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00:00:00
[music: That's Who My God Is]
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00:00:40
- Qué pasa, Crossroads,
my name is Arturo.
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00:00:42
I'm on the Reachout Team here
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00:00:43
and Crossroads is a
church for anyone, anywhere.
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00:00:46
And did you know
that whether Spanish
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00:00:49
is your first language or not,
you can watch
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00:00:51
the message in Spanish by
going to Crossroads.net/watch
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00:00:55
and looking for the
ver en Espanol button.
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00:00:58
In fact,
if you want to know any more
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00:01:00
about the things that we've
got going on here in Espanol,
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00:01:02
you can just go to
crossroads.net/Espanol.
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00:01:06
Today we're looking at another
epic wonder in the Bible.
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00:01:09
Something so epic that it
could change how we see God
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00:01:13
and how we can see ourselves.
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00:12:06
Come on, make some noise
if you've seen Jesus move,
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00:12:09
if He's saved your heart.
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- You have all my passion.
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00:14:47
You have my voice,
my heart, my breath.
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00:14:52
Because in my heart I've
seen dead things come alive.
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00:14:56
Because I've seen friends,
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00:14:58
I can look at faces
throughout this space.
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I can know people joining
us online who have met You
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00:15:03
and have never been the same.
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00:15:06
And for every single person
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00:15:09
who can hear my voice right now,
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who does not feel that,
who has not experienced that,
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00:15:16
I am so thrilled that
they're here today,
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00:15:19
because that's
what I want for them,
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00:15:20
because it's changed my life.
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00:15:22
You have changed my life.
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00:15:23
You are worthy of my attention
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00:15:26
and my passion
and all that I have.
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00:15:30
And so I praise you and
bless you, King Jesus.
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I do all this because of You.
Amen.
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00:15:41
Man,
it's so good to be together.
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00:15:43
Why don't you turn to
somebody in the room
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00:15:44
and say, "Hey,
glad to be here with you."
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00:15:46
If you're online,
glad you're here with us, too.
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00:15:48
And have a seat.
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00:16:05
This bald head needs a
rag sometimes, you know?
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Hey, I love singing
like that together.
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I've missed not being here
the past few weeks with you all.
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00:16:15
I was at camp and been
away with my family.
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00:16:17
I love singing together.
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00:16:18
And you might hear us refer
to what we just did in song
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00:16:22
as a word called worship.
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00:16:23
You might hear us say
we're going to worship
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00:16:25
or we just worshiped.
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00:16:27
Worship is just
this ascribing worth,
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00:16:30
ascribing worth, worship, to God
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for who He is and
what He's done.
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00:16:34
And for me and for
us followers of Jesus,
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00:16:36
that's far more than
a melody or a song
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00:16:38
or empty words on a screen.
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00:16:40
It's put into action.
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00:16:42
So one of the ways that
we put that into action,
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00:16:45
one of the ways that's
an act of worship for us.
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00:16:47
We do that at
Crossroads.net/give
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00:16:50
with our finances,
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00:16:51
with our giving, with the money
that God's entrusted to us.
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00:16:55
We give it back as an
act of worship to Him.
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00:16:58
We try our best and
we are at our best
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00:17:01
when we put our actions
where our hearts are.
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00:17:04
And so in here,
we don't stay in this room,
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00:17:06
and we don't want King
Jesus to stay in this room.
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00:17:09
And in here we try
to go and get out
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00:17:11
and get across the world
and get into our cities
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00:17:14
and take the love
of Jesus there.
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00:17:15
And so right now, I want
you to hear an incredible story
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00:17:17
by a guy named Scott in our
community who did just that,
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00:17:20
put his actions
where his heart was.
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00:17:29
- When I started
coming to Crossroads
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00:17:32
and saw that there were
Go Trips to Puerto Rico,
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00:17:37
that was the impetus.
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00:17:39
Decided to do that first one,
which was March of 2024.
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00:17:45
We started work on on the
house of a lady named Aria.
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00:17:50
Shortly before we got there,
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00:17:52
Aria had been sitting and
watching TV in the evening,
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00:17:55
and a dead bird fell from
the ceiling and into her lap.
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00:18:00
What we got to do was
change her entire way of living,
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00:18:08
to give her a true
roof over her head.
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00:18:11
A year and three months,
basically later,
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00:18:14
we got to see the
finished product.
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00:18:16
Hunger Corp came to me and said,
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"Can you hand over the keys?"
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And God spoke through me
that day, I truly believe that
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00:18:31
because I have no idea
where the words came from,
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00:18:34
but in that moment,
none of it mattered.
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00:18:37
In the end each trip is going
to bring you closer to God.
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00:18:41
I am 100% a different person
in saying yes to these trips.
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00:18:45
And if I can help
somebody else come to God
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00:18:48
to understand the plan
that God has for us,
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00:18:53
then everything I've ever
put into a Go Trip is worth it.
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00:22:27
- I got to be honest,
guys, these trips
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00:22:29
are pretty near and dear
to my [speaking Spanish].
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00:22:31
And in case it wasn't obvious,
let me make sure
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00:22:35
that you know that these
Go Trips are not vacations.
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00:22:38
These are adventures
with purpose.
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00:22:41
You're going to step
out of your comfort zone.
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00:22:44
You're going to meet new people
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00:22:45
that you probably otherwise
would have never met.
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00:22:48
And you're going
to be joining in on
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00:22:50
what God is doing in
these parts of the world,
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00:22:53
combating against injustice,
poverty, and exploitation
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with love, hope and, yes,
a little bit of hard work.
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00:23:02
Trips are live,
so if you want to find out more,
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if you want something
to supercharge your faith,
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00:23:08
consider this your invitation.
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Go ahead and check
out crossroads.net/Trips.
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00:23:13
We're about to hear from
Brian Tome, our Senior Pastor,
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00:23:16
and he's going to be
giving us an opportunity
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to participate in
the word today.
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00:23:21
To do that, you're going
to need some water to drink
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00:23:24
and some salty crackers.
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00:23:26
The saltier,
the drier, the better.
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00:23:29
I know that's weird,
but trust me on that.
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We're so glad you're here.
Let's get started.
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00:24:12
- Well,
it's great to be here today.
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My name is Brian. I'm what's
known as a Senior Pastor,
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if we haven't met yet.
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00:24:17
You might not recognize
me if you know me
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00:24:19
because my hair
is a little different.
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00:24:21
In case you're wondering, this
was shaved bald not long ago.
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00:24:25
My wife is going
through chemotherapy,
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00:24:26
and I decided to
identify with her.
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00:24:28
So that's the reason for
the the short, short hair.
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00:24:33
Uh, speaking of that,
if you're curious about
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00:24:35
what's happening with
us and her cancer journey.
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00:24:38
I got a fresh article I put on
the Crossroads app called,
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00:24:41
uh, app called Oh,
crap, we're in the crap.
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00:24:44
Not quite those words,
but I didn't want
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00:24:46
to say those words
right now as we start off.
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00:24:48
But I'll just tell you,
if some of you have
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a problem with bald people
just remind you or tell you,
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00:24:52
today I'm going
to talk about Elijah,
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one of the greatest
prophets in history
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and in the Old Testament.
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00:24:57
He had an understudy. His
name was Elisha, who was bald.
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00:25:01
And he had all the young
people making fun of him one day
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00:25:03
they said, "Hey,
baldy, baldy, baldy!"
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00:25:05
And he called bears out of
the woods and mauled them all.
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00:25:07
So maybe you give me a hard
time with my hair, you know,
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bad stuff coming your way.
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00:25:15
Let's pray before we get into
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one of my favorite
stories in the Bible.
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00:25:19
God, I'm honored to
be back doing this thing
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that's called preaching,
communicating.
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00:25:25
And I'm honored to
be able to talk about
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transcendent things
in a public place
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and to be discounted and
invited to be able to do it.
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00:25:35
So help me to talk
about the things
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that You want Your
people to have today
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or Your future people to
have and help me to be clear
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and most importantly, may You
be honored by all that's said.
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I pray these things
according to the character
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and identity of Jesus.
Amen. Amen.
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2 Kings 16 to 33,
we're going to see
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the prime protagonist,
the evil person in this story.
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His name is Ahab.
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00:26:03
Before we talk about Ahab,
I want you to take out,
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if you will,
those saltine crackers
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that you got when you came in.
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Do not touch that water.
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If you already have, oh, well.
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00:26:13
Won't work for you the same
way as the rest of us today.
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Take those saltine crackers
and put those in your mouth.
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Just eat them both right now.
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Eat them both without
washing them down.
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Yep. There you go. That's one.
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I've never heard 3000
people eating saltines
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at the same time here in Oakley.
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Pretty funny. All right.
Now you're going to find
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you have a very dry mouth.
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I'm going to explain to you why.
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I want us to
experience this story.
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I'm going to do a bunch
of things to help us
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experience this story,
but it's a great story.
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Book of 1 Kings 16:13.
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By the way,
I alone I'm supposed to talk.
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So if I have to take a drink,
I have to take a drink.
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Mouth is dry. King Ahab.
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And Ahab made an Asherah,
which is a totem pole.
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Ahab did more to provoke
the Lord, the God of Israel,
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to anger than all the kings
of Israel that were before him.
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And that's really
saying something,
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because the kings of Israel,
there was a lot of people
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who just were not
good dudes at all.
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00:27:40
And they're saying Asherah is
worse than all of them combined.
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All of them combined.
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00:27:44
Perhaps some of you,
you may have a third kid,
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you have a fourth kid,
like, you can be honest.
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Don't raise your hand,
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especially if
your isn't in here.
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00:27:51
But there's some
kids you're like,
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"You're worse than all
my other kids combined.
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You're more annoying
than all of them."
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00:28:02
Again, don't self disclose that,
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00:28:04
but you know what I'm talking
about. You know exactly.
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00:28:07
And you know
how frustrating it is.
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00:28:08
That's how frustrating
that is with God.
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King of His people
is totally lost the plot.
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00:28:14
So along comes Elijah,
bring a message. Verse 17:1.
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"And the Lord,
the God of Israel, lives,
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(so says Elijah)
before whom I stand,
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there shall be neither
do nor rain these years,
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except by my word."
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You're going into a drought.
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The number of things I
read the scriptures from
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00:28:34
one of my favorite
stories I've told my kids
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00:28:35
again and again and
again when they're little kids.
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00:28:37
And every time I read it,
there's new things to pop up.
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00:28:40
And this time, as I've read
it getting ready for today,
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there's a bunch of things
that popped up for me
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I want to talk about.
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00:28:45
The first is this:
it's a thing that
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you can all relate to right now,
at least in your mouth.
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It is a drought.
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Right now I gave you
those saltine crackers
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because I want you to
a physical representation
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of the way many of you
feel spiritually right now,
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or at least have felt.
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00:29:04
Sometimes you just feel dry,
right?
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00:29:06
There's just not moisture.
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00:29:08
There's not the
suppleness of a spirit
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00:29:11
that's flexible and open to God.
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00:29:14
And Elijah says to Ahab,
dude, three and a half years.
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Nothing. Nothing.
No, dude. No rain, nothing.
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A drought is coming."
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It's a first big piece here is a
drought, three and a half years.
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00:29:25
Some of us,
we've lost our moisture.
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00:29:28
Signs that you've
lost your moisture is
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00:29:31
you've lost your sense of humor,
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00:29:32
you've become
unbelievably cynical,
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00:29:35
you turn to God at the
last possible moment
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00:29:38
when nothing else is there.
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00:29:40
You don't operate in joy.
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00:29:42
There's not a peace that
passes understanding.
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00:29:45
You don't have a
positive hope for the future.
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00:29:47
These are Bible verses
I'm quoting, by the way,
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but we don't feel them.
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00:29:52
And you know what? It's okay.
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00:29:54
It doesn't necessarily mean
that you're a bad person
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00:29:56
because there's a lot
of people a lot of times
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we go through a drought
and it's just the way it is.
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00:30:01
Elijah, he talks about
there's a drought coming
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00:30:03
and he's going to
go through it as well.
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00:30:05
But he is not part
of the problem,
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but he's going to go through it.
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Nation of Israel in
the Old Testament
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went through 40 years of
wandering in the wilderness.
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00:30:13
So it was a dry time.
It was a drought for them.
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00:30:15
And Joshua and Moses,
two heroes,
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they had to go through it too,
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and they hadn't
done anything wrong.
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00:30:21
Jesus goes through 40
days in the wilderness,
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a time of trials
and temptations.
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00:30:26
He's fasting from
water and food.
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00:30:28
Only the Son of God could do
that for 40 days,
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but He does it.
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00:30:32
Again,
he hasn't done anything wrong.
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00:30:34
It's just the plan for Him.
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00:30:35
So if you're in a drought,
if you feel spiritually dry,
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00:30:40
it may be okay and it
may not be your fault.
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00:30:42
It just what happens
sometimes to the best of us.
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00:30:46
But you have to understand
how to get out of it
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00:30:49
in order to get out of it.
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00:30:51
And if you're not in
one right now, great.
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00:30:53
But just store this away.
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00:30:55
And if you've been in
one before, you'll go,
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00:30:57
"Oh yeah, I remember that.
Remember what that was like."
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00:30:59
Let's go to the story,
1 Kings 18:1.
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Get into the thick of it.
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00:31:09
Excuse me, when I started,
I'll start at 18:17.
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00:31:13
When Ahab saw Elijah,
Ahab said to him,
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00:31:17
"Is it you,
the trouble of Israel?"
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00:31:21
And Elijah answered,
"I have not troubled Israel,
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00:31:24
but you have,
you and your father's house,
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00:31:27
because you have abandoned
the commandments of the Lord
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00:31:29
and followed the Baals." (These
are the false gods, Baal.)
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00:31:33
Now, therefore --
I'll stop right there.
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00:31:36
This is what happens when
people are are deluded,
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00:31:38
deluded, and oftentimes in a
drought, they lose their mind.
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00:31:42
Ahab sees Elijah and he
blames the drought on Elijah.
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00:31:47
Like, dude,
you're missing the whole point.
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00:31:50
This is coming to get
your attention spiritually,
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00:31:53
to get all the nations.
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00:31:54
I didn't do this. You did this.
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00:31:57
The most deluded people are
the most self-focused people,
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00:32:00
and it's never their fault.
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00:32:03
It's always somebody else.
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00:32:05
Things aren't going well for me,
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00:32:06
it's just because the
government's not doing its job.
-
00:32:09
Things are going well for me
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00:32:10
because my parents
potty trained me wrong
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00:32:13
when I was growing up.
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00:32:14
But things aren't
going right for me
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00:32:15
because she said this about me
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00:32:17
and he posted that
and this and that.
-
00:32:20
It's always somebody else.
-
00:32:21
Somebody else has
always had the problem
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00:32:23
because you're too
dry to be sane enough
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00:32:27
to self-assess your life.
-
00:32:29
This is Ahab's thing,
and Elijah has had enough of it.
-
00:32:34
It's like you,
you you got yourself here.
-
00:32:35
You got a whole
country here because of
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00:32:37
your rebelliousness
against the one true God.
-
00:32:39
And now you can't even see it.
You're blaming me.
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00:32:41
So Elijah ups the ante here.
Verse 19.
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00:32:45
"Now therefore,
send and gather all Israel
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00:32:48
to me at Mount Carmel
and the 450 prophets of Baal
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00:32:52
and the 400 prophets of Asherah
who eat at Jezebel's table."
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00:32:57
Well,
we haven't talked about Jezebel.
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00:32:59
She's a piece of work.
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00:33:01
Ahab's wife. Horrible person.
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00:33:03
She's not even
part of this story.
-
00:33:05
She's a horrible,
like, in all likelihood
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00:33:07
the worst woman who's ever
lived, and he's married to her.
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00:33:13
Yeesh!
So this is what's happening
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00:33:20
is now there's going
to be a a showdown.
-
00:33:24
Somebody is going to rise up
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00:33:26
and see who is the one true God.
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00:33:30
This is what he's
being invited into.
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00:33:33
Let's keep going here.
Verse 21, verse 21.
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00:33:37
Elijah has all
these people here,
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00:33:39
all the prophets of Baal,
all the Nation of Israel,
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00:33:42
the signs that come out.
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00:33:43
They're all up in this mount,
Mount Carmel, right,
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00:33:46
which I have behind me, which is
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00:33:48
a pretty close depiction of it.
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00:33:50
I've been to Mount Carmel many,
many times.
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00:33:52
It's always meaningful
when I've been there.
-
00:33:53
And here's what happens.
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00:33:55
Elijah says to, all the
people who come to gather
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00:33:57
for the showdown,
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00:33:58
"How long will you go limping
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00:34:00
between two different opinions?
-
00:34:02
If the Lord is God, follow him;
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00:34:04
but if Baal, follow him."
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00:34:06
And the people do
not answer him a word.
-
00:34:08
Why didn't they answer a word?
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00:34:09
They didn't answer him word
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00:34:10
because they were
spiritually busted.
-
00:34:12
Elijah is saying, "Yeah,
you guys are a bunch of limpers.
-
00:34:16
You're limpers. You're like,
"I don't know what I believe.
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00:34:20
I guess I'm here. I'm over --"
-
00:34:24
The idea here in the
Hebrew is tottering. Tottering.
-
00:34:28
It's not like you're injured.
It's you're tottering.
-
00:34:33
You're you're back and forth.
-
00:34:36
Elijah says, yeah.
The whole you're like you.
-
00:34:39
"Who are you?
What do you believe?
-
00:34:41
Where are you going?
Like, I think Baal, Baal.
-
00:34:45
I believe, no, no, Yahweh God."
-
00:34:48
No, he says how
long will you go limping
-
00:34:53
between these false prophets
who represent this false God
-
00:34:57
and the one true God?
-
00:34:59
God is really serious on this,
-
00:35:02
and Jesus calls it
when He talks about,
-
00:35:04
He talks about again and again.
-
00:35:05
He says, "No one who
puts their hand to the plow
-
00:35:08
and looks back as fit
for the kingdom of God."
-
00:35:11
Meaning, once you
decide to grab on to God,
-
00:35:14
once you decide to grab on
to the real true God, you go.
-
00:35:17
You go forward.
-
00:35:18
You don't go, "Oh, what would
it be like if I didn't do this?
-
00:35:21
What would that be like?"
-
00:35:25
Some time ago,
there was a person
-
00:35:27
I wanted to
recruit to our staff.
-
00:35:28
He had a unique -- he had a
unique gift mix and abilities.
-
00:35:32
And I thought that we needed
some outside help in an area.
-
00:35:35
So I went after him and tried
to recruit him pretty hard.
-
00:35:38
And he was a tough guy because
-
00:35:40
he had a really good
gig where he was.
-
00:35:42
So I thought I'd sweeten the pot
-
00:35:43
with something that
would be kind of fun.
-
00:35:45
I sent him the latest,
greatest Apple product
-
00:35:48
and I said, "This is yours.
-
00:35:51
You can have it if
you accept a job.
-
00:35:54
So if you open this,
if you open this,
-
00:35:56
you have accepted
this job and welcome.
-
00:35:58
It's great to have you."
-
00:36:00
He contacted me,
he said, "Man, I opened it.
-
00:36:03
It's awesome. It's great."
I said good, good.
-
00:36:06
Before he actually moved
up about a week or so later,
-
00:36:09
I got in the mail that box
-
00:36:12
with the Apple product
back inside the box.
-
00:36:16
And of course they
couldn't wrap the cellophane
-
00:36:18
back around it,
with a little note
-
00:36:20
saying he had changed his
mind and he wasn't coming.
-
00:36:22
I was, oh gosh,
I was really bummed by it.
-
00:36:25
And I was processing
it with Brian Wells,
-
00:36:27
who is one of the
founders of Crossroads
-
00:36:28
and our board chair,
our board chairman of the board.
-
00:36:33
And he immediately,
immediately said,
-
00:36:35
"He's a double minded man.
We don't want him."
-
00:36:38
That's another New Testament
passage. Double minded.
-
00:36:41
Where do I want? I want this.
-
00:36:44
No, no, no,
I want one over here."
-
00:36:46
It is really critical
for you to come out of
-
00:36:50
a spiritual drought,
if you're in one,
-
00:36:52
to be convinced of who
you're in, where you're going.
-
00:36:58
Now, this is not --
-
00:37:00
For those of us who are
who are not ready yet
-
00:37:02
to say, "I'm a Christian.
I'm a Christ follower.
-
00:37:04
I'm seeking,
I'm trying to figure out,"
-
00:37:06
that's not what I'm
talking about here.
-
00:37:07
I'm not talking about that.
-
00:37:08
There is a natural
process when you see,
-
00:37:10
like, is Jesus real?
-
00:37:12
Yeah. I'm not I'm
not sure He is. I'm not.
-
00:37:15
Is He different than Buddha?
-
00:37:17
Did that story really happen?
-
00:37:18
So I believe in the Bible?
-
00:37:20
I'm not talking about that',
-
00:37:21
that's all counting the cost of.
-
00:37:24
But once you give
your life to Christ,
-
00:37:28
you have to not be a limper.
-
00:37:31
"I don't know, there's so
many good things out there.
-
00:37:35
I don't - I don't."
-
00:37:37
You have to put your hand,
the plow and go.
-
00:37:40
Like,
once you once you get baptized,
-
00:37:43
once you give
your life to Christ.
-
00:37:44
By the way, last week we
had 607 people get baptized.
-
00:37:48
Come on, come on. 607.
-
00:37:54
This is why some -- a bit ago,
-
00:37:57
when we baptized
people now we do
-
00:37:59
an old school baptism
that's hundreds
-
00:38:01
and hundreds of years old,
where we don't just say,
-
00:38:03
"Who's your Lord and Savior?"
-
00:38:05
"Jesus Christ is my Lord and
Savior." "I'm baptizing you."
-
00:38:07
We don't just ask that one
question, we ask two now.
-
00:38:10
The verse is do you
renounce your previous life
-
00:38:13
and all allegiance that
you had to anything else?
-
00:38:17
I renounce.
-
00:38:19
And who's your Lord and Savior?
The whole thing.
-
00:38:22
Because found that people like,
"Oh, okay.
-
00:38:24
Jesus. Yeah, yeah. Bring Him.
-
00:38:26
Just add some new spirituality
-
00:38:28
and then I can
limp back and forth
-
00:38:30
and totter back and forth.
-
00:38:31
I just had a good
spiritual moment."
-
00:38:32
God doesn't want that.
-
00:38:34
He wants to know if He has you.
-
00:38:36
He wants to know if you are in.
-
00:38:37
He wants to know if
your hands to the plow.
-
00:38:39
He doesn't want,
like He doesn't like tetterers.
-
00:38:41
He doesn't like
people just always
-
00:38:43
back and forth, back and forth.
-
00:38:45
Not for His people.
-
00:38:48
And oftentimes, our spiritual
dryness traces only to this,
-
00:38:54
that we haven't really been in
-
00:38:56
and we're not
solidified in that.
-
00:38:58
The second thing that
pops in this story for me
-
00:39:02
is that Elijah has a
sense of isolation.
-
00:39:07
He says this in verse 22:
-
00:39:08
And Elijah said to the people,
"I, even I only
-
00:39:12
am left of the
prophets of the Lord.
-
00:39:14
But Baal's prophets
are 450 men."
-
00:39:18
He's going to go
one against 450.
-
00:39:20
They're going to have a test to
see whose God is the real God.
-
00:39:24
And Elijah, I think,
he overstates a little bit,
-
00:39:26
overstates it a little bit.
-
00:39:28
He says, I, only I am left.
-
00:39:31
He may be the only prophet.
-
00:39:32
He may be the only
prophet that's left.
-
00:39:35
But he's not the only
godly person who's left.
-
00:39:37
In the chapter before
there's another guy
-
00:39:39
who's very, very godly.
-
00:39:41
You might have heard of him.
-
00:39:42
His name is Obadiah.
-
00:39:45
Obadiah had a very famous song
written about him, actually.
-
00:39:49
You might have heard it.
-
00:39:51
It was: [music: Beatles,
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da]
-
00:39:52
Obadiah.
La-la, how their life goes on
-
00:39:58
Go ahead, sing along now,
if you can with your dry mouth.
-
00:40:00
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, La-la,
how their life goes on
-
00:40:05
Not quite the same Obadiah,
but I had fun doing that.
-
00:40:10
This is part of what
happens though
-
00:40:12
when you're in a drought
-
00:40:13
and Elijah is in this
drought like it is too.
-
00:40:16
You feel isolated.
-
00:40:17
You feel like
you're the only one.
-
00:40:21
You feel like nobody
can identify with you.
-
00:40:24
You feel like you're the only
one that's been doing the thing.
-
00:40:28
And he's not the only one.
-
00:40:29
There's been other godly people,
not a lot,
-
00:40:31
but there's other godly people.
-
00:40:32
But this is what we
-- the way we behave
-
00:40:34
when we're in a drought,
we think we're the only one.
-
00:40:36
No one's like me.
-
00:40:38
No one have my family of origin.
-
00:40:40
No one knows the
challenges I have.
-
00:40:43
If only others could have been
through what I've been through
-
00:40:46
or been dissed the
way I've been dissed
-
00:40:47
or had the this or that.
-
00:40:49
And all that may be true
because all of us are unique,
-
00:40:52
all of us have unique stuff,
-
00:40:53
but we just overplay our
hand when we're in a drought
-
00:40:56
thinking that no one
can deal with me.
-
00:40:58
So therefore we don't open up,
-
00:41:00
we don't let anybody
else in our life.
-
00:41:01
And more and
more isolation comes
-
00:41:04
and we feel like
we're just going crazy.
-
00:41:07
And in some ways we are,
because we're on our own.
-
00:41:11
It's a passion of mine
because I think that,
-
00:41:13
well, statistically speaking,
the most isolated
-
00:41:16
and lonely people in
our country are men.
-
00:41:20
It's just the pure statistics.
-
00:41:23
These are some
of the statistics,
-
00:41:24
if you haven't
seen some of these,
-
00:41:26
these are fresh ones, actually.
-
00:41:27
25% of men have
no close friends.
-
00:41:30
Men represent 79% of all
suicides in the last 25 years.
-
00:41:36
Because it's the lonely
people who have the suicides.
-
00:41:39
2/3 of young men say no
one really knows me well.
-
00:41:42
And there's so many more.
-
00:41:45
It's a plague that's in
our culture amongst men.
-
00:41:49
And women obviously
have a lot of difficult things
-
00:41:52
you're dealing with
and have dealing with.
-
00:41:54
I'm not saying it's easier or
harder to be a woman, man.
-
00:41:56
I'm not. I'm just saying
when we talk about isolation,
-
00:41:59
men have a corner on the market.
-
00:42:01
This is why we as a church
take this endangered gender,
-
00:42:05
if you will,
seriously and we put resources
-
00:42:08
into things like Man Camp.
-
00:42:09
By the way,
I don't know if, you know,
-
00:42:11
we are really going for
it this year at Man Camp.
-
00:42:13
Check this out.
-
00:42:15
- Over the past ten years,
-
00:42:16
Man Camp has grown into
an international movement.
-
00:42:19
- Mine and some buddies of mine
were in a place just like this.
-
00:42:21
They said,
we gotta get this to other guys,
-
00:42:23
and Man Camp was born.
-
00:42:25
- Tens of thousands of
men have gotten off the grid,
-
00:42:28
pushed themselves and
discovered what they're made of.
-
00:42:31
Join us this fall for an
unforgettable Man Camp
-
00:42:34
with adventurer and
survival expert Bear Grylls,
-
00:42:38
Dante Bove from Maverick City
-
00:42:41
and Man Camp founder Brian Tome.
-
00:42:44
If you want something different,
-
00:42:46
you have to do
something different.
-
00:42:48
Let this be the year
you take the step.
-
00:42:51
Claim your spot
now at ManCamp.US.
-
00:42:56
- Come on. Are you kidding me?
-
00:42:58
My gosh. Wow.
-
00:43:03
I would count Dante and
Bear as recent friends.
-
00:43:08
It's going to be amazing.
It's going to be.
-
00:43:09
I'd say, man, if you're dude,
-
00:43:11
I don't know why in the world,
-
00:43:13
there's no greater place
on God's green earth
-
00:43:16
you could be if you're a
man than at Man Camp.
-
00:43:18
I'm telling you right now.
-
00:43:19
God may not meet you,
but I'll tell you what,
-
00:43:21
you have a greater
likelihood of meeting God
-
00:43:23
and having a profound
spiritual moment there
-
00:43:25
than any place else in
the world that weekend.
-
00:43:27
I have zero doubt about that.
-
00:43:29
And why wouldn't you
bring somebody? Why?
-
00:43:33
You know men feeling isolated,
-
00:43:34
they're looking for
something to do.
-
00:43:36
This is going to be amazing.
-
00:43:37
So I encourage you to sign up.
-
00:43:38
It's going to be
well well worth it.
-
00:43:40
Let's keep going on our story,
verse 18, verse 18.
-
00:43:45
Uh, no, actually what'd
I say verse 18 for?
-
00:43:47
23, chapter 18, verse 23.
Let's keep going. He says this:
-
00:43:51
Let two bulls be given to us.
-
00:43:54
I'm going to have one.
You're going to have one.
-
00:43:56
And let us choose
one bull for themselves
-
00:43:58
and cut it in pieces
and lay it on the wood,
-
00:44:02
but put no fire to it.
-
00:44:03
And I will repair the other bull
-
00:44:05
and lay it on the wood
and put no fire to it.
-
00:44:07
And you call upon
the name of your God,
-
00:44:09
and I will call upon
the name of the Lord,
-
00:44:12
the God who answers by fire,
He is God."
-
00:44:17
And all the people answered,
"It's well spoken."
-
00:44:20
It's well spoken.
-
00:44:21
And people are like,
"Yeah, I like that,"
-
00:44:22
because they're a
bunch of limpers, right?
-
00:44:24
They're back and forth,
and they're like,
-
00:44:26
"Hey, I'd kind of like
to have this settled
-
00:44:29
in my mind too, it seems.
-
00:44:30
Let's just have a prayer service
-
00:44:32
and whatever prayer actually
gets answered with a yes,
-
00:44:36
that's the real God.
Good. Good idea."
-
00:44:38
They're kind of
looking forward to this.
-
00:44:39
You got all these hyper
spiritual Baal prophet people,
-
00:44:42
this hyper spiritual
Elijah prophet guy.
-
00:44:45
"Yeah, yeah.
Let's figure this out."
-
00:44:48
Then Elijah said to
the prophets of Baal,
-
00:44:50
"Choose yourself one
bowl and prepare it first,
-
00:44:52
for you are many, and call
upon the name of your god,
-
00:44:55
but put no fire to it."
-
00:44:56
He says, "Okay, you guys,
you gotta give me this one.
-
00:44:58
You got 450, you dudes.
I'm just one, one dude.
-
00:45:02
So you go first.
-
00:45:03
It's a tall, tall order.
-
00:45:06
It's going to be rough.
We both know this,
-
00:45:08
but just give it to me.
-
00:45:09
I'm the only guy, so let
me go last. You go first."
-
00:45:13
"Well, all right, we'll do it.
Fine."
-
00:45:15
And they took the bull
that was given them,
-
00:45:17
and they prepared it and
called upon the name of Baal
-
00:45:20
from morning until noon,
saying, "O, Baal, answer us!"
-
00:45:26
But there was no voice,
and no one answered.
-
00:45:30
And they limped around
the altar they had made.
-
00:45:34
Well, just stop right
there for a moment.
-
00:45:39
So they they put
all this together
-
00:45:42
and they start
their prayer service
-
00:45:44
and nothing happens
from morning to noon.
-
00:45:47
Noon, we'll just say is 12.
-
00:45:49
Is morning 6 a.m. is it 9 a.m.?
-
00:45:52
Whatever it is,
nothing happens for hours.
-
00:45:57
And it goes on and on and on.
-
00:46:02
And I find really interesting
as they start their prayer,
-
00:46:06
they actually start, they
start coming around their altar
-
00:46:10
and they're limping.
Did you pick that up?
-
00:46:13
They're limping around the fire.
-
00:46:16
It's like, uh, what's it called?
Munchausen syndrome.
-
00:46:20
You ever heard of
Munchausen syndrome?
-
00:46:21
It's when you have
somebody who attracts
-
00:46:26
the physical maladies to
them that they see in others.
-
00:46:29
Like, they hear somebody
is allergic to x, y, z
-
00:46:31
and they go,
"Yeah, I think I'm --
-
00:46:35
I'm allergic to that too.
Oh, I am allergic to that."
-
00:46:39
It's a real thing.
I've known people like that.
-
00:46:42
It's like these people,
these prophets
-
00:46:45
are physically taking
on now an attribute
-
00:46:49
that's a spiritual attribute
-
00:46:50
in the rest of the
nation of Israel.
-
00:46:52
They're limping around
just like people are limping,
-
00:46:55
not sure which way to go.
-
00:46:58
"Who? Who is God?
Believe this. No, I believe.
-
00:47:01
Oh, that spirituality here?
No, that spirituality there."
-
00:47:04
Let's keep going.
-
00:47:10
And at noon, Elijah mocked them.
-
00:47:12
Now, I don't know what
Jesus would say about this,
-
00:47:15
but it's pretty fun.
-
00:47:16
At noon Elijah mocked them.
-
00:47:19
He's watching. Maybe
Elijah is thinking to himself,
-
00:47:22
"Oh gosh, 450 dudes
-
00:47:24
who are very sincere
in their spirituality."
-
00:47:29
You can be very
sincere in your spirituality
-
00:47:31
and be sincerely wrong.
-
00:47:34
Nonetheless,
they are very sincere.
-
00:47:36
And maybe Elijah is going,
at the very beginning,
-
00:47:39
"I hope this works.
-
00:47:40
450 dudes are really sincere
and committed. Whoo, man!"
-
00:47:44
But then after a few hours,
-
00:47:46
he starts getting
a little punchy.
-
00:47:48
He starts going,
"This is -- This is ridiculous."
-
00:47:50
He says, "Cry loud,
cry loud, for he is god.
-
00:47:55
Either he is musing,
or he is relieving himself,
-
00:48:01
or he's on a journey,
-
00:48:03
or perhaps he's asleep
and must be awakened."
-
00:48:05
It's like maybe,
maybe he's on some NyQuil.
-
00:48:09
You know,
the lie down, you know,
-
00:48:10
nighttime sneezy coughing,
find your ass
-
00:48:12
face down the ceramic
floor in the morning
-
00:48:14
when you wake up medicine.
You know, that kind of thing.
-
00:48:16
Maybe, maybe he's on that.
-
00:48:18
Maybe he's taking a dump.
It's in the Bible.
-
00:48:23
He relieving himself, see it?
Relieving himself.
-
00:48:25
He's just -- he's
just mocking them.
-
00:48:27
He's going like,
he's trying to help people see,
-
00:48:31
friends, this is the
spirituality you're a part of.
-
00:48:33
I gotta tell you, man,
when I call on God,
-
00:48:38
fire doesn't fall from
heaven all the time.
-
00:48:40
When I call on God,
there's a lot of things
-
00:48:41
that God doesn't respond,
what He doesn't say yes to.
-
00:48:44
But I'll tell you what, man,
-
00:48:47
there is absolute
fruit that He is real
-
00:48:50
because of a peace that
passes understanding,
-
00:48:52
because of a joy,
because of how I've seen
-
00:48:55
unending marriages restored,
-
00:48:58
stories of people who
have not committed suicide
-
00:49:01
as a result of
encountering Jesus.
-
00:49:03
Stories of people who could say,
-
00:49:04
"This has made a
difference in my life."
-
00:49:06
This this is what you get
when you have a real God.
-
00:49:08
There's real things
that have happened,
-
00:49:10
and many of you
are those real things.
-
00:49:13
It's a beautiful thing.
-
00:49:15
We're not talking here
about a spirituality.
-
00:49:18
We're not talking
about a philosophy.
-
00:49:20
We're not talking
about a debate.
-
00:49:22
Elijah says,
"Let's make a real clear,
-
00:49:23
it's time for debate.
Whatever God brings the fire,
-
00:49:27
can we just say that's the one?
-
00:49:29
I'll just say, I follow a God
-
00:49:31
that's brought the
fire of restoration,
-
00:49:33
the fire of reconciliation,
the fire of healing,
-
00:49:35
the fire of purpose,
the fire of crazy things
-
00:49:39
I could have never
seen in my life.
-
00:49:41
This isn't a a talk on prayer,
-
00:49:43
though I could
do that right now.
-
00:49:46
It's a beautiful thing.
-
00:49:47
Doesn't always have the
way you want to, but man,
-
00:49:49
there is a God who is powerful.
-
00:49:51
And Elijah is is going,
this one I'm seeing here,
-
00:49:54
this just ain't right.
-
00:49:55
So here's what happens here.
-
00:49:57
And as their custom
was they cried aloud
-
00:50:01
and they took swords and lances
-
00:50:03
until the blood
gushed out from them.
-
00:50:05
And as midday passed,
they raved on
-
00:50:08
until the time of the
offering of the oblation,
-
00:50:11
but there was no voice.
-
00:50:14
No one answered;
no one paid attention.
-
00:50:19
There's nothing
that will frustrate
-
00:50:21
your drought-like conditions
more than it's not working.
-
00:50:24
It isn't. There is no voice.
-
00:50:27
No one answered.
No one paid attention.
-
00:50:33
In spirituality,
and this includes
-
00:50:35
Christian spirituality too,
what --
-
00:50:38
We all have our things,
our physical externals
-
00:50:41
we want to ramp up to
try to get God's attention.
-
00:50:45
So as these guys
are limping around
-
00:50:48
and as Elijah is mocking them,
they go, "Okay,
-
00:50:52
we got to get
more spiritual here."
-
00:50:54
So they start pulling
out lances and knives
-
00:50:55
and cutting themselves.
-
00:50:56
And and blood's coming
all over the place, right?
-
00:50:59
And then they're
ripping their clothes
-
00:51:02
and they're yelling louder.
-
00:51:03
All these things to try to
get their God's attention.
-
00:51:06
We can do this in Christianity,
too.
-
00:51:08
And these things
can all be okay things,
-
00:51:10
but we just have to be careful.
-
00:51:12
Are we like, are we trying
to play the religious game
-
00:51:15
or are we really
committed to our God?
-
00:51:17
I put some Christian bumper
stickers on my bumper,
-
00:51:20
to just be a little
louder with my faith.
-
00:51:23
Put on some Christian jewelry,
-
00:51:24
make sure people
know I'm a Christian.
-
00:51:26
I got my jewelry on.
-
00:51:27
Get myself a big,
fat honkin Bible.
-
00:51:29
Amazingly, Bible,
physical Bible sales
-
00:51:33
are up like 30% this last
year amongst young people.
-
00:51:37
That's an amazing statistic.
It really is.
-
00:51:39
It's unbelievable.
-
00:51:42
But when I was younger,
bought my first Bible,
-
00:51:45
I was making sure
people saw my Bible.
-
00:51:47
I need a big, fat one.
-
00:51:51
I need people see it
-
00:51:52
And maybe I'll buy a Bible
cover, make that thing fatter
-
00:51:56
just so they're more
impressive than my spirituality.
-
00:51:59
You know?
-
00:52:01
Fasting, first time I fasted,
-
00:52:02
I made sure everybody knew it.
-
00:52:05
"Oh, can't. I'm fasting.
-
00:52:10
Huh, must be nice to have a
lunch meeting, but I'm fasting."
-
00:52:14
I make sure everyone,
sure, everyone knew it.
-
00:52:17
Now all those things
can be fine and healthy.
-
00:52:19
All of them can,
but we cross over
-
00:52:21
when we're now using our
spirituality to broadcast it,
-
00:52:25
to kind of confer some
greatness to ourselves.
-
00:52:28
And this is what the
prophets of Elijah are doing,
-
00:52:30
because they have no greatness,
-
00:52:32
because they don't
know a true God,
-
00:52:35
because there is
no spiritual power
-
00:52:37
in what they're following.
-
00:52:38
So all they have is
their spiritual rules
-
00:52:40
and the mystiques in
all that they're doing.
-
00:52:42
And Elijah sees
right through this
-
00:52:44
and calls them out on it.
-
00:52:47
Now, this is the one
gets really fun for me.
-
00:52:51
So as all of this happens,
nothing happens.
-
00:52:56
Then Elijah said to all the
people, "Come near me."
-
00:52:59
And all the people
came near him.
-
00:53:00
So they're out watching,
and now they all come near.
-
00:53:03
They come near to him.
-
00:53:04
And the people came near to him.
-
00:53:05
And he repaired
the altar of the Lord.
-
00:53:08
And he takes 12 stones,
the altar of the Lord
-
00:53:12
that had been up there,
he takes --
-
00:53:14
He doesn't rebuild the whole
thing,
-
00:53:16
but he rebuilds part of it.
-
00:53:18
He takes 12 stones.
-
00:53:21
And the 12 stones represent
the 12 tribes of Israel.
-
00:53:28
These were all sons of Jacob.
-
00:53:31
Make sure I Don't
crush my fingers,
-
00:53:33
nor throw my back out.
-
00:53:37
He makes his own
little altar that's up there.
-
00:53:43
Takes the wood,
puts the wood in the altar.
-
00:53:51
And then it will be a
shocking thing for us,
-
00:53:55
not so much with them,
He takes his bull.
-
00:53:58
He slaughters his bull.
Dismember it.
-
00:54:01
Probably quarters it,
lies up here.
-
00:54:04
Now it's shocking for us.
-
00:54:06
You know, most of us eat meat.
-
00:54:09
Those of you are vegetarians,
God bless you.
-
00:54:13
If God want us all
to be vegetarian,
-
00:54:14
meat wouldn't taste so good.
-
00:54:15
But if you're a vegetarian,
great.
-
00:54:18
No problem being a vegetarian.
-
00:54:20
But I'll tell you why
there's a problem with
-
00:54:21
is when you eat meat
and you think it's gross
-
00:54:25
that an animal is killed.
-
00:54:27
Someone kills animals
for you all the time,
-
00:54:31
you just have never killed one.
-
00:54:33
And because we're
the only culture
-
00:54:35
in the history of the
world in the last 60 years
-
00:54:38
who eats meat regularly, but
we've never seen anything die.
-
00:54:40
It grosses us out to think
we've got bull parts, literally.
-
00:54:46
They saw this all time.
-
00:54:48
That wasn't a shocker to them,
but to us
-
00:54:50
I'm trying to paint the scene,
like,
-
00:54:52
can you paint the scene here?
-
00:54:53
All this stuff and blood
and legs and a head
-
00:54:57
and all and skin,
all this stuff around.
-
00:55:00
And like, okay, now it's going
to happen, he's going to pray,
-
00:55:02
we're going to find
out who the real God is.
-
00:55:04
And then Elijah says
something's missing.
-
00:55:07
You know what's missing here?
-
00:55:09
What do we need
to make a great fire?
-
00:55:12
I know what we need: water.
That's what we need.
-
00:55:15
Every great fire needs water.
-
00:55:18
Now, this is a new thing
that's really, really powerful
-
00:55:22
that I've really grabbed on to
-
00:55:24
it as I was rustling
through this.
-
00:55:25
It's the power of community.
-
00:55:27
Community, that's in this story.
It's community.
-
00:55:31
He calls these people to them.
-
00:55:33
In 33B, he calls them to them.
-
00:55:37
And he said,
"Fill four jars with water
-
00:55:39
and pour it on the burnt
offering and on the wood."
-
00:55:41
And he said,
"Do it a second time."
-
00:55:43
And they did it a second time.
-
00:55:45
He said, "Do it a third time."
-
00:55:46
And they did it a third time.
-
00:55:47
And the water ran
around the altar
-
00:55:50
and filled the the
trench also with water.
-
00:55:56
I don't know if you've
ever met a campfire before,
-
00:55:58
but when water meets fire,
who do you think wins?
-
00:56:02
Water does, water does.
-
00:56:04
And they've got these, they
call them seas in the Bible.
-
00:56:07
These are vessels about
this big, held 3 to 5 gallons.
-
00:56:13
And he says, "All right,
I need somebody.
-
00:56:15
I need someone to go
and and fill this for me.
-
00:56:17
Someone go fill this for me."
-
00:56:19
Now, even though Elijah said
no one's more faithful than me,
-
00:56:22
there's some
faithful people there
-
00:56:25
because someone's
going to carry water.
-
00:56:28
They're going to take this
-
00:56:29
and they're going
to go get water.
-
00:56:31
And by the way, if you've
forgotten, it's a drought.
-
00:56:36
It's a drought, so they've got
a couple of options for water.
-
00:56:39
The first is to go to a spring
that's about a mile away.
-
00:56:43
That spring is still there.
There's natural springs.
-
00:56:45
But this would have
been an act of faith
-
00:56:47
because while it's a drought
-
00:56:49
and maybe it was
still producing stuff
-
00:56:50
from under the water table,
-
00:56:52
this was what they needed
for sustenance living.
-
00:56:55
It wasn't enough,
probably, to water crops,
-
00:56:58
but they're now
going to sacrifice
-
00:57:00
some of their precious water.
-
00:57:03
That's a an hour or a mile away,
if they did that.
-
00:57:06
Or they'd go to a river
about two hours away
-
00:57:09
or two miles away, or they go to
the sea about five miles away,
-
00:57:14
the Mediterranean Sea.
-
00:57:16
And so they're going and
they're carrying their water.
-
00:57:19
We call it -- we talk about
that, water carriers. Right?
-
00:57:22
You might backpack,
you might have some weight.
-
00:57:25
You all know if you backpack
and you have some weight,
-
00:57:27
that's a whole
different thing having it
-
00:57:29
evenly distributed on your back,
than carrying water
-
00:57:32
that moves and sloshes
and is way heavier,
-
00:57:35
the same volume, way heavier
-
00:57:37
than anything you could
put in your backpack,
-
00:57:38
except for Mercury, I guess.
Very, very heavy.
-
00:57:42
So they come and they pour it
-
00:57:44
and Elijah says,
"Okay, do it again."
-
00:57:48
They walk,
they bring it back, pour it.
-
00:57:53
Do it again.
-
00:57:54
The tension, everybody's
here waiting for this.
-
00:57:59
And now we're
going to do it again.
-
00:58:00
Comes and does it again.
-
00:58:02
What I find powerful about this
-
00:58:05
is now this is going to
be a communal event
-
00:58:07
because now everybody's in.
-
00:58:10
Because someone stepped
up and said, "Me, I'm in.
-
00:58:12
Me. Me, me.
I want to be involved in this."
-
00:58:15
That's why when
you go to a Go Trip,
-
00:58:17
you always come back better
off than you were spiritually
-
00:58:19
because it's a we thing.
-
00:58:20
You said,
"I'm getting out of my thing.
-
00:58:22
I'm going to serve somebody."
-
00:58:23
That's why if you go to
Woman Camp, Man Camp,
-
00:58:25
whatever, you always come
back spiritually better off
-
00:58:28
than you were because
you sat around a campfire.
-
00:58:30
You were about somebody else.
You were in something.
-
00:58:33
It always works that way.
-
00:58:35
This isolated just me
and my deity spirituality
-
00:58:40
has zero power.
-
00:58:42
We've got to be
around other people.
-
00:58:47
I promise,
not every illustration I give
-
00:58:50
over the next few months
is going to be cancer related.
-
00:58:55
But since I'm in that right now,
this last chemo time
-
00:58:59
that Lib had,
it was -- you go in this room
-
00:59:03
and it's not a bad room.
-
00:59:05
You got these recliners
all around in the room here,
-
00:59:08
and there's a recliner
and a hard seat
-
00:59:10
for someone who's
supporting and accompanying.
-
00:59:12
So I get the hard seat.
Lib gets a nice little recliner.
-
00:59:15
And then you got the
IV thing beside her.
-
00:59:17
And then the nurses
and other as they come in
-
00:59:19
and they hook up your
chemical concoction
-
00:59:21
that's designed for you.
-
00:59:22
And they put it in,
they're dripping in you.
-
00:59:24
And everyone's in there,
like, you know,
-
00:59:27
and no one wants to be there.
Right?
-
00:59:28
It's a club no one
wants to be in,
-
00:59:30
and everyone wants
to be kicked out of.
-
00:59:31
And you start to see patterns in
-
00:59:33
people and
everybody's different.
-
00:59:35
Everyone's got their own story.
-
00:59:36
But this last week was really,
really cool.
-
00:59:39
There was a woman that comes up,
-
00:59:41
and just true
confession about me,
-
00:59:44
something I don't
like about myself.
-
00:59:46
When I'm on stage,
it's real easy for me
-
00:59:49
to be an extrovert
because I am an extrovert,
-
00:59:51
or if I'm in a
variety of places,
-
00:59:53
I can do the extrovert
thing really well.
-
00:59:55
But very frequently
when I get off stage,
-
00:59:57
my inner introvert really
wants to have his time.
-
01:00:01
And so when I'm out and about,
if you ever come up to me,
-
01:00:04
would love to see you.
Would love to talk to you.
-
01:00:06
It's an honor, really,
really, I love it.
-
01:00:08
But if you catch you
on one of those days
-
01:00:11
where I'm just, like,
I seem uninterested,
-
01:00:13
it's just that, like,
I'm peopled out.
-
01:00:16
I don't like it.
I'm just peopled out.
-
01:00:18
And so this was one where it
wasn't like I was peopled out,
-
01:00:21
but it was like,
sometimes I'm out in public
-
01:00:24
I don't look at people a lot,
because if they look at me,
-
01:00:26
then maybe they'll recognize me
-
01:00:28
and then I have to have
a ten minute Bible study
-
01:00:30
with them or something like
that. You know what I mean?
-
01:00:32
So I'm sitting there and
this woman comes up
-
01:00:34
and that for whatever reason
that part comes out of me.
-
01:00:37
She comes up, she goes,
-
01:00:38
"Would you like to have
some encouragement?"
-
01:00:41
And my thought for was is,
"No, I wouldn't.
-
01:00:43
Just please leave."
That's what I was thinking.
-
01:00:47
And then I looked at her,
I was thinking about that.
-
01:00:49
And it was, like,
Lib is a hyper introvert,
-
01:00:52
so she's not going to
talk to anybody, right?
-
01:00:53
So she's beside me and I know
this is on me to talk to her.
-
01:00:56
And so and I
looked at her and I,
-
01:00:58
it clicked with me who she was.
-
01:01:02
This was a there's a short
African-American woman.
-
01:01:06
And I've been around
enough to know,
-
01:01:07
like, this woman just
came from church.
-
01:01:11
She -- this woman is a believer.
-
01:01:13
Like, she -- I could
just smell it on her.
-
01:01:15
There's no, there's no
limping in this woman.
-
01:01:17
No, no limping.
-
01:01:20
I look at her,
I go -- I look at her, she says,
-
01:01:23
"Hey, I'm fighting cancer too.
-
01:01:25
And I just felt the
Lord wanted me
-
01:01:27
to give some encouragement."
-
01:01:29
I'll take some. Take that.
-
01:01:31
She's got these greeting
cards that she's made.
-
01:01:35
There's 20 people and
there's like 20 of them,
-
01:01:37
so she fans them out like cards.
-
01:01:39
Like, which one do you want?
-
01:01:43
Which one's most likely
going to be the voice of God?
-
01:01:45
I don't know.
I take one, it was fine.
-
01:01:48
It was a sweet card.
-
01:01:49
But my point there is this is
a spiritually mature woman
-
01:01:54
who's going, "I know
-
01:01:56
I have every right
to be about myself.
-
01:01:59
I have cancer, I have every
right to be about myself."
-
01:02:01
And she said that,
"Today I'm going to chemo room
-
01:02:04
to bless other people.
-
01:02:06
Today I'm going
outside of myself
-
01:02:09
because I want to
be the voice of God.
-
01:02:12
I want to be a source of love.
-
01:02:13
I want to be a source
of encouragement."
-
01:02:15
It hit me.
Hit me really, really hard.
-
01:02:17
Doesn't matter,
it doesn't matter
-
01:02:18
how much of a drought you're in,
-
01:02:20
how difficult things are in,
-
01:02:21
man, do not succumb to
the lie that it's all about you,
-
01:02:25
and you're the only one
you seem to focus on yo.
-
01:02:27
No, you don't.
-
01:02:28
That'll make you only more dry.
-
01:02:31
You need to be moist.
-
01:02:32
Some of us hate that word.
Moist.
-
01:02:40
You especially seem to like
that word right now, don't you?
-
01:02:42
Okay. All right. Back to this.
-
01:02:45
So, all this moisture
is put on the stuff.
-
01:02:50
It's all there.
-
01:02:51
And then when I tell
the story to my kids,
-
01:02:54
my kids were texting me,
was like, "Dad,
-
01:02:57
make sure you make the
dude do the fire sounds."
-
01:02:59
All right. Got it, I got it.
-
01:03:01
So I tell the story,
this is my favorite story
-
01:03:03
to tell kids at bedtime,
which is really stupid,
-
01:03:05
as you'll see in a moment.
-
01:03:06
Because I don't know how any kid
-
01:03:08
could ever sleep after
they hear this story. Right?
-
01:03:11
So I tease this
story out for them,
-
01:03:13
and they'd be sitting
there in the bed
-
01:03:15
with the covers up
over their face, going.
-
01:03:20
And instead of reading it, I'll
just give you a quote for it.
-
01:03:26
And then after all this is done,
-
01:03:27
after the waters come up,
three trips,
-
01:03:32
crazy amounts of gallons
of water filling the trench.
-
01:03:36
As opposed to Elijah
prancing around
-
01:03:40
and cutting himself and
getting louder and louder,
-
01:03:42
he just steps up and says,
-
01:03:45
I'll tell it the way
I did my kids.
-
01:03:47
Steps forward and he says,
"God, may this day
-
01:03:51
may the people know that
you are the one true God."
-
01:03:57
And then (sound effects)
fire comes down from heaven.
-
01:04:02
(sound effects) Fire
comes down the sky.
-
01:04:05
Come down. (sound
effects) Burn down the bull.
-
01:04:08
(sound effects)
Burns up the wood.
-
01:04:10
(sound effects)
Burns up the water.
-
01:04:12
(sound effects)
Burns up the stones.
-
01:04:14
And that's our God.
[cheers & applause]
-
01:04:22
Now, because I'm in
a technologically laden,
-
01:04:26
richly laden place right now,
I don't have to do that.
-
01:04:29
So let's do this again.
-
01:04:34
God steps forward.
-
01:04:36
Elijah steps forward and says,
"God,
-
01:04:38
on this day in Israel,
-
01:04:40
may You let people
know that you are God."
-
01:04:57
Debate solved.
-
01:05:04
I don't know how to rectify,
rectum-fy.
-
01:05:10
I don't know how to do th
-
01:05:11
at with all the things
New Testament.
-
01:05:14
But now Elijah says God
wants this place purified.
-
01:05:17
So they chase down
the prophets of Baal
-
01:05:20
and they kill them all.
They're all killed.
-
01:05:23
We're not going to
risk any more limping
-
01:05:25
around here anymore
where it kills them all.
-
01:05:26
I don't know -- I don't know
how we apply that today.
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01:05:29
We don't apply it today.
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01:05:30
Please do not kill anybody
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01:05:31
who has a different spiritual
belief than you. Nobody.
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01:05:33
Want to go on record,
we're very clear about that.
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01:05:35
And then you got the next part,
the next difficult part.
-
01:05:38
It's like I have to
end the story here
-
01:05:40
because we're about out of time.
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01:05:42
But I'll just tease some
things for you here.
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01:05:43
Elijah goes from a
mountaintop experience.
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01:05:47
I mean, God answers his prayer,
and it's an immediate,
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01:05:52
a mountaintop experience
to being in a deep depression.
-
01:05:57
He leaves here because
now Jezebel wants dead
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01:06:00
because he killed
all the prophets.
-
01:06:02
So they chased him
and now he has doubts
-
01:06:04
and he ends up living
in a cave for a while.
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01:06:07
Hey, good news and bad news.
-
01:06:09
Bad news is this: mountains
always precede valleys.
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01:06:14
The good news is valleys
always precede mountains.
-
01:06:20
You know, it's like
that's -- that's just what.
-
01:06:22
And that's why there's so
many of us who are limpers,
-
01:06:24
double minded.
-
01:06:26
We're thinking it's always
about the mountain.
-
01:06:28
No, it's it's not always about,
it's about life.
-
01:06:31
It's about God.
-
01:06:33
And whether you're on
a mountain or in a valley,
-
01:06:36
it's about God and
His Word and His will,
-
01:06:38
not about me and my comfort
and the life that I want.
-
01:06:42
That's what we do who are in,
who hold on to Him fastly.
-
01:06:46
And then you got a whole
nother thing that happens.
-
01:06:48
That's just the fire,
but they're still in drought.
-
01:06:51
So he's got a level of stress.
-
01:06:52
So he goes out and
it says real clear, h
-
01:06:54
e goes out and he's praying.
-
01:06:56
And this is for like
for days he's praying,
-
01:06:57
"God, bring the rain,
bring the rain, bring the rain."
-
01:07:00
And he's got a right
hand guy with him.
-
01:07:01
He says, "You see any
clouds coming anywhere?"
-
01:07:03
And the guy goes, "No,
man, it's all blue sky.
-
01:07:06
All good.
We're all bad, you know?"
-
01:07:07
He goes back, he's praying,
he's praying, he's praying.
-
01:07:10
Stops. "Anything yet?
Anything coming?"
-
01:07:12
"No, no, no."
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01:07:15
Goes back.
He's praying, praying.
-
01:07:16
"Do you see anything coming?"
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01:07:19
He said, "Well, I see a cloud
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01:07:22
that kind of looks like
a hand over the sea.
-
01:07:27
I think it's coming this way."
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01:07:31
Prays. And what do you know?
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01:07:33
The rain comes and
the drought ends.
-
01:07:43
One day, one day, if you're
in a drought, it will end.
-
01:07:49
And it will end in God's timing.
-
01:07:52
And it needs to end
while you've been faithful,
-
01:07:56
while you've held on,
you've put your hand to the plow
-
01:07:59
and you've gone forward.
-
01:08:00
And when the rain comes,
it's almost scary.
-
01:08:04
You're paranoid
that's going to stop.
-
01:08:06
You think it's going
to go away quickly,
-
01:08:08
but you need to
soak it up and enjoy it.
-
01:08:11
It's a beautiful thing
when the rain is out
-
01:08:15
and God is growing new
things and you feel refreshed.
-
01:08:21
Appropriate moisture.
That's who God is.
-
01:08:25
That's what He does.
-
01:08:26
Whether you're
on the mountaintop,
-
01:08:27
whether you're on the valley,
-
01:08:29
whether you're on a drought,
-
01:08:30
whether you're in the rainstorm,
-
01:08:33
the key thing is, man,
there is a God who is faithful,
-
01:08:36
you just have to give Him time,
-
01:08:38
and then He'll do what He
wants to do when He does it.
-
01:08:41
And what needs to be
said of you is I walk strong.
-
01:08:45
I don't limp, I walk strong.
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01:08:47
God, I thank You for
being a God who's patience
-
01:08:51
with limping people,
who's patient, who's kind
-
01:08:59
and who gives nourishment
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01:09:01
in a way that we
can't give ourselves.
-
01:09:03
You are good to
be patient with us.
-
01:09:05
I pray these things according
to the name of Jesus. Amen.
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01:09:10
- Wow. Absolute fire.
-
01:09:12
I mean,
literally and figuratively.
-
01:09:15
And, you know, isolation,
loneliness and community,
-
01:09:19
that's things that
you found back then
-
01:09:21
and you can find today.
-
01:09:23
And with so much going on
for the Anywhere Community,
-
01:09:26
I don't want you to miss it.
-
01:09:27
You can find out everything
that we've got going on
-
01:09:30
by texting Anywhere to 301301.
-
01:09:33
You're going to
get all the updates,
-
01:09:35
all the invitations,
everything that's coming up.
-
01:09:38
And we don't want
you to miss any of it.
-
01:09:40
We're so glad you joined us.
-
01:09:42
We'll see you in the next one.
Adios.