Latest / Andy Stanley Sermons / Andy Stanley - The Beginners Guide to Predicting Your Future Part 1 Principle of the Path

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Andy Stanley - The Beginners Guide to Predicting Your Future Part 1 Principle of the Path · Andy Stanley Sermons

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: What if you could predict your own future? How amazing
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: would that be. The good news is most of you
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: have gotten really close before to predicting your own future.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Here here's how I know that, because at some point
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: in your life you have had this thought, or you've
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: uttered this statement under your breath, or perhaps you forgot
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: what you were doing and you said it out loud
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: in front of someone. And here's the statement that lets
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: you know that you have gotten closer than you think
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: to predicting your own future.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: You said this, thought this, or muttered this. I should
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: have seen this coming. I should have seen this coming.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I should have predicted my own future. And all of
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: us have had these seasons where we find ourselves in
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a mess. And when the mess finally hits us in
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: the face, and when the mess is kind of all
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: over the room, and when the mess is like upon us,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: we think to ourselves, we think back, We begin mentally
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to connect all of those dots, and we conclude, I
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: don't know why I'm surprised I should have seen this coming.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: It's just so obvious I should have seen this coming. Now,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: here's something that you have said out loud, not about yourself,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: but out about someone else. And this is how we
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: know that we can actually, even if we don't want
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: to predict our future, we know how to predict the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: other people's future. Right, you've said this, You should have
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: seen this coming. You should have seen that coming, right,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: I mean you've said this to friends, you, maybe a roommate,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: if you hopefully not your spouse. You hopefully somebody else
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: would say that, right, because this isn't a good night
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: you know in a marriage when you say this, but
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: you have friends that are making decisions, and it's like
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: you're watching a train wreck in slow motion. You're watching
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: people come down two sidewalks into a corner. They're about
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: to collide. You can you can see what's about to happen.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: And you've tried to say something. We're gonna talk about
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: that in week four, or somebody else has tried to
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: say something to them, and then finally, you know, what
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: everybody knew was inevitable, finally happens, and they're they're.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: So shocked, like, I can't believe he broke up with me.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Really, he has been breaking up with you for three months.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Everybody knew he was breaking up with you, but you
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't know and how I got.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: This much debt?
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Oh really, everybody that knows you, this is not a
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: mystery to anyone but you, and you were able to
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: predict their future. But here's the question, and here's the mystery.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Here's what we're going to talk about. Why is it
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: that you can see what they can't see? And why
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: is it that they can see what you can't see?
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: And then there's this, because this is sort of the crazy.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Part of this.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Sometimes we do see and we just don't look. Sometimes
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: we kind of know where this is headed. Sometimes we
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: sort of know physically where this is headed, financially, professionally, academically,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: with a friend, a fiance, morally, where this is headed, spiritually,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: where this is headed, whatever it might be, we.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Kind of know.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: And every once in a while, somebody drops a hint
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: or two, and every once in a while, circumstances drops
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: a hint or two, and instead of facing it, Oh, no,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: look where I'm headed, we instead just sort of look
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the other way and refuse to look. And then when
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: we finally arrive at the destination, we act so shocked
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: and surprised. But the truth is, you kind of saw
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: this coming. You kind of knew you have the ability.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: I have the.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Ability in more cases and in more instances and in
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: more arenas of life than we want to admit that
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: we can in fact predict.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Our own future.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Now, in terms of why we're so prone to do that,
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  Speaker 1: we're gonna get to that in week three. We're gonna
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: talk about that later. But first I need to give
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: you some bad news and a little bit of good news. Okay,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: And this actually might explain why you're experiencing what you're
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: experiencing in life today.
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  Speaker 2: And this will also discourage you, and you will be.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Tempted to turn off the computer, the television, or just
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: get up and leave. So don't don't leave early. But
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: here's kind of gently give you the bad news. Most
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: of your personal problems, most personal problems cannot be fixed.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I didn't think I would get like, oh that's great.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, most most personal problems cannot be fixed.
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  Speaker 2: And here's why this is super important.
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  Speaker 1: You fix a car, you fix a computer, You get
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the oven fixed, you get the law fixed, you get
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: dogs fixed.
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  Speaker 2: That's a completely different thing.
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  Speaker 1: You get and you get all kinds of things fixed,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: and they're when you finish fixing the get in the
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: car fixed. Or the computer fixed there as good as new, right,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: they're as good as new. It's like they're almost brand new.
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  Speaker 1: It's like it never even happened. You know, if you've
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: taken your car in because something, you know, you've hit
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: a deer or something flew up on the highway and hit.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Your car, and you take it in.
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  Speaker 1: They fix it, and you know how guys I think
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: especially this way, and we want to make sure they
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: got the paint job right so that they bring it out.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: This happened to me recently, and they're how does it look,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: mister Stanley, And I'm looking at it. Then I come
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: over here and look at it, you know, I want to.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: I'm sure I'm going to find a flaw in the paint,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: you know. I keep looking at it all these angles.
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  Speaker 1: It's as good as new. It's like it never even happened.
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  Speaker 1: I don't need to tell you this, but a lot
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: of where we're going, I'll say it anyway. You're not
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  Speaker 1: like a car, and you're not like a computer. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: your computer has memory, but you have memories. You are
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  Speaker 1: more complex. We are more complex.
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  Speaker 2: God made us.
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  Speaker 1: We've been created more complex than something that can simply
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  Speaker 1: be plugged in and unplugged nowt And in terms of
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: our personal problems, we can cope with them, we can
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: overcome them, we can leverage them to teach our children later.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: We can always just serve as a bad example. We
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: can decide not to repeat. But our past is our past,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: and it follows us around and it's part of our
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: story for the rest of our lives. So that's the
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: bad news. That you can't really fix a problem the
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: way that fix the car computer. It's not like it's
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: fixed in your as good as new and it's never
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: going to affect you again. You're You're more complex than that,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: and that's good. That's a good thing. But here's the
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: good news, and here's where we're going for the next
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: few weeks. The good news is most personal problems can
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: be avoided, and this series is about avoiding what can
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: be avoided, so there's less to cope with later. It's
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: about avoiding the things that can be avoided. Because there's
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: enough pain in life that can't be avoided. Why in
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: the world would we bring extra upon ourselves unnecessarily? And
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  Speaker 1: if the center of this entire series is a single principle,
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  Speaker 1: is a single principle that I call the principle of
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  Speaker 1: the path. And I'm going to give you the principle
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  Speaker 1: of the path at the very end of the message today.
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  Speaker 2: But first I want to talk a little.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Bit about this word, because this is very important for
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: where we're going, and as intuitive as a lot of
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: this is, again, sometimes we just need to hear it,
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  Speaker 1: and we need to hear it said in a way
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  Speaker 1: that we've never heard it said before, so that we
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  Speaker 1: can acknowledge what's actually going on in our lives and
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  Speaker 1: not continue to pretend principle of the path. First few
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  Speaker 1: words about a principle a principle. A principle is not
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  Speaker 1: a rule that you follow. A principle is not a
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  Speaker 1: rule that you follow. Actually, a principle follows you. Principles
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  Speaker 1: follow you around everywhere you go, even when you're not
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  Speaker 1: aware of them. A principle is not something that you
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  Speaker 1: choose to apply. In fact, the difficult thing about a
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  Speaker 1: principle is a principle applies itself to you even when
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  Speaker 1: you're not aware of it. And principles are very, very
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  Speaker 1: very sticky. They will stick to you regardless of when
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  Speaker 1: you know, regardless of whether or not you know they're
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  Speaker 1: there or what's going on? And a principle, and this
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  Speaker 1: is where we're going a little bit today. A principle
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  Speaker 1: is not a law or a rule that you can break,
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  Speaker 1: but if you ignore certain principles, principles will break you.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe an illustration from high school will help. Some of
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  Speaker 1: you remember, most of us don't, and I barely remember this.
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  Speaker 1: Some of you may be familiar with the name Archimedes Archimedes,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and sometimes it's referred to Archimedes' principle. Archimedi's principle applies
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  Speaker 1: to you every time you get in the pool, every
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  Speaker 1: time you get on a float, every time you get
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  Speaker 1: on a boat, every time you get on a cruise ship,
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  Speaker 1: every time you throw something in the water and it sinks,
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  Speaker 1: every single time you deal with water in any way,
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  Speaker 1: archimedes principle applies itself to you, to which you might say, well,
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  Speaker 1: wait a minute, that's not even fair. I don't even
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  Speaker 1: know who Archimedes is. I don't know anything about Archimedes's principle,
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  Speaker 1: and it's unfair that archimedes principle would impact me and
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  Speaker 1: influence me if I don't know who he is and
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  Speaker 1: I don't know anything.
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  Speaker 2: About the principle. That's not fair. Uhah, that's the nature
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  Speaker 2: of a principle.
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  Speaker 1: Are invisible, and they apply themselves to us, whether we
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  Speaker 1: choose to apply them are not. They work in the
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  Speaker 1: background of our lives. Now, as you may remember our comedies,
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  Speaker 1: and as you may have put two and two together,
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  Speaker 1: is the one who gave us the principle a buoyancy
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  Speaker 1: in the third century BC.
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  Speaker 2: Think about this. In the third century BC.
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  Speaker 1: Archimedees explained to the world what had been going on
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: in the world since the beginning of the world. It's
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  Speaker 1: just that no one had ever explained it before. And
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  Speaker 1: in mathematical terms, he explained why pebbles sink and cruise
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: ships float because principles are experienced, and principles can be explained.
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  Speaker 1: But principles are not invented. They are discovered. You can
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  Speaker 1: talk about, you can discuss, but you don't invent them.
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  Speaker 1: You recognize them, and then you get to make a decision.
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  Speaker 1: You can leverage a principle to your benefit, or you
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  Speaker 1: can ignore a principle to your demise. And all of
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  Speaker 1: this is true for the principle of the path. The
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: principle of the path. Now to fully appreciate this principle,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: I have to say one other kind of you know,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: set up before we get through the meat of this.
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  Speaker 1: It's called the principle of the path. It's not called
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  Speaker 1: the principle of the solution. And there is a difference
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  Speaker 1: between a path and a solution. When you are lost,
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  Speaker 1: you do not pull over and ask for a solution.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: You pull over and ask for directions. When Ways takes
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: you to a parking garage and you're thinking, I don't
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  Speaker 1: think this is where I'm supposed to be. You don't
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: call the person who's home you're about to visit, or
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: whose office you're about to visit and say, hey, I
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: need a solution. You say I need directions because when
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: you're lost. When you're lost, we need to know where
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: we are and we need to know how to get
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  Speaker 1: to where we.
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  Speaker 2: Want to be.
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  Speaker 1: And you know this, there is no instant fix and
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: there is no instant solution for being lost. We get
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: to where we need to be. We get to where
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  Speaker 1: we should be the same way we got to where
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  Speaker 1: we shouldn't be. This is something we don't like and
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: we don't like to acknowledge, so I'm gonna read it again.
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  Speaker 1: We get to where we should be, financially, in your marriage,
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  Speaker 1: with your kids, with your parents, academically, whatever it might be. Professionally,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: we get to where we should be actually the same
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: way we got to where we shouldn't be. And we
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: get there not through a solution, we get there through direction. Now,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: all over the country this week and all over the
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: world probably this week, people will go to see a pastor,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: or to see a counselor or a psychiatrist, and they
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: will go to see the pastor, a counselor, or a psychiatrist,
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  Speaker 1: and they will go in there with problems that they
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: want the counselor or the pastor to fix.
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  Speaker 2: They'll say, here's what's going on in my marriage. Tell
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: me what to do. Here's what's going on with my kids.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me what to do. Here's what's going on financially,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: tell me what to do. Here's what's going on at work.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Here's what's going on morally. Here's what's going on in
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: terms of my addiction and my chemical addiction. Here's what's
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: going on. I need a solution, want to be fixed.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: But the truth is, and every wise pastor and counselor
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: knows this, even though we don't hear this is that
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: there's no fix because these are problems that can't be fixed.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: We don't need to be fixed. We need a direction
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: to be changed. We need to change directions. And most
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: people who go to someone for advice or counseling, in fact,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: someone has come to you recently perhaps, and they need
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: some advice and they're looking for a fix.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: What do I do? What do I say? What do
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: I do? What do I say?
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: And even though you didn't have this terminology, intuitively you
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: know there's nothing you can do and there's nothing you
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: can say.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: There is no fix for this. You're not made that way.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: You need to move and to live in a different direction.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: These are people who are living in the wrong direction. Now,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: if I can just be personal, some of you may
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: be living in the wrong direction. And the interesting thing
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: about living in the wrong direction, and the interesting thing
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: about the principle of the path, is this, you can
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: be living in the wrong direction and be happier than
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: you've ever been before. You can be living in the
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: wrong direction, moving in a direction that will take you
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: where you don't want to be, and have no idea.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, isn't it true that when you're driving and
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: you're and you get lost. You're not sure exactly the
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: moment that you became lost. You discover you're lost long
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: after you've been lost and gotten lost.
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  Speaker 2: You didn't need it. I mean, if it didn't work
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: that way, it would work this way.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: You know, thirty yards pass the line of not being lost,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: you would realize, oh, I'm lost, and you would just
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: back up thirty yards unlost, lost, unlost lost, unlost. Wouldn't
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: be great if it worked that way. But by the
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: time you realize you're lost, it's too late.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: You are lost.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: And so it's possible that you and this is why
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad that you're listening or watching it are
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: here today.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: It's possible.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: It's just possible that you are lost, that you are
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: moving and living in the wrong direction, and you don't
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: know it because the consequences of your decision haven't settled
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: in yet. And then when you discover it, you're gonna
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: want to fix want a solution, and the wise people
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: around you were going to say, you don't need to
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: fix her a solution. You need to change direction, because
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: you basically get to where you need to be the
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: same way you got to where you shouldn't be. Now
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: the other thing is you may be living in the
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: wrong direction and things aren't going all that well.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: They were for a while. She's the greatest, you know,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: he's the greatest. This is the dream job, you know.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: I know it's not.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Exactly ethical, but it's all gonna work out. People do
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: this all the time, and you were just so happy.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: You'd convinced your friends and your parents and your roommate
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: and everybody kind of looked at you funny, but you
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: got it all figured out.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: You were going to.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Manage the consequences. You're gonna manage the outcomes. And things
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: were great, and people were actually kind of jealous because
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: have you seen the guy. She's with him, And it
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: was all good, and now it's starting to get a
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: little wobbly.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: Now it's not quite so much fun.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Now there seemed to be problems, and you're thinking, I
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: need to get this fixed. I need to get this fixed. No,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: you're living in the wrong direction. And here's the good news.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: If you change direction, things will eventually change. Now, no surprise,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: and this shouldn't come as a shock. Jesus actually talked
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: about this. Wow, yeah, two thousand years ago. That book
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: that you haven't picked up in a long time. Perhaps
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: you last one you saw was on your grandmother's coffee table,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: and she said, don't put anything on top of it.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: You know, don't read it, but don't put anything on
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: top of it, because that's what we do with the
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Bible for many of us. Some of you maybe never
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: read the Bible. But here, you know, it's sort of
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: like Dorothy's ruby red slippers at the end of the movie.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: You know, why did we wait so long?
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, by the way, you could have.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Gone back home any time you wanted. You're wearing your
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: ticket home. Well well yeah, but we needed to create
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: a movie. Okay, so we had to do other stuff
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: before we got you home.
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  Speaker 2: That's great.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: So anyway, you for those of you who have access
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: to a Bible, and all of you do if you
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: have the Internet, the words of Jesus are so amazing.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: This is why everyone.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Should follow Jesus, even if you're not convinced Jesus as
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: we claim to be. These words of Jesus are so
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: powerful because he points to the principle of the path,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: but he does it in a different way. He does
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: in a parable and he preaches a sermon that we
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: call the end of the Bible. It's called the Sermon
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: on the Mount, and it's a sermon that I think
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: he repeated dozens of times. I think this is his
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: go to sermon. I think the disciples were like, oh, yeah,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: this one again. I think he just preaches over and
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: over because it had so much content and it was
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: sort of the essence of why he came, and he
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: covered so much stuff. And so at the end of
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: this particular version of the Sermon on the Mount that's
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew is one of
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Jesus' apostles, and Matthew was either a scribe or because
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: he was a tax together, he had scribes, so they
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: got all this stuff written down, you know. And so
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: in the Gospel of Matthew we have this full account
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: of the Sermon on the Mount. And at the very end,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: after Jesus has covered i mean everything you can imagine,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: he essentially tells this parable. And in this parable he
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: delivers to us sort of the essence of this principle
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: of the past. So I'm just gonna kind of feed
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: it to you line by line. Now, if you grew
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: up in church, you know this one. So try not
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: to rush to the end. If you grew up in
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: a church like me, not only do you know this one,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: you can sing it. There is a song that has
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: been written, and I'm gonna do my best not to
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: sing any of the song during this version of the message.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: I was not so successful last time around.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: So here is Jesus.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: He's wrapping up. He's at the very end of this
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: incredible message. Here's what he says. Therefore, because he's at
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: the end, Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: and actually does them not listens to them and.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Goes, oh, you are right. I'm not gonna do anything
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: with it, but oh you're right.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Now this is a big deal for some of you,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: because for some of you, the most religious experience you
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: have is going to church and feeling bad about yourself
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: and going home. That is religion for you. I'm religious.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I go every week, the preacher beats me up. I
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: don't do anything about it, but I feel bad, and
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the worst I feel about myself, the closer I feel
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: to God. How weird is that? And if that is
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: your church experience and your religious experience, I'm not sure
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: you've ever encountered Jesus. Okay, because This was not Jesus.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: This is not what Jesus did. Jesus said, I want
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: you to actually do what I'm asking you to do.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: And he continues, he says, anyone who hears these words
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: of mine and puts them into practice will experience immediate relief, relational, financially,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: along with all the other Ali's right, that's not what
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: he said. And therefore, anyone who hears these words of
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: mine and puts them into practice will have discovered the
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: fix for all their problems. No, because Jesus never ever
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: promises a fix for a problem. And do you know why,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: because Jesus understood how the world worked, and you understand
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: how the world works. And anybody that stands up, even
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: in a church with a microphone and says, if you'll
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: pray this special prayer, or if you'll say these special words,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: or if you'll do these one two threes, your problems
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: will go in. Your problems will be fixed. You should
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: find a different church. And you're smart enough to know
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: that's not how the world works. And they just want
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: something from you and Jesus, this is why you should
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: follow Jesus. Jesus never does that. He doesn't promise a fix.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: He doesn't promise a solution. Hees people to live in
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: a different direction.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: He points the way forward, he points the way out.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: So here's what he actually said.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: He said, anyone who's hears these words of mine and
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: puts them into practice is like a wise man, not
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: necessarily a smart man, but he may be smart, not
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: necessarily a talented man. But he may be talented, and
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: not necessarily a resourced man, although he may be resourced.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: A wise man. And what is a wise man. A
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: wise man or a wise woman is someone who understands,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: and we've talked about this before, that life is connected,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: that life is connected, that the past is connected to
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the present, and what I'm doing now will be connected
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: to my future, and that I'm not a card that
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: can be fixed and sent on its merry way, and
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: I'm not a computer that can be rebooted and sent
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: on its very way. That we're more complex than that.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: That our lives are like dots that connect, and all
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: the dots connect, and everything from the past will impact
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: what's happening now, which will impact the future. And the
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: wise person understands that the past is connected to the present,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: and the present.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: Is a good predictor of the future.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: The wise person understands that you really can predict to
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: some extent your own future. That direction, your current direction,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: is a great indicator of your ultimate destination.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: That's how the wise people think.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: So if anyone who hears these words of mine puts
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: them into practice, is like a wise man who built.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: This is a process.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: If you're built anything, most of us, if it's going
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: to take more than an hour, we try to find
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: somebody else to build it for us. Right, But in
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: this culture, there were not those things. There were no kits,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: there was no glue, there were no instructions. A wise
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: man who built built. That means process, time. This relates
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: to habit, repetition, discipline, something we really don't like, delayed gratification.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: If you're going to build a house, you have to
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: wait until you finish the entire process. Who built his house?
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: The context of this parable house is like a life.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: It's your relationships, it's your money, it's your pastime, it's
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: your pleasure time, it's everything that has to do with
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: anything that's important to you.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: That's part of your life.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: The wise man is like someone who listens to what
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Jesus said and actually puts him to practice. It's like
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: somebody who's building his house. And then he makes a
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: statement that we can't relate to it all who built
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: his house on the rock, to which we think, we
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: don't know what that means, because we don't really build
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: houses and we don't build on rock. But in this
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: verst century context, this represented something very specific, and everybody
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: in jesus audience immediately understood what Jesus was talking about.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: This represented the hard way. This represented the expensive way.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: This represented the time consuming way. This represented the way
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: that where there would be no immediate return on the labor.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: This is the way that you go by the building
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: construction site day after day after day after day, and
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: it looks like nothing's going on, when in fact a
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: lot is going on. And then he tells us about
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: a second character. You remember this if you've heard this
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: story in church. But everyone who hears these words of
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: mine and does not put them into practice is like
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: a foolish man. Now, what is a foolish man? A
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: foolish person is somebody who lives as if life is disconnected,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: that now is now and later is later. Now is
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: now and later is later. The way that a foolish
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: person thinks is this. I'm like an electronic device. If
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: something goes wrong, I don't quit worry and nothing's gonna happen.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: But if something happens, saying that to me, nothing's gonna happen.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: I got this under control, I got this.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: I got this. Besides, I'm like an electronic device.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: If something happens to that relationship, if something happens in
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: my relationship with my daughter, if something happens in my marriage,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: if something happens financially act if if these things happen
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: that you think are gonna happen, although they're not gonna happen,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: I'm like an electronic device. All I have to do
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: is unplug myself count to about ten. Then I plug
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: myself back in and I reboot and I start over, and.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: I'll be fixed and I'll.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Be fine, to which we think that's not how life works,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: but that's how perhaps you're trying to live. But you
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: know what, I'll just say, Okay, if it doesn't work out,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: I'll just get remarried. Doesn't work out, look.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: I'll just move out and find somebody else.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I know what you're saying, But eventually, you know I'll
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: I'll just declare bankruptcy.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Okay, if what you're saying that happen.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: In other words, I'll just reboot and I'll just start over.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: And for those of you on the West Coast, I
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: apologize because on the East coast, here's what else we
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: say over here. I'm gonna go out west and find myself.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna get a Harley, and I'm just gonna go
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: out west and find myself. And they always end up
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: in California, I'm just saying. And they generally find end
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: up on the beach. So here's I know. I know
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: it's kind of strange. So for those of you who
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: live on the West coast, if.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: You find any disembodied selves, because there's people here headed your.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Way to find themselves, if you would just find those
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: disembodied selves and send them back this way, it would
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: save them a lot of money and time, Okay. And
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know how their self got there to begin with.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: And the other thing I don't know. It's for those
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: of you on the West coast, where do you go
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: to find yourself? I wouldn't come here. We have pollend, Okay,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: nobody comes. Nobody comes to the land of polland to
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: find themselves. But if we find any disembodied West Coasters,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: we will send them your direction. So because the problem
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: with finding yourself is that yourself is the problem. Okay,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: you should We should all know this. I mean, the
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Eagles told us this years.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: Ago, right.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Ain't it funny how your new life didn't change things?
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: You're still the same old Oh? Come on, are you
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: kidding me? Okay, You're gonna give you one more chance.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: You're still the same old Oh this is just embarrassing. Okay,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I bet everybody online is the next world where you're
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: still the same old girl you used to be.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Let me repeat it for you one more time.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, Ain't it funny how You're new life didn't change things.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: I'm just gonna start over.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go west, I'm gonna get remarried, I'm gonna
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: do this, i gonna move out, I'm gonna change my name,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna quit my job, I'm gonna bleach my hair,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna you know, I'm just gonna do whatever. I'm
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: just gonna just reboot and start over. And in funny,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: how your new life didn't change things, You're still the
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: same old self. You're still the same old girl, You're
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: still the.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: Same old guy you used to be.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: The fool thinks, no, no, no, I can just reboot and
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: I'll be fine. And your heavenly father who created you, says,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: you're not a car, You're you're not an oven, you're
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: not a toaster, you're not a computer. You've been made
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: in my image. You are complex and you are precious.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: And there's no fix, there's no solution. But I'm inviting
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: you to change directions. Who built his house on sand? Which,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: of course again we're like, is anything to us? This
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: was the quick way, this was the easy way. And
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: by the way, when Jesus said this, everybody in his
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: audience moaned, like, uh, that's not gonna go. Well, everybody
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: in Jesus' audience immediately predicted this imaginary person's future because
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: this always goes the same way, and an imaginary person
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: in the imaginary story that Jesus was telling to make
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: an actual point, they're gonna be shocked.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: You know what.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: You know, it didn't work out, And everybody in Jesus's
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: audience is going, this never works out. It's the quick way,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: it's the easy way, it's the immediate way. I mean too,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: you know, three four days later, there's something to show
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: for that construction site. And the assumption of the fool
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: is this The assumption for the fool is this that
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: today's weather will be tomorrow's weather. And it rarely is.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: It almost never is. And in this case it wasn't
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: because the rain came.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Oh see, I did it down and the floods came up.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: The rain came and okay, so you don't know eagle
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: songs or Sunday school songs.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: That's what i'm that's what I'm learning.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Yes, the rain came down, the flood came up, and
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Jesus says that the rain came down, the stream rows
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: and the winds blew and beat against that house, and
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: it fell with a great crash.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: The implication is there's no fix. Hey, can you fix this?
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: No, we we just have to to do what you
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: should have done to begin with.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: We have to re build. It's gonna take time. No,
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: I want you to take time. I want you to
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: fix it. No. No, See, when the house fall down, you
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: don't fix it.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: You you rebuild. It's gonna take time. In fact, if
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: you had taken the time up front, to do what
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: you should have done. We wouldn't be spending time now
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: doing what we don't really wouldn't have to do, right,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: there's only loss. Hey, you should have seen this coming.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: But when the rain came down, the stream rows and
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: the wind blue and beat against the first house, the
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: one built on the rock, Jesus says, it did not
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: fall because those folks are so lucky. You know what
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: we think, Oh man, things just always work out for him.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Things just all I mean, you're just so lucky. Things
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: just work out for you, not me. I don't think
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: God loves me. I don't even think God knows that exist.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Things just don't work out for me. I prayed and
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: ask God to fix it, and it didn't get fixed.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: And I prayed and ask God to change her, and
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: he didn't change her. And I prayed and I prayed.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: And you know, you're just lucky, You're just blessed. I
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: don't think God loves me, Jesus says, Come on, come on,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: you know how the world works. My father made it
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: to work this way. My father made it to work
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: this way so there would be some predictability, so that
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: you would have a little bit of control, so that
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: you would know what to do. It did not fall
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: because that had its foundation on the rock. And in
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: the parable, the rock is doing what Jesus required and
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: asked is followers to do. It's cause and effect. It's
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: sowing and reaping. It's the principle of the path. Now,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: this next verse is my favorite verse because I'm kind
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: of geeky this way. You won't love this one, but
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: I love it so much I want to show.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: It to you. This is so cool. So Jesus has preached.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: This long sermon and they're out in the sun probably
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: we don't know, it's always hot there, and he finishes
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: up with this like amazing parable, you know, and they're
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: all like, oh, it's just incredible. And in the text,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: I love this. The text says that when Jesus had
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed. That is teaching,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: because he taught as one who had authority. It's like, Wow,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: finding somebody who makes sense. Finally, somebody who's saying some
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: things that have handles. Finally, somebody that's explaining how the
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: world works and how God intersects and is involved in
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: our world, not as they're teachers of the law. Now
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: real quickly, let me tell you what just me. Okay,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: this is what breaks my heart. This is what drives
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: me in ministry. Everybody has something that kind of gets
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: them up in the morning outside a family. You know,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: this is the thing that gets me up in the morning.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: This is why I spent years working with high school students.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: Then I realized, I think it's their parents' problem. So
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: then I begin working with adults, you know, because I
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: really love high school students. But the only way to
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: help them was talk to mom and dad. Anyway, the
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: thing that has driven me for years and really drives
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: so much of what we do is a network of churches.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: What breaks my heart is people who are living in
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: a direction that's not going to get them where they
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: want to go. This just just breaks my heart. And
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: you can see it happening. You've all seen it happening
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: for other people. It's happening for some of you. And
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: the people that can see the direction you're headed in
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: it is breaking their heart and you just won't listen.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Because you can't or won't or have decided not to
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: see it.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: And the thing is, it's unlike driving, and if you're
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: driving and you get lost, you lose a few minutes,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: you lose thirty minutes. You kind of have to chuck
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: and laugh and I'm sorry I'm a few minutes late.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: But you can you can fully recover, no harm done.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: You know, you show up a little late, you know,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: MI when you're lost, But in life you can show
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: up real late.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: In life, you miss.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: You can miss your all your twenties, you can miss
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: your thirties, you can miss that first marriage.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: You can miss your kids growing up.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: You can miss having an opportunity to connect with your grandkids.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: You can miss so much.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: You can miss what's most important and miss it completely,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: and there's no way to regain it. So when I see,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: just like when you see when you see someone who's
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: living in the wrong direction and they're happy and they're
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: smiling and they're convinced, but you know, it's just it's
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: just heartbreaking. And I just say, you know, it's heartbreaking
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: to me, not because you are or aren't a Christian.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: It's just heartbreaking to me because you're a human being
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: who has one life to live. And here's what's extraordinary.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Your father in heaven, even if you don't recognize him,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: is that your father and heaven cares so much about
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: that he sent his son into the world so that
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: we could know what God is like. And Jesus said, okay,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: I'm giving it to you slow, line by line.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: If you will just follow me. If you will follow me,
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: it's like you're building your life on something that will last.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Because the truth is, and you know this right, we
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: can't wish our way, and we can't talk our way,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: even though we try, and we can't even pray our
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: way back in time to recapture the lost years, the lost.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Seasons of our life.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: We can't pray and talk our way back to that
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: moment in time where we took the wrong turn and
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: started living in the wrong direction.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: So here's the principle of the path. It's so simple.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: We're going to talk about it for the next three weeks.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: The principle of the path is simply this, that direction
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: determines destination. Direction determines destination. The best way to predict
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: your future is to pay attention to where you're headed.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: The best way to predict your future. You have the
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: ability to predict your future by paying attention to where
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: you're headed morally, financially, spiritually, academically, relationally, with important relationships.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: You have the potential to predict your future because of
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: the principle of the path that will apply itself to you,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: whether you choose to leverage it and apply it or not.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: About three years ago, I'm sitting at an intersection in
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: the town I live in and it's four lanes. Two
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: lanes are gonna go straight. We're at a traffic light.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: I'm about fifty yards back from the traffic light, big intersection,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: two lanes waiting, and then there are two turn lanes
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: to my left.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: I'm in this lane. I'm still over to the right of.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Me as another car that's still on my pickup truck,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: so I can see pretty well. And the arrow turns green,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: and so these two lanes they start moving. These two
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: lanes were sitting still waiting for the light to turn green,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: and these two lanes are flying.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: I mean there, you know how it is like, I
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: gotta get to the green line. I gotta get to
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: the green arrow quick.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, they're just flying and in my periphery, and
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: what I'm about to describe took place in seconds. It
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: takes way long to tell it than for it to
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: have actually happened the way it happened. It takes longer
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: to tell it than it did to happen. I should say,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: I see some movement, and I look and there's a
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: drug store, and out of the door of the drug
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: store and across the parking lot come running these two
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: teenage girls and they have bags, and obviously, and quickly
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: I realize they're gonna.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: Try to get across the traffic.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Across these lanes instead of going up to the intersection
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: and waiting for you know, waiting to cross properly. And
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: they're running. And what they see are two lines of
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: our two rows of stopped cars. What they can't see
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: are these other two lanes that are flying trying to
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: get up to the green arrow. And this happens in seconds.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: And I watch as they run, not in front of
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: my truck or in front of the car in front
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: of me, but they run in front of the car
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: in front of them, And I mean, you could just
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: see it happening. And they both run right out in
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: front of a green Dodge Ram pickup truck who hit
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: them both at the same time and sent their bodies
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: flying through the air. Never seen anything like this in
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: my life. Some of you have the pickup truck stops.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Everybody stops and jumps out of their car. Everybody's calling
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: nine to one one. The light turns green and everybody
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: up ahead went but everybody who had seen what happened stopped.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: And of course it's just chaos.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: And I can still picture the guy jumping out of
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: his pickup truck, and my heart just sank as I
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: thought about what he just witnessed, what he just participated in,
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: and what he may feel like he's spend the rest
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: of his life regretting. And it wasn't his fault. Well, anyway,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: the police were there. I mean they were there so quickly.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: The EMTs, Oh my goodness, what the most fabulous people
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: in the world had just walked into a scene with
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: it's an emergency and know what to do. And so
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: the police started moving us on. Everybody kind of pulls
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: off to the side. We all get out on not all,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: but we're out of our car. You just want to
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: do something, but there's nothing to do. There was no blood,
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: but they were lifeless laying there on the pavement.
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: So eventually went home.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to tell you how this resolves, because
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: you won't hear anything else I say. I don't tell
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: you how this part resolved, so I don't blame you.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: The next day, the next day, I went to the
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: police station. I thought, I got to know where these
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: girls went to the hospital. I mean, you know, they don't.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know if they're sisters and maybe two different families.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: I want to find out who the parents are. I
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: mean this, you just can't get out of your head.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: The police.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: I went to the police station. They said, yeah, we
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: know what you're talking about. We can't give you any information.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: I said, can you just tell me what hospital they
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: went to? We can't give you any information. I used
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: the pastor card. You know, I'm a pastor. Nice to
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: meet you, pastor. We cannot give you any information. So
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: I started calling around. I have friends who were policemen.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: I don't want to get any trouble. But I finally
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: found out what happened, and lo and behold, they went
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: home from the hospital the same day, I know, with
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: some gigantic, enormous Dodge Ram pickup bruises. I am sure,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: I can't even imagine this, but they insisted, no, no, no.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: They were released that night.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: From the hospital. Now, the point of the story is
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: kind of obvious. Do you think it ever crossed my mind?
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: Those stupid girls.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: Why you know they're breaking the law.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: They should go up the sidewalk and way like everybody else.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: And you know what, Well, that's what happens. Do you
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: think it ever crossed my mind?
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: No?
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: And I am a flawed human being. I am a
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: flawed father. But my heart was broken before it even happened.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: And that little bit of good in me that is
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: in you as well, is a reflection of the heart
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: of your heavenly father, who watches you living in the
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: wrong direction. And he's not gonna violate your freedom, but
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: he's gonna hint, and he's gonna warn, and he's gonna
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: send people, and enough's gonna go bad that you're gonna
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: finally begin to wonder. And then lo and behold, he's
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: got you listening to me, and.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: He loves you.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: And this is why the invitation at our church is
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: the invitation Jesus extended in the first century. And it's
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: a one word invitation, and it's not believe, and it's
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: not changed, and it's not stop, and it's not fix it.
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: It's follow Jesus.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: I just want you to live the way I've taught
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: you to live, and if you do, you'll build an
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: enduring home.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: You'll build an.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: Enduring life because following Jesus will eventually, not initially, not immediately,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Following Jesus will eventually make your life better. And I
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: following Jesus will eventually make you better at life. And
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: Jesus offered a better life. He called it eternal life.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: And the reason he called it eternal life is not
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: because you die and go to heaven. He called it
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: eternal life because when you embrace Jesus, who Jesus claims
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: to be in that moment, your life is placed within
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: the context not of birth and death, but in the
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: context of eternity. And then who would say that, I mean,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: he would make such an offer. Then he authenticated his
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: offer by laying down his own life and taking it
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: back up again.
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: Here's what I know about you.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: You're going to end up somewhere in life, right, There's
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: a destination somewhere relationally, in your marriage with your kids, Financially,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: there's a destination. Everybody ends up somewhere in life. I
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: want you to end up somewhere on purpose. I want
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: you to live in the right direction. And if you
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: follow Jesus, not only will you end up somewhere on purpose,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: you will end up somewhere with a purpose. And when
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: you end up somewhere with a purpose, you will have
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: a satisfying life. The principle of the path direction determines destination.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: So we're going to talk about living and the right friend,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: better direction. We'll pick it up there next time.