Mountains That Move | How a Step of Faith Changes Everything

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- Life isn't straight and level.

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It's full of highs and lows, peaks and valleys,

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forests and deserts.

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Today we're starting a series called Terrains,

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looking at how the landscape of a life of faith

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shapes us in who we become.

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But every adventure should have a great soundtrack,

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so we're going to start off our time with these songs

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that aren't just a playlist to listen to,

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are actually a conversation that we can use

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to connect with God and who He is.

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- Ain't that right? Hey, welcome in.

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Welcome in to Crossroads. Welcome in online.

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If you've never been here before, my name is Justin.

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If you came back for the first time from Revival,

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if you're in here for the first time ever,

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man, you're in the right place today.

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You're in the right place today, right?

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Last week, if you would have showed up here,

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we weren't in here because we were out in a tent

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on a land about an hour and a half outside of Cincinnati

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called Base Camp, we were at a thing called Revival.

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Make some noise if you were at Revival. [cheers]

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Man, my family and I were out there camping in the cold.

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If you hiked in from the cold, 12,000 of us went out

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to have our hearts revived.

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12,000 people beat the cold and went out.

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Thousands and thousands of you got prayer.

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175 people said yes to Jesus for the first time

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and got baptized in that cold water.

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We did all of that because one year ago

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we as a church said we want to be different.

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We want to run after something and someone

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different than the world says to.

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And one year ago we said, we want to be a church

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that plants the seeds of revival in our world

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so that God's kingdom would actually come down to earth.

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And last weekend was another step towards that.

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That's what we're doing. That's who we're about.

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So last weekend was about no other name.

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It was not about the name of Crossroads.

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It was about one name, and that name is Jesus.

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Because so many of us have found life in Him,

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and we know He has life to give,

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and we will do all we can, all we can

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to get closer and closer to Him

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and to bring as many of our friends closer to Him,

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because He has life to give.

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So right now, that's what we're picking up.

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We're riding the wave from Revival

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and picking up where we left off last weekend

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and saying what is true.

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Jesus, we call out to You.

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So let's do it together. Say it again to Him.

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- It doesn't just stay in the weekend last weekend.

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This is what He can do right now.

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- Come on, praise Him for all He's done.

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- The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

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- He makes me lie down in green pastures,

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- He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul.

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- He leads me in paths of righteousness

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for His name's sake.

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- Even though I walk through

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the valley of the shadow of death,

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I will fear no evil, for You are with me;

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- Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

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- You prepare a table before me

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in the presence of my enemies.

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You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

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- Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

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all the days of my life,

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- And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

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- We sing to you, God.

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- You deserve the glory, Jesus.

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These words are true. You are worthy of it all.

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You are. You've always been.

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Creator of the world.

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You saw our needs before we even knew what they were.

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You knew that we need rescued.

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You knew that we'd need a savior.

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You knew what it would cost, and yet you still said yes.

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I like to think that I understand why,

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but I'm sure I don't fully understand it.

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I know that You love me.

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I know that You care for me.

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I know that You want me to experience

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life and life abundantly.

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Savior, You're worthy of it all.

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It's a joy to turn my attention toward You,

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to be reminded that when I look at You

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and when I look toward You, the things in my life

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become a little bit smaller

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because I'm able to put them in perspective.

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I'm able to see who You are.

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So we sing these words because they help us.

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They help us to flow and to see that

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You are the one true God who is worthy of it all,

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the only one who's worthy.

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So we sing to You and we bless Your name.

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And we do that together. And we say Amen. Amen. Come on.

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It's so good to be singing together, man.

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Let's do this all the time.

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Why don't you turn to somebody

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you've been singing next to and give 'em a high five.

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Tell 'em your name if you don't know em,

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introduce yourself. Be friendly. You can have a seat.

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- For the last year, we've been asking God

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to bring revival, to awaken something in us.

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And man, sometimes that looks like events

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that we call Revival, sometimes that looks like

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worship that we've just been doing.

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But man, another way that's really important that

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that looks like is seeing transformation

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in our communities, in our neighborhoods,

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in our hometowns, and across our nation

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by meeting real, tangible needs.

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Now, if you have been online at all

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and talked to anyone, you probably have known

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there's a major issue with food insecurity right now,

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that people don't have what they need.

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And that's the way the church is stepping up

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and leaning in to meet people's needs,

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to be the hands and feet of Jesus

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in real and tangible ways right now.

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Now we do that through incredible partners

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and organizations that we work with

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and link arms with all year long

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and help support financially.

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I just want you to know, if you're a giver around here,

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you are a part of making that and so many more

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great things I don't have time to talk about happen.

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And if you've got questions about

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what Crossroads believes about money,

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or want to join the team of faithful givers

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who make this stuff possible, you can do so

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at crossroads.net/give.

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Now as we seek revival, as we ask God to move,

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and as we seek to be His hands and feet, man,

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there's an incredible opportunity that's coming up

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that we don't want you to miss out,

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especially as food insecurity is just front and center.

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It's top of mind for so many people in our cities.

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We have an incredible opportunity

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called Thanksgiving Food Drive.

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Thanksgiving Food Drive we've done for 23 years,

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feeding tens of thousands of people.

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This year, we have an opportunity

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to feed 100,000 people,

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to get food on their table so they can have

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what they need and have an incredible holiday,

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and we want you to be a part of it.

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If you live near one of our physical sites,

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you should have already picked up a box,

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or you can get to one like right now,

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get a box while we still have them.

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And then go fill it and bring it back next week.

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There's shopping list and all the instructions right there.

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But I want you to know we are counting on you.

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We're counting on you for every one of these boxes.

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And way more importantly, man, the families

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that we're going to give these boxes to are counting on you.

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So get your box, fill it, and bring it back

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next weekend to your site.

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If you don't live near one of our physical locations

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or are part of our Crossroads Anywhere Community.

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Hey, we're with you in this too.

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We'll actually ship you a box and help you find

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a partner or organization or family that you can help

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have an incredible holiday right where you are.

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All the details and more at crossroads.net/TFD.

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Now, I don't want you to hear me talk about it.

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I want you to get a sense of how big

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and how incredible this experience is right now.

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- For over 25 years, God has called us

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to provide meals for families in need in our community.

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Every year we get to be a part of something

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Jesus invites us into: feeding the hungry.

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To participate pick up a box on October 23 and 26,

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or November 6 and 9.

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You grab a box. You fill it with food. You bring it back.

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What feels ordinary to us

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becomes extraordinary in His hands.

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Stress lifted. Bellies filled. Hope given.

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In Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus and Lexington,

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we fill boxes together

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and Jesus meets families at their tables.

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- A good day. Hey, good, good thing.

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- That is one of my favorite things we get to do

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every year as a church.

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By the way, my name is Kyle. I'm our Lead Pastor,

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if we've never met before.

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If you came last week, maybe you came

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for the first time to Crossroads,

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or maybe you've been gone for a little while

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and you showed up to a building.

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You were disappointed because we were not here.

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We were at our Base Camp property,

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like you heard earlier, celebrating

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and doing something called a Revival,

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aiming for God to spark us and to get us going.

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Today we start a series that's really pick at why a Revival?

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Why would God want to revive His people?

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For what purpose would God pour more energy

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and more power into us?

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And the answer, said simply, is not

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so that we can just sit still.

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It's not so that we can stay where we already are.

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It's so that we can go.

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If you're new at Crossroads,

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you've probably already seen this slogan

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that we have: born for adventure. It's everywhere.

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And it's not this cute tagline.

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It's really our summary of what

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a life of faith is supposed to be like.

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See, all across the Bible, there are stories of heroes

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who go on adventures with God, who cross oceans

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and climb mountains and brave deserts with Him.

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Today we're starting the series

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in that vein today called Terrain.

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And it's really about what I would say is

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the unspoken best supporting actor in the entire Bible,

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which is the land itself.

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God could have, just thought experience for a moment.

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He's God, He could have made the earth however He wanted.

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He could have made it a completely smooth marble,

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just Kansas everywhere, right?

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Thankfully, He did not do that.

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No offense, Kansas, your state's very boring.

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Your basketball team's good sometimes.

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But anyway, He didn't do that.

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Instead, God made this earth that's carved

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with these valleys and mountains and plateaus.

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And what God does with that is use that imagery

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as the language to coach us towards a life with Him,

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coach us towards how to get through

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every single season in life.

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Now, from the beginning of this series, Terrain,

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we're going to go through different seasons of life,

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different terrains you might find yourself in.

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But the big idea is very simple.

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It's that there are many voices ho want to tell you

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the way through whatever the thing is in your life.

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There are many paths to go down.

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But according to Jesus, there is only one way

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that leads to life.

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John 14:6, these are the words of Jesus.

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Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life.

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No one comes to the Father except through me."

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There are many paths when you come to a mountain,

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people who will tell you how to get over,

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around, or through that mountain.

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There are many different voices who will tell you

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when you have a desert in your life how to find refreshment.

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But there's only one path that leads to life

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in every single one of them.

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Now, every one of those seasons is different.

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Every one of those terrains is very, very different.

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What you do in the valley is not going to work

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when you come to face to face with the mountain.

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How you scale the mountain is not going to be very helpful

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when you find yourself all dried out in the desert.

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Every single phase of life has a unique aspect to it.

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In this series and today, I hope to push you forward

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and help you where you are.

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My goal today is just that you would not end up

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like Stupid Tyler.

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Like, "Stupid Tyler, is he one of the disciples?

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I don't remember that one.

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Is that Matthew, James, John, Stupid Tyler?"

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No, not in the Bible. Not in the Bible.

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Stupid Tyler is a guy that my family met

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last summer on our vacation.

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We went hiking. We loved to hike.

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It's our favorite thing, exploring the terrain,

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going up and down mountains. Love to do that.

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And we took a trip to the wildest,

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most remote island in Hawaii, Kauai, and went hiking.

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Now we did it on a budget and so we stayed at

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a cheap place at the airport,

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and my wife got bit by a brown recluse spider there.

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That was not good.

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Not a good part of the trip, but the hiking was great.

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But there's one, there was one hike that we couldn't do

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and it ends on the most beautiful place

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some people say on earth,

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the Napali coast at the end of Kauai.

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We couldn't do it because it's a multi-day hike

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to get in and out.

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You have to have a permit

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and we couldn't get one of these permits.

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And it's one of the most dangerous hikes you can do,

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rated one of the hardest because you go up a mile

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and you go down a mile and it's volcanic rock.

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And Kauai is one of those, the wettest place on Earth,

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so the trail's always, always very, very slippery.

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So not uncommon for people to break bones

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and twist knees and get get stuck out there.

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Anyway, we take a boat ride

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because we want to see this place.

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And it's stunning. It's breathtaking.

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So our boat is floating off the coast

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looking at the end of this trail.

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We're having a great time.

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And then we notice this little guy right down here, Tyler.

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And Tyler starts waving his arms at us. "Hey!"

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Oh, there goes my mic. Oh, that was too much jumping. Oh boy.

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He starts waving his arms and running towards us,

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and then he jumps in the water and swims to our boat.

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We're like, what is happening?

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He gets in the boat and he says, "Hey, I'm Tyler, I'm 19.

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Me and my girlfriend, dude, we were doing this hike, bro.

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And we got out here and she has a gnarly stress fracture, man.

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She can't -- she can't hike back out.

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Can we get a ride?"

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And our boat captains like, "well, I can't take you,

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but, you know, I can call for help."

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And and so, Tyler, he's done it.

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His girlfriend's back on the beach, and she's,

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you know, she's waving her arms.

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She's like, "Hey, what's happening?

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Are they going to help?"

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And Tyler's like, "Got it, babe, got on me." Thumbs up.

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Then our boat captain radios the Coast Guard.

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And the Coast Guard says they will send out a chopper.

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And when Tyler hears the word chopper,

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a little light bulb goes off in Stupid Tyler's brain.

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Bing! And he goes, "Wait,

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is this going to cost me money, bro?"

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The captain's like, "Uh, probably."

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Then Stupid Tyler says, "You know what?

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I think she probably just needs to, like, sleep it off."

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Jumps in the water, swims back to shore.

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Gentlemen.

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Is this a good idea?

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Anybody who ever been in any relationship

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with any woman, ever, is this a good idea? No.

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Looked at my two sons, I was like, "Boys,

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see that man swimming away? That's Stupid Tyler.

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Do not be like Stupid Tyler.

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He's going back and his girlfriend

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is going to break up with him, I promise. Promise."

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If that was me and Sarah, she would murder me,

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turn me into a canoe and paddle herself off the island.

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That's what would happen. And I would deserve it.

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Unbelievable.

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What I want is for you to not end up like Stupid Tyler.

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Get yourself in a situation

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where you don't know how to get out.

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Go in there unawares.

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Or worst of all, find the path off, find the way

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and say, "No thanks. Sounds too hard. I'm not interested.

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I think I'll just stay where I am. The cost is too high."

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Don't want that for you.

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Today we're starting a two part message,

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mountains and valleys. Valleys next week.

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What do we do when we come up to these

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deep, dark, hard times in our life, the dark valley?

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How do you find the light and not just

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make your way through it,

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but find God in the middle of the valley?

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And then today is mountains.

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In this incredible, hopeful promise that Jesus made,

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that you and I, if we have faith, can move mountains.

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Before we go any further, let's pray together.

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God, thank You so much for the truth of Your Word.

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I'm asking that you would cut through the noise

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of all of our lives, and that we'd see You, the way,

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Jesus, and we'd have the courage to start to climb. Amen.

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What do you do when you come face to face

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with a mountain in your life?

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This happens to all of us multiple times in our life.

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We'll encounter an obstacle that's so big and so tall

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that we just know no amount of our own power,

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none of our ingenuity, it's not enough

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to get over or around the mountain and we get stuck.

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What do you do?

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Well, today we're diving into one of

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the most hopeful, and at the same time,

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frustrating things that Jesus ever said

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directly about what to do when you encounter

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the mountain in your life.

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We'll be looking at this section several times through.

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It comes from Mark 11:23.

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Here are the words of Jesus. He says:

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For assuredly, I say to you,

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whoever says to this mountain, "Be remove, d

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and be cast into the sea,"

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and does not doubt in his heart, but believes

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that those things he says will be done,

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he will have whatever he says.

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Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask

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when you pray, believe that you receive them,

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and you will have them."

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And so there you go, pretty cut and dry.

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How do you handle mountains in your life?

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Well, you just look at the mountain and you say,

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"Be moved into the sea,"

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and then it'll just move into the sea.

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And if you don't doubt enough, if you're certain enough,

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it'll just go into the sea

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and then you can go about your life.

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And so pretty simple. Pretty cut and dry.

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Thanks for coming today. I'll pray for you.

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Send you on your way. God, thank you so much for the --

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Just kidding. That's not --

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There are people who will teach it that way.

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There are many people who will say this is cut and dry.

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That's exactly what Jesus means.

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And I want to be clear from the beginning,

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sometimes in your life, there are moments

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where there's an obstacle in your path,

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and at a word of God it will move.

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There are miracles that will happen.

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We've seen them. We saw them at Revival this weekend.

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We saw miracles, seeing God move mountains instantaneously.

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Sometimes in the Bible there are people

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who come up to rivers and God parts the water

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and they walk across on dry land.

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But more often in the Bible

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when people walk up to water and they want to cross it.

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Guess what? They get wet.

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And I wonder in your life, is there an obstacle in your path?

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Is there a mountain in your way that maybe you've prayed for,

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maybe you've asked God to move.

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Maybe you've wanted to see it change, and nothing,

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nothing, nothing has happened.

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That darn thing is stubbornly still in the same place.

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What do you do?

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Jesus says if you pray and say to the mountain,

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and don't doubt, it will move.

00:37:20

Now this passage has been many, many, many bad teachings

00:37:22

about this passage,

00:37:24

and it's ruined the faith of many good people.

00:37:27

There's a deeper layer that we're going to have

00:37:29

to dig into today if we want to understand it.

00:37:31

And to do that, we have to ask two questions.

00:37:34

Number one is what kind of mountain

00:37:37

are You talking about, Jesus?

00:37:39

And number two is what do You mean by do not doubt?

00:37:44

We're going to answer and tackle the first question first.

00:37:47

What mountains does Jesus say can move?

00:37:50

To do that, we got to start

00:37:51

with the context of this story.

00:37:53

Where is Jesus when He's talking?

00:37:55

Without thinking about it, you and I tend to

00:37:57

put the words of Jesus into this sterile classroom environment.

00:38:00

We just imagine it is third grade.

00:38:02

Jesus is at the front of the classroom.

00:38:04

He is your most boring elementary school teacher,

00:38:07

Miss Martin from second grade or whatever.

00:38:09

And He's just droning on,

00:38:11

"Well, if you say the mountain move,

00:38:13

and the mountain move and and cast into the sea,

00:38:15

just don't doubt. Anyway. Move on."

00:38:17

That's what we think. But no, no, no, no.

00:38:19

In the Bible, a lot of times when Jesus is teaching

00:38:22

He's actually hiking.

00:38:24

He's moving from place to place,

00:38:26

and He's using the objects in the landscape around Him,

00:38:29

the terrain around Him, to preach and to talk

00:38:32

and to give people examples.

00:38:34

Notice this, when Jesus is walking,

00:38:36

He says these words Matthew or sorry, Mark 11:

00:38:39


00:38:42

whoever says to this mountain, this mountain.

00:38:47

Notice Jesus doesn't say any mountain in your life.

00:38:52

If you have a mountain called lack of a Lamborghini,

00:38:55

just ask God to give you a Lamborghini, and poof!

00:38:58

If you have a mountain called Can't Dunk.

00:39:01

Just ask God to make you six seven, and poof!

00:39:05

It didn't work. Didn't work.

00:39:06

It's not what He's saying. He said this mountain.

00:39:09

Now, when you say the word this,

00:39:11

typically you're pointing.

00:39:12

You go to the donut shop. What donut do you want?

00:39:14

I will have this one.

00:39:16

And this is the same in this situation with Jesus.

00:39:19

As He's walking, He's pointing.

00:39:21

And He says, "If you say to this mountain."

00:39:23

What mountain was He pointing at?

00:39:26

Well, we know from the story

00:39:27

exactly where Jesus was when He was talking.

00:39:30

This is the last week of Jesus's life.

00:39:32

And in that last week, He had a rhythm to His days.

00:39:35

He would sleep in Bethany,

00:39:37

where his best friend Lazarus was from,

00:39:39

hanging out at his house.

00:39:41

And every morning He'd wake up in Bethany,

00:39:42

which is on the backside of the Mount of Olives.

00:39:46

He would hike up to the top of the Mount of Olives,

00:39:48

come down the slopes through the Garden of Gethsemane,

00:39:52

through, this will matter next week, the Kidron Valley,

00:39:54

the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

00:39:57

And then He'd go up the slopes of Mount Moriah

00:39:59

into the temple, where he would talk

00:40:01

and teach and disrupt things.

00:40:02

And then He'd hike back down, back up and over to Bethany,

00:40:06

sleep for the night, do the same thing the next morning.

00:40:08

Well, this section that we're looking at,

00:40:10

Jesus says in the morning, leaving Bethany.

00:40:13

And it turns out from that spot on the earth,

00:40:16

there was one mountain visible over the horizon,

00:40:20

one mountain that dominated the landscape.

00:40:24

And it just so happens to be

00:40:25

the most unique mountain on the entire Earth.

00:40:29

It's the only mountain not made by the hands of God.

00:40:32

It was a man made mountain made by King Herod.

00:40:36

You might have heard of King Herod from the Christmas story.

00:40:38

He's the one who's after Jesus, and he puts to death

00:40:41

all the little boys in Bethlehem

00:40:42

trying to get rid of Jesus.

00:40:45

Well, this guy was like Darth Vader before Darth Vader.

00:40:48

He was literally the overlord of the area.

00:40:50

And he would build these fortresses to tell people

00:40:53

that he was over and above them.

00:40:55

And where Darth Vader had the Death Star,

00:40:57

this guy had the Herodian.

00:40:59

It was a mountain fortress, still there today,

00:41:03

by the way that's important.

00:41:04

The mountain that Jesus said,

00:41:06

if you say to it, move, it'll move.

00:41:07

Still there, literally in the same spot.

00:41:11

Now, back in the day, would have had

00:41:12

a giant fortress on top of it

00:41:14

and raised up even, even taller.

00:41:16

But even today, it's an imposing thing

00:41:18

that you can see over the horizon,

00:41:20

all the way from where Jesus was born in Bethlehem,

00:41:25

all the way to where He died in Jerusalem.

00:41:29

See, in Jesus's life we know that He was born.

00:41:32

He was taken away to Egypt for a few years,

00:41:34

and He was brought back.

00:41:35

And it's very possible that for most of Jesus's life,

00:41:38

He doesn't have a memory without this mountain.

00:41:41

See, for Jesus's entire life,

00:41:43

this thing had loomed over Him.

00:41:44

And what it was built to communicate was from

00:41:47

one of the top powers in the world,

00:41:49

"My kingdom is over and above you.

00:41:51

My power is over and above you.

00:41:53

My power is over and above your people.

00:41:54

And there's nothing you can do, Jesus. There's nothing."

00:41:57

That's what it was built to say.

00:42:00

I just wonder, do you have a mountain like that in your life

00:42:03

that's been there for as long as you can remember,

00:42:06

that's been an obstacle blocking your path?

00:42:09

Maybe it's something you inherited from your family.

00:42:12

For many of us, we grew up in families

00:42:13

where we have these sayings.

00:42:15

You know, us Reynolds, we just get angry.

00:42:18

Us Johnson's, we just drink too much.

00:42:21

We have these sayings and they keep us up.

00:42:23

Maybe in your life, it's I've never been able

00:42:25

to have a healthy relationship. I just never will.

00:42:28

Or I've never felt close to God

00:42:30

the way that other people do, and I never will.

00:42:32

Or my physical health has always been an issue.

00:42:35

My weight, it's all -- and it always will.

00:42:38

That was this mountain to Jesus.

00:42:42

By the way, what qualifies as a mountain?

00:42:44

Well, if it feels like a mountain to you,

00:42:47

it's a mountain.

00:42:48

Your mountains are not my mountains.

00:42:49

My mountains are not your mountains.

00:42:52

But the good news today,

00:42:53

the hope I want you to walk out with,

00:42:55

the incredible hope is

00:42:56

the powerful promise in truth of Jesus

00:43:00

that that mountain, that mountain can move.

00:43:04

How?

00:43:07

Let's dive back into the words of Jesus in Mark 11.

00:43:10

Again He says: For assuredly, I say to you,

00:43:12

whoever says to this mountain, "Be removed

00:43:15

and be cast into the sea,"

00:43:17

and does not doubt in his heart,

00:43:21

but believes those things he says will be done,

00:43:24

he will have whatever he says.

00:43:26

Well, the key seems to be pretty clearly does not doubt.

00:43:31

Which raises our second important question.

00:43:33

When Jesus says, don't doubt. What does He mean by doubt?

00:43:37

Most of us would answer that and say,

00:43:39

"Well, doubt is a lack of certainty.

00:43:41

They're kind of opposite ends of the spectrum.

00:43:43

And if we were to assign faith to one end

00:43:46

of that spectrum, for sure, we would say

00:43:48

faith aligns with the certainty end of the spectrum."

00:43:50

And there are many people who will teach this passage

00:43:53

and say, "Yes, that's exactly right.

00:43:55

What Jesus is saying is that you need

00:43:56

to have certain faith, and if you can have certain faith,

00:44:00

you'll experience breakthroughs."

00:44:02

They say that the measure of your faith

00:44:04

is the measure to which you can become certain.

00:44:07

And almost like one of those, uh, meters at the fair

00:44:11

where you have the big hammer and you smash it down

00:44:14

on the, on the, on the thing, the little pad,

00:44:16

and the little thing shoots up to the top.

00:44:18

If you can be so certain,

00:44:19

you can smash that thing all the way down,

00:44:21

then your certainty level goes all the way to the top

00:44:24

and dings the bell, well, then you're healed.

00:44:26

And so the magic here is to just kind of convince yourself,

00:44:29

"I will be healed, I will be healed, I will be healed."

00:44:32

30%. "Will be healed, will be healed, will be." 60%

00:44:36

"Will be healed, will be healed."

00:44:37

And if you can get to 100, poof.

00:44:39

"I will get the job. I will get the job. I will get the job."

00:44:42

That's what people teach.

00:44:44

Is that true? No, no, no, no, no, no.

00:44:49

Now, that's not biblical theology.

00:44:51

I would call that humanistic fantasy.

00:44:55

It has a name and it's very popular right now,

00:44:57

it's called manifesting.

00:44:58

But you will not find it in the Bible

00:45:00

and it's not consistent with the character of Jesus.

00:45:03

In fact, it's incredibly destructive

00:45:05

and it's opposite faith. Why? For two reasons.

00:45:08

One, because if it works, who gets the credit?

00:45:12

Not God. You, because you did it.

00:45:16

God had the healing and the power the whole time.

00:45:19

It wasn't about him. It was about you.

00:45:21

Could you be certain enough to get it?

00:45:24

That's destructive. That's anti-faith.

00:45:26

And number two, if it doesn't work,

00:45:29

it's even more painful.

00:45:31

I know people who are in wheelchairs

00:45:34

and have been told you're only in that wheelchair

00:45:36

because you don't have the faith to stand up.

00:45:41

I know people who've been praying for healing

00:45:44

and haven't seen it, and carry around a guilt

00:45:46

and a burden and a wonder and go, "Is it because

00:45:48

my faith isn't enough? Am I failing? Am I to blame?"

00:45:52

Like I said, we've had lots of healings at Crossroads.

00:45:55

We want lots more. We'll keep praying for them.

00:45:57

It's amazing when we see miracles.

00:45:58

But as one of the pastors here, I don't just see

00:46:01

the miracles that happen. I see the other side too.

00:46:04

Just this past week, there was a family who lost

00:46:07

the wife and the mother of the young family to cancer.

00:46:10

They prayed for healing. They leaned in.

00:46:12

They believed that God could do it.

00:46:14

I know of another family who's been praying

00:46:16

for a daughter, a granddaughter to be healed,

00:46:18

to have healing in her spine.

00:46:19

They prayed. They believe. They haven't seen it.

00:46:22

You just have to step back and you go,

00:46:24

"If you believe that your certainty is the bar

00:46:27

by which God will heal you or not,

00:46:29

move the mountain or not, then you have to deal with

00:46:32

the other side, which is if it doesn't move,

00:46:34

it must be your fault.

00:46:35

I just want to tell you, man,

00:46:37

if you've ever wondered that,

00:46:38

if you've ever heard that talk to you,

00:46:40

I'm here to tell you that is not true.

00:46:41

It is not the character of God.

00:46:43

He does not withhold healing until you're positive.

00:46:45

That's not what He's about. That's not who He is.

00:46:48

In fact, there's a story, two chapters

00:46:54

before He talks about moving the mountain.

00:46:56

Mark 9, where Jesus has this interaction

00:46:59

with a father who's anything but certain.

00:47:02

He comes to Jesus with one of these mountains,

00:47:05

an issue that's plagued his son

00:47:07

for as long as they can remember,

00:47:10

making it exactly the this kind of mountain that moves.

00:47:14

His son's been possessed by a demon and thrown around,

00:47:18

suffers from seizures and all kinds of horrible things.

00:47:20

Here's how the interaction goes. Mark 9.

00:47:24

Jesus talks first. So He asked his father,

00:47:26

"How long has this been happening to him?"

00:47:29

And he said, "From childhood.

00:47:31

And often he's thrown him into both the fire

00:47:33

and the water to destroy him.

00:47:35

But if You can do anything,

00:47:38

have compassion on us and help us."

00:47:40

The father doesn't say, "I'm 100% certain, Jesus.

00:47:43

I know exactly what You can do.

00:47:44

I've worked it all the way.

00:47:45

I was 50% earlier today,

00:47:47

but I've worked it all the way up to 100% certainty.

00:47:50

God, I know. "He says, " If you can do anything,

00:47:55

can You help him?" Look what Jesus says to him.

00:47:58

Jesus said to him, "No, absolutely not, I can't."

00:48:00

Oh, that's not what He says.

00:48:02

Jesus said to him, "If you can believe

00:48:04

all things are possible to him who believes."

00:48:08

Immediately the father of the child cried out

00:48:10

and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

00:48:15

And Jesus immediately healed the son. Immediately.

00:48:19

He didn't rebuke the dad and tell him it wasn't good enough.

00:48:21

He didn't tell him it was his fault

00:48:23

that his son was still demon possessed,

00:48:24

and it could have been dealt with a long time ago

00:48:26

if he had just worked up certain faith.

00:48:28

That's not what He says at all.

00:48:29

In fact, there's another telling of this

00:48:31

mountain moving faith story in Matthew 17.

00:48:35

Listen to Jesus's words in this version of it.

00:48:37

"For truly I say to you," says Jesus,

00:48:40

If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed,

00:48:45

you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there, '

00:48:48

and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."

00:48:53

Now, back then, there was no concept of small things

00:48:57

like we have now. We have microscopes now.

00:49:00

And so we know about the smallest possible things,

00:49:03

the small things like molecules and atoms

00:49:08

and the Bengals' playoff chances,

00:49:10

things that are infinitesimally small.

00:49:13

Bengals, it's not -- We just don't have a certain faith.

00:49:15

We have a mustard seed sized faith,

00:49:17

it's still alive, but it's just very tiny.

00:49:18

Okay, that's all I'm saying. We didn't know about it.

00:49:21

But back then this would have been like saying

00:49:24

if you have a subatomic particle level size of faith,

00:49:29

you can move a mountain.

00:49:32

So what does Jesus mean when He says do not doubt?

00:49:36

Well, the Greek word for doubt is Diakrinó.

00:49:39

And what it literally means is don't be indecisive.

00:49:44

See, indecision is when you and I come up to a mountain

00:49:48

and we decide we're going to do something about it.

00:49:50

"You know, I'm going to go this way.

00:49:51

I'm going to take a step here. I'm going to tell --

00:49:53

No, I'm not going to tell somebody.

00:49:55

I'm going to confess that --

00:49:56

I'm not going to confess the thing.

00:49:57

I'm going to make a stop. I'm not going to make --

00:49:59

I'm going to trust God in the thing He said.

00:50:01

I'm not going to trust." It's this dance right here.

00:50:04

This is called the salsa.

00:50:06

You're like, no, it's not.

00:50:07

No, it's called the White Man Shuffle.

00:50:09

Okay, fine. It's called the White Man Shuffle.

00:50:11

The point is, you don't go anywhere.

00:50:14

Jesus says, don't expect for mountains to move

00:50:17

when you're just doing this.

00:50:19

See what mountain moving faith is

00:50:20

is taking the step the size of a mustard seed

00:50:24

forward up your mountain.

00:50:26

This is mountain moving faith. One inch.

00:50:29

You and I think it's about 100% certainty.

00:50:32

No, it's about a one inch movement.

00:50:34

It's not what happens up here between your ears.

00:50:36

It's about what happens down here with your feet.

00:50:38

See, the mountains will move in your life

00:50:40

when you have enough faith to start to climb them.

00:50:43

When you trust God enough to take a step forward,

00:50:48

no matter how small that step seems,

00:50:50

you'll see the mountain move.

00:50:51

It'll go from in front of you to behind you.

00:50:55

It'll go from a menace to a memory in your life.

00:50:59

This is mountain moving faith, friend.

00:51:01

I don't know what the mountain is.

00:51:02

It can move, if you'll exercise faith in God to take a step.

00:51:11

That mountain that loomed over Jesus's life,

00:51:13

I told you it's still there.

00:51:14

Literally it has not moved an inch, still there.

00:51:18

But do you know something?

00:51:19

That mountain does not block Jesus anymore.

00:51:22

It doesn't loom over Him anymore.

00:51:23

Why? Because Jesus moved.

00:51:26

If you look at the the biography of His life,

00:51:28

if you study what He actually did day after day,

00:51:31

scripture says that He grew in wisdom and in stature.

00:51:35

That day after day He practiced following God.

00:51:38

Day after day He took one tiny step to go to

00:51:40

one next town to talk to one next person.

00:51:42

Day after day trusted God to the point where,

00:51:45

at the base of the mountain, in the Garden of Gethsemane,

00:51:48

He said to the father, "Not My will, but Yours be done."

00:51:51

And then He climbed up on the mountain called Calvary,

00:51:54

climbed up on the Cross, and God moved Him over everything.

00:52:00

Listen to Ephesians 1:2 says:

00:52:03

God seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

00:52:07

far above all rule and power and authority and dominion,

00:52:11

and above every name, like the name of Herod,

00:52:13

that's named, not only in this age,

00:52:15

but also the one to come.

00:52:18

See, what God does is He moves us over the mountain.

00:52:22

Mountain moving faith,

00:52:23

it's not about measurement of certainty.

00:52:25

It's about movement, committing to a course of action

00:52:28

in the face of uncertainty.

00:52:30

Faith. Faith is not a one for one with certainty.

00:52:33

Faith is embracing risk and going forward anyway.

00:52:37

The most faithful moment of your life

00:52:39

will not be the moment you're most certain of God

00:52:41

and therefore act.

00:52:42

It'll be the moment where you're least certain of God

00:52:44

and you still act you.

00:52:46

That's the most faithful moment of your life.

00:52:48

Always has been. Always, always, always will be.

00:52:51

Faith is is risk.

00:52:53

It's going on the hard path of the mountain,

00:52:56

clinging to the chain of God, going,

00:52:58

"If You don't hold me, I'm dead.

00:53:01

I can't get up on my own.

00:53:02

But God, by your power I believe that

00:53:05

I can get up and over this mountain by Your power."

00:53:09

My favorite hike in all of America,

00:53:14

favorite hike is called Angel's Landing.

00:53:16

Anybody ever done Angel's Landing?

00:53:18

Any fellow Angel's Landing out there?

00:53:20

Oh, you're missing out. You gotta go do this hike.

00:53:22

It is the most dangerous hike in America.

00:53:24

You hike up a spine of a mountain,

00:53:26

and you must hold on to these chains.

00:53:27

If you do not hold onto those chains, you will die.

00:53:30

Because that's how thick the path is.

00:53:32

It's 1000ft down on one side.

00:53:35

It's 1000ft down on the other side.

00:53:36

I've done it twice. I'm gonna do it again.

00:53:38

It's spectacular. Love it, love it, love it, love it.

00:53:41

Now, I mentioned my family loves to hike.

00:53:43

It's our favorite pastime.

00:53:45

We've gone all over the country at this point.

00:53:47

It's been been amazing.

00:53:48

No matter where we go, this place included,

00:53:50

this is Zion National Park, one thing is always true.

00:53:54

Do you know where it's most crowded?

00:53:57

The gift shop.

00:54:00

Do you know where it's least crowded?

00:54:02

The top of the mountain.

00:54:05

Where the best views are,

00:54:06

where the breakthrough moments are,

00:54:08

where the moments that make you feel triumphant

00:54:10

and oh, my gosh,

00:54:11

I can't believe, God, that You made this.

00:54:13

I can't believe that I was able to do that.

00:54:14

Those are always the top of the mountain.

00:54:17

But the crowds, you have to understand this,

00:54:19

the crowds in your life will always be at the gift shop.

00:54:25

And the illusion will be, "This must be where life is."

00:54:28

And if you're not careful when it comes to faith,

00:54:30

you'll be poking around the gift shop trying to find God there.

00:54:33

Maybe He's in the keychains over here.

00:54:35

I'll go check out the keychains.

00:54:37

Or maybe He's in the coffee mugs or the t shirts.

00:54:40

No, God's not in the gift shop. God's on the mountain.

00:54:44

He's not trying to get you to live

00:54:47

this safe, comfortable life.

00:54:49

He's trying to get you to take risks with Him and to go places.

00:54:52

That's what faith is. Faith is a risk.

00:54:55

Hebrews 11:1 says: Now faith is

00:54:57

the substance of things hoped for,

00:54:59

the evidence of things not seen. Not seen.

00:55:04

Will you go forward even when you can't see?

00:55:08

As a pastor,

00:55:09

people will oftentimes ask me to pray for them.

00:55:11

And if that's you, I'd love to pray for you.

00:55:13

I'd be happy to pray for you.

00:55:15

Just a warning, though.

00:55:17

There's one thing I won't pray for for you,

00:55:19

and that is to take the risk away.

00:55:21

A lot of people ask me to do this.

00:55:23

Pray away the risk. And no one ever says that.

00:55:25

They're not like, "Kyle,

00:55:26

would you pray away the risk in my life?"

00:55:28

No, they don't say that. But they use code words.

00:55:31

They say, "Kyle, would you pray that God

00:55:34

would make it clear to me what to do next?

00:55:37

Will you pray that God will give me clarity

00:55:40

over my next step?"

00:55:42

Let me just save you the time.

00:55:44

If you want me to pray for that, the answer is

00:55:46

no, I will not.

00:55:49

I will pray for courage for you. I will.

00:55:54

Have you ever noticed whenever I pray

00:55:55

at the start of a message, I tend to without thinking

00:55:57

about it most often pray for us to have courage.

00:56:01

And the reason is because this is the journey of faith.

00:56:04

It's a journey across the terrain.

00:56:06

It's a journey up the what looks like

00:56:08

a dangerous, crazy route that,

00:56:09

if God doesn't show up, I'm toast.

00:56:12

That is the life of faith.

00:56:14

If you want me to pray for courage in your life. Yes.

00:56:17

If you want to pray for certainty

00:56:19

I will not waste my breath

00:56:20

because you're never going to get it.

00:56:22

God's not interested in giving you certainty.

00:56:24

God's interested in you exercising faith,

00:56:27

entrusting Him with one step after another up the mountain.

00:56:31

That's always been the journey. Always will be. Always.

00:56:37

I think you and I, we think that God's trying to save us steps.

00:56:40

You know? Like God's checking our Apple Watch

00:56:42

at the end of the day. How many steps did you get?

00:56:45

10,000. Ooh, that's too many actually.

00:56:48

I'd like to dial that back down to zero if we could.

00:56:51

That would be a good -- No, no.

00:56:54

God's not trying to revive us to get us to do nothing.

00:56:59

Why would God pour more of His energy and His power

00:57:02

into someone who's going to sit still? He wouldn't.

00:57:06

The point of being revived is that you would go

00:57:09

on the more dangerous, risky journeys

00:57:11

that he's called you to in your life,

00:57:13

to give you the power you've never had before.

00:57:15

He's not trying to save you steps.

00:57:17

Read the Bible and you'll see people who all the time

00:57:19

just go up and down mountains,

00:57:20

not just metaphorical mountains like we've been talking about.

00:57:23

Literal, actual mountains.

00:57:27

I just got back from two weeks in Turkey and Greece,

00:57:29

tracing the life steps, the footsteps

00:57:31

of the life of the Apostle Paul

00:57:33

for a really awesome series we're going to do in February.

00:57:36

Super excited about it.

00:57:37

Real Encounters with God; Life of Paul.

00:57:39

And what you see when you're over there

00:57:41

is that Paul climbed mountains.

00:57:43

This is drone footage that we just took

00:57:46

about five, I don't know, ten days ago,

00:57:48

something like that in Taurus, Paul's hometown.

00:57:51

Those are the Taurus Mountains. They are massive.

00:57:54

Paul hiked over and up and down these things all of the time.

00:58:00

When people follow God's path in their life,

00:58:02

they literally go up and down mountains.

00:58:04

Go to the Old Testament. Look at Moses.

00:58:07

There's one chapter in Exodus, Exodus 19,

00:58:10

where Moses goes up and down a mountain

00:58:12

four times to talk to God.

00:58:14

You look at it and you're like, "Why did you?

00:58:16

You could have consolidated, God,

00:58:18

and made him come for like one time. Why the four times?"

00:58:21

It's almost comical. Listen to the words in Exodus 19:

00:58:25

When the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain,

00:58:28

and Moses went up.

00:58:30

And the Lord said to Moses, "Go down."

00:58:33

"Like I just got -- I just got here. Go down?"

00:58:35

"And warn the people." And Moses said to the Lord,

00:58:38

"The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai."

00:58:40

And the Lord said to him, "Go down,

00:58:43

and come up, bringing Aaron with you."

00:58:46

Up and down, up and down, up and down, up.

00:58:48

Moses was 80 years old, guys. 80 years old.

00:58:53

And Mount Sinai is 8000 feet tall.

00:58:56

This is not, this is not a God

00:58:59

who's interested in saving us steps.

00:59:01

We serve a God who's trying to turn us into mountain climbers.

00:59:05

That's what He's trying to do.

00:59:09

If you want to encounter God in your life,

00:59:12

you'll find Him at the end of a strenuous hard climb.

00:59:18

The capital city of the nation of Israel, Jerusalem.

00:59:20

Guess what? The only way to get there,

00:59:22

north, south, east, west, doesn't matter

00:59:23

which direction you approach. Guess what?

00:59:25

It's climb a mountain. It's on top of a mountain.

00:59:27

The temple, guess where God put the temple.

00:59:29

Top of a mountain, Mount Moriah.

00:59:31

The one time Jesus was ever transfigured,

00:59:33

His full divinity shone when He was here on earth.

00:59:35

Guess where it happened? Top of a mountain.

00:59:37

When Jesus comes back the second time,

00:59:39

guess where His feet touch down.

00:59:40

If you want to be there and see Him, top of the mountain.

00:59:45

If you're waiting for God to poof your mountain away,

00:59:48

God would say, "I'm waiting for you to take a step up.

00:59:50

You'll find me on the mountain."

00:59:52

And you might go, "Man, that sounds hard.

00:59:55

Kyle, I thought Jesus was here to make my life easy."

00:59:58

Well, sorry to disappoint you.

00:59:59

Here's His words in Matthew 7, he says:

01:00:02

Enter by the narrow gate,

01:00:04

for the gate is wide and the way

01:00:07

or the path through the terrain is easy

01:00:11

that leads to destruction,

01:00:12

and those who enter by it are many.

01:00:15

For the gate is narrow

01:00:17

and the way is hard that leads to life,

01:00:21

and those who find it are few.

01:00:25

See, the life of faith

01:00:26

is not taking the path of least resistance.

01:00:29

Faith does not make life easier.

01:00:32

Faith makes the impossible possible.

01:00:37

And if you're interested in that happening in your life.

01:00:40

Good news. Jesus says you can say to that mountain

01:00:44

move and it will move.

01:00:46

Good news, He said if you'll start to trust Him

01:00:48

and start to climb, you can see it move.

01:00:51

And so my question for you is,

01:00:52

are you tired of living in the shadow?

01:00:55

Aren't you tired of that thing dominating your field of view?

01:00:58

Aren't you tired? Aren't you tired of it?

01:01:01

It's keeping you stuck.

01:01:03

What would it mean to take the first step of faith

01:01:06

the size of a mustard seed?

01:01:09

Would it be to tell someone

01:01:10

about what's really been going on?

01:01:13

Would it be to confess the addiction to someone?

01:01:18

Would it be to share, finally share

01:01:20

what really happened to you as a kid

01:01:22

that's been holding you back and keeping you stuck

01:01:24

for your whole life?

01:01:26

Would it be to pray, again,

01:01:28

for the first time in a long time,

01:01:30

maybe the first time ever, to take a step towards God?

01:01:32

Would it be to apply for the job?

01:01:34

Apply for college? What would it what would it be?

01:01:37

Go to the doctor's office?

01:01:41

You can take a step. God can get you there.

01:01:43

See, faith does not deny the mountain expect it to poof.

01:01:48

Faith defies the mountain.

01:01:51

It speaks a different word over it.

01:01:54

Notice the very first thing Jesus says to do.

01:01:56

We're going to look at Mark 11 one last time. Jesus says:

01:01:59


01:02:01

whoever says to this mountain.

01:02:05

There's something you have to start saying.

01:02:07

It begins with saying something different to that mountain.

01:02:10

Instead of saying it's always been this way

01:02:12

and it always will be this way,

01:02:14

instead of saying it's hopeless

01:02:15

and nothing's ever going to change,

01:02:16

instead of saying that, instead of saying it's too big

01:02:19

and I can never do it,

01:02:20

you stop measuring yourself against the mountain

01:02:23

and you start measuring the mountain against your God.

01:02:26

And you say, God, God, I believe this can move.

01:02:29

God, if you can do anything, I'm going to take a step.

01:02:34

And you start to walk up the mountain.

01:02:37

One of the most incredible blessings in the entire Bible

01:02:40

is this little known blessing.

01:02:41

It happens in the book of Zechariah.

01:02:43

And it's God's words over a man named Zerubabel.

01:02:47

Listen to his words about Zerubabel's mountain.

01:02:50

Zechariah 4:6.

01:02:53

This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel:

01:02:56

Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,

01:03:02

says the Lord of hosts.

01:03:03

Who are you, O great mountain?

01:03:05

Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain.

01:03:09

See, the journey up the mountain starts

01:03:11

with you saying these words with God to your mountain.

01:03:15

It's agreeing with them.

01:03:16

It's no longer going, "Well, I don't know if that--

01:03:18

I don't know if that can happen."

01:03:19

It's going, "God, I'm going to step onto Your promise

01:03:21

and Your words about my mountain.

01:03:23

I'm going to trust You to get me up.

01:03:25

I'm going to trust You."

01:03:26

I want you to take a minute before we run out of here

01:03:29

and think about that mountain in your life.

01:03:30

What is the mountain keeping you stuck?

01:03:33

What is the obstacle in your path?

01:03:35

Maybe it's been there for a very, very long time,

01:03:37

as long as you can remember, or longer.

01:03:39

Or maybe it's a new one that just feels like

01:03:42

the weight of it is so heavy

01:03:43

it feels like you've been carrying it forever.

01:03:45

What is that mountain?

01:03:47

If you want to take a step of faith

01:03:49

and you want to change what you say about that mountain,

01:03:51

if you want a mustard seed sized step of faith,

01:03:54

I'm going to read this verse again.

01:03:56

Except when we get to the name Zerubbabel,

01:03:58

we're going to put a blank on screen.

01:04:01

And when we get to the blank,

01:04:02

I want you to say your name out loud.

01:04:04

If you believe that God can move your mountain,

01:04:07

if you want Him to help you up.

01:04:09

If you're saying, "God, I'm up for the hard path,

01:04:12

if you do the impossible."

01:04:13

If that's the case, I want you to say your name

01:04:16

where you see the blank.

01:04:18

This is the verse, Zechariah 4:6.

01:04:23

This is the Word of the Lord to ___:

01:04:28

Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,

01:04:34

says the Lord of hosts.

01:04:36

Who are you, O great mountain?

01:04:38

Before ____ you shall become a plain.

01:04:42

God, thank You for Your Word over our life.

01:04:44

Thank You for your blessing and Your promise.

01:04:45

Thank You that You do do the impossible, God.

01:04:47

I've seen You do it in my life.

01:04:49

I've seen You move mountains, God.

01:04:51

I'm asking for everybody who has the courage to follow You

01:04:54

that that exact thing would play out.

01:04:56

God, that what's in front of us would move to behind us,

01:04:59

that You would power us up the mountain,

01:05:01

that we would meet you in the climb, God.

01:05:03

Move mountains in our lives. Amen.

01:05:07

- Hey, thank you so much for watching.

01:05:10

I hope that you heard loud and clear from Kyle today.

01:05:12

And more importantly, you heard from God

01:05:14

that He doesn't want you to stay stuck,

01:05:17

that He doesn't want that mountain

01:05:18

or whatever that thing is for you that's in front of you

01:05:20

to stay there forever.

01:05:22

But also that God wants more for you

01:05:26

than just for things to be easier for you

01:05:27

or I to be comfortable.

01:05:29

If there's anything that we or Crossroads can do

01:05:32

to encourage you and push you along and root for you

01:05:34

in your journey and your adventure with God,

01:05:36

we'd love to do that.

01:05:37

Some of the best ways is just we'd love

01:05:39

to pray for you and chat with you.

01:05:40

If you're on the website, you can hit the chat button,

01:05:42

or you can just email us at anywhere@crossroads.net.

01:05:45

And myself or somebody on the team

01:05:47

would love to talk with you, process with you,

01:05:49

and encourage you on your journey with God.

01:05:52

Thanks so much for watching.

01:05:53

We'll see you next week for part two of Terrain.

Mountains That Move | How a Step of Faith Changes Everything

That’s it for this week - see you next time!

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