Nacido para Correr | Cómo correr la carrera que Dios te ha dado

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- Well, that song pretty much hit the nail on the head:

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you were made for more.

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There's a race for you to run.

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Welcome to the Run Journey.

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My name is Kyle.

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I'm our Lead Pastor here at Crossroads.

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We're just pumped and honored that you're with us

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today for the start of this Run Journey.

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There are two things you need to make sure

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you don't leave without. Number one, is this right here.

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This is your personal guide for our experience.

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It's got all kinds of things in here for you,

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fun surprises in the back,

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questions to help you turn what you learn

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about on the weekend into actual progress in your life.

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Completely free, by the way.

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This whole thing is free, if you're brand new,

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no cost for any of it. It's just our gift to you.

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We'd love you to get one of these.

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The second thing you need is a group.

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It's okay if you don't have one right now.

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No guilt trip. You're not behind. It's okay.

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But before your head hits the pillow tonight,

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make sure you've got a group.

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Two ways to do that: one, you can online shop for one

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at crossroads.net.

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Just follow the links and you'll find a group that way.

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Or, easy button, if you're already at a site,

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all you have to do is just walk out to the atrium

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and you have a group fair out there,

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big signs that say find a group.

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That's where you go to find a group.

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So make sure you get those two things before you leave today.

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For the next five weeks, we're following in the footsteps

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of one of the most important and impactful people

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in human history, the apostle Paul.

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In fact, it's not hyperbole to say the only reason

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you and I are here today is because of him.

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If you were to trace the faith lines

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backwards from you, you would get to Paul.

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Like the person who told you about Jesus

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and who told them and who told them,

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and keep doing that for 2000 years,

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most likely it would end at Paul.

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He is the guy who took the message of Jesus

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from Jerusalem to the rest of the world.

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Last week, our Senior Pastor, Brian,

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did a great job giving the background of his story.

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If you missed it, if it's your first time here,

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I highly encourage you to go back and watch it.

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You can find it on Crossroads.net

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or the Anywhere app.

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And when you study Paul's life, one thing jumps out at you.

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One thing that kind of makes him different

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from anybody else that you might see or study.

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It's his view that's wholly original and unique to him

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about what his life is.

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See, if you were to ask the Apostle Paul about his life,

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he would tell you it was a race and he had one goal,

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which is to not just run the race, but to win it.

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Paul's call to arms for anyone who wants

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to live a life of impact, live a life that shapes

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and reshapes the world around you is to do the same:

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consider your life the same way he considered his.

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In the first letter he wrote to the city of Corinth,

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he said: Do you not know that in a race

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all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?

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Run in such a way as to get the prize.

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And for 2000 years since, there have been some people

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who are crazy enough to try to do that,

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some people who try to follow in his footsteps

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and win their God given, God ordained, God designed race.

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And it has totally reshaped the world.

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There's all these things that exist around us

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that I think we never pause to consider.

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Like, hey, when did that start?

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Who started that thing?

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Things like hospitals, orphanages, public education,

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the concept of universal human rights,

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civil rights, women's rights.

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You can go on and on and on.

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All of those things were started by people

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who were trying to follow God's design

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and race for their life.

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Not a single one of them was started by

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an enlightened philosopher, or an eastern mystic or guru,

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or a super disciplined stoic.

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No, they're all people trying to follow

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the God of the Bible and the race

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that He has marked out for them.

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See, the premise of this journey is very, very, very simple.

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It's that God has a race for you.

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And so in this Journey, we're going after

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the answers to two critical questions.

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Number one, what is my race?

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And number two, how do I run it to win?

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If you were to walk up to Paul on the street,

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his advice to you be very, very simple.

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He's the only one who ever said

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something like this in the entire Bible.

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This incredibly bold call to action.

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In that letter to the Corinthians, he said:

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Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

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And so what we're doing in this Journey is literally

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taking Paul at face value and following his actual race

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that went all around the Roman world,

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starting in Jerusalem.

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Paul traveled 10,000 miles through the Roman Empire.

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No planes, no cars, no trains, no cushy hokas,

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no trail mix, no Apple Watch.

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Like no Apple Watch? He couldn't even count his steps?

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No, he didn't close his rings.

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He just -- He just kept going.

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He climbed mountains, he crossed oceans and ran his race.

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The Bible records him going to 60 different

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named regions, 30 major cities.

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In this Journey we'll be going to five of those cities,

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five of the most significant places in Paul's race.

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So first we're going to start with today

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is the city of Tarsus, which is both where Paul was born

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and where I would argue he was remade.

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In his experience, it'll look like

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20 minutes of virtual pilgrimage.

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We're going to take you via video on location

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to these five cities so that we can see what Paul did there,

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better understand what happened and also, as a faith reinforcer.

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All of these stories, this life that he led,

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all the things that happened, it's not fairy tale,

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it's fact and the archeological record shows that.

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So we're going to dig in and understand it's real people

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in real places having real encounters with God.

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After that video, we're going to follow that up

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with live teaching inside of very painstakingly recreated,

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historically accurate digital recreations

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of those locations.

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Again, to to sink into what did Paul feel

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and experience in these places

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so that we can follow his example.

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You know, Paul's race, it not only reshaped the world,

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it reshaped Paul.

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And my guess is, no matter where you are in your life,

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you're up for some reshaping.

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Maybe you're in a place in your life

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where you just feel stuck, like you can't get ahead.

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Maybe you're up for God pushing you.

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Maybe you're in a place where it feels like

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all you do is run, just in circles though.

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And what you're up for is being reshaped

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and made into someone who can take progress.

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Maybe in a place in your life where

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by all the world's metrics, you are winning,

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but none of it is deeply satisfying

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in the way that you had imagined.

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And you're going, "God, is there more for me?

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Could there be more?"

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My hope and my prayer is that over these next five weeks,

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that you discover the race that God has for you,

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and you start to experience the thrill of the run.

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Let me pray for you before you go any further.

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God, thank You so much for everyone who's here,

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everyone watching online.

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I'm asking that these next five weeks

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You would grab hold of our attention.

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God, that You would get our focus,

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that You would speak loudly into our ears,

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that we would hear the race that You have for us

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in a brand new, fresh way.

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That You give us the courage to follow You

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and to run to win. Amen.

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- Two of our most impactful experiences

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filmed on location in two new countries.

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Five weeks of live teaching as the Bible

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is brought to life each week.

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And one incredible opportunity to level up your life.

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Join us as we follow the missionary journeys

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of the Apostle Paul and learn from the radical race

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he ran to change the world.

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Wipe the sleep from your soul.

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You have a race to run, and you can win.

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Get off the sidelines of your life,

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learn to turn suffering into endurance,

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endurance into character, and character into hope.

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It is time. Wake up! Run your race! Win!

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Real Encounters with God; The Run Journey.

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- These breathtaking and otherworldly landscapes

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are found in what was called Asia minor in biblical times,

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now modern day Turkey, a critical location

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for the spread of early Christianity.

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In fact, this now Muslim country was the birthplace

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of the first church in Europe.

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It is home to many of the sites

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we read about in the New Testament,

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including the seven churches of revelation,

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and is where the Apostle Paul was born.

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Paul wrote much of the New Testament

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during his missionary journeys here,

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and there is evidence still today of the profound impact

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the spread of the gospel had in this region.

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We begin our Run Journey in Cappadocia

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because although Paul never traveled here specifically,

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the good news of Jesus he shared did.

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A thousand cave churches carved into volcanic rock

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exist today as evidence of the community of faith

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that lived and worshiped here.

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- Hey everybody, and welcome to

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Real Encounters season five.

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We're here on location in Turkey and Greece,

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taking the Bible beyond the borders of Israel

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and following the gospel as it spread.

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With me I have, for the very first time,

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Nurullah, Turkish believer, local guide,

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apologist and YouTube famous, by the way.

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Bob is a Princeton trained scholar,

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archeologist, historian, biblical expert.

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He also studied at Hebrew University

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and the French School

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of Biblical Archeology in Jerusalem.

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I think I got that right.

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Tell us why we're here. We got to get right into it.

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- Yeah, I mean, well, look at this.

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We're in this incredible thousand year old cave church

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here in Cappadocia, just surrounded by

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the physical evidence of what came from Paul

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and the Apostle's ministry in this land.

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And it's a reminder, as we're going to see

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in this whole series, as Paul and his disciples

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began to travel from Israel into this area

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and even beyond into Greece,

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they went into these Roman cities

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facing incredible opposition, incredible wealth

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and culture, almost like impossible obstacles.

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And yet, by the power of the Holy Spirit

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and the authority of Jesus, the gospel overcame.

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And this movement of Jesus not only spread,

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but it took root.

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And ultimately, over the centuries,

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it started to just flourish and bear fruit.

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And sitting in this beautiful cave church

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is evidence of the outcome of all of that.

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And, you know, these cave churches,

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we've been here in Cappadocia and we've seen that

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there's many, many hundreds of them in this area.

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The early Christians literally dug these out

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of the unique kind of geology here,

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and kind of painted these beautiful images.

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I mean, we literally have 30 different scenes

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from the life of Jesus surrounding us.

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And so it's like we're enveloped in this

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worship of the early Christians.

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And that's what happened in this land.

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That's the flourishing of the gospel.

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- Yeah. And that's so exciting.

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I mean, you literally can see it laid out on the walls.

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This area of Turkey is 99% Muslim.

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You being a Christian here in this space, kind of,

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what does that mean to you?

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And how have you seen that uniqueness

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of the early church show up here?

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- I'm always fascinated by these places

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and kind of saddened because most of our people

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actually are not aware of the rich Christian history here.

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And especially when I say I became a Christian

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or I'm a Christian and a Turk, they think

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and sometimes tell me that I became a Westerner.

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I adopted a Western culture in a way, because they think

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that Christianity came from the West.

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But it's actually like, you know, trips like this are,

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I think, great examples to be able to share with them

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that, hey, look, the Westerners are coming here

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to experience the, you know, the Christian history

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in these biblical lands that we have in our country.

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- And that it was here and actually then spread

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to the West and not the other way around. Right?

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Exactly. And like also to be able to experience all this,

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I think for me personally, as well as a local Christian,

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strengthens my faith both intellectually

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but also on a personal level, right?

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As I'm walking around these churches and these like,

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you know, biblical routes, I'm just experiencing

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kind of and encountering like the history of our faith.

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- And it does take it to the next level.

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It doesn't just make it something that

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you look at, read over. And you know what?

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Many people might not ever take a trip to Cappadocia

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or as you say, Cappadocia. Did I do that right?

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- The Turkish way, yeah.

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- They might not ever get here themselves.

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Luckily they have us with Real Encounters.

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But also to explain the significance, Bob, if you will,

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of coming to the space and kind of what that means and why.

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- Well, it's amazing to be able to visit

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these ancient sites, these huge Roman cities,

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because archeologists have uncovered for us

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the concrete evidence that the scriptures that we read

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are accurate, that really the story we read

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in the Bible is actually historically, factually true.

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And that's a powerful source of assurance for us in our faith.

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This isn't just a myth or a story,

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but this is real events, real people, real place.

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But there's more. There's more than that even,

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not just coming for kind of an intellectual reason,

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but for 2000 years, ever since

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the women disciples of Jesus first went to the tomb

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in Jerusalem to see like, what's happened there,

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Christians have been coming to these places

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in these holy lands, specifically as a act of

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spiritual devotion, and we call it pilgrimage.

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Pilgrimage is a spiritual discipline in which

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we visit the places where God has moved powerfully

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in the past so that we can encounter Him,

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experience Him in a new way here in the present.

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And it's such a privilege to be able to do that.

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I've been coming to these places for 40 years,

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bringing people here for that reason.

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And it never gets old because you're encountering

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the real Jesus in these places.

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- And it is exciting that

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you don't have to be in this physical place.

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We're going to do the leg work for them, right?

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You guys are going to experience and see

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what this place has to offer and how it's come to life.

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I know I think about when I'm reading the Bible sometimes,

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Bob, you can easily just glaze over a place,

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like if I say, oh, and he went to Asia minor.

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And now here we are in modern day Turkey

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and it means something.

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And so as we follow the life of Paul,

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as we follow how the good news of Jesus

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spread all across the world, we have to start with

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the guy who really started a lot of that call.

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And so we're going to start in his hometown of Tarsus.

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- 12 miles from the Mediterranean Sea,

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on the edge of the great Taurus Mountains,

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tucked in the southwestern corner of Turkey.

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This is Tarsus.

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Not just an old city, but an ancient one,

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a city that dates back 6000 years.

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In fact, as far as they've dug down,

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they've found layer upon, layer upon layer of world.

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This road that I'm walking on right now is 2000 years old.

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That means Tarsus had been here

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for at least 4000 years before the Romans built it.

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This is a city that reshaped the world,

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a city that was, at the time of Paul,

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a leader in the world, known for its academics,

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schools of philosophies.

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There was a library here with 200,000 books,

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lots of scientific works.

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In fact, the tutor for the very first Roman emperor,

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Augustus, was born here.

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The ideas that came out of this place

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have literally shaped the world.

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It's also a place that shows that the Bible is reliable.

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When the apostle Paul described his hometown of Tarsus,

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he said he came from no mean city,

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meaning no ordinary place.

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And this road shows that.

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The dark stone down the middle is basalt,

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and on the edges are this white stone.

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This is limestone that in the moonlight

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would have been reflective, meaning that the crowds

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could walk up and down the streets

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and find their way even at night.

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You'll see the remnants of pipes,

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meaning there was indoor plumbing in this place.

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There's holes in the road that go down

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and show sewage underneath.

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This was a major city that had wealth and prosperity.

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It's the place where the apostle Paul was born,

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and it's also the place where he was reborn.

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Born here to a family of Pharisees,

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Paul described himself once as a Pharisee of Pharisees.

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The Pharisees were the group who was the hardliners

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in the Jewish religion.

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They were so committed to the ways of the Bible

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that they had this black and white view of the world.

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In their minds, the reason that there were issues,

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the reason that the Romans were here in the first place

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and dominating them is because they had abandoned God's law,

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because there were rebels in the camp.

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And so they decided that the way to get God

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to bring His kingdom here on earth and set up shop

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was to have every single person

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in the entire Jewish nation strictly following

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every tiny detail of the entire law.

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There are even factions within the Pharisees

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who are so committed to returning Israel

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to this pure, perfect state that they were willing

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to use violence to force people to fall in line.

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Paul was born into a family that believed

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in those types of things.

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He was a boy wonder, a genius, born to a wealthy family.

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He was accepted into basically the Harvard

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of rabbinical schools at the age of 18.

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He went off to Jerusalem to study.

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He was there for 12 years, but the first time

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we have recorded that he came back here,

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he returned as a failure. But what happened?

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To imagine what it must have felt like for Paul

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to return to his hometown, not as a respected

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and powerful Pharisee who hunted and killed Christians,

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but instead as a believer in Jesus,

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we go to walk the very same Roman road

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that still exists on the outskirts of Tarsus,

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where we know Paul walked home.

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Well, you may feel like you know Paul's story.

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You know, he goes to Damascus on the road

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because he signed up to squash this little band of rebels,

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followers of this crucified Messiah, Jesus.

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And he goes out to squash them,

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and this blinding light comes out of heaven,

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knocks him off of his donkey, and his life changes.

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And from there, what we think is that his life

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is all up and to the right, just miracles

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and victories and wins.

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And he walks into town and he shares the gospel,

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and everyone high fives him and says thanks.

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And it's just -- It's just awesome.

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Well, that's not at all what happens in Paul's life.

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In fact, when he goes out, he meets resistance.

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When Paul walks into a town, no one says thank you.

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No one's excited he's there.

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And Paul's wake is just division.

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Listen to how Acts talks about the beginning of Paul's race.

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And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists,

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but they were seeking to kill him.

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And when the brothers learned this,

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they brought him down to Caesarea

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and sent him off to Tarsus.

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So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee

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and Samaria had peace and was being built up,

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and walking in the fear of the Lord

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and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

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Basically that says that wherever Paul went,

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division followed.

00:20:11

And so as soon as they send Paul home off to Tarsus,

00:20:14

the church multiplies and there's peace.

00:20:16

The divider is gone. Multiplication happens. Yes.

00:20:19

Imagine being Paul.

00:20:21

You walk back down the road to home

00:20:24

with your tail tucked between your legs.

00:20:27

And when you get there, with your newfound beliefs,

00:20:31

your family, the Pharisees, they're not excited to see you.

00:20:34

Your synagogue, your family who knows you,

00:20:37

the people you grew up around in your hometown,

00:20:40

they're not thankful you're back.

00:20:41

They're not embracing your new ideas.

00:20:44

Many people would say that Paul was likely married

00:20:46

as a Pharisee at the age of 30.

00:20:48

It would have been very strange if he wasn't.

00:20:50

Well, when Paul returned home,

00:20:52

his wife would have rejected him.

00:20:53

We know from Paul's own writings later on,

00:20:55

Paul clearly wasn't married.

00:20:58

Maybe his wife left.

00:20:59

There's actually an ancient source

00:21:02

that seems pretty credible that says that

00:21:04

in this period of his life,

00:21:06

when Paul comes back to Tarsus,

00:21:08

he's so utterly rejected that he ends up living

00:21:11

alone in a cave for a decade.

00:21:15

He goes back to tentmaking and he just hangs his head.

00:21:20

I mean, how would you feel in this moment?

00:21:22

Frustrated? Yeah.

00:21:25

Uh, depressed? I would. I would, absolutely.

00:21:30

And that's where our story, I think,

00:21:32

connects into Paul's story.

00:21:34

And I know that you and I didn't go off to Jerusalem

00:21:38

and become a Pharisee, and there was no blinding light.

00:21:41

There's no -- the details of our stories don't match Paul's,

00:21:45

but I think the moment that many of us are in

00:21:48

is exactly the moment that he was in.

00:21:51

I think many of us set out from home,

00:21:53

and we had dreams and ambitions of doing something big

00:21:56

and doing something important with our life,

00:21:58

running a race that mattered, crossing the finish line well.

00:22:01

And then we went out and instead of early wins,

00:22:04

all we experienced were losses.

00:22:06

Instead of victories, all we have

00:22:08

are a pile of disappointments.

00:22:10

He said no, she left, they gave the promotion to somebody else.

00:22:14

And at some point, at some point we stopped aiming to win.

00:22:20

We stopped running with vigor,

00:22:22

and instead we just started settling for okay.

00:22:27

If I could just have an okay day,

00:22:30

that would be good enough.

00:22:31

If I could just have a okay week and an okay life

00:22:35

and someday an okay retirement.

00:22:38

Yeah, that's -- that's good enough.

00:22:41

Well, the problem with that is that nowhere in Scripture

00:22:45

does God ever say He wants His people

00:22:47

to aim for good enough.

00:22:49

Nowhere in Scripture did God say

00:22:51

I've created you and purposed you for okay. No.

00:22:57

God says he has a race, a unique race

00:23:00

marked out for each one of us

00:23:01

that's specific and personal,

00:23:03

that fits in His grand design of His Kingdom coming

00:23:06

more here and right now.

00:23:07

But many of us have decided to just settle for fine.

00:23:13

And that's where our story meets Paul's.

00:23:16

The most remarkable thing I find about Paul

00:23:19

is that in this moment of his life,

00:23:22

when I know he was tempted to stop, he didn't.

00:23:26

I'm sure he had days where he wanted to give up.

00:23:30

But more than those days, there was a spark in Paul.

00:23:34

There was this little ember,

00:23:36

this little nagging thought in his head and in his heart

00:23:40

that just said, "There's more than this."

00:23:43

And so rather than just stop and give up,

00:23:46

Paul leaned in.

00:23:47

And in this decade of his life,

00:23:49

he started asking the harder questions.

00:23:52

Who is this God who's called me to run?

00:23:56

What is the race He has marked out for me?

00:23:58

And how does He want me to run it?

00:24:03

See, in this time period, the old Paul was put to death

00:24:09

and a new Paul rose, a new man to run the new race

00:24:14

that God called him to.

00:24:15

A man who understood that the sufferings

00:24:19

that came from his biggest disappointments

00:24:21

could produce something he needed called endurance.

00:24:25

A man who understood that if he were to endure,

00:24:28

God would shape in him character,

00:24:30

and a man who understood that his character

00:24:32

was changing from somebody who lacked hope,

00:24:36

who was vengeful, who was angry, who came in fiery,

00:24:39

instead became a man filled with hope and grace,

00:24:42

so much so that it overflowed from him

00:24:44

and changed the entire world.

00:24:48

That's the story of Paul.

00:24:49

And in this ten years of silence,

00:24:52

in this ten years of being alone,

00:24:55

Paul learned the secret to running and winning the race.

00:25:01

The secret that he passed on to us in Romans 5.

00:25:05

We rejoice in our sufferings,

00:25:07

knowing that suffering produces endurance,

00:25:10

and endurance produces character,

00:25:13

and character produces hope,

00:25:15

and hope does not put us to shame.

00:25:20

In one day, after ten long years,

00:25:25

Barnabas shows up. Paul's friend.

00:25:28

He comes all the way down the road from Jerusalem.

00:25:32

He says, "Paul, it's time to run again."

00:25:34

And Paul, the one time failure, who showed up here

00:25:37

with his tail tucked between his legs,

00:25:39

would walk down these same roads,

00:25:42

would climb mountains, cross oceans,

00:25:45

flip cities on their heads.

00:25:47

That same man would walk into

00:25:48

the most powerful city in world history, Rome,

00:25:52

and bend it to his will.

00:25:54

He was a man who shaped the world, not just then,

00:25:57

but a man who so strongly imprinted

00:26:00

who God had made him to be.

00:26:02

A man who so strongly ran the race

00:26:04

that he had on the world that today

00:26:06

you and I still stand on his foundation.

00:26:10

You have a race. Do you know what it is?

00:26:13

God's called you to be a new man, a new woman,

00:26:16

to run the new race that He's called you to.

00:26:19

Do you know how to run it?

00:26:21

In this Journey together as we walk the road

00:26:24

we're going to uncover what that race is,

00:26:26

and together we're going to start to run.

00:27:07

24 years after Paul left Tarsus to restart his race,

00:27:13

after Barnabas came and got him,

00:27:15

he sat in a Roman jail cell, knowing that

00:27:18

the end of his race was near, and reflecting on

00:27:21

all of the roads that he had traveled down,

00:27:24

all of the legs of his race,

00:27:25

all of the miles that were behind him.

00:27:29

He knew he had time to write one last letter,

00:27:31

and he thought about all the different people

00:27:33

and places he could write it to.

00:27:35

He thought about the kings and the rulers,

00:27:37

the important people of the world that he had met.

00:27:39

But he decided not to write the letter to them.

00:27:43

He thought about all the important cities he had been to,

00:27:45

all the seats of power,

00:27:47

but he decided not to send the letter there.

00:27:51

Instead, Paul penned his final words to a young man

00:27:55

who was at the beginning of his own race,

00:27:58

a man named Timothy.

00:28:00

These are among Paul's final words written to Timothy

00:28:04

in the Book of 2 Timothy. It says:

00:28:06

As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering,

00:28:11

do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

00:28:17

It says:

00:28:18

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering,

00:28:20

and the time of my departure has come.

00:28:23

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race,

00:28:26

I have kept the faith.

00:28:29

His last moments, the thing that Paul was just burning to do

00:28:33

was to look to the next generation and say,

00:28:36

"Your race is coming.

00:28:37

I finished mine, I have completed everything.

00:28:39

And from this point, Timothy, I want you

00:28:41

to set your mind on fulfilling your ministry."

00:28:45

That's the same as finish your race, and win.

00:28:50

If you look at the writings of Paul,

00:28:52

30 times he uses the wording of ministry,

00:28:55

15 times the metaphor of athletics,

00:28:57

primarily race or run,

00:28:59

but it means the same exact thing.

00:29:02

Well, what is your ministry? What is a race?

00:29:07

Well said simply, your race is the ground

00:29:10

that God wants you to take. It's the whole point of it.

00:29:14

The race is not about spinning in circles.

00:29:16

It's not about just going around and around.

00:29:17

I mean, that's how life feels. Good news.

00:29:19

God did not make you to ride the merry go round.

00:29:22

God made you to take new ground.

00:29:25

That's what He's going for in your life.

00:29:28

Paul put it this way in a letter to the Ephesians.

00:29:31

He says: For we are His workmanship,

00:29:33

created in Christ Jesus for good works.

00:29:37

Paul says, the reason you exist,

00:29:39

the reason you were created, is for good works.

00:29:43

Work, by the way, is about taking new ground.

00:29:46

It's about progress.

00:29:48

Some of you are like I did not know that.

00:29:50

Yes. Apply that at your job, you might get promoted.

00:29:52

That's the point: Taking new ground in your life.

00:29:57

Do you think God has a contribution goal for us?

00:30:00

But by default, you and I start with

00:30:02

a consumption goal for our life.

00:30:04

Makes us kind of like my dog Rooster.

00:30:06

He has a consumption goal for his life for sure.

00:30:08

I took this video of him yesterday morning

00:30:10

doing what he always does, which is chewing on stuff.

00:30:13

Probably something he's not supposed to have.

00:30:16

About a month ago, Sarah and I got to go on a marriage retreat.

00:30:21

Super, super cool, amazing opportunity.

00:30:23

We got a 6 a.m. flight, and the night before,

00:30:27

we had to get our dogs to the kennel by 7 p.m.

00:30:30

The kennel was 30 minutes from our house.

00:30:33

At 6:29 p.m., Rooster went into the bathroom,

00:30:38

found a pair of Sarah's underwear on the floor

00:30:40

and swallowed them whole. Like, this is bad.

00:30:45

We got we got a flight. It is bad.

00:30:47

So I called my neighbor, who is also our vet.

00:30:49

I was like, what do I do? He's like, "Get over here.

00:30:51

I got hydrogen peroxide.

00:30:53

You got to get it down his throat

00:30:54

and that should make him throw up."

00:30:56

So like, great, get the hydrogen peroxide.

00:30:58

I found a syringe in my workshop.

00:30:59

And so I get the hydrogen peroxide,

00:31:01

start trying to inject it down his throat.

00:31:03

It was like trying to spoon feed a raptor. Did not go.

00:31:08

It's getting everywhere. It's getting on me.

00:31:10

It's horrible.

00:31:12

So I move on to plan B.

00:31:13

Plan B is Rooster has motion sickness.

00:31:16

He's actually thrown up on every car ride his entire life.

00:31:18

So I'm like, great.

00:31:20

We're already late to get to the kennel.

00:31:22

And so I just chuck him in the back of

00:31:24

our piece of crap 16 year old minivan,

00:31:26

and I drive like Dale Earnhardt to this kennel.

00:31:29

It's like, out in the country, so I'm taking

00:31:30

these country road 25 mile an hour corners

00:31:32

like 55 miles an hour.

00:31:34

I mean, everyone's bouncing around the van.

00:31:35

You know, hanging on. Does not work.

00:31:38

The dog does not throw up.

00:31:40

We get to the kennel.

00:31:42

He's foaming at the mouth from the hydrogen peroxide.

00:31:44

Looks like he has rabies.

00:31:46

And we're like, "Well, here's our dog. We gotta go. Bye."

00:31:51

And I know you want to know how the story ends.

00:31:53

Good, good. Good news.

00:31:54

Rooster pooped out the underwear three days later.

00:31:58

And so all is well that ends well.

00:32:01

We just rinsed those suckers out.

00:32:03

Now they're back in the rotation. So... [laughter]

00:32:09

Part of my race is probably sleeping on the couch tonight

00:32:11

because I told you guys that story, but it's worth it.

00:32:16

Point is, God doesn't want you and I

00:32:21

to have the same goal for our life

00:32:22

that Rooster has for his. He doesn't, but many of us do.

00:32:27

Many of us think that the goal of our life is consumption.

00:32:31

I just consume information and I consume news headlines

00:32:34

and have the hot take political opinions.

00:32:37

I just gobble up every update that comes out.

00:32:40

A new phone comes. I get the new phone.

00:32:41

The new thing, Oh, I need the new thing.

00:32:43

Upgrade my house and upgrade my car.

00:32:45

Maybe upgrade my spouse someday. Who knows?

00:32:48

Gobble up upgrades. No. No no.

00:32:50

God doesn't have a consumption goal for your life.

00:32:53

He has a contribution goal.

00:32:55

His goal for you is progress, not participation.

00:33:00

All of us do participate, by the way.

00:33:01

Some of you are like, "Yeah, I heard that thing earlier.

00:33:04

He said, all the runners run is what Paul said."

00:33:06

Yes, everyone runs.

00:33:07

That's why you might feel tired

00:33:09

even though you're making progress.

00:33:11

All the runners run, but not everybody gets the prize.

00:33:13

Not everybody makes progress.

00:33:16

And there is no participation trophy for life.

00:33:18

That's not God's goal.

00:33:19

He's like, "Man, I want to get you to the end

00:33:21

and then just thank you for being here."

00:33:24

It's not what He's after.

00:33:25

He says there's a prize, and the prize is

00:33:27

as a result of you taking the ground

00:33:30

that God has specifically intentionally set aside

00:33:34

for you to take in this world and in your life.

00:33:39

In order to do that, you and I have to grow.

00:33:42

We can't accomplish it inside of our current capacities.

00:33:45

Your race demands continual growth.

00:33:50

I don't know what you might think your race is right now,

00:33:52

but I'm just telling you if it can be accomplished in,

00:33:55

one, inside of your current character,

00:33:58

in your current capacities, you're either delusional

00:34:01

or it's not your race. It's not.

00:34:04

Paul had to learn this lesson.

00:34:06

It's what we watched in the video.

00:34:08

Paul set out trying to make things happen,

00:34:11

and he ended up in a cave for a decade.

00:34:16

Like, how does that happen?

00:34:20

How does a guy go from a blinding light to a cave?

00:34:26

Well, it's because Paul tried to set off

00:34:28

and accomplish his race inside of his old capacities,

00:34:32

inside of his old character.

00:34:34

And so he goes out and he runs his new race

00:34:36

the way he lived his old life.

00:34:38

In his old life he had gone around

00:34:40

and tried to jam religion down people's throats,

00:34:43

just like me, trying to squirt hydrogen peroxide

00:34:45

into Rooster. Same thing. Doesn't work. Doesn't work.

00:34:49

And in his new race, Acts 9 says

00:34:51

he sets out immediately after the blinding light

00:34:54

immediately, but it doesn't work.

00:34:55

People reject it and they get angry.

00:34:57

They try to kill him. Divisions everywhere.

00:34:59

And so he's sent home for a decade in a cave as a failure.

00:35:03

And it was in this moment, in this place

00:35:05

where Paul had to learn the secret, that he had to grow.

00:35:10

How do you do it? How do you grow?

00:35:12

We don't grow without intentionality.

00:35:14

You don't grow without a training plan.

00:35:16

In that letter to the Corinthians

00:35:18

you've been looking at,

00:35:19

where Paul says all the runners run and aim for the prize.

00:35:22

He also says this: Everyone who competes in the games

00:35:26

goes into strict training.

00:35:29

Now there's lots of training plans in the world

00:35:31

that promise that they'll lead you to

00:35:33

growth that you want, and the life that you want.

00:35:36

There's one popular in the world right now,

00:35:38

the Hustle Plan.

00:35:40

It says if I'll just hustle, that'll lead to advancement,

00:35:44

that'll lead to prestige and wealth

00:35:47

and that'll lead to happiness.

00:35:49

That's the Hustle method for getting ahead

00:35:51

and changing your life.

00:35:53

There's a prosperity gospel message,

00:35:56

one that I would say twists and turns

00:35:58

the word of the Bible.

00:35:59

That one sounds something like

00:36:01

if I'll just have the right beliefs,

00:36:03

God will give blessing in my life.

00:36:05

I'll avoid suffering. That'll be pretty awesome.

00:36:09

And then I'll have a little bit of position

00:36:11

and some prestige, and ultimately,

00:36:13

prosperity in my life is what God has.

00:36:15

It'll be a glorious way.

00:36:17

There's an old school religion version

00:36:19

of a training plan that leads to a better life.

00:36:22

It's kind of the one that Paul was using back in the day.

00:36:25

But there's versions of this that are out there right now.

00:36:28

It says, if I can just manage my behavior really well,

00:36:31

do all the right stuff, don't do all the bad stuff,

00:36:33

that'll lead to purity. God will notice my purity.

00:36:37

That'll give me status.

00:36:39

That status will give me power

00:36:40

over all the idiots who aren't as good as me.

00:36:43

That's the religious plan for getting ahead.

00:36:46

But it turns out there's actually only one path,

00:36:49

only one path that leads to you growing

00:36:52

and becoming the man or the woman

00:36:53

that can win the race that God has for you.

00:36:57

It's the one that Paul discovered, I think,

00:37:00

inside of this cave. The one he details in Romans 5.

00:37:04

We rejoice in our sufferings,

00:37:06

knowing that suffering produces endurance,

00:37:08

and endurance produces character,

00:37:10

and character produces hope,

00:37:12

and hope does not put us to shame.

00:37:16

Suffering, endurance, character, hope.

00:37:20

And I think it was here that Paul learned that lesson.

00:37:23

Why do I think that?

00:37:25

Because a different Paul walked out of this cave, that's why.

00:37:29

A Paul, who for sure had suffered,

00:37:31

a Paul who had endured in this decade,

00:37:34

and his character, was changed into a hopeful person

00:37:36

who went on to change the world.

00:37:40

It starts in suffering.

00:37:42

Is that hard? Yeah, it's very hard.

00:37:44

I'm like, man, it'd be better, Kyle,

00:37:46

you could sell me on this Journey more if it was like,

00:37:48

ease leads to peace, leads to prosperity

00:37:53

leads to awesomeness. That'd be awesome.

00:37:55

I would love if that was the path.

00:37:57

It's not, it's not.

00:37:59

And I'm not helping you, we're not helping you

00:38:01

if we don't wrestle with the reality of what God said

00:38:05

leads to us running and winning our race.

00:38:07

And it begins with difficulty.

00:38:09

Yes, it's hard, but it's worth it.

00:38:12

Jesus called this path the narrow path.

00:38:16

He said that few people are willing to take it,

00:38:19

but He promised that everyone who does,

00:38:22

everyone who will walk out of their comfortable cave

00:38:25

that they're in, where they just know everything.

00:38:27

Everyone who walk out will find true life.

00:38:31

Paul put it this way in his letter to Ephesus, he said:

00:38:35

Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,

00:38:38

and Christ will shine on you.

00:38:41

See, God goes if you'll -- if you'll trust Me.

00:38:44

If you'll -- If you'll be up for something new.

00:38:46

If you'll be up from leaving your comfortable place

00:38:48

of wherever you've been stuck for the past decade

00:38:51

or longer, if you're up for it,

00:38:52

there's a better thing waiting for you.

00:38:55

It's the promise of this Journey.

00:38:57

There's more and there's better.

00:38:59

God wants to empower you and equip you and change you

00:39:01

and reshape you to take the specific ground

00:39:04

He has set aside from you.

00:39:06

And I do mean specific, because your race is unique.

00:39:10

Your race is not my race and vice versa.

00:39:13

We heard from Nearula earlier, Turkish believer,

00:39:16

and Bob, Bob is a different race than me, Narula does.

00:39:19

Hannah has a different race from me. Brian.

00:39:21

Everybody's got a unique race, that is by design.

00:39:25

In this week, the main goal is that we start to define it.

00:39:30

Every week in your group experience,

00:39:31

there is a golden question that your group leader

00:39:34

knows everyone needs to answer.

00:39:36

In this week's golden question is basically

00:39:38

what do you think your race is?

00:39:40

And I know you might be like, "I don't know how to define that."

00:39:43

But really we're going to start there and say, "God,

00:39:45

what is the road that You have mapped out for me?

00:39:50

What's the path You want me to take on my life?"

00:39:55

And if that seems too early to you, you're like,

00:39:58

"How would I? How would I know what God has for me?"

00:40:01

If it seems too early, relax.

00:40:03

All we're looking for is just a rough draft.

00:40:06

It can change later. We can refine it later.

00:40:08

That's totally fine.

00:40:09

We're just looking for a rough draft to get going on.

00:40:11

What is that race?

00:40:12

So before you head out the door, I've got five

00:40:14

just quick pro tips on helping you define what your race is.

00:40:18

Number one: Don't dismiss your race.

00:40:20

As you start to think about this and chew about this

00:40:22

and and pray about this, which by the way,

00:40:24

the individual materials will help you do that.

00:40:26

They'll help you process this,

00:40:28

help you have a conversation with God.

00:40:29

As you do that, you might be tempted

00:40:31

to dismiss your race as insignificant.

00:40:33

Maybe something pops in your mind.

00:40:35

You're like, man, that's not big and world changing.

00:40:37

That doesn't -- That doesn't fit.

00:40:39

Do not dismiss it.

00:40:40

I think about my grandfather, my mom's dad, my grandpa Ball.

00:40:46

He was born to a 14 year old mother.

00:40:49

He never knew his father.

00:40:51

His mom had horrible mental health issues

00:40:54

and she died super young.

00:40:55

And so my grandfather was raised by her parents,

00:40:58

who owned and ran a bar.

00:40:59

And so quite literally, he didn't know his father

00:41:03

and was raised in the floor of a bar.

00:41:06

That same man went on to find faith

00:41:08

and to father nine kids, 35 grandkids,

00:41:12

and dozens and dozens of great grandkids.

00:41:14

And not just his family, but anybody who was lonely

00:41:17

and lost in his life, he knew that his race was to father,

00:41:21

like a verb.

00:41:23

I just imagine it would have been tempting for him

00:41:25

to dismiss that as insignificant.

00:41:27

But don't do that.

00:41:28

You don't know the ripple effects

00:41:30

and the generational impact.

00:41:31

My life would not be the same.

00:41:33

I would not be the father I am to my family

00:41:35

or this church without him.

00:41:37

You don't know what God might do in you.

00:41:39

Your race might be something similar.

00:41:41

It might be to redeem what it means to father,

00:41:43

or redeem what it means to mother.

00:41:44

It might mean in your family of origin

00:41:47

to break the cycle of addiction or abuse,

00:41:49

or to stop the pattern of bitterness

00:41:51

that has kept you stuck.

00:41:52

I don't know what it is, but do not dismiss it

00:41:55

as insignificant. It's not.

00:41:57

It's the ground that God wants you to take.

00:42:00

It's critical to His Kingdom.

00:42:02

Now, on the other side, tip two:

00:42:04

don't assume it's impossible.

00:42:06

God might give you something and you're like,

00:42:07

"Man, that is way outside my capacity."

00:42:09

Yeah, that's what happened to me.

00:42:11

I was 23 years old and asking God what to do with my life.

00:42:14

And at this point, I was off course.

00:42:15

I was somewhere over here, I was heading my own direction.

00:42:18

I had a corporate career path, and this is what I was doing.

00:42:20

And God made it very clear to me that

00:42:22

there was a different path.

00:42:23

And so I spent time asking Him, "Well, what is it, God?

00:42:25

And where do You want me to go?"

00:42:27

And one night, as I was praying

00:42:29

these four words came into my head

00:42:31

and so I wrote them down:

00:42:32

Evangelizing a new church.

00:42:35

You're like, that's what that says?

00:42:37

I promise that's what that says.

00:42:40

I'm qualified to be a doctor

00:42:41

because you can't read my writing.

00:42:42

And that was -- That was invigorating,

00:42:45

but it's also intimidating.

00:42:46

And by the way, new church doesn't mean like new theology,

00:42:49

new brand new stuff. It's not that.

00:42:51

People are often a surprise at Crossroads,

00:42:53

the longer you stay around here, the more you realize

00:42:55

we're pretty orthodox and conservative,

00:42:57

traditional in our beliefs.

00:42:59

New just means a new way to reach people for today.

00:43:03

Paul put it this way in his letter

00:43:04

to the Corinthians, he said:

00:43:06

To the Jews, I became as a Jew,

00:43:09

in order to win the Jews.

00:43:10

To those outside the law I become as one outside the law,

00:43:13

that I might win those outside the law.

00:43:15

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.

00:43:18

I have become all things to all people,

00:43:21

that by all means I might save some.

00:43:26

That's basically been my race ever since,

00:43:27

its to a 21st century American be a 21st century American.

00:43:32

That's why we have videos and lights and all,

00:43:35

because that's what us Americans understand.

00:43:37

That's the tools that the rest of the world

00:43:39

is using to to woo us and to convince us

00:43:41

of the story and the path to follow.

00:43:43

And so we go, "Great. Well, that's what people understand,

00:43:45

that's what we'll use. Awesome."

00:43:48

And since it's been my race, but back then,

00:43:50

I'll tell you it was invigorating.

00:43:52

But more than that, it was intimidating

00:43:53

because I'm like, "God, I don't know.

00:43:55

I don't know how to do that path."

00:43:57

I was 23 on a corporate career path.

00:43:58

My only ministry experience is I was volunteering,

00:44:01

helping lead a middle school youth group

00:44:03

at a super old school, super traditional

00:44:06

Methodist church that I did not even go to.

00:44:09

It was impossible.

00:44:11

You might have a race like that, that as you

00:44:13

start to think about it, you're like,

00:44:14

"God, that is impossible."

00:44:15

I just want you to know, no matter what your race is,

00:44:18

no matter how big or how small, it is impossible for you.

00:44:21

It's utterly impossible. You can't do it.

00:44:23

But luckily, you follow a God who can.

00:44:26

Jesus said in Matthew 19.

00:44:28

Yeah, you can clap for that. [applause]

00:44:32

He said: With man this is impossible,

00:44:34

but with God all things are possible.

00:44:39

Because it's not about your strength, it's about His.

00:44:44

Paul understood this in his race.

00:44:46

It's why he actually would boast about his weaknesses

00:44:50

and his outages, and his inability to do what God said.

00:44:53

In his second letter to Corinth, he said:

00:44:55

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you,

00:44:57

for my power is made perfect in weakness."

00:45:00

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly

00:45:03

of my weaknesses, so the power of Christ may rest on me.

00:45:06

Guess what? God does not trade power for pride.

00:45:12

God doesn't trade power for accomplishments.

00:45:15

God doesn't trade power for straight A's

00:45:17

in your spiritual report card.

00:45:18

God trades power to people who know they're weak

00:45:22

and they don't have what it takes.

00:45:24

Whatever your race is, I'm telling you,

00:45:25

it is not impossible for God.

00:45:28

Number three: Don't compare your race to others.

00:45:31

You're going to be in your group

00:45:33

and you'll be sharing your race

00:45:35

and there'll be this little thing in you

00:45:37

that always is there, just wanting to compare

00:45:39

and just kind of measure, you know, you, me, you, me.

00:45:41

How important is my race?

00:45:43

And maybe someone shares something and yours feels here

00:45:46

and you're like, "Okay, I'm rounded up to here

00:45:48

when I share it."

00:45:51

So don't compare. You don't have that kind of ruler.

00:45:54

You don't know the ripple effects.

00:45:56

You don't know what your race is.

00:45:57

You don't know what the end result is.

00:45:59

None of us do. None of us do.

00:46:00

Do not measure or compare.

00:46:03

Maybe your race is to start something new

00:46:05

to bless and build into people.

00:46:08

A friend of mine, part of her race, was starting

00:46:10

a nonprofit to help clothe kids in Cincinnati.

00:46:13

That, by the way, that seemed impossible to her.

00:46:15

She's a nurse, still is, never led anything,

00:46:18

never done anything, but she's done it

00:46:20

and she's doing it and it's having a big effect.

00:46:22

Maybe your race includes expanding your family.

00:46:25

One of the most impressive people I've ever met

00:46:28

is a young father whose race centers on adoption.

00:46:32

He's adopted special needs kids that are difficult.

00:46:37

I don't know what your race is, but it's yours.

00:46:39

Don't compare it to anybody else's.

00:46:43

Next is: don't focus on your past.

00:46:48

One of the temptations as the thoughts come to you

00:46:51

and as God starts telling you about your race,

00:46:53

is you're looking this way, but your head keeps

00:46:56

kind of turning around over your shoulder,

00:46:58

thinking about the things that have happened

00:47:00

over and behind you.

00:47:02

You know, Paul has advice.

00:47:03

Remember, this whole Journey is follow me as I follow Christ.

00:47:06

You know what Paul would say to thinking and fixating

00:47:08

on your past and your mistakes and whatever has happened?

00:47:11

He would say, forget about it.

00:47:13

Literally, that's what he says

00:47:15

in his letter to the Philippians.

00:47:17

He says: I press on to take hold of that

00:47:19

for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

00:47:21

Brothers and sisters, I don't consider myself

00:47:23

yet to have taken hold of it.

00:47:25

But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind

00:47:29

and straining towards what is ahead,

00:47:31

I press on to the goal to win the prize

00:47:34

for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

00:47:37

Paul's advice? Forget what's behind you.

00:47:40

This is the guy who murdered Christians.

00:47:41

This is the guy who spent ten years failure in a cave.

00:47:44

He says, forget about it

00:47:45

and march towards what God has for you.

00:47:49

Have you been running for a long time in your race?

00:47:53

Maybe you're at your inflection point in your life

00:47:55

where it seemed like you knew what your race was.

00:47:57

Maybe it was centered around raising kids

00:47:59

or being a business leader, but you've recently retired,

00:48:01

or now you're an empty nester.

00:48:03

Well, friend, good news.

00:48:04

That was just a leg of your race, not the whole thing.

00:48:06

You can ask God, what is the race that that was one leg of

00:48:10

and what is this leg that He has for you to run?

00:48:15

Last and maybe most important is:

00:48:16

Fix your eyes on the prize.

00:48:19

Fix your eyes on the horizon.

00:48:21

See, there's a prize that is here and now for you.

00:48:25

There's a prize as you run your race

00:48:26

that looks like peace that passes understanding,

00:48:29

that looks like purpose in your everyday,

00:48:31

that looks like being filled up with grace

00:48:34

and hope that overflow and change the people around you.

00:48:37

And, and there's a prize that is later.

00:48:41

And then there's a prize that looks like being like Paul

00:48:45

when you get to the end of your life and you know

00:48:47

the finish line is coming to not be scared,

00:48:50

to not feel weak, but to feel a power in you

00:48:54

that enables you to cross through

00:48:56

the finish line tape of life, knowing you have

00:48:58

done everything and be handed the prize.

00:49:02

Friends, that's what we want for you.

00:49:04

That's the goal for every single one of us,

00:49:06

because that's God's goal for you.

00:49:09

Let me pray for you as you start this race.

00:49:11

God, thank You for the fact that You did not design us

00:49:15

or build us to be spectators. You could have.

00:49:18

You could have just made us watchers of Your work,

00:49:21

and instead You've invited us into it.

00:49:23

God, would you give us ears to hear You?

00:49:26

Holy spirit, I'm asking You would speak to each

00:49:28

and every one of us this week, in the next seven days,

00:49:31

would we hear Your voice.

00:49:32

Maybe it's a a whisper in the back of our minds.

00:49:34

Maybe it's a small nudge.

00:49:36

Or maybe it's loud and booming to get our attention,

00:49:38

I don't care. Would you speak to us

00:49:40

and begin to define the race,

00:49:42

the ground you want us to take in our lives?

00:49:45

And may we have the courage to follow You. Amen.

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