0:01

Hey everybody, welcome to your move where we

0:03

help you make better decisions and live with

0:05

fewer regrets. I'm Andy Stanley and I'll be

0:07

your guide. Now here's something most of us

0:09

have in common. I think we all have

0:11

a tendency to think that we don't really

0:13

care what other people think about us, but

0:16

actually we do. In fact, the truth is

0:18

we are constantly comparing ourselves to other people,

0:20

right? And it's exhausting. It fuels discontentment. It's

0:22

a bit like running a race without a

0:24

finish line. So let's be finished with that.

0:26

And today I'll tell you how, right here

0:28

on your move. Today

0:36

we're in part two of our series we launched

0:38

last time we were together, Icon, the empowering invitation

0:41

of the cross. The cross, you knew this

0:43

before you got here, before you tuned in,

0:46

the cross is the icon for Christianity. For

0:48

most modern Christians, the

0:50

cross basically represents

0:52

a way of believing. But in the

0:55

first century, the cross represented something else.

0:57

It represented a way of living, a

0:59

lifestyle. And the cross was actually

1:02

an invitation, an invitation to an

1:04

alternative way of life, alternative, but

1:07

not intuitive. In fact, to

1:09

outsiders looking in at this different way of

1:11

living, in fact, maybe to you looking out

1:13

from the outside into this different way of

1:15

living. It just

1:17

seems foolish. In fact, the author of half the

1:19

New Testament, that's the word he's gonna use. We're

1:21

gonna look at it in just a minute. He

1:23

says from the outside looking in, the invitation of

1:25

the cross, the way of the cross, the way

1:27

of Jesus, it is foolish. It's crazy.

1:29

In fact, you might even chalk it

1:32

off as lazy because it's

1:34

an invitation that's so contrary to

1:36

our nature that we are tempted

1:38

to decline the invitation, as

1:41

we said last time, every single day.

1:44

Because every single day, if you are a Jesus

1:46

follower or if you're a Christian, you are invited

1:48

every single day to follow the way or embrace

1:50

the way of the cross. It's an invitation and

1:52

you get to choose whether or not you do

1:54

it, even as someone who's placed their faith in

1:57

Jesus as savior. or

2:00

you're sort of anti-Christian or you're still trying to

2:02

figure it out. You are standing on the outside

2:04

of our faith tradition, which is fine, and you're

2:06

looking in, and this way of life

2:08

that we're gonna talk about, if it strikes

2:11

you as crazy, lazy, or just foolish, the

2:13

good news is you're not alone in your

2:15

estimation because again, the gentleman who wrote half

2:17

the New Testament, that's

2:20

the word he uses to

2:22

describe it. Now, the

2:24

challenging thing, you know, is that I'm

2:26

convinced it's just, you know, no

2:29

scientific method here, just my opinion. I'm

2:31

convinced that a lot of Christians don't

2:34

even know this invitation to the way of

2:36

the cross even exist for

2:38

them, and maybe for you because of your

2:40

Christian faith tradition, for them, maybe for you.

2:42

Christianity is kind of like a one and

2:45

done, right? I prayed a prayer

2:47

and asked Jesus, you know, to come into

2:49

my heart, and then I was baptized or

2:51

I went through a class, so now Jesus

2:53

is my savior, or to, you know, quote

2:55

Crawford Larritz, I love this statement, he says,

2:58

there's a lot of people, a lot of Christians, Jesus

3:00

is a point of reference, oh yeah, I put a

3:02

check in that box, oh yeah, I'm a Christian, oh

3:04

yeah, I was baptized, I prayed a sinner's prayer, so,

3:06

you know, for many Christians, Jesus is my savior,

3:09

and the cross is my good luck charm.

3:12

The cross is just a reminder to other people

3:14

that oh yeah, I'm one of those people, I'm

3:16

one of those Christians because I accepted Jesus. Jesus

3:18

is my savior, and I have a cross, and

3:20

the cross is my good

3:23

luck charm. Now, let's get back to the real world. Let's

3:25

get back to living. Let's get back to

3:28

the stuff of life, to use the phrase

3:30

that Solomon coined in the Old Testament. Let's

3:32

get back to chasing after

3:34

the wind. A

3:38

race with no finish

3:40

line. A race

3:42

where we grade ourselves and

3:44

compare ourselves to other people

3:47

who are chasing after the

3:49

wind. People

3:51

who in many cases aren't paying any

3:54

attention to us, even though

3:56

we are competing mentally with

3:59

them. It's the way of

4:02

life that fuels and again, we've all been there

4:04

or are there it's a way of life chasing

4:06

after the wind It's a way of life that

4:08

fuels Discontentment and

4:11

the thing is this discontentment

4:15

Leaks It leaks on

4:17

to your family It

4:19

leaks on to your direct reports. It

4:22

leaks into your friendships discontentment

4:24

discontentment Communicates to the people around

4:26

you and you may not even know this

4:28

is going on but this there's it is

4:30

this discontentment It's if people begin to feel

4:33

like they're competing with our quest

4:35

for something that might not include them As

4:38

we said last time ambition and achievement. These are

4:40

good things. These are God-given things This is a

4:42

reflection of the image of God in you I

4:45

mean it is in us to be ambitious and

4:47

to get things done just like it was with

4:49

our Heavenly Father We were

4:51

born to take things that are chaotic and

4:53

to bring order. These are good things. These

4:56

are God-given things But

4:58

if you hand these two things the

5:01

reins of your life, they wear you

5:03

down and they wear you out

5:07

They're good things, but they are poor Masters

5:10

and if you're a Christian you

5:13

already have a master

5:16

We already have a master whose icon is

5:19

not the checkered flag is not a trophy

5:21

and it's not a crown The

5:23

icon for our master is the

5:26

symbol of suffering and shame

5:28

and loss our

5:30

icon Is

5:33

the cross and the

5:35

cross serves as an invitation and as

5:37

we're gonna see today it serves as

5:39

an empowering Invitation an

5:41

invitation to live for the approval

5:44

of one rather

5:46

than living for the approval of Everyone

5:50

to live according to the agenda of

5:52

the one rather than the ever-changing

5:55

ever-shifting agenda of the culture that

5:58

we live in work

6:00

in and play in and go to school

6:02

in every single day. So last time we

6:04

were together I gave you a frustrating assignment.

6:06

If you weren't here, the assignment was, hey,

6:08

when you find yourself this week at odds

6:10

with someone at work or at school

6:12

or at home, there's conflict, there's tension.

6:14

To ask yourself, not act on it

6:17

because it's too risky, but to at

6:19

least ask yourself as you're in that

6:21

conflict or going back and forth or

6:23

considering how you're gonna respond, what would

6:25

choosing to lose look like in this

6:27

situation? What would choosing

6:30

to lose look like in

6:32

this situation? What would choosing not

6:34

to win? Not to win the

6:36

discussion, not to win the argument, but what would

6:39

it look like to let them pull ahead, have

6:41

their way? And in

6:43

many instances this is just too terrifying to do.

6:45

It's just so un-American, doesn't fit your temperament, doesn't

6:47

fit the way you're wired, doesn't fit the way

6:50

you operate. It's not the way, in fact, it's

6:52

not the way things get accomplished, it's not the

6:54

way of the world. And

6:56

so you can say no because

7:00

the cross is an

7:02

invitation. So you don't have

7:04

to accept the invitation. In fact, you will be tempted, I'll be

7:06

tempted every single day not

7:09

to accept the invitation of the way

7:12

of the cross. Most Christians, I'm

7:14

afraid, don't accept that invitation.

7:16

That's why we look collectively,

7:20

that's why we act

7:23

collectively, and most importantly,

7:25

it's why it seems Christians

7:27

react like everybody

7:29

else. Now as

7:32

I said last time, the person who understood

7:34

this and had the greatest clarity around the

7:36

contrast between the way of the world and

7:38

the way of the cross is the Apostle

7:40

Paul. And the reason he had

7:42

such extraordinary clarity, if you know his story, is

7:44

this, that he was

7:46

a professional striver, okay, in his pre-Jesus

7:49

days. He was a professional striver. He

7:51

actually prided himself, which is so strange,

7:53

he documents this himself. This isn't what

7:55

people said about him, this is what

7:57

he said about himself. He prided himself,

8:00

as the best in class Pharisee

8:03

of the first century. And

8:05

then, and this is why he's so helpful

8:07

to us, then he meets Jesus personally.

8:10

And in a matter of moments,

8:13

not weeks and years, in a

8:15

matter of moments, he has clarity

8:18

around the contrast between the way of

8:20

the kingdoms of this world, which is

8:22

all anyone ever knew and all he

8:25

ever knew, and the way of Jesus,

8:27

and his clarity fueled his

8:29

passion to take the message

8:31

of Jesus all around the

8:34

Greek-speaking world, all around the

8:36

Mediterranean realm. He realized

8:38

that Jesus was not an add-on. The

8:41

cross was not a good luck charm. It

8:43

was a way of love, and not just

8:46

a way of life, it was the

8:48

opposite way of life. It was against

8:50

the grain in almost every component,

8:52

every facet, in a way, the

8:54

way of the cross was an invitation

8:56

to join the Losers Club, because

8:59

by every first century measure, Jesus

9:02

lost. Jesus

9:05

lost on purpose, with a purpose,

9:08

and the purpose included you, and

9:11

included me. And he

9:13

says, now, I want you to come

9:15

follow me. And if you do it

9:17

enough, if enough of you do, we will change the

9:19

world, and we will change the

9:21

culture of the world.

9:24

So, when the Apostle Paul introduces this

9:26

whole idea of the way of the

9:28

cross to a group of Greek-speaking, educated,

9:31

striving men and women in Corinth, he

9:33

acknowledges right up front what he knew they were

9:36

gonna think when they heard about this crazy idea,

9:38

this crazy way of life. Maybe

9:40

the thing that you've already started thinking about, just based

9:42

on what I've said so far, here's what he said.

9:45

He said, don't be shocked, I get it, I

9:47

know where you're coming from, common ground. For the

9:49

message of the cross, I'll admit, it's

9:52

foolishness, it's

9:54

crazy, it's backwards, it's

9:56

lazy. I mean,

9:58

it just doesn't line up with... anything that you've

10:00

ever done or anything maybe you've ever even

10:02

seen before the way of the

10:05

cross is foolishness and now he's gonna tell

10:07

us who sees it as foolish and

10:09

who doesn't but the way of the message

10:12

of the cross is foolishness to those

10:14

who are and I know we're getting

10:16

a little grammatical here present participle we're

10:18

gonna see another present participle in just

10:20

a minute all the English teachers sat

10:22

up straight yeah okay president participle those

10:25

who are perishing that the

10:27

message of the cross or the way of the

10:29

cross is foolishness to those who are perishing to

10:31

those who are fading away to

10:34

those who

10:37

assume that all there is to

10:39

life is this life to those

10:41

who assume that what you see

10:44

is all that you can possibly

10:46

get and when it's over it's

10:49

over who assume that this life is all there

10:52

is and yet in spite of that they cling

10:54

to the life that they've made for themselves they

10:57

cling to the things that are perishing

10:59

or the things that are fading as fading

11:01

as if they can stop the inevitable because

11:05

the cross and the way of the cross and this is

11:07

where it's challenging for me and challenging for you the

11:09

way of the cross represents everything

11:12

those who are perishing resist

11:16

it represents their greatest fear fading

11:19

away falling behind becoming

11:22

less and less and less relevant

11:25

but here's the point he's about to make his point

11:27

is this that scrambling to

11:29

reclaim and maintain what can't

11:32

ultimately be reclaimed and maintained

11:35

that scrambling and working and chasing

11:37

after the wind to reclaim and

11:39

to maintain what can't be reclaimed and

11:41

maintained that's what's

11:44

foolish not the

11:46

message or the way of

11:48

the cross here's here's what he says he

11:51

says for the message of the cross is foolishness

11:53

to those who are perishing but to us who

11:55

are being another present participle and

11:57

those who have us who are being being

12:00

not a one and done, I pray to salvation

12:02

prayer, I'm good to go. He says no, for

12:04

those of us who are being saved, in other

12:06

words, those of us who are in the process

12:09

of renewing our minds, of growing

12:11

in our faith, of growing in our understanding, of

12:13

giving a little bit and a little bit and

12:15

a little bit more of our lives away, learning

12:17

how to follow Jesus, learning what it looks like

12:19

to follow Jesus and what I'm gonna have to

12:22

do differently to follow Jesus. He says

12:24

to those of us who are in the

12:26

process of embracing the way of the cross,

12:28

of being saved, it,

12:30

this is so amazing, it, the message of

12:33

the cross, it, the message of the

12:35

cross, ready for this? This is the point

12:37

of our few minutes together today. It, the message

12:39

of the cross, the way of the cross, is

12:42

the power of

12:45

God. Here's what he's saying, that

12:49

God's power begins

12:51

to work in and through us when

12:55

we embrace the way and the message

12:57

of the cross, that

13:00

God's power has the potential then

13:03

to show up and manifest itself

13:05

through our daily meager lives when

13:07

we get in sync with the

13:10

way of Jesus or the way

13:13

of the cross. The

13:15

invitation, when we say yes to the invitation of the

13:17

cross, when we say yes to the invitation to

13:20

stop chasing, what can't be

13:22

caught? The invitation

13:24

to stop clinging to, what

13:27

can't be kept? This

13:30

is how we are personally,

13:32

real time, real world transformed.

13:35

It's how we, and this is what

13:37

I talk about all the time, it's

13:39

what I want us to get, it's

13:41

how we begin to participate in the

13:43

kingdom of God right now. Not

13:46

heaven someday, one day, to participate

13:48

in the kingdom of God right

13:50

now. But Paul is

13:53

saying, and he's gonna say it in a little bit different way

13:55

in just a minute, you can't do

13:57

that if you're chasing after the wind. You

13:59

can't do that if you... wear a cross and put

14:01

a check in the I love Jesus box

14:03

and then join the fray and join the

14:05

race that doesn't have a finish line and

14:07

doesn't bring about anything that lasts anyway. You

14:09

can't do it that way. Nothing

14:14

changes. It's how you participate

14:16

in the kingdom of God

14:18

and experience the power of

14:21

God. The

14:24

power of God that you see demonstrated

14:26

every once in a while. It's

14:29

the stop and stare power of God like, wait a minute,

14:31

wait, wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. She

14:34

forgave them? Who

14:37

does that? Wait, wait, wait. He decided

14:39

to give to them in spite of what

14:41

they took from him, are you kidding me?

14:43

The stop and stare contrary to culture,

14:45

power of God. When you see it,

14:48

you recognize it. And the strange thing

14:50

is this, when people of

14:52

any faith tradition or no faith tradition

14:54

see it, they stop and

14:57

they stare. It's why it

14:59

changed the world in the first century because

15:02

these Jesus followers took this

15:04

seriously. The way of the

15:06

cross wasn't represented by a single decision. It

15:09

was represented in daily decisions to

15:12

embrace the way of Jesus.

15:18

And because they did,

15:20

they manifested the power

15:22

of God in visible ways. That

15:26

the way of the cross is where change begins. It's because

15:28

the way of the cross is when we begin

15:30

to live in sync with the life of Jesus. We

15:32

live in sync with the spirit of Jesus. What the New

15:34

Testament refers to as the Holy Spirit who

15:36

dwells in us. The spirit that produces

15:39

through us what we will never produce ourselves as

15:41

long as we're chasing the wind. You can't have

15:43

it both ways, Christian or not. The

15:45

spirit that produces through us, we're

15:47

gonna talk about in a minute, what we can't produce

15:50

ourselves as long as we're chasing the wind because as

15:52

long as we're chasing the wind, I'm chasing the wind.

15:55

I'm chasing the wind. I'm striving,

15:57

I'm competing, I'm comparing. The

16:00

Spirit of God and our Savior sits back and

16:02

says, that's not how we do it. That's

16:04

not the kingdom of God. That doesn't change

16:06

anything. And it all fades

16:08

and it all goes

16:11

away. And what does this new way produce? What does

16:13

the Spirit of God produce in us? And here's the

16:15

interesting thing. Most of us can quote the list, because

16:17

the Apostle Paul and his letter to the Christians living

16:19

in the Roman province of Galatia, he gives them a

16:21

list of, hey, when you surrender to the Spirit of

16:23

God, when you surrender to the way of the cross,

16:26

when you surrender to the way of Jesus, here's

16:28

what's gonna be manifested in you.

16:31

He says, it's the fruit of the

16:33

Spirit, not

16:35

the fruit of good behavior in order

16:37

to get the date. Not

16:40

the fruit of good behavior in order to do

16:42

well in the interview. We all know how to

16:45

do that. The fruit of

16:47

the Spirit is a response to the world

16:49

around us that causes people to stop and

16:51

stare because it is so otherworldly.

16:54

It is so against the grain.

16:57

He says, this fruit of the

16:59

Spirit is love, and joy

17:01

and peace, patience and

17:05

kindness. We talk about this all

17:07

the time, kindness. You know what kindness is? Kindness

17:09

is I'm gonna loan you my strength rather

17:11

than remind you of your weakness. We live

17:14

in a world that's constantly reminding you of your weakness,

17:16

and the Jesus followers come along and say, I'm

17:19

not gonna talk about your weakness. Just

17:21

gonna loan you my strength. Patience,

17:23

you know what patience is? Patience is I let

17:26

you set the pace and then I walk at your pace. I

17:28

don't say, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. Now

17:31

you set the pace, I'm gonna walk at your pace. Who

17:33

does that? People

17:35

living in sync with the Spirit of

17:37

God. Do you know what these are actually? These

17:41

are all responses. So

17:44

you don't get up tomorrow morning, go out and

17:46

say, today I'm gonna be patient. Well,

17:48

you gotta wait and see, right? Patience

17:51

is a response. I'm gonna have self

17:53

control. You know what self control is?

17:55

It's a response. It's a response to

17:57

when you wanna control somebody else and

17:59

you realize. Oh, no, I've

18:01

embraced the way of the cross. I don't control

18:03

other people. I

18:05

surrender to the Spirit of God to

18:07

control myself. I don't control outcomes. I'm

18:10

gonna allow the Spirit of God to control.

18:13

These are all responses. And

18:15

do you know what these

18:17

responses require? Power,

18:22

not weakness. Impatience,

18:28

weakness. Unkindness,

18:30

weakness. Unfaithfulness,

18:35

weakness. Not

18:37

gonna be good because you don't deserve it. Weakness.

18:41

You see, this isn't weak. This

18:44

isn't passive. This

18:46

is extraordinary. This

18:50

is the power of

18:53

God. Through

18:55

you, through me. Not

18:57

because we gen it up. But

19:01

because we lay it in. Two

19:05

verses later, he says this to the same group.

19:07

He says, look, the apostle Paul again, since

19:11

we live by the Spirit, since God placed His Holy

19:13

Spirit in you as a

19:15

pledge of the fact that you belong to God, since

19:17

you live, since you have eternal life because

19:20

of the Spirit, he's like, come on,

19:22

let's do the next reasonable, logical

19:24

thing. Let's keep in step with

19:26

the Spirit. In other words, this

19:28

is an invitation to live

19:30

in a different direction.

19:33

When salvation, when your salvation is just a one and done

19:36

but you don't embrace the way of the cross or the

19:38

way of Jesus, or we don't embrace the way of the

19:40

cross or the way of Jesus, you

19:42

know what happens? We don't experience

19:44

the power of God. And collectively,

19:46

you know what that means, is a church, when the church doesn't

19:48

get this right, it means

19:50

we don't make a dent, and

19:52

we don't make a difference. And

19:54

people look at the church like they're looking at the church in America

19:57

right now, just to be honest, they just look at the church from

19:59

the outside. and they conclude, in fact,

20:01

if you're not a Christian or not a believer,

20:03

you're gonna love this next part, okay? You know, you're

20:05

applaud, this may be your favorite part of any sermon

20:07

you've ever heard before. They just

20:09

look at us and they

20:11

conclude that Christianity is just another religious,

20:14

it's just a religious cover for a

20:16

group of people who want things their

20:18

way. They notice that we use the

20:20

same strategy and tactics as everybody else

20:23

to get our way. Because once

20:25

the church, once

20:27

the body of Jesus embraces the

20:30

strategies and tactics of the kingdoms

20:32

of this world, we

20:34

have already lost.

20:37

Back to what Paul said to the group in Corinth.

20:41

This is amazing. He

20:44

taunts them, he says this, I love

20:46

this, hey, so where are

20:48

the wise people? Come on, he says, show

20:50

me the wise people. Where are the wise people? Because

20:53

he's talking to this group, they're in Corinth, they're very

20:55

educated, very sophisticated, they got all this cool rhetoric, you

20:58

know, he's

21:00

very cosmopolitan, he's like, oh, come on, come on. You

21:02

don't wanna do the way of Jesus, you know, because

21:04

it's too counter-cultural, you don't wanna do the way of

21:06

Jesus because it won't work, you wanna, you know, chase

21:09

the wind. So tell me, show me the wise people.

21:12

Amazing, and then he says, this

21:15

is so good. Has not God

21:17

made foolish the wisdom of the

21:20

world, translated,

21:23

hey, haven't

21:25

you seen enough? Haven't

21:29

you lived long enough to

21:31

know it doesn't work, that

21:34

the predominant way isn't

21:37

the way? Show me

21:39

the wise people, he says. The

21:43

predominant way isn't the way because the

21:45

predominant way, with the predominant way, everything

21:47

eventually slips away, come on, make it

21:49

super practical. Haven't we

21:52

attended enough funerals to know what

21:54

really matters? What do we

21:56

celebrate? Winning at a

21:58

funeral or service? achievement

22:03

or character, what

22:05

they clung to or what

22:08

they gave away,

22:10

what they fought to

22:12

preserve or their willingness to fight

22:14

for the rights and the benefit

22:19

of others. See, we

22:21

celebrate selflessness.

22:26

In those moments we realize that

22:28

the value of a life, that

22:30

the value of a life is

22:32

always measured by how much of

22:35

it was given

22:37

away. And

22:40

Paul says, so show me the wise people out

22:42

there chasing the wind. What do they have to

22:44

show for it? Nothing. He says,

22:46

you think the message and the way

22:48

of the cross is foolish? That's foolish.

22:51

You should follow Jesus and embrace the

22:53

way of the cross. It is the

22:55

way that is saturated with what really

22:57

matters, what really counts and what really

22:59

lasts. And you're smart enough to know

23:01

it when you see it because you

23:03

celebrated it and you're smart enough to

23:05

see it in culture when somebody just

23:07

works against, decides against the grain and

23:09

their story stands out in contract. Everybody

23:12

else's story. The others, first

23:14

way of the cross isn't foolish. We're

23:18

the fools. We're

23:21

the fools because we're

23:23

so easily confused and

23:25

so easily baited away

23:28

from it. We know better. Our

23:31

problem is we're afraid

23:34

to live better. We're afraid

23:36

to commit to it. And I

23:38

understand why because nobody else around us is. Everybody

23:40

else is chasing the wind. So we just

23:42

run along with them except we pray. Dear

23:45

Lord help me to win the race. Where's the finish

23:47

line? I don't know. It's just everybody's running that way.

23:49

So I'm running with them. I have a cross and

23:51

I have Jesus in my backpack. Me and God, you

23:53

know, I got a Bible. Jesus

23:56

is like, hey, wrong ways.

24:00

I appreciate your faith and I appreciate you inviting me

24:02

into the circumstance of this. It's

24:05

just the wrong race. So let me just ask

24:07

you this and we're going to wrap this up. And

24:10

this is kind of a crazy silly question. It's

24:12

rhetorical. Do you want to experience the power of

24:14

God in your life? Yes,

24:20

four of you do. Good. That's good. I

24:22

think the online audience, they really, they want it, but it's four

24:24

of you do. So here's how to think

24:26

about this and we're going to wrap it up. Okay. This is important.

24:30

When this is, this is when I got to this part

24:32

and preparing the thing that came to mind, I asked this

24:34

question. Here's a question. When was

24:36

the power of God most evident in the life

24:39

of Jesus, our savior, who came

24:41

to explain what God is like? Two

24:43

things came to my mind. The power of

24:45

God was most evident when Jesus did his miracles.

24:48

But who are those four? Do you

24:50

know, he never leveraged his power for his own

24:53

benefit. In fact, it was so much for everybody's

24:55

other people's benefit. His power, his

24:57

demonstrations of power were actually used

24:59

against him at his

25:01

trial and at his trial. They tried

25:03

to get him to defend himself. When's

25:06

the other time Jesus manifested

25:09

the power of God? Galgatha, the

25:12

hill where he died, we

25:17

would have been most horrified. The

25:21

moment God was most glorified.

25:24

We in our kingdoms of this world way of

25:26

thinking, we would have looked away. We

25:30

would have gone inside because the smell on

25:32

that hill would be enough to drive

25:34

you away. The

25:37

ultimate loss was

25:41

the ultimate expression of

25:44

God's power.

25:48

Do you want to experience

25:50

the power of God in

25:53

your life

25:56

by losing? He won. And

25:58

don't be confused. I talked about this last week. and probably

26:00

say this every time. Look, this is

26:02

not an invitation to being passive or just

26:04

folding our arms and being lazy. Well, God's

26:06

just gonna work at, uh-uh, follow Jesus through

26:08

the gospels, follow the apostle Paul through the

26:10

book of Acts. This is not about this.

26:13

The way of the cross, this is so

26:15

important, the way of the cross is an

26:17

invitation for you to leverage your talent and

26:19

your opportunities to their full potential for

26:22

the glory of your king.

26:25

Who loves you and invites

26:27

you to follow him against

26:32

the grain. For

26:35

the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are

26:37

perishing. But

26:39

to those who are perishing, Paul says, okay, how's

26:42

that working for you? Show me the

26:44

wisdom, show me the wise person. But

26:47

to those of us who are being saved

26:49

in the process of transformation, the

26:52

message of the cross is the

26:55

power of God. So

26:59

I'm gonna frustrate you a little bit. We're just gonna leave

27:02

it there. And if I

27:04

were you, I'm thinking, okay, wait, wait, wait. I'm not

27:06

arguing with you. I just don't understand. I don't know

27:08

what that looks like. What does this mean? I mean,

27:10

losing. And I can't

27:12

answer that question for you personally. But

27:17

here's a breadcrumb. This

27:19

week, when there's conflict,

27:23

and you got there first, but they say they did. And

27:26

it was your idea, but they say it was theirs. And

27:29

they're fussing and griping, and in the middle of that,

27:31

would just school, work,

27:33

home. Just ask

27:35

yourself, you don't have to do anything yet.

27:37

Just consider, let's take this as far as

27:40

we can mentally. What would

27:42

choosing to lose look like in this situation? Again,

27:47

I can't tell you exactly what it would look like. But

27:52

I know what this represents. In

27:54

that moment, you ready for this? This is so amazing.

27:58

In that moment, it represents. represents

28:00

an opportunity. It

28:03

represents an opportunity for

28:06

the power of God

28:08

to be demonstrated. Thank

28:11

you. Thanks

28:15

for listening, but before you go, I

28:18

wanted to take a minute to thank

28:20

everyone who supports your move financially. It's

28:22

the generosity of our listeners that makes

28:25

this podcast possible. So, if you have

28:27

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28:36

for considering and make sure you

28:38

join us next week on Your Move.