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Andy Stanley - Icon: Losers Club Part 2 · Andy Stanley Sermons

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Speaker 1: So Madonna and I, Madonna and I are the same age.
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Speaker 1: I'm glad you laughed. See in some of you took
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Speaker 1: speech in college, or you took a speech class and
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Speaker 1: where along the way. And doctor Risken, when I was
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Speaker 1: at Georgia State University said, now you know, when you
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Speaker 1: start a speech, you got to have like an opening line.
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Speaker 1: That's an attention grabber. I just thought, Madonna and I
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Speaker 1: just those three.
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Speaker 2: Words, I just had everybody's attention anyway.
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Speaker 1: See, you were the same age, but we also have
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Speaker 1: something else in common that is way more important. And
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Speaker 1: I discovered what we have in common. Believe it or not.
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Speaker 1: Reading a Tim Keller book. Many of you familiar with
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Speaker 1: Tim Keller, and in this particular book, he referenced an
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Speaker 1: interview that Madonna did with Vogue back in nineteen ninety one.
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Speaker 2: At the time, Madonna and I.
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Speaker 1: Were thirty two years old. She was killing it in
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Speaker 1: her particular profession, and I was taking middle school rulers
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Speaker 1: to six flags.
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Speaker 2: A little bit of a.
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Speaker 1: Difference anyway, Since then, because that's a long time ago
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Speaker 1: before some of you were born. Since then, she may
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Speaker 1: have figured out how to manage the dilemma that she
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Speaker 1: talks about in this particular interview.
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Speaker 2: But it's something that I can relate.
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Speaker 1: To even now, and I think it's something that probably
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Speaker 1: many of us can relate to.
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Speaker 2: So here's what she said. She said, I have.
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Speaker 1: An iron will. That's not the part I can identify with.
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Speaker 1: I have an iron will, and all of my will
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Speaker 1: has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy.
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Speaker 1: She says, I always struggle. I'm always struggling with that fear.
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Speaker 1: I push past one spell of it and discover myself
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Speaker 1: as a special human being because we want to be special,
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Speaker 1: right and then and then I get to another stage,
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Speaker 1: and I think I'm mediocre and uninteresting.
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Speaker 2: So don't raise your hand, Okay.
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Speaker 1: But do you do you ever feel mediocre and uninteresting?
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Speaker 1: Well it might be because you are.
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Speaker 2: I'm just kidding, okay anyway, but wait, I mean you might.
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Speaker 1: I mean, in other words, this this, it's just this
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Speaker 1: whole idea of I'm just you know, there's nothing special
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Speaker 1: about me.
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Speaker 2: And so here she is wrestling with us.
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Speaker 1: Of course, we hear this from anybody who's famous, and
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Speaker 1: we think, what mediocre and uninteresting? The fact that you're
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Speaker 1: even being interviewed by you know, an international acclaimed magazine anyway.
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Speaker 2: And then, as she.
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Speaker 1: Said, and I find a way to get myself out
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Speaker 1: of that. You know, I'm feeling mediocre and interesting, and
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Speaker 1: then I find myself a way out of it again,
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Speaker 1: and again this happens. My drive in life is from
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Speaker 1: this horrible fear of being mediocre. And that's always that,
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Speaker 1: that fear that and that's always that's what's always pushing
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Speaker 1: me and pushing me because and then this was kind
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Speaker 1: of the you know, showstopper for me a little bit,
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Speaker 1: because even though I've become somebody, I still have to
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Speaker 1: prove that I am somebody, and my struggle has never
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Speaker 1: ended and it probably never will. So what she's telling us, honestly,
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Speaker 1: is that she's a striver, she's successful, and you know,
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Speaker 1: in this case, she's very self aware. And many of
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Speaker 1: us can relate to that, that angst, that discontent.
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Speaker 2: That fear of being mediocre. Uh, maybe in.
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Speaker 1: Your profession, your profession, or maybe relationally that that that
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Speaker 1: that dread of falling behind, that thing that's probably in
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Speaker 1: all of us, whether it's in you as a mom,
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Speaker 1: or in you as a dad, or in you professionally
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Speaker 1: or academically, that sense of never enoughness, that that the
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Speaker 1: constant pressure to compete in the in the constant pressure
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Speaker 1: to win in the court of public opinion. And you
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Speaker 1: may not think of it in these terms, but all
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Speaker 1: of you have a court. All of us have a
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Speaker 1: court of public opinion. Your your court of public opinion
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Speaker 1: may be the people you go to school with that
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Speaker 1: you want to achieve and you want to succeed and
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Speaker 1: you want to be popular, but there's there's a court.
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Speaker 1: Maybe your court of public opinion is at work the
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Speaker 1: people you're competing with. You're trying to measure up to
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Speaker 1: please your boss, or maybe you are the boss and
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Speaker 1: you want the people that report to you to love
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Speaker 1: you and like you, and you're you're constantly aware of
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Speaker 1: what people are saying, what they're thinking, and how you're
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Speaker 1: measuring up. Maybe your court of public opinion is just
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Speaker 1: one person, and maybe your father in law because you
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Speaker 1: married his daughter and now you just feel a little
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Speaker 1: bit judged and you feel a bit a little bit
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Speaker 1: less than and you're constantly trying to navigate and negotiat
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Speaker 1: in such a way that you feel accepted by him.
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Speaker 1: Or maybe your court of public opinion is is your parents,
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Speaker 1: or maybe it's your older brother or your older sister,
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Speaker 1: or maybe you're you're a mom and you got little kids,
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Speaker 1: and the court of public opinion is all the other moms,
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Speaker 1: and they're coming over to your house and your house
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Speaker 1: looks like children live there, and you can't have your
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Speaker 1: house look like children.
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Speaker 2: Live there because they're going to judge you.
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Speaker 1: They're your court of public opinion, and that hasn't even
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Speaker 1: cross their mind, but it crosses your mind. So the
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Speaker 1: point is, we're all in some ways, you know, we
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Speaker 1: have a court of public opinion that we're competing, competing
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Speaker 1: in for me, you know, sometimes it's other pastors and
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Speaker 1: other churches, and maybe you feel like I do sometimes
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Speaker 1: taking your foot off the accelerator, falling behind. And again
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Speaker 1: it's a joke, falling behind who people who don't even
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Speaker 1: know there's a race. So I don't know if you
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Speaker 1: can relate to that or not, but I can.
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Speaker 2: So we're going to talk about it today.
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Speaker 1: We're in part two of our series we launched Last
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Speaker 1: Time we Were Together, Icon, the empowering Invitation of the Cross.
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Speaker 2: The Cross.
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Speaker 1: You knew this before you got here, before you tuned in.
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Speaker 1: The Cross is the icon for Christianity. For most modern Christians,
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Speaker 1: the Cross, basically, you know, represents a way of believing.
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Speaker 1: But in the first century, the Cross represented something else.
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Speaker 1: It represented a way of living, a lifestyle, and the
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Speaker 1: Cross was actually an invitation, an invitation to an alternative
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Speaker 1: way of life, alternative but not intuitive in fact, to
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Speaker 1: outsiders looking in at this different way of living. In fact,
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Speaker 1: maybe to you looking out from the outside into this
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Speaker 1: different way of living, not it just seems foolish. In fact,
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Speaker 1: the author of half the New Testament, that's the word
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Speaker 1: he's gonna use. We're going to look at it in
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Speaker 1: just a minute, he says, from the outside looking in,
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Speaker 1: the invitation of the Cross, the way of the Cross,
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Speaker 1: the way of Jesus, it is foolish, it's crazy. In fact,
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Speaker 1: you might even chalk it off as lazy, because it's
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Speaker 1: an invitation that's so contrary to our nature that we
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Speaker 1: are tempted.
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Speaker 2: To decline the invitation.
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Speaker 1: As we said last time, every single day, because every
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Speaker 1: single day, if you are a Jesus follower, or if
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Speaker 1: you're a Christian, you are invited every single day to
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Speaker 1: follow the way or embrace the way of the Cross.
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Speaker 1: Is an invitation, and you get to choose whether or
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Speaker 1: not you do it, even as someone who's placed their
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Speaker 1: faith in Jesus as Savior. And if you're not a Christian,
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Speaker 1: or you're a sort of anti Christian, or you're still
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Speaker 1: trying to figure it out, you are standing on the
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Speaker 1: outside of our faith tradition, which is fine, and you're
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Speaker 1: looking in and this way of life that we're going
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Speaker 1: to talk about. If it strikes you as crazy, lazy,
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Speaker 1: or just foolish, the good news is you're not alone
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Speaker 1: in your estimation, because again, the gentleman who wrote half
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Speaker 1: the New Testament, that's the word he uses to describe it. Now,
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Speaker 1: the challenging thing, you know, is that I'm convinced this
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Speaker 1: is just, you know, no scientific method here, just my opinion.
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Speaker 1: I'm convinced that a lot of Christians don't even know
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Speaker 1: this invitation to the way of the crost even exists
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Speaker 1: for them, and maybe for you, because of your Christian
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Speaker 1: faith tradition. For them, maybe for you, Christianity is kind
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Speaker 1: of like a one and done right. I prayed a
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Speaker 1: prayer and asked Jesus, you know, to come into my heart,
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Speaker 1: and then I was baptized or I went through a class.
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Speaker 1: So now Jesus is my savior, or.
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Speaker 2: To you know, quote Crawford Loritz.
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Speaker 1: I love this statement he says, for a lot of people,
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Speaker 1: for a lot of Christians, Jesus is a point of reference.
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I put a check in that box. Oh yeah,
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Speaker 1: I'm a Christian. Oh yeah, I was baptized.
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Speaker 2: I pray a sinner's prayer.
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Speaker 1: So you know, for many Christian is Jesus is my
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Speaker 1: Savior and the cross is my good luck charm. The
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Speaker 1: cross is just a reminder to other people that, oh yeah,
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Speaker 1: I'm one of those people. I'm one of those Christians
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Speaker 1: because I accept the Jesus. Jesus is my savior, and
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Speaker 1: I have a cross, and the cross is my good
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Speaker 1: luck charm. Now, let's get back to the real world.
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Speaker 1: Let's get back to living. Let's get back to the
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Speaker 1: stuff of life. To use the phrase that Solomon coined
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Speaker 1: to the Old Testament, Let's get back to chasing after
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Speaker 1: the wind, a race with no finish line, a race
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Speaker 1: where we grade ourselves and compare ourselves to other people
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Speaker 1: who are chasing after the wind, people who in many
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Speaker 1: cases aren't paying any attention to us, even though we
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Speaker 1: are competing mentally with them. It's the way of life
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Speaker 1: that fuels and again we've all been there or are there.
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Speaker 1: It's a way of life. Chasing after the wind is
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Speaker 1: a way of life that fuels discontentment. And the thing
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Speaker 1: is this discontentment leaks. It leaks onto your family, it
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Speaker 1: leaks onto your direct reports, it leaks into your friendships. Discontentment,
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Speaker 1: discontentment communicates to.
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Speaker 2: The people around you.
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Speaker 1: And you may not even know this is going on,
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Speaker 1: but it is discontentment. People begin to feel like they're
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Speaker 1: competing with our quests for something that might not include them.
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Speaker 1: As we said last time, ambition and achievement. These are
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Speaker 1: good things. These are God given things. This is a
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Speaker 1: reflection of the image of God in you. I mean
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Speaker 1: it is in us to be ambitious and to get
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Speaker 1: things done, just like it.
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Speaker 2: Was with our heavenly Father.
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Speaker 1: We were born to take things that are chaotic and
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Speaker 1: to bring order. These are good things, these are God
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Speaker 1: given things. But if you hand these two things the
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Speaker 1: reins of your life, they wear you down and they
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Speaker 1: wear you out. They're good things, but they are poor masters.
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Speaker 1: And if you're a Christian, you already have a master.
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Speaker 1: We already have a master whose icon is not the
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Speaker 1: check or flag is not a trophy, and it.
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Speaker 2: Is not a crown. The icon for our master.
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Speaker 1: Is the symbol of suffering and shame and loss. Our
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Speaker 1: icon is the cross. And the cross serves as an invitation,
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Speaker 1: and as we're going to see today, it serves as
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Speaker 1: an empowering invitation, an invitation to live for the approval
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Speaker 1: of one, rather than living for the approval of everyone,
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Speaker 1: to live according to the agenda of the one, rather
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Speaker 1: than the ever changing, ever shifting agenda of the culture
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Speaker 1: that we live in and work in, and play in
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Speaker 1: and go to school in every single day. So, last
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Speaker 1: time we were together, I gave you a frustrating assignment
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Speaker 1: I heard from some of you.
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Speaker 2: I got it.
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Speaker 1: In fact, it was so frustrating that I think I
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Speaker 1: said I might have said this last time. I was
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Speaker 1: hesitant even to even to offer this question. I ran
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Speaker 1: the question by several people like is this too much?
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Speaker 1: Is this too much? Too soon? And the question was
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Speaker 1: I said, I want you to consider something, And the
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Speaker 1: goal was to get us thinking in terms of the
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Speaker 1: way of the cross, because it is so other, it
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Speaker 1: is so contrary, it is so backward, it is so
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Speaker 1: against the grain. And so I said last time, if
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Speaker 1: you weren't here, the assignment was Hey, when you find
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Speaker 1: yourself this week at odds with someone at work, or
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Speaker 1: at school or at home, there's conflict, there's tension to
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Speaker 1: ask yourself, not act on it because it's too risky,
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Speaker 1: but to at least ask yourself as you're in that
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Speaker 1: conflict or going back and forth, or considering how you're
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Speaker 1: going to respond, what would choosing to lose look like
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Speaker 1: in this situation? What would choosing to lose look like
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Speaker 1: in this situation? What would choosing not to win, not
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Speaker 1: to win the discussion, not to win the argument. What
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Speaker 1: would choosing to let them go first, even though you're
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Speaker 1: the one who got there first. What would it look
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Speaker 1: like to choose to let them take credit even though
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Speaker 1: they don't deserve the credit. Maybe you deserve the credit,
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Speaker 1: But what would it look like to let them pull ahead,
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Speaker 1: have their way? And in many instances this is just
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Speaker 1: too terrifying to do. It's just so. An American doesn't
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Speaker 1: fit your temperament, doesn't fit the way you're wired, doesn't
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Speaker 1: fit the way you operate.
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Speaker 2: It's not the way. In fact, it's not the way
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Speaker 2: things get accomplished. It's not the.
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Speaker 1: Way of the world, and so you can say no,
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Speaker 1: because the Cross is an invitation, so you don't have
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Speaker 1: to accept the invitation.
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Speaker 2: In fact, you will be tempted.
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Speaker 1: I'll be tempted every single day not to accept the
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Speaker 1: invitation of the Way of the Cross. Most Christians, I'm afraid,
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Speaker 1: don't accept that invitation. That's why. That's why we look collectively,
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Speaker 1: That's why we act collectively, and most importantly, it's why
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Speaker 1: it seems Christians react like everybody yields. Now. As we
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Speaker 1: said last time, the person who understood this and had
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Speaker 1: the greatest clarity around the contrast between the way of
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Speaker 1: the world and the way of the Cross is the
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Speaker 1: Apostle Paul. And the reason he had such extraordinary clarity.
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Speaker 1: If you know his story, is this that he he
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Speaker 1: was a professional striver. Okay, in his pre Jesus days,
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Speaker 1: he was a professional striver. He actually prided himself, which
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Speaker 1: is so strange. He documents this himself. This isn't what
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Speaker 1: people said about him. This is what he said about himself.
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Speaker 1: He prided himself as the best in class pharisee of
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Speaker 1: the first century. He outworked, which meant he out obeyed
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Speaker 1: everybody he knew he was ahead of the class when
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Speaker 1: it came to being a religious law following God, following God,
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Speaker 1: worshiping old Covenant, you know, old Testament, law keeping Pharisee.
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Speaker 1: And then, and this is why he's so helpful to us.
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Speaker 1: Then he meets Jesus personally, and in a matter of moments,
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Speaker 1: not weeks and years, in a matter of moments, he
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Speaker 1: has clarity around the contrast between the way of the
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Speaker 1: kingdoms of this world, which is all anyone ever knew,
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Speaker 1: and all he ever knew, and the way of Jesus.
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Speaker 1: And his clarity fueled his passion to take the message
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Speaker 1: of Jesus all around the Greek speaking world, all around
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Speaker 1: the Mediterranean realm. He realized that Jesus was not an
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Speaker 1: add on. The Cross, was not a good luck charm.
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Speaker 2: It was a way of life, and not.
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Speaker 1: Just a way of life, it was the opposite way
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Speaker 1: of life. It was against the grain in almost every component,
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Speaker 1: every facet, in a way, the way of the Cross
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Speaker 1: was an invitation to join the losers club, because by
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Speaker 1: every first century measure, Jesus lost. Jesus lost on purpose
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Speaker 1: with a purpose, and the purpose included you.
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Speaker 3: Me.
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Speaker 1: And he says, now I want you to come follow me,
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Speaker 1: and if you do it enough, if enough of you do,
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Speaker 1: we will change the world, and we will change the
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Speaker 1: culture of the world. So when the Apostle Paul introduces
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Speaker 1: this whole idea of the Way of the Cross to
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Speaker 1: a group of Greek speaking, educated, striving men and women
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Speaker 1: in Corinth, he acknowledges right up front what he knew
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Speaker 1: they were going to think when they heard about this
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Speaker 1: crazy idea, this crazy way of life. Maybe the thing
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Speaker 1: that you've already started thinking about, just based on what
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Speaker 1: I've said so far. Here's what he said.
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Speaker 2: He said, don't be shocked. I get it. I know
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Speaker 2: where you're coming from. Common ground.
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Speaker 1: For the message of the Cross, I'll admit it's foolishness.
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Speaker 1: It's crazy, it's backwards, it's lazy. I mean, it just
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Speaker 1: doesn't line up with anything that you've ever done, or
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Speaker 1: anything maybe you've ever even seen before. The Way of
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Speaker 1: the Cross is foolishness. And now he's going to tell
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Speaker 1: us who sees it as foolish and who doesn't. For
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Speaker 1: the way of the the message of the Cross is
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Speaker 1: foolishness to those who are And I know we're getting
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Speaker 1: a little grammatical here. Present participle. We're gonna see another
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Speaker 1: present participle in just a minute. All the English teachers
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Speaker 1: sat up straight. Yeah, okay, President participle, those who are perishing,
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Speaker 1: that the message of the Cross or the way of
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Speaker 1: the Cross is foolishness, to those who are perishing, to
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Speaker 1: those who are.
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Speaker 3: Fading away, to those who assume that all there is
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Speaker 3: to life is this life, To those who assume that
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Speaker 3: what you see is all that you can possibly get,
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Speaker 3: and when it's over, it's over.
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Speaker 1: Who assume that this life is all there is. And
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Speaker 1: yet in spite of that, they cling to the life
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Speaker 1: that they've made for themselves.
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Speaker 2: They cling to the life that they've.
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Speaker 1: Made for themselves, because after all, all you see is
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Speaker 1: all you get. They cling to their fading reputation. They're
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Speaker 1: fading beauty, they're fading health, they're fading relationships, they're fading
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Speaker 1: hopes and dreams. They cling to the things.
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Speaker 2: That are perishing or the things that are fading.
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Speaker 1: Is fading is if they can stop the inevitable. Because
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Speaker 1: the Cross and the Way of the Cross, and this
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Speaker 1: is where it's challenging for me and challenging for you.
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Speaker 1: The Way of the Cross represents everything those who are
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Speaker 1: perishing resist It represents their greatest fear, fading away, falling behind,
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Speaker 1: becoming less and less and less relevant. Now his point
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Speaker 1: that he's about to make, because this is so amazing,
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Speaker 1: But Paul's words are a little dense. If you've ever
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Speaker 1: tried to read some of the letters of Paul, part
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Speaker 1: of the problem was he wasn't writing, he was dictating.
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Speaker 1: So when you dictate, you just have long run on sentences.
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Speaker 1: So when you read some of the things that Paul wrote,
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Speaker 1: it's like, wait, where is the subject and where where
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Speaker 1: are we in this? So it's a little bit clunky.
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Speaker 1: But here's the point he's about to make. His point
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Speaker 1: is this that scrambling to reclaim and maintain what can't
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Speaker 1: ultimately be reclaimed and maintained.
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Speaker 2: That scrambling and working.
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Speaker 1: And chasing after the wind to reclaim to maintain what
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Speaker 1: can't be reclaimed and maintained, that's what's foolish, Not the
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Speaker 1: message or the way of the Cross. Here's what he says.
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Speaker 1: He says for the message of the Cross is foolishness
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Speaker 1: to those who are perishing, but to us who are
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Speaker 1: being another present partisanple and those of us who are
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Speaker 1: being being saved, not a one and done. I pray
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Speaker 1: to salvation prayer. I'm good to go, he says, No,
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Speaker 1: for those of us who are being saved, in other words,
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Speaker 1: those of us who are in the process of renewing
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Speaker 1: our minds, of growing in our faith, of growing in
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Speaker 1: our understanding, of giving a little bit and a little
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Speaker 1: bit and a little bit more of our lives away,
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Speaker 1: learning how to follow Jesus. Learning that doesn't what it
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Speaker 1: looks like to follow Jesus, and what I'm going to
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Speaker 1: have to do differently to follow Jesus, he says, to
18:45
Speaker 1: those of us who are in the process of embracing
18:48
Speaker 1: the way of the Cross, of being saved, it this
18:52
Speaker 1: is so amazing. It the message of the Cross. It
18:55
Speaker 1: the message of the Cross. Ready for this. This is
18:57
Speaker 1: the point of our few minutes together today. The message
19:00
Speaker 1: of the Cross, the way of the Cross, is the
19:04
Speaker 1: power of God. Here's what he's saying. That God's power
19:12
Speaker 1: begins to work in and through us when we embrace
19:18
Speaker 1: the way and the message of the Cross. That God's
19:22
Speaker 1: power has the potential then to show up and manifest itself.
19:27
Speaker 2: Through our daily meager lives.
19:30
Speaker 1: When we get in sync with the Way of Jesus,
19:33
Speaker 1: or the way of the Cross, the invitation when we
19:38
Speaker 1: say yes to the invitation of the cross, when we
19:39
Speaker 1: say yes to the invitation to stop chasing what can't
19:43
Speaker 1: be caught, the invitation to stop clinging to what can't
19:49
Speaker 1: be kept. This is how we are personally, real time,
19:55
Speaker 1: real world transformed. It's how we and this is what
19:58
Speaker 1: I talk about all the time. It's what I want
20:00
Speaker 1: us to get. It's how we begin to participate in
20:03
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of God right now, not heaven someday one day,
20:09
Speaker 1: to participate in the Kingdom of God right now. You
20:13
Speaker 1: follow Jesus through the Gospels, and nothing could be clearer
20:15
Speaker 1: than the fact that he ushered in or he brought
20:18
Speaker 1: some manifestation of the Kingdom of God, and those who
20:21
Speaker 1: are inheriting the Kingdom of God are invited to play along,
20:25
Speaker 1: to live out Kingdom values and to live out a
20:27
Speaker 1: Kingdom life right here, right now. But Paul is saying,
20:32
Speaker 1: and he's going to say it in a little bit
20:33
Speaker 1: different way in just a minute. You can't do that
20:35
Speaker 1: if you're chasing after the wind. You can't do that
20:38
Speaker 1: if you wear a cross and put a check in
20:40
Speaker 1: the I love Jesus, box and then join the fray
20:42
Speaker 1: and join the race that doesn't have a finished line
20:45
Speaker 1: and doesn't bring about anything that lasts anyway.
20:47
Speaker 2: You can't do it that way.
20:51
Speaker 1: Nothing changes. It's how you participate in the Kingdom of
20:56
Speaker 1: God and experience the power of God. The power of
21:03
Speaker 1: God that you see demonstrated every once in a while.
21:08
Speaker 1: It's the stop and stare power of God. Like wait
21:10
Speaker 1: a minute, wait, wait, whoa whoa? Whoa? She forgave them?
21:15
Speaker 2: Who does that? Wait?
21:16
Speaker 3: Wait?
21:16
Speaker 1: Wait he decided to give to them in spite of
21:20
Speaker 1: what they took from him?
21:21
Speaker 2: Are you kidding me?
21:22
Speaker 1: The stop and stare contrary to culture power of God.
21:26
Speaker 2: When you see it, you recognize it.
21:28
Speaker 1: And the strange thing is this, when people of any
21:31
Speaker 1: faith tradition are no faith traditions, see it, they stop
21:35
Speaker 1: and they stare. It's why it changed the world in
21:39
Speaker 1: the first century because these Jesus followers took this seriously.
21:44
Speaker 1: The way of the Cross wasn't represented by a single decision.
21:48
Speaker 1: It was represented in daily decisions to embrace the Way
21:54
Speaker 1: of Jesus. And because they did, they manifested the power
22:01
Speaker 1: of God invisible ways.
22:05
Speaker 2: That the Way of the.
22:06
Speaker 1: Cross is where change begins is because the way of
22:09
Speaker 1: the Cross is when we begin to live in sync
22:11
Speaker 1: with the life of Jesus, and we live in sync
22:13
Speaker 1: with the spirit of Jesus, what the New Testament refers
22:16
Speaker 1: to as the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the
22:19
Speaker 1: spirit that produces through us. What we will never produce
22:22
Speaker 1: ourselves as long as we're chasing the wind. You can't
22:24
Speaker 1: have it both ways, Christian or not. The spirit that
22:27
Speaker 1: produces through us.
22:28
Speaker 2: We're gonna talk about in a minute.
22:30
Speaker 1: What we can't produce ourselves as long as we're chasing
22:32
Speaker 1: the wind, because as long as you're chasing the wind,
22:34
Speaker 1: I'm chasing the wind, I'm striving, I'm competing, I'm comparing.
22:38
Speaker 1: And the Spirit of God and our Savior sits back
22:40
Speaker 1: and says.
22:41
Speaker 2: That's not how we do it. That's kingdoms of this world.
22:45
Speaker 2: And you're really good at it.
22:46
Speaker 1: You built the biggest one and you got the fastest one,
22:48
Speaker 1: and your beauty outlasted most of the other people's beauty.
22:51
Speaker 1: I mean, your kids are the smartest kids. But wow,
22:55
Speaker 1: that's that's not how we do it. That's not the
22:58
Speaker 1: Kingdom of God. That doesn't change, and it all fades,
23:02
Speaker 1: and it all goes away, and what does this new
23:05
Speaker 1: way produce? What does the spirit of God produce in us?
23:07
Speaker 1: And here's the interesting thing. Most of us can quote.
23:09
Speaker 1: The lisk was the Apostle Paul and his letter to
23:12
Speaker 1: the Christians living in the Roman province of Galatia. He
23:14
Speaker 1: gives them a list of Hey, when you surrender to
23:17
Speaker 1: the spirit of God, when you surrender to the way
23:19
Speaker 1: of the Cross, when you surrender to the way of Jesus,
23:21
Speaker 1: here's what's going to be manifested in you.
23:24
Speaker 2: He says. It's the fruit of the.
23:26
Speaker 1: Spirit, not the fruit of good behavior in order to
23:31
Speaker 1: get the date, not the fruit of good behavior in
23:35
Speaker 1: order to do well in the interview, we all know
23:38
Speaker 1: how to do that. The fruit of the spirit is
23:41
Speaker 1: a response to the world around us that causes people
23:44
Speaker 1: to stop and stare because it is so otherworldly, it
23:48
Speaker 1: is so against the grain, it is so different, it's
23:52
Speaker 1: so admirable. These these are the people that you want
23:58
Speaker 1: to marry. These are the people that you want your
24:00
Speaker 1: kids today, These are the people you want to work
24:01
Speaker 1: for and work with. And here they are again, many
24:06
Speaker 1: of us can quote them.
24:08
Speaker 2: He says, this fruit of the spirit is.
24:10
Speaker 1: Love, joy, and peace, patience, and kindness. We talk about
24:17
Speaker 1: this all the time. Kindness, you know what kindness is.
24:19
Speaker 1: Kindness is I'm gonna loan you my strength rather than
24:22
Speaker 1: remind you of your weakness. We live in a world
24:25
Speaker 1: that's constantly reminding you of your weakness, and that Jesus
24:28
Speaker 1: followers come along and say, I'm not gonna talk about
24:30
Speaker 1: your weakness. I'm just gonna loan you my strength.
24:34
Speaker 2: Patience. You know what patience is.
24:35
Speaker 1: Patiences I let you set the pace, and then I
24:37
Speaker 1: walk at your pace.
24:39
Speaker 2: I don't say come on, come on, come on, come on,
24:40
Speaker 2: come on.
24:41
Speaker 1: Now, you set the pace. I'm gonna walk at your pace.
24:43
Speaker 1: Who does that? People living and sink with the spirit
24:48
Speaker 1: of God? Do you know what these are?
24:49
Speaker 2: Actually? These are all responses.
24:54
Speaker 1: See you don't get up tomorrow morning and go out
24:56
Speaker 1: and say today I'm gonna be patient. We gotta wait
24:59
Speaker 1: and see right. Patience is a response. I'm gonna have
25:03
Speaker 1: self control? This is you know what self controls. It's
25:06
Speaker 1: a response. It's a response to when you want to
25:08
Speaker 1: control somebody else and you realize, oh no, I've embraced
25:12
Speaker 1: the way of the Cross.
25:13
Speaker 2: I don't control other people.
25:15
Speaker 1: I surrender to the Spirit of God to control myself.
25:18
Speaker 1: I don't control outcomes, I don't control people. I don't
25:22
Speaker 1: control the circumstances. I don't control anything. I'm going to
25:26
Speaker 1: allow the Spirit of God to control. These are all responses.
25:31
Speaker 1: And do you know what these responses require? Power? Not weakness, impatience, weakness, unkindness, weakness, unfaithfulness,
25:52
Speaker 1: weakness not gonna be good because you don't deserve it, weakness.
25:57
Speaker 1: You see, this isn't weak, this isn't passive. This is extraordinary.
26:05
Speaker 1: This is the power of God through you, through me,
26:12
Speaker 1: not because we genet up, but because we lay it down.
26:21
Speaker 1: Two verses later, he says this to the same group.
26:24
Speaker 1: He says look says the same that the apostle Paul Agan.
26:27
Speaker 1: Since we live by the spirit, since God placed his
26:30
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit in you as a pledge of the fact
26:32
Speaker 1: that you belong to God, since you live, since you
26:35
Speaker 1: have eternal life because of the spirit. He's like, come on,
26:38
Speaker 1: let's do the next reasonable, logical thing. Let's keep in
26:41
Speaker 1: step with the spirit. In other words, this is an
26:44
Speaker 1: invitation to live in a different direction when salvation, when
26:50
Speaker 1: you're salvation is just a one and done, but you
26:53
Speaker 1: don't embrace the way of the Cross or the way
26:55
Speaker 1: of Jesus. Or we don't embrace the way of the
26:56
Speaker 1: Cross or the way of Jesus. You know what happens,
26:59
Speaker 1: we don't experience the power of God. And collectively, you
27:03
Speaker 1: know what that means as a church. When the church
27:04
Speaker 1: doesn't get this right, It means we don't make a
27:07
Speaker 1: dent and we don't make a difference. And people look
27:11
Speaker 1: at the church likes they're looking at the church in
27:12
Speaker 1: America right now, just to be honest, they just look
27:15
Speaker 1: at the church from the outside and they conclude, in fact,
27:17
Speaker 1: if you're not a Christian, not a believer, you're gonna
27:19
Speaker 1: love this next part. Okay, you know you're just applause.
27:22
Speaker 1: This may be your favorite part of any sermon you've
27:23
Speaker 1: ever heard before. They just look at us and they
27:27
Speaker 1: conclude that Christianity is just another religious It's just a
27:30
Speaker 1: religious cover for a group of people who want things
27:33
Speaker 1: their way. They're candidate, their policy, their thing. They just
27:38
Speaker 1: they're just an ideology.
27:40
Speaker 2: They're just against the things their group is against it.
27:43
Speaker 2: We're for of the things our group is for.
27:44
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, there's nothing special about that group.
27:47
Speaker 1: They just all, you know, believe the same stuff, but
27:50
Speaker 1: there's no difference. And there's no difference because there's no power.
27:55
Speaker 1: There's no difference because we're just another group of people
27:58
Speaker 1: trying to have They notice that we use the same
28:03
Speaker 1: strategy and tactics as everybody else to get our way.
28:07
Speaker 1: Because once the Church, once the body of Jesus, embraces
28:13
Speaker 1: the strategies and tactics of the kingdoms of this world,
28:16
Speaker 1: we have already lost. It's the very thing we talked
28:23
Speaker 1: about last week. It's the very thing Jesus said no
28:25
Speaker 1: to in his third temptation. And do you know what
28:33
Speaker 1: we lose first? Or I should say, do you know
28:34
Speaker 1: who we lose first? We lose the next generation of
28:38
Speaker 1: potential Jesus followers. Because the next generation of potential Jesus followers,
28:42
Speaker 1: they want to know, Hey, before I decide and commit
28:45
Speaker 1: to follow Jesus, because to follow Jesus is going to
28:47
Speaker 1: cost me something. To follow Jesus means I'm living against
28:50
Speaker 1: the grain. Hey, before I choose whether or not to
28:52
Speaker 1: follow Jesus, are you following Jesus? Before they decide they are?
28:58
Speaker 1: They want to know are we.
29:01
Speaker 2: Are we?
29:03
Speaker 1: Are you am I?
29:08
Speaker 2: Or are we just a group of people? Who want
29:11
Speaker 2: our way in the world.
29:13
Speaker 1: Dang it. Back to what Paul said to the group
29:17
Speaker 1: in Corinth. This is this is amazing, he taunts them.
29:23
Speaker 1: He says this, I love this. Hey, so where are
29:26
Speaker 1: the wise people? Come on, he says, show me the
29:28
Speaker 1: wise people? Where are the wise people? I mean, because
29:31
Speaker 1: he's talking to this group and they're in Corinth, they're
29:33
Speaker 1: very educated, they're very sophisticated.
29:34
Speaker 2: They got all this cool rhetoric.
29:36
Speaker 1: You know, it's you know, it's very Cosmopolitans said.
29:38
Speaker 2: He's like, oh, come on, come on.
29:39
Speaker 1: You don't want to do the way of Jesus, you know,
29:41
Speaker 1: because it's too counterculture. You don't want to do the
29:43
Speaker 1: way of Jesus because it won't work. You want to,
29:45
Speaker 1: you know, chase the wind. So tell me shaw, show
29:48
Speaker 1: me the wise people. It's amazing. And then he says,
29:52
Speaker 1: this is so good. Has not God made foolish? The
29:57
Speaker 1: wisdom of the world translated, Hey, haven't you seen enough?
30:06
Speaker 1: Haven't you lived long enough to know it doesn't work
30:12
Speaker 1: that the predominant way isn't the way.
30:16
Speaker 2: Show me the wise.
30:18
Speaker 1: People, He says, the predominant way isn't the way because
30:23
Speaker 1: the predominant way with the predominant way, everything eventually slips away.
30:26
Speaker 1: Come on, make it super practical, haven't you? Haven't we
30:30
Speaker 1: attended enough funerals to know what really matters, what really
30:34
Speaker 1: gets celebrated, what's worth celebrating at a funeral? And because
30:38
Speaker 1: of what I do, I go to too many funerals.
30:40
Speaker 1: I did a funeral this past Thursday for guys a
30:43
Speaker 1: few years younger than me was in our wedding. I've
30:46
Speaker 1: known him longer than I've known Sandra, and his parents
30:49
Speaker 1: are there. In twenty twenty, I did the funeral for
30:51
Speaker 1: his older brother. They've buried both of their sons. I've
30:55
Speaker 1: known him for years and years and years. It's tragic,
30:58
Speaker 1: and yet their faith going to talk about in a
31:00
Speaker 1: few weeks, I'm gonna tell some of that story. It's
31:02
Speaker 1: their faith is amazing. But the point is, as we're
31:04
Speaker 1: sitting there celebrating Keith's life, what are we celebrating?
31:08
Speaker 2: What do you celebrate at a funeral?
31:09
Speaker 1: Have you ever?
31:10
Speaker 2: And because of what I do, I've been to a
31:12
Speaker 2: few funerals where you got.
31:13
Speaker 1: To look hard for something to celebrate, because in the end,
31:18
Speaker 1: we know what matters, and that's what Jesus, your Savior,
31:24
Speaker 1: who says there's more to this life than this life
31:27
Speaker 1: in invites you and invites me into what do we celebrate?
31:31
Speaker 1: Do we celebrate winning at a funeral or serving achievement.
31:37
Speaker 2: Or character, what they clung to.
31:42
Speaker 1: Or what they gave away, what they fought to preserve,
31:47
Speaker 1: or their willingness to fight for the rights and the
31:50
Speaker 1: benefit of others. See, we celebrate self less. In those
32:01
Speaker 1: moments we realize that the value of a life, that
32:05
Speaker 1: the value of a life is always measured by how
32:09
Speaker 1: much of it was given away. And Paul says, so
32:15
Speaker 1: show me the wise people out there chasing the wind,
32:18
Speaker 1: what do they have to show for it? Nothing? He says,
32:20
Speaker 1: you think the message and the way of the Cross
32:23
Speaker 1: is foolish, that's foolish. You should follow Jesus and embrace
32:28
Speaker 1: the way of the Cross. It is the way that
32:30
Speaker 1: is saturated with what really matters, what really counts, and
32:33
Speaker 1: what really lasts.
32:34
Speaker 2: And you're smart enough to know it when.
32:36
Speaker 1: You see it, because you celebrated it and you're smart
32:38
Speaker 1: enough to see it.
32:39
Speaker 2: In culture, when somebody.
32:41
Speaker 1: Just works against the sides, against the grain, and their
32:44
Speaker 1: story stands out in contrast to everybody else's story, the
32:48
Speaker 1: other's first way of the cross isn't foolish. We're the fools.
32:55
Speaker 1: We're the fools because we're so easily confused and so
33:00
Speaker 1: easily baited away from it.
33:03
Speaker 2: We know better.
33:05
Speaker 1: Our problem is we're afraid to live better. We're afraid
33:11
Speaker 1: to commit to it. And I understand why because nobody
33:14
Speaker 1: else around us is. Everybody else is chasing the wind.
33:16
Speaker 1: So we just run along with them, except we pray,
33:20
Speaker 1: Dear Lord, help me to win the race.
33:21
Speaker 2: If where's the finished line, I don't know. It's just
33:23
Speaker 2: everybody's running that way. So I'm running with him.
33:25
Speaker 1: I have a cross, and I have Jesus and my backpack,
33:27
Speaker 1: me and God. You know, I got a Bible. Jesus
33:31
Speaker 1: is like, hey, wrong race. I appreciate your faith, and
33:36
Speaker 1: I appreciate you inviting me into the circumstances of this.
33:38
Speaker 1: It's just the wrong race. So let me just ask
33:42
Speaker 1: you this. We're gonna wrap this up, and this is
33:45
Speaker 1: kind of a crazy, silly question. It's rhetorical. Do you
33:48
Speaker 1: want to experience the power of God in your life? Yeah?
33:54
Speaker 2: Four of you do good. It's good. I think the
33:57
Speaker 2: online audience they want it.
33:59
Speaker 1: But four of you do so here's here's how to
34:01
Speaker 1: think about this, and we're gonna wrap it up. Okay,
34:03
Speaker 1: this is supported when this is this is when I
34:06
Speaker 1: got to this part and preparing the thing that came
34:09
Speaker 1: to mind, I asked this questions.
34:10
Speaker 2: Here's a question, when was the power of.
34:12
Speaker 1: God most evident in the life of Jesus, our savior
34:15
Speaker 1: who came to explain what God is like?
34:17
Speaker 2: Two things came to my mind.
34:19
Speaker 1: The power of God was most evident when Jesus did
34:21
Speaker 1: his miracles.
34:23
Speaker 2: But who are those four? Do you know?
34:25
Speaker 1: He never leveraged his power for his own benefit the
34:27
Speaker 1: way I say it. And they get in trouble for
34:28
Speaker 1: this because you're smart. But people in the other parts
34:31
Speaker 1: of the world, you know, they want to criticize me.
34:33
Speaker 1: I love, I say all the time, Jesus never played
34:36
Speaker 1: the God card.
34:36
Speaker 2: And I don't mean it claim to be God.
34:38
Speaker 1: I mean he didn't show up at the restaurant and say,
34:40
Speaker 1: we like the corner table. I know there are eight
34:42
Speaker 1: people that just sat down there and they got kids.
34:43
Speaker 1: But I'm Jesus, so.
34:47
Speaker 2: Either you move them or I can. Okay, So he
34:52
Speaker 2: never played the God card.
34:54
Speaker 1: All of his listen, all of his miracles, all that
34:57
Speaker 1: power of God was for not his benefit, everybody else's benefit.
35:01
Speaker 1: In fact, it was so much for everybody's other people's benefit.
35:04
Speaker 1: His power, his demonstrations, and power were actually used against him.
35:09
Speaker 2: At his trial. And at his trial they tried.
35:11
Speaker 1: To get him to defend himself, not my kingdom. I'm
35:18
Speaker 1: not that kind of king, and I love it. And
35:21
Speaker 1: Pilos is, don't you realize I have the power to
35:24
Speaker 1: crucify you or set you free? And Jesus smiles and says,
35:27
Speaker 1: you think you do. I mean in your realm of kingdom,
35:31
Speaker 1: you do. That's not my game, It's not why I'm here.
35:36
Speaker 1: In fact, I wish Jesus had said, hey, pile, but
35:40
Speaker 1: I got some good news. You're gonna be famous.
35:44
Speaker 2: You're gonna be.
35:45
Speaker 1: A footnote and my story, the story of the Kingdom
35:50
Speaker 1: of God come to earth. When's the other time Jesus
35:57
Speaker 1: manifested the power of God goal Gatha, the hill where
36:02
Speaker 1: he died, we would have been most horrified the moment
36:10
Speaker 1: God was most glorified. We in our kingdoms of this
36:14
Speaker 1: world way of thinking, we would have looked away. We
36:18
Speaker 1: would have gone inside, because the smell on that.
36:21
Speaker 2: Hill would be enough to drive you away. The ultimate loss.
36:29
Speaker 1: Was the ultimate expression of God's power. Do you want
36:37
Speaker 1: to experience the power of God in your.
36:43
Speaker 2: Life by losing? He won?
36:46
Speaker 1: And don't be confused. I talked about this last week.
36:48
Speaker 1: I'm gonna probably say this every time. Look, this is
36:50
Speaker 1: not an invitation to being passive or just folding our
36:54
Speaker 1: arms and being lazy. Well, God's just gonna work and
36:56
Speaker 1: follow Jesus through the Gospels, follow the apostle Paul, through
36:59
Speaker 1: the Book of our This is not about this the
37:01
Speaker 1: way of the Cross, this is so important. The way
37:03
Speaker 1: of the Cross is an invitation for you to leverage
37:06
Speaker 1: your talent and your opportunities to their full potential for
37:10
Speaker 1: the glory of your King, who loves you and invites
37:16
Speaker 1: you to follow him against the grain. For the message
37:24
Speaker 1: of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.
37:27
Speaker 1: But to those who are perishing, Paul says, Okay, how's
37:30
Speaker 1: that working for you? Show me the wisdom, show me
37:33
Speaker 1: the wise person. But to those of us who are
37:36
Speaker 1: being saved in the process of transformation, the message of
37:41
Speaker 1: the Cross.
37:42
Speaker 2: Is the power of God. So I'm gonna frustrate you
37:47
Speaker 2: a little bit.
37:48
Speaker 1: We're just gonna leave it there, and if I were you,
37:52
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, okay, well ay, I'm not arguing with you.
37:54
Speaker 1: I just don't understand. I don't know what that looks like.
37:57
Speaker 1: What does this mean? I mean losing? And I can't
38:00
Speaker 1: answer that question for you personally, But here's a breadcrumb
38:07
Speaker 1: this week, when they're conflict and you got there first,
38:12
Speaker 1: but they say they did and it was your idea,
38:15
Speaker 1: but they say it was theirs and they're fussinging, griping
38:18
Speaker 1: in the middle of that would just school work home.
38:23
Speaker 1: Just ask yourself, you don't have to do anything yet,
38:25
Speaker 1: just consider. Let's let's let's take this as far as
38:28
Speaker 1: we can mentally. What what would choosing to lose look
38:32
Speaker 1: like in this situation? Again, I can't tell you exactly
38:36
Speaker 1: what it'll looked like, but I know what this represents
38:42
Speaker 1: In that moment you ready for this. This is so
38:44
Speaker 1: amazing in that moment, it represents an opportunity. It represents
38:52
Speaker 1: an opportunity for the power of God to be demonstrated
39:00
Speaker 1: you and we will pick it up right there next time.
39:08
Speaker 1: An icon the empowering Invitation
39:14
Speaker 2: Of the Cross h