go therefore into all the world.

00:46:44

He said go. He's telling us, telling us,

00:46:45

"If you're a believer, I don't mean you to stay home

00:46:48

and just be moral. Be a good Christian.

00:46:50

I don't mean -- I don't mean just stay back

00:46:52

and just have nice Bible verses.

00:46:54

I mean you to go and take territory,

00:46:57

expand My Kingdom."

00:46:58

Am I a good pastor if I'm moral

00:47:00

and don't have an adulterous affair?

00:47:02

Yes. I've never had an adulterous affair.

00:47:04

Don't ever plan on having an adulterous affair.

00:47:06

But that doesn't make me a good pastor.

00:47:08

It even doesn't make me a good pastor

00:47:09

if I'm reading the Bible every day

00:47:12

and praying every day. Those are good.

00:47:13

But those things are just to equip me

00:47:16

to do what God has asked me to do,

00:47:18

which is bring order to the church

00:47:19

and expand the church.

00:47:22

Healthy things grow.

00:47:25

That doesn't mean every organization

00:47:27

or every family is going to add numbers every year.

00:47:30

It doesn't mean that.

00:47:32

Big, mature trees are healthy

00:47:33

and they don't grow a couple of feet a year anymore.

00:47:36

But even then, they drop leaves, they add leaves,

00:47:38

they have some offshoots.

00:47:41

Whatever organization you lead,

00:47:43

if you lead an organization,

00:47:44

if you're in your family, whatever it is,

00:47:47

you've got to look for ways to grow it.

00:47:48

I look to grow my family,

00:47:50

even though I'm not having kids anymore,

00:47:51

by having, say, a Compassion International child.

00:47:54

I'm expanding my territory

00:47:55

and blessing people and loving people.

00:47:59

We as a church have had times at Crossroads

00:48:02

where we've had to go into a season of order.

00:48:05

There was too much chaos, too much disrepair,

00:48:08

just unhealthy in many, many ways.

00:48:11

I said, "Okay, we got to get this right

00:48:14

so that we can start doing the Great Commission,

00:48:17

so we can start growing again."

00:48:19

You are called to bring order.

00:48:21

You're called to expand territory,

00:48:24

whatever your territory is.

00:48:27

I don't want you to feel this ominous responsibility

00:48:30

to lead some big organization or something like that.

00:48:32

No, you just need to grow where it is and start small.

00:48:35

Jesus says once in a parable

00:48:38

known as the parable of the talents, He says,

00:48:40

"You have to start small.

00:48:42

You've been faithful, "he says," in a little,

00:48:45

and I'll give you more." Be faithful in a little.

00:48:50

Be in tune with your primal DNA of being a queen,

00:48:53

and be faithful with a little.

00:48:57

Admiral McRaven gives us some really good coaching

00:49:01

I want to end our time with. Here's what he says:

00:49:24

In other words, make your bed.

00:49:27

It's a small thing, what he said, just a small step.

00:49:29

Make your bed. Bring order. Do some things.

00:49:32

Expand some things. Start small.

00:49:33

Friends, I'm not asking you to go change the world

00:49:36

and lead a fortune 50 company and start a megachurch

00:49:39

or start a new tech stock that's going to take off.

00:49:43

If you do any of those things, great, wonderful, wonderful.

00:49:45

It's about where you are right now,

00:49:46

being faithful with what God has given you right now.

00:49:50

Do the small things, own your identity,

00:49:53

bring order, and expand your territory.

00:50:00

- Hey, thanks for watching

00:50:01

and don't let your experience end here.

00:50:03

The Crossroads Anywhere app is filled

00:50:05

with ways to connect with God

00:50:06

and with other people all week long.

00:50:09

One thing I love is

00:50:10

the weekend follow up questions in the app,

00:50:11

and after every weekend, you can spend time

00:50:14

processing and thinking about what God is saying to you.

00:50:17

Download the free app for iPhone or Android today.

00:50:21

Next week on Crossroads.

00:50:26

- Next week on Real Encounters with God,

00:50:28

we explore David, the Renaissance man.

00:50:31

Not only a giant killer and king,

00:50:33

but also an artist, creator, and musician.

00:50:36

The six essential identities

00:50:38

God has woven into our primal DNA

00:50:41

are the key to having a life that works.

00:50:44

Don't miss out on discovering your spiritual roots

00:50:47

and unlocking the God given identity

00:50:49

of creator within you.

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