TRUST | Win This Year: Week 3

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- Are you ready to win? I sure am.

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Let's win.

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Win This Year.

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WIN!

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SCHULER: Ok, so do you ever go down a rabbit hole on social media

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and then go, what did I just watch?

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Maybe you felt like that just now

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and you're watching church going, "What did I just watch?"

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Well, if you're tuning in for the first time or for the hundredth time,

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we're so glad to have you here at Crossroads.

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And know that you are in the right place,

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regardless of what you believe.

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And it wasn't a fluke.

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You are watching the right video.

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Yeti and Bigfoot are part of our branding for this series.

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Why? Because we can and because it's fun

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and because we believe in fun as a church.

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You know, New Year's brings on New Year's resolutions

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and I've already broke like half of mine.

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Maybe you have too.

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You might say, I feel like I've lost.

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I also feel like I lost yesterday when I totally gave in

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to my crying kid when I knew I shouldn't have.

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Maybe you are feeling already this year like you've lost a few things:

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Your Fantasy Football League.

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Who is going to win the national championship?

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Maybe you screamed at your kid five minutes ago.

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I want you to know that as a church,

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we actually believe that you can Win This Year.

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And that's what the series is that we're in right now.

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And I want to give you a moment to win right now.

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Regardless of what your loss was five minutes ago or five days ago,

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you could win right now.

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And so we're going to pull Yeti and Bigfoot right back out

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and they're going to have a little competition.

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And to sweeten the deal, when I say I want you to win,

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it's not just like, "Oh, I want you to feel good and win."

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I want you to actually win something.

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I want you to win this whole Yeti pack,

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including a true Yeti cooler, the best cooler money can buy

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if you ask me, or Nick my husband.

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We love Yeti and we want you

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to get to have a Yeti cooler and win something.

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So if you text 313131 who you think is going to win

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this next competition, text Bigfoot or Yeti,

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and you could actually win something this year.

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- Win This Year with Bigfoot and Yeti.

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Today's competition: Chess.

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That's a curveball.

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So they're playing chess right now.

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Bigfoot is thinking.

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Yeti he makes his move.

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And it's check.

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No, wait, it's checkmate!

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Yeti wins!

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Bigfoot is not taking this loss well.

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Oh, man.

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And the winner is Yeti!

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SCHULER: And Yeti wins, no surprise.

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I mean, how many of us are Yeti fans?

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I mean, at least I love Yeti, the brand.

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So hopefully you won.

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If you did you're entered to win that at the end of this series.

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And we really believe that God has the best for you

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and He wants you to Win This Year.

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He wants us to Win This Year.

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And part of winning is learning to trust in God

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and putting that into practice day in and day out.

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And part of trusting is telling God that we want to trust Him.

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I don't do the best at trusting Him all the time,

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but I do tell Him very, very often that I want to trust Him more

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because I want to win and I want my relationship

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to be deeper and better with Him.

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And so we're going to sing some songs right now

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that are an opportunity for us to tell God

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that we trust Him and that we want to trust Him more.

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So whether you believe these words fully

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or you want to believe them deeper, go out on a limb,

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trust God right now and say these words out loud to Him through song.

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- Every voice in the room.

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SCHULER: If you actually sang some of those words out loud, well done.

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You took a step towards trusting God just now

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by worshipping Him through song.

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And you know, today we're talking all about trusting God

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and how to Win This Year.

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And one of the ways that I believe that you could win this year

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is if you step out and you let God use you as a leader.

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That's right, I believe God wants to do something

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unique and powerful through you as a leader of people.

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And so we actually have an opportunity

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at Crossroads for you to do that.

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You could be a group leader this year.

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We have a new group season starting in February

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that lasts just eight weeks.

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And you could commit to being a leader in your city

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for other people who want to go towards God

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and who want to Win This Year.

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You don't have to be some spiritual expert or guru.

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We want to help resource you and equip you to be a great leader.

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It just takes you stepping out and trusting God

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that He actually wants to do something good in you

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and through this year.

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And you can apply to be a leader today.

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So head to Crossroads.net/groups

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or chat with us on the Crossroads website.

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We'd love to get you started.

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And one of the great things that you could do as a leader this year

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is you could actually host a Super Bowl party.

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February is coming soon.

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And with February comes the Super Bowl.

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And with the Super Bowl comes at the Super Bowl of Preaching.

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It is our most fun weekend at Crossroads all year long.

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It is a huge spectacle.

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And if you've got friends who think,

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"Man, I don't know if churches is for me

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or I don't know if church can actually be fun,"

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this is the weekend to invite them to watch with you.

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And you could do that by throwing a Super Bowl party

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and throwing on the Crossroads Super Bowl of Preaching

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as the pre-game show.

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And if you're a group leader, we want to help resource you

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to do this and make your party even better.

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So apply to be a leader today

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and start planning your Super Bowl party for the weekend.

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But today we're talking about trust.

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And one of the areas that we can trust God is in our finances.

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And specifically we could trust God with

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our first 10% of our finances, called the tithe.

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When we choose to give that money to the church,

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when we choose to give that money to God.

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And there's someone who's in our community

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who had a really cool experience with choosing

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to trust God with his finances for the first time.

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And so I want to read you just part of his story

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and what he e-mailed in.

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He said: After the first service from Brian

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on The Blessed Life, our financial series,

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I was really struggling internally on what to do,

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wrestling with what I felt was right versus the reasons

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of why we couldn't make the full tithing 10% commitment work financially.

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I decided to take my mind off the whole subject

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and just lay Words With Friends.

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The very first letters I received spelled the word trust.

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And then the first advertisement

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was for financial budgeting app.

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I was like, "OK, God, I hear you."

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We decided right then to make a commitment.

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Maybe today is your day to make a commitment to tithing

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for the very first time.

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And it's a matter of trusting God with your finances.

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You could do that by heading to Crossroads.net/give

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and set up a one time gift or a recurring gift

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and just see what God does next.

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And while we do that,

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let's see what the Super Bowl of Preaching is all about.

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- So what is the Super Bowl of Preaching, you might ask?

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Well, it's just friendly competition among four preachers.

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We won't beat you over the head with a Bible.

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We'll just share what we can.

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It's a real pick me up.

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The goal is to have a good time at church

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and hopefully nobody gets hurt.

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It's just a safe place to have some fun

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and hear some truth.

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Right, Pickles?

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What's that?

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Oh, no, no football whatsoever.

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The Super Bowl of Preaching: Ridiculous, also possibly life changing.

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I don't like dogs. I said no dogs.

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We're done here. Go on.

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Go on, Pickles.

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MINGO: It is that time of year again for the Super Bowl of Preaching.

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The smackdown is about to go down and you don't want to miss it.

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I'm telling you, it's going to be a lot of fun.

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And, you know, and it is.

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It is a weekend where we get to really have a lot of fun

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and honestly communicate a powerful message as well.

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It is the best weekend for inviting people in your life

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So I want you to think about who that is,

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if you're watching online, if you're in a building,

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think about the person in your life

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who wouldn't, just wouldn't come.

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They wouldn't be here right now.

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That's the person you should invite to Super Bowl.

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It's going to be incredible.

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And we're really looking forward to you being there

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and you invite your friends and family to be there as well.

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And we've got a powerful message prepared for you,

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so I can't wait for you to hear it.

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Let's pray as we jump in today.

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God, I thank you for this time that we get

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to spend really focused on You and what You have for us.

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God, I just believe You have something for every person here.

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They chose to be here.

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They gave up opportunities to be elsewhere

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because they're communicating, I believe, by their presence

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that they want more of what You have for them and more of You.

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And so, God, I pray that You would give them that today.

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Use my words, use this time, help it to be helpful,

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and God help it to help us grow.

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In Jesus's name, Amen.

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Amen.

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Well, if you haven't been here for the last couple of weeks,

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we're in a series called Win This Year.

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And we're talking about that.

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We're talking about what God has to say

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about you and I winning this year.

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And I don't know everybody here personally,

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but I do know this" If you're here, you want to win.

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You want to win.

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You're here because you want to win.

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I think if you're here, you want to win vocationally,

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whatever it is you do professionally for a living.

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I think you to be great at that.

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I think you want to win in your job.

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I think you want to win at that.

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If you're here, I think you want to win.

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Gosh, you want to win relationally.

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The relationships in your life matter to you

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and the ones that matter the most,

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you would like 2020 to be up and to the right,

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however, you're measuring that.

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You want to win physically.

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You want to win physically,

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whether you call that getting stronger or healthier.

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You want to win physically.

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You want your life physically to look different.

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And I know you want to win spiritually

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or else you wouldn't be at church.

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You want to win spiritually.

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Maybe that for you is less stress, more peace.

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Maybe it's more of my life looking like Jesus lived.

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Whatever it is, you want to win.

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But here's the problem that we all have.

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A friend of mine called it the Monday problem.

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We all have the Monday problem.

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We come here on the weekend.

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We hear something encouraging.

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We say, "I'm going to live differently.

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I'm so glad I came."

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And then this thing called Monday comes, right?

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And Monday comes and all of a sudden there are barriers

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to the promises we made in this room.

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You know? We had our hands up at the end of the service

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and we were ready to walk out on fire.

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And then Monday comes and Monday keeps us from it.

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So what I want to talk about today is actually

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how do we overcome the Monday problem?

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In fact, did you know -- did you know that

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January 19 has been designated Quitters Day in America?

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It's the day when most people are predicted

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to have fallen off their New Year's resolution.

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And I'm telling you, God wants you to overcome your Monday problems.

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So today is really part two of a message that Brian began last week.

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Brian talked last week about how we need tenacity to win.

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And I want to build on that by helping you

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get through the Monday problem with three powerful words.

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They might sound trite. They might sound cliche.

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But I think at the end of our time,

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they're gonna mean something to you that they may not mean right now.

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If you don't hear anything else I say today, hear this"

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How do you get through the Monday problem?

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Trust the process.

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Trust the process.

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I want you to say that out loud with me on the count of three.

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One, two, three: Trust the process.

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I want you to really get this today.

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So I'm going to go back to the black church

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and use a tool from the black church.

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I want you to talk to four people around you

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and I want you to tell them: trust the process.

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So four people around you right now: trust the process.

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You online: trust the process.

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Wherever you are right now: Trust the process.

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Trust the process.

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M. Scott Peck wrote a book, it's a timeless book

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called The Road Less Traveled and begins with these three words:

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Life is difficult.

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Isn't that true? Isn't that true?

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All of us want to win, but we know there are barriers

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between us and winning because life is difficult.

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Life is hard. Achieving goals are hard.

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It's like the philosopher Mike Tyson said,

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everybody has a plan until you get punched in the mouth.

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We all have a plan.

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None of us -- None of us wake up in the morning

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and say, "You know what I want to do today?

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I want to fail."

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No, we all want to win, but the challenge is life is hard.

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And when life is hard, we've gotta trust the process.

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We've gotta trust the process.

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Now, I'e got some friends in this room from Philadelphia,

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from our hometown.

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And so whatever -- as I've been saying this,

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they've been picturing this guy right here.

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This guy's Joel Embiid, as I call him Joel Embiid.

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He is an NBA superstar who plays for the Philadelphia 76ers.

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And he has actually gotten the nickname "The Process."

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Here's why. Because for years the strategy of the 76ers

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to build the organization was basically this:

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find and recruit top notch athletes who then

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get injured and missed the whole year of their rookie year.

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That was the strategy.

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So in the midst of that happening over and over again,

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the management kept saying, "Guys, you've gotta trust the process.

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Trust the process."

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So Joel Embiid was one of those superstars that came into the league

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and like missed his whole first year because he got injured.

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But man, when he is on the court, "The Process" is good.

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"The Process" is good.

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There is improvement happening.

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Now, you know, there's some setbacks though.

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Joel Embiid recently had a setback.

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On January 6 he was playing in a game and he dislocated his finger.

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We had a picture.

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Your finger is not supposed to look like that.

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(gasping)

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Hopefully nobody vomited on that one.

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Take that away. Take that away.

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Your finger is not supposed to look like that.

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But, trust the process, right?

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Trust the process.

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Well, let me tell you something.

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Do you know the Sixers actually won that game?

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And not only did they win their game,

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but Joel Embiid went on the sideline,

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got his finger taped up, came back in the game

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and dropped 19 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists.

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He almost had a triple double in that game.

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Trust the process, right?

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Trust the process.

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I've been watching the NFL playoffs and loving all every game.

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It's been the best playoff season in a long time, in my opinion.

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And we got any Kansas City Chiefs fans in here?

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Anybody watching that's a Kansas City Chiefs fan?

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Yeah, you weren't clapping last week about this time, were you?

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No, you weren't because the Kansas City Chiefs were at home,

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should have won this game and they were down 21 to 0 at halftime.

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It was bad. It looked really bad.

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But they have an incredible quarterback.

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He's an incredible team leader.

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And everybody else looked dejected except him.

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He was going down the sidelines encouraging his players.

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And I don't know what he was saying.

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He might have been saying, "Trust the process.

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Guys, trust the process."

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And literally in the second half, they went on to win that game 51-21.

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Unbelievable. (cheers)

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Patrick Mahomes, man, what a guy.

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It was an incredible game to watch.

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In fact, one of the fans of Kansas City

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really believes in trusting the process.

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And so he was convinced that him being in the stadium

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is the reason they were losing because

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it was another playoff game and he was in the stadium.

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So he told all people around him,

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"If they're losing by 3 touchdowns or more at halftime,

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I'm leaving." And he left.

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He left and they went back and won 51-21.

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So after the game was over, they asked Patrick Mahomes

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what he thought about that fan.

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Let's watch this together.

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REPORTER: Can you talk about the fans and how important they were.

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There was one fan who's now gone viral.

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He left when you guys were down 24-0

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because he said it was in the best interest of the team.

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What would you say to that fan?

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MAHOMES: Watch the next game at home.

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(laughter)

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- Watch the next game at home.

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Trust the process.

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Hey, listen, I know that all of us want to win this year.

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And I want you to know that in order for you to win this year,

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you're going to have to trust God's process.

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Trust is a spiritual thing.

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Look at what it says in Hebrews 11:6, it says:

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Man, that's what the Bible says, that God is a God of process.

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If I know anything about God,

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I know that God is a God of process.

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He is not a God of quick fix.

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He is not a God of easy.

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He's a God of process.

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And we have to trust Him and we have to trust the process.

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But trust is hard.

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I mean, listen, you're among friends here.

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How many people just, raise your hand,

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have a problem with trusting?

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How many people in here are willing to be honest

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and say, "Yeah, I have a problem with trusting."

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Trusting is hard.

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It might be because of something that happened in the past

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or it might be some other reason,

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but we all have barriers to trust.

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Well in this series we've been looking at

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the nation of Israel specifically

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as they are about to inherit the Promised Land.

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This is a promise God made to His people

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years and years and years ago, 400 years,

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particularly from many of the people

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who had been on this journey,

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where the nation of Israel went from being enslaved in Egypt

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to being set free by Moses's leadership,

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but then wandered 40 years in the desert.

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And so as we're watching this nation

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about to inherit the Promised Land,

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we're looking at people who for 40 years

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have know nothing but desert.

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They've know nothing but wilderness.

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And God literally has this barrier that's between them

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and the promise called the Jordan River.

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And it's time to trust the process and cross the Jordan River.

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This is what it says in Joshua 3:9:

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-- Which is this very important piece of furniture

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that sat in the temple, and it represented

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the presence of God with his people.

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It says:

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So God is basically saying to His people,

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"If you trust me, I will do a miracle for you.

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If you trust the process, I will do a supernatural thing

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that you couldn't do in your own strength."

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Now just a little bit about the Jordan River.

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The Jordan River is about 100 feet wide

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at the point where the Israelites crossed it,

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which if you know about rivers, isn't very wide.

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It's not very wide.

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And if it was a trickling stream, which sometimes it can be,

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that doesn't sound like a really big deal, right?

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You know, maybe your feet get wet.

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But of course, it would be like God

00:29:34

to have his people crossing the Jordan

00:29:36

at the most difficult time in the season to do so.

00:29:40

So this is harvest time.

00:29:42

And at harvest time, the Jordan begins to overflow its banks.

00:29:46

And you have a picture of what it looks like

00:29:47

when the Jordan overflows its banks.

00:29:49

So imagine stepping into, not a river that's calm

00:29:52

like the Ohio in the middle of a summer day.

00:29:54

No, imagine stepping into 100 feet of rapids

00:29:57

and you've got to get all your people,

00:29:59

all your livestock, everything across this river.

00:30:01

This was a crazy, crazy, difficult challenge.

00:30:06

And God was asking these people to trust Him

00:30:10

to do something that they had only heard about

00:30:13

in legendary stories.

00:30:14

Does that sound familiar?

00:30:16

Because 40 years ago, God parted the Red Sea

00:30:20

when they were leaving Egypt.

00:30:22

But because those people didn't trust God,

00:30:25

for 40 years they were wandering in circles in the wilderness.

00:30:27

So most of the people who literally were looking

00:30:30

at this bubbling river, this rapids river,

00:30:33

had never seen a river before in their life.

00:30:36

This was their first experience of water.

00:30:38

This was a challenge for them.

00:30:40

And in the midst of this, they faced a Monday problem.

00:30:42

They faced the problem saying, "Yeah,

00:30:44

it was one thing to think that God would be with us

00:30:46

when we were wandering in the wilderness

00:30:48

looking at the Promised Land from a distance,

00:30:50

but now it's time to move.

00:30:51

It's time to trust."

00:30:53

They had to trust the process, and so do we.

00:30:57

That's why it says in the New Testament,

00:30:59

in the book of James 1:

00:31:20

God uses the process to do something in us

00:31:24

and through us that doesn't happen any other way.

00:31:26

Trust the process.

00:31:29

Now, like you, I struggle sometimes to trust the process.

00:31:33

And I can think of a lot of examples in my life

00:31:36

where that trust has been tested.

00:31:38

But one of those examples was actually captured on film.

00:31:42

So we've been looking every week at clips

00:31:44

from something called Phantom Lake.

00:31:46

It was a a bike trip, an off-road motorcycle trip

00:31:48

that I was on, Brian led, our senior pastor.

00:31:52

We went through the Colorado Backcountry Discovery Route.

00:31:54

This is off-road riding, it's aggressive riding,

00:31:57

way beyond anything that I had ever experienced before.

00:32:00

And it was a challenging trip for me every day.

00:32:04

But I want to show you perhaps the day

00:32:07

where I was most challenge to trust the process.

00:32:10

We're going to look at about a 9.5

00:32:11

minute clip.

00:32:12

And as we do that, I want you to watch

00:32:14

how my ability to trust the process was tested on this day.

00:32:21

TOME: When you have momentum, it's easier to win.

00:32:24

I wanted to give these guys a little momentum

00:32:27

in staying on their motorcycle

00:32:29

for longer than 4 minutes at a time.

00:32:31

So I gave them about an hour to ride around the trails

00:32:33

and get their bearings

00:32:34

before we hit our next big pass: Corkscrew.

00:32:51

MINGO: I have a fear of heights.

00:32:53

I have a fear of these kinds of things.

00:32:55

And for me, this trip will very much be

00:32:57

about can I overcome that fear?

00:32:58

Can I do more than what I think I can?

00:33:00

Can I overcome things that I don't know that I can overcome?

00:33:16

I want a role model that for my kids.

00:33:17

I don't want my kids to have these fears

00:33:19

and I want my kids to have a heart for adventure

00:33:22

to be open to new things.

00:33:26

- All right, ready?

00:33:27

One, two, three.

00:33:30

TOME: We all have fear.

00:33:31

I have fear.

00:33:32

When I have fear, I have to remind myself

00:33:35

that fear is just an illusion.

00:33:38

It's nothing that is real.

00:33:40

It's just a fleeting thought that went across my mind.

00:33:43

It's no more real than the fleeting thought

00:33:46

that there's gold at the end of a rainbow.

00:33:53

- Chuck, it's all right.

00:33:57

- One, two, three.

00:34:02

- Good job, Chuck.

00:34:29

MINGO: I broke a bunch of stuff.

00:34:32

I broke my clutch. I broke both Barkbusters.

00:34:35

- Oh, man.

00:34:58

TOME: I wanted Brad on the trip

00:35:00

because I wanted at least one great rider,

00:35:03

and that's exactly what I got.

00:35:04

He was great from start until finish.

00:35:07

I was going to have him running sweeper in the back

00:35:10

so he could pick bikes up, he could push people.

00:35:14

If someone was going to get the Phantom Lake,

00:35:16

they had Brad to thank for it.

00:35:27

- And OK, so let you let off here, right?

00:35:29

- OK. - So you want to keep in it.

00:35:30

- OK. - All right.

00:35:31

TOME: This is very difficult to do.

00:35:33

We're taught that you look where you're going.

00:35:35

No, you want to look where you want to go.

00:35:38

Chuck is looking straight down.

00:35:39

He should not be looking straight down at his wheel.

00:35:41

He should be looking up, up to the horizon.

00:35:44

Momentum is your friend.

00:35:46

If you're only looking down,

00:35:47

you'll never get your momentum and you'll never succeed.

00:35:54

MINGO: I was nervous about my direction.

00:35:56

- OK. We've got you.

00:36:10

TOME: Hey, guys, this is called Corkscrew for a reason.

00:36:14

These are the tightest turns you'll have all trip.

00:36:27

- Three (grunts).

00:36:33

- Push. Push him through those rocks.

00:36:34

Keep going, keep going. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

00:36:38

Yeah. That a boy.

00:36:41

Yes.

00:36:43

Way to go, John. Keep going, keep going, John.

00:37:14

- I don't have it.

00:37:17

I don't have it.

00:37:18

I don't have it.

00:37:34

TOME: The last time I did this trail

00:37:35

with my normal riding crew it was 10 minutes.

00:37:37

Today, it's four hours.

00:37:54

Brad's doing a really, really great job at being an encourager

00:37:58

and trying to patch people up emotionally

00:38:00

and specifically Chuck emotionally

00:38:02

as he tries to sweep them up the top of this hill.

00:38:51

- There it is, there it is, there it is!

00:39:04

TOME: So we get to the top of Corkscrew Pass

00:39:06

and it is amazing, the view is amazing.

00:39:10

The camaraderie is amazing.

00:39:11

I felt like grabbing everybody by the helm

00:39:13

and saying, "see, I told you, I told ya."

00:39:16

The morale is sky high.

00:39:18

The energy is sky high.

00:39:20

The belief that, "Yes, we can do this," is sky high.

00:39:24

No question, this is an emotional highlight for this trip.

00:39:28

MINGO: I'm just so thankful for these guys.

00:39:30

They encourage me.

00:39:31

They put something in me that I didn't have.

00:39:33

And I just wanted to get up one frickin mountain.

00:39:35

And I got up this mountain.

00:41:12

Now, you know why I have this box of tissues up here.

00:41:16

Help yourself if you need one.

00:41:18

I have watched that a time or two

00:41:20

and I'll never forget that day.

00:41:24

And let me just pause and say this:

00:41:27

Today's not about my story

00:41:29

and today's not about what I did.

00:41:32

As you watch that, what's God saying to you right now?

00:41:36

What's the impossible mountain

00:41:38

that feels like you can't climb it?

00:41:39

I want you just have a moment and ask God

00:41:41

that you would lock in on that

00:41:44

as I share with you what I learned on that day.

00:41:46

I learned some things that day about trusting the process,

00:41:49

specifically three things.

00:41:50

The first thing I learned is

00:41:51

that the process is what purifies you.

00:41:54

The process purifies you for where it is that God is taking you.

00:41:58

In the story of the nation of Israel,

00:42:00

as they look at this barrier, the Jordan River,

00:42:03

look at what Joshua says to the people in Joshua 3:5, he says:

00:42:12

That word consecrate means to set yourself apart.

00:42:15

It means a cut away from the normal,

00:42:17

to cut away from what everything and everyone else

00:42:20

might be doing so that you can have

00:42:22

a unique opportunity to experience and encounter

00:42:25

God doing powerful things through you.

00:42:27

And I had to be purified that day.

00:42:30

There was something that needed to be set apart in me

00:42:33

that day to be able to do that.

00:42:34

Brian said this the first week of the series.

00:42:37

And I want to repeat this question.

00:42:38

You know, if you want to win this year in any area,

00:42:40

I've got to ask you the question:

00:42:42

How badly do you want it?

00:42:44

We've got to have a pure motive for pursuing

00:42:47

the things that God wants us to pursue.

00:42:49

And if we're going to pursue those,

00:42:51

He's going to ask you to set yourself apart.

00:42:54

There are students in here and maybe school

00:42:56

is challenging for you, but you've got a goal.

00:42:57

There's a reason why you're there.

00:42:59

You might need to set yourself apart from the party scene.

00:43:02

You might need to set yourself apart from

00:43:05

sets of friends that you've already made

00:43:06

so that you can experience God doing wonderful things

00:43:09

through you and you pursuing and completing your school goals.

00:43:12

Maybe there's a habit in your life that you want to build.

00:43:15

Maybe there's a habit in your life you want to break.

00:43:17

You're going to have to set yourself apart

00:43:19

from the normal things you've always been doing.

00:43:21

If you do what you've always done,

00:43:22

you're going to get what you've always gotten.

00:43:25

So you've got to set yourself apart in that way.

00:43:27

If you want to grow spiritually, I'm telling you,

00:43:29

there is no secret, there is no magic pill.

00:43:32

You've got to set apart time to be in God's presence.

00:43:35

You will be changed in His presence.

00:43:37

Set apart time to be in community with people

00:43:39

who are going the direction you want to go.

00:43:42

As you do that, you'll experience it.

00:43:43

Maybe it's your finances this year.

00:43:45

Maybe there are some new places you want to go financially.

00:43:47

If that's the case,

00:43:48

you're going to have to set yourself apart

00:43:49

from the spending habits that have gotten you to where you are.

00:43:53

Dave Ramsey says it, it might sound cliche,

00:43:55

but it makes so much sense.

00:43:56

He says:

00:44:02

You've got to have your motives purified.

00:44:05

I'll be honest, you saw it there,

00:44:07

that was hard for me.

00:44:09

And doing it for bragging rights,

00:44:11

doing it for personal pride

00:44:13

was not going to get me up that hill.

00:44:15

I literally had a moment when I was on the side

00:44:18

and I thought about my kids and I said,

00:44:19

"You know what?

00:44:20

If this was just my story, I would quit.

00:44:23

I'm done."

00:44:25

But I thought about my kids and I said,

00:44:26

"What do I want my kids to think about this day in my life?"

00:44:30

And that's what got me up the hill.

00:44:31

My kids became my why.

00:44:33

I posted this on my Instagram this morning.

00:44:35

And the heading that I had with this picture,

00:44:37

with good friends of mine, Chris and his daughter Ashlyn,

00:44:40

was that I'm training to run

00:44:42

my fastest half marathon in May for the Flying Pig.

00:44:45

And they're helping me to train for that.

00:44:47

But my why is not because I want to have a PR in my race.

00:44:51

You know, my why is?

00:44:53

I want to be the first male in my family that I know of

00:44:56

that doesn't die of type 2 diabetes or its complications.

00:44:59

That's why I'm doing this.

00:45:00

That's my why.

00:45:01

And it purifies your motive when you get to a deeper why.

00:45:06

And the process is what does that.

00:45:08

The process purifies it.

00:45:09

What's your why?

00:45:11

Maybe God has you in this process

00:45:13

because He wants to purify your why.

00:45:16

The second thing is the process prepares you.

00:45:20

The process is what prepares you

00:45:21

for where it is that God is taking you.

00:45:24

Again in the story of the nation of Israel,

00:45:26

Joshua says this to the people:

00:45:41

Part of what happens in the process

00:45:43

is God prepares you for where you have never been before.

00:45:48

I know we've got some motorcycle riders in here,

00:45:50

and as you were watching that clip,

00:45:52

you know exactly what my problem is.

00:45:54

You know exactly why I struggled to get up that hill.

00:45:57

It's called clutch control.

00:46:00

It's called clutch control.

00:46:01

It's a basic motorcycle skill that is easy to do on asphalt.

00:46:05

And can I just tell you, because I've been there,

00:46:07

it's a little bit harder to do on the side of a mountain.

00:46:09

It's a little bit hard to do. Right?

00:46:10

That was the thing, though.

00:46:11

It's learning how to do that.

00:46:12

So I had to trust the process.

00:46:14

Part of the process that Brian setup,

00:46:16

you heard it in the video

00:46:17

and I was following Brian on this one,

00:46:19

was Brad as the sweeper.

00:46:21

Brad is an incredible rider.

00:46:24

He is amazing. He was popping wheelies up the thing

00:46:27

that you saw me struggling on.

00:46:29

I mean, he's an incredible guy.

00:46:30

Right?

00:46:31

His patience with me was the turning point in the trip for me.

00:46:35

I'll never forget it. It's quick in the video.

00:46:37

But there was a moment, I call it my anger fit,

00:46:39

right after I had my anger fit where I threw the rock.

00:46:42

And I'm like on the side.

00:46:43

I was going to quit.

00:46:44

That was the end.

00:46:45

I was going to quit.

00:46:46

And Brad came up to me and I said,

00:46:48

"I just can't freaking get this.

00:46:49

I can't get it. I can't get the clutch thing."

00:46:52

He was like, "Great. Good news.

00:46:53

There's only one thing you need to focus on.

00:46:57

So don't worry about all this other stuff.

00:46:59

Focus on clutch control."

00:47:01

And you can see after that,

00:47:02

that's what his coaching was for me.

00:47:03

I'm telling you, maybe in the process you're in

00:47:06

it feels like I can't get up the mountain.

00:47:08

And what God is saying is, "Yeah.

00:47:09

There's that one thing, right?

00:47:11

Good news. I just want to build that one thing in you.

00:47:15

I just want to prepare you, equip you, strengthen you,

00:47:18

steel you in that one area of your life."

00:47:22

I'm so thankful for Brad and his coaching

00:47:24

because that's what prepared me.

00:47:26

And quite frankly, what I learned on Corkscrew

00:47:29

enabled me to ride the rest of the time that I did.

00:47:33

I had to learn clutch control.

00:47:35

What's your clutch control?

00:47:36

What is the thing that you know is the one thing

00:47:38

that's getting in the way, but it's the one thing

00:47:40

God wants to form in you,

00:47:41

shape in you, strengthen you around?

00:47:44

I was reading this week a quote that really stuck with me

00:47:47

about preparations from a woman named Mandy Hale.

00:47:50

She wrote a book called The Single Woman:

00:47:52

Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass.

00:47:53

I like that title.

00:47:54

And she says this:

00:48:07

That's a good word.

00:48:08

That'll preach.

00:48:11

That a preach.

00:48:12

And it's -- I mean, she's writing it to single people.

00:48:14

And I just felt this week as I read that,

00:48:17

I don't want to miss the immediate application she wrote it for.

00:48:20

So I know we have a bunch of single people at Crossroads.

00:48:23

And I just want to talk to you for a minute.

00:48:25

And I know when a married man starts saying,

00:48:28

"I'm talking to single people,"

00:48:30

I'm the last person you want to hear from.

00:48:31

I get it. I get it.

00:48:33

Can you just just hear me on this though?

00:48:34

My name is Chuck and I'm your friend.

00:48:37

I really do love you.

00:48:39

I really do love you.

00:48:40

And here's what I think I'm taking from her

00:48:43

that might be an encouragement to you.

00:48:44

I know that maybe you're not where you want to be relationally,

00:48:48

if you want to be married.

00:48:50

And let me just say this to you:

00:48:52

It may or may not be that God is saying

00:48:55

yes to you and marriage,

00:48:56

but He's absolutely saying yes to preparation.

00:48:59

He's saying yes to meaning and purpose

00:49:01

and your life mattering in the here and now.

00:49:04

And so maybe God isn't punishing you,

00:49:06

but He's preparing you.

00:49:08

Maybe He's prepared you for a spouse.

00:49:10

Maybe He's prepare you for impact as a single person.

00:49:13

But I just want you to know this:

00:49:14

It doesn't mean you have to stand still.

00:49:16

Do not put your life on pause.

00:49:18

God has purpose for you in your singleness

00:49:21

right where you are.

00:49:22

And here's what I also know about God:

00:49:24


00:49:26

God will catch a moving target

00:49:28

and He will direct it where He wants it to go.

00:49:30

So I just want to encourage you,

00:49:31

but that's not just for single people.

00:49:33

That's for people who are struggling

00:49:34

with any part of the process.

00:49:36

But just know this: The process is what prepares you.

00:49:39

The process is what purifies your motives.

00:49:42

It helps you clarify your why.

00:49:44

It also is what prepares you.

00:49:46

What's your clutch control?

00:49:47

What's the thing, the one thing that God wants you to grow in?

00:49:50

But here's the thing that's encouraging:

00:49:52

The process is exactly what propels you.

00:49:55

The process is what propels you into the promised land.

00:50:00


00:50:02

I learned that on that mountain.

00:50:04

I've learned that from rides I've done since that mountain.

00:50:06


00:50:09

Great. God wants to give you momentum.

00:50:12

I've been asking the question as I read through

00:50:14

the crossing of the Jordan again,

00:50:16

a scripture that I've read many times.

00:50:17

God, why did you have these people cross the Jordan River?

00:50:21

Why did that have to be a part of their process?

00:50:24

I mean, think about it.

00:50:25

These are people who came from a generation of folks

00:50:28

who were 400 years enslaved.

00:50:29

That's pretty hard.

00:50:30

I would think they were pretty tested.

00:50:31

I would think they had gone through some difficulty,

00:50:33

probably sufficient difficulty for a lifetime.

00:50:36

But then the people who were at the river

00:50:38

are people who for 40 years wandered in the wilderness,

00:50:41

only knew dust, only knew dryness,

00:50:43

only got water out of rocks.

00:50:45

It was this crazy experience they had.

00:50:47

They had literally never seen a river before.

00:50:50

Why would God force them to have to go

00:50:54

through a river to get to their promise?

00:50:59

And I want to tell you, there's at least three reasons.

00:51:00

God used this experience to propel them

00:51:03

in at least three ways.

00:51:04

First, God used it to propel Joshua as their leader.

00:51:08

Look at what it says in Joshua 3:7:

00:51:19

Talk about big shoes to fill.

00:51:21

Joshua was coming on the heels of Moses, the deliverer.

00:51:24

Moses, who stuck a rod in the Red Sea and it split.

00:51:28

Talk about big shoes to fill.

00:51:30

nd what God was saying is, "in this moment,

00:51:32

I'm going to perform a miracle through you

00:51:35

so the people know I'm with you just like I was with Moses."

00:51:39

I think some of you,

00:51:40

the reason that you're going through

00:51:41

the difficult thing you're going through,

00:51:43

the reason that the process isn't easy,

00:51:45

is because God wants to use this to elevate

00:51:48

the character He has put in you

00:51:50

so that people around you know for sure

00:51:52

you are the man, you are the woman for this role.

00:51:54

You are the leader that God has in mind for this thing.

00:51:57

God will use this difficulty to elevate you,

00:51:59

to propel you as a leader.

00:52:02

That's one of the reasons why they had to go through the river.

00:52:05

But another thing is God used it to propel the faith of Israel.

00:52:09

Listen to Joshua 3:10.

00:52:10

It says:

00:52:14

It's one thing to believe God is with you

00:52:17

because God sustains you in the wilderness.

00:52:19

It's a whole other thing to know that God is with you,

00:52:21

because as soon as the priest's foot touch the river,

00:52:24

you saw water that was rapid and flowing,

00:52:27

moved to the right and moved to the left.

00:52:30

And now you have dry land to walk through.

00:52:31

You have a different understanding of God

00:52:33

when God shows up miraculously in your life that way.

00:52:37

And that's what He wanted for them.

00:52:39

And don't miss this. Don't miss this.

00:52:41

There are 12 tribes in the nation of Israel.

00:52:43

Did you know only 10 of them saw the Jordan miracle?

00:52:47

There are two tribes who said, "Enough is enough."

00:52:50

And they took the first piece of land they got to.

00:52:52

They said, "We have had enough.

00:52:53

We just want to settle."

00:52:55

And I'm telling you, when you settle, when you quit,

00:52:58

you will miss the miracle that God wants to use

00:53:01

to prove to you He can do anything.

00:53:04

Don't settle.

00:53:05

Don't miss the miracle because you're ready to quit.

00:53:07

God will use it to propel your faith.

00:53:10

Here's the other -- I love this.

00:53:11

I love this, man.

00:53:12

I don't know if I'm preaching to you.

00:53:13

I'm preaching to myself right now, and I'm happy to do that.

00:53:16

Here's the other thing.

00:53:17

It propelled the enemies of Israel to flight.

00:53:21

This miracle propelled the enemies to flight.

00:53:24

Look at what it says in Joshua 5:1:

00:53:25

Remember all those "ites" earlier? .

00:53:44

God used this miracle to put enemies to flight.

00:53:47

I love what it says in Deuteronomy 28:7:

00:53:58

Friends, you've got to understand,

00:53:59

there are spiritual enemies out there.

00:54:01

You have people who do not want to see you

00:54:03

fulfill the thing that you want to win in.

00:54:05

And I'm telling you, God will show Himself

00:54:07

faithful through the difficult process,

00:54:09

and He will put your spiritual enemies to flight.

00:54:12

They will know this is God's man.

00:54:14

We'd better get our act together.

00:54:16

We better recognize that God's hand is on this person.

00:54:20

So trust the process.

00:54:21

Trust the process.

00:54:23

Some of you right now are in a waiting process

00:54:26

and it is hard to wait.

00:54:28

But I want to encourage you to trust the process.

00:54:30

Some of you are in a pruning process.

00:54:32

Right now, there are things that God is tearing out of you

00:54:35

and it is painful.

00:54:36

But I'm telling you, He will use that pain

00:54:38

to purify you, to make you a different person,

00:54:41

if you will trust the process.

00:54:43

Some of you are in a building process.

00:54:44

God's giving you a vision.

00:54:46

He's giving you a dream.

00:54:47

Maybe you're leading an organization

00:54:49

and you're building it right now.

00:54:51

And it's hard to build something.

00:54:52

You don't have momentum when you're in the building process.

00:54:55

But if you just stay faithful and trust that God

00:54:57

is giving you that vision,

00:54:59

He will work through your building process.

00:55:00

Some of you are a resting process.

00:55:03

You're ready to go. You're ready to run.

00:55:04

You know what God is saying to you?

00:55:05

Slow down.

00:55:07

Sit down.

00:55:09

Lay down.

00:55:12

It is hard,

00:55:13

but if you will trust Him in that resting process,

00:55:16

He will work through that resting process.

00:55:18

Because here's the thing I know about God:

00:55:20

He finishes everything He starts.

00:55:24

He finishes everything he starts.

00:55:26

Joshua 3:17 says:

00:55:40

God finished what He started with the nation of Israel,

00:55:43

and He will finish what he started in you.

00:55:46

Just trust the process.

00:55:48

So I want to give you the same words

00:55:50

that James gave to his followers,

00:55:52

people who were following him as he followed Jesus.

00:56:15

I actually want to ask you a favor.

00:56:17

I don't know that I've ever made this personal

00:56:19

of an ask before to do something or watch something.

00:56:22

But this this whole Phantom Lake process,

00:56:25

it's been two years we've been working on this.

00:56:27

The trip was two years ago, was a hard trip.

00:56:30

Editing, producing, all the things that came.

00:56:32

We're hoping it impacts people.

00:56:34

We're hoping it impacts people.

00:56:36

And let me just give you a spoiler alert,

00:56:38

that actually wasn't the worst day on the trip for me.

00:56:40

If you can believe that, it gets even harder.

00:56:43

But we did this.

00:56:45

We all did this.

00:56:46

We invested in this, not because --

00:56:49

There's a big chance

00:56:50

we're probably not going to make money on this.

00:56:51

That's not why we did it.

00:56:52

We did it because we want to connect people.

00:56:53

We want to change lives.

00:56:55

And we think this can help people

00:56:56

go in the direction of a God who they can trust.

00:57:00

So I'm going to ask you to do something.

00:57:01

I don't think I've ever asked you to do this before,

00:57:02

but I'm to ask you on January 26,

00:57:05

when it airs on Amazon Prime.

00:57:06

I'm going to ask you to watch it.

00:57:07

Watch a full episode,

00:57:09

because if you do that

00:57:10

and if you share it with other people who also do that,

00:57:13

the way the mechanics work at Amazon is,

00:57:15

it will increase the likelihood

00:57:16

that it'll be recommended for other people to watch.

00:57:18

And we believe there is a message in this journey

00:57:21

for people all around the country.

00:57:23

We want to see people connect to God through this.

00:57:26

I'm going to ask you to put it on your calendar

00:57:28

and share it.

00:57:29

And let's all remember that God is trustworthy.

00:57:32

So wherever you are in your journey,

00:57:34

maybe it's a steep and rocky climb

00:57:36

and you can relate to that.

00:57:37

Maybe you're on a flat land right now.

00:57:38

Wherever you are, I want you to know

00:57:40

you can trust God and you can trust the process.

00:57:43

We sang a song earlier,

00:57:44

we're going to sing a little bit of it as we close.

00:57:47

I love what it says: I will build my life

00:57:50

upon Your love, it is a firm foundation.

00:57:54

I will put my trust in You alone and I will not be shaken.

00:57:59

We're going to stand wherever you are.

00:58:01

Turn up the volume if you're watching online.

00:58:03

Let's sing a little bit of this song as we close.

00:58:05

And God, I just pray that You would help all of us

00:58:08

to trust You because You are the God of the process.

00:58:12

Amen.

00:59:39

MINGO: Hey, just let that be a refrain for you this week

00:59:41

for whatever you're walking through,

00:59:42

whatever you're running through and you can trust God

00:59:45

and you can trust the process.

00:59:46

We'll see you guys next week.

00:59:47

Thanks for being here. (cheers and applause)

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