Hope Is In Our DNA (Lisa Harper)

0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:04.519 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:06.760 Church and this is our podcast and I wanted to 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:09.680 thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:12.320 Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:18.480 to see God has moving in your life. Enjoy the message. Amen, Well, 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:22.759 welcome to Elevation Church. On behalf of Pastor Stephen and 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:26.680 our family. I'm so happy that you're joining us. Type 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:29.040 it in the chat. Let me know where you're joining 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:33.160 us from. We have people joining us from all over 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:37.280 the world all weekend long. Let's see, We've got Melissa 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:43.840 from Michigan. We've got Eric from Kenya, Joel is joining 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:48.880 us from Mississippi, Hazel from India, literally all over the world. 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:54.560 I just love it. I love worshiping with Elevation Church. 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:57.880 It's an amazing part of what I get to do 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:00.840 with my life. And I know you're grateful that too. Hey, 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:06.440 shout out to Faith Verdick. If you don't know her, 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:10.240 she is the woman who gave our pastor life and 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:14.440 today is her birthday. So Faith, if you're watching, speak 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:16.640 for all of us when I say thank you. You 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:21.600 are one special woman. You deserve an extra crown for 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:26.600 raising Stephen Ferdick and not killing him, because I now 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:29.920 know what it's like to raise teenagers. And so thank you. 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:33.440 We all thank you. Are your kids all set E 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:36.160 kids online? How many of you are grateful for E 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:39.080 kids Online? I know it's not the same thing as 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:43.360 dropping your kids off, but at least they're watching something 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:48.360 that's wonderful, and that's teaching them about God and giving 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:51.360 you just a minute to be able to worship together. 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:53.320 How many of you are grateful for our worship team? 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:56.960 I just love our church. I love how they lead 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:00.600 us every weekend. But if you're like me, elevation worship 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.760 is not just something that you watch on the weekends, 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:06.360 but it's a sound that's coming out of your home. 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:10.440 The songs and the sermons and the stories of this 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:14.400 church are getting me through this season, and I know 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:15.840 they are too. How many of you were with us 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:18.840 last week when my husband preached about the plot twist? 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:25.920 I gotta tell you, my husband is not preached on 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:29.360 Father's Day in like a decade, and I was just 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:31.960 thinking last night that apparently, in addition to all of 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:34.920 the special anointings that are on pastor Stephen's life. He 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.640 also has a special Father's Day anointing. Am I wrong? 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:42.079 If you saw that message, you know how incredible it was. 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:43.600 And if you missed it, you need to go back 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:46.120 and watch it. It It was called plot Twist. I think 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:48.200 it's in my top ten. I have a lot in 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:49.800 my top ten, but I think that was in my 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:52.320 top ten. I just love how God speaks to me 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:55.760 every single time the Word is preached on this stage, 0:02:55.800 --> 0:03:00.360 and today is going to be no exception. My dear 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:03.760 friend Lisa Harper will be bringing the Word and this woman, 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:08.400 this woman can preach, and I'm not gonna lie. I 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:12.440 love a good girl preacher, and Lisa is one of 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:16.040 my favorites. Lisa and her daughter, Missy, live in Nashville, Tennessee. 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.160 They drove down here to be with us this weekend. 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:24.239 So get ready because this woman knows the Word of God, 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:27.519 and every time I'm around her, I want to read 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:29.800 my Bible more and i want to be a better Christian. 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:32.480 So I'm gonna stop talking. I hope you're having a 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:35.280 great weekend. It's a great weekend here in Charlotte. Would 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:45.280 you help me welcome Lisa Harper to the stage. Yeah, 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:50.880 we're trying so hard to hug responsibly. I was thinking 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.720 driving here. We drove here yesterday from Nashville, Tennessee, and 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.320 I was just thinking about the breath. Y'all can sit down. 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:01.320 You're so darling at home. I know you're already sitting 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:04.480 down half the hollar, like vegged out and stretching pants 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:07.760 on the couch. But I was thinking about the breadth 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:11.440 of elevation, what God has done in a really short 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:15.640 season to take the gospel all around the world, and 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:20.440 I thought, that kind of trajectory, I think it's almost unprecedented. 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:24.800 It's obviously miraculous God has authored the favor that he's 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.560 given elevation. But I thought, you don't get that broad 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:32.719 without having really really deep roots. And I love that 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:37.159 woman right there because she's got really really deep roots. 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.800 And you may only see her in a stream. You 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.120 may only see Holly on a screen. But I've been 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.360 through a couple of valleys in the last ten years, 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:49.960 and Holly Ferdick was one of the first person to 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:54.520 text prayers to speak life to me. So I am 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.000 delighted to be back in this house. I always come 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:00.640 here with just a little bit of trepidation is I 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:03.960 too watch Stephen Ferdick every weekend, and so some of 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:07.039 you are like, oh, you've got to be kidding me. 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:09.680 I mean, Holly made me sound good, but I am 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.240 no Stephen Ferdick. This is going to be like a 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:15.279 mule at the Kentucky Derby. But hang with me, because 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:18.200 I think God has something for us, if nothing else, 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:20.560 he has something for me. Because Chris, I have been 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:22.679 waiting with baited breath. I don't even know what that means, 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:27.280 but I've been so excited about being led in worship 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:31.440 live by y'all. I know what Pastor Stephen said last 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:34.680 week is true that as Christ followers, we carry the 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:37.840 church in our hearts and minds, and so the church 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:40.240 is open as long as you and I are open 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:43.360 to the working person in the Holy Spirit. But I've 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:45.080 just got to be honest with y'all and tell you 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:48.320 that my heart has been in a really stinker prodigal 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:52.120 season lately, and every time it sees the Zoom logo, 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:55.560 it just kind of crosses its arms and refuses to listen. 0:05:55.880 --> 0:06:01.040 I miss corporate worship. As soon as y'all started, I 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:03.640 just thought, I just I just feel like I want 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:06.640 to sink into this one to marinate in this It's 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.920 it's been incredible to be here with y'all. This has 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:13.960 been a less than lovely season. I don't have to 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:19.400 remind y'all of the reasons why, but I'll start with homeschool. 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.040 I love my kid. For those of you who don't 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:28.600 know my story, I became a mom the same year 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:32.200 I went through menopause at fifty through the miracle of adoption. 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:35.800 And my kid is the most amazing child in the 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:40.360 world except for years, of course, that's a tie. But 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:45.039 but homeschooling full time once COVID caused schools in Tennessee 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:50.320 to close, that was that was that was a faith opportunity, 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:55.039 And I do have to confess that once I watched 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:59.920 Tiger King and countadate as biology for her. But I 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.840 I brought a two minute video that I want to 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:05.479 show y'all just this proof in case there's any truancy 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:09.679 officers in Epham all over the world. I bought proof 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:12.680 that we actually did have classes. This was an al 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:16.520 fresco class we had on etiquette. Just a little short, 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:18.760 two minute video. They'll show you what went on during 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:24.520 school at our house during COVID nineteen am, I, how 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:29.760 did you make that trashy noise again? Oh? The that noise? Yes, ma'am. 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:36.080 You put your you put your teeth, your top teeth 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:40.080 over your bottom lip, and then you like force air 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:48.240 out of one side, like blow a little more air 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:57.080 and just out of the side, like honey. I think 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:00.920 you're too sweet to make trashy noises. Maybe we should 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:07.880 sing a song, I willship song. Maybe we should sing 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:10.240 a worship show. Which one do you want to sing? 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:15.760 Probably Jesus with dension, good grace. Oh I love that one. 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:30.840 Okay you started peace? Oh dan Ah savags in his blood. 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.360 That's a good one. It is a good one. I 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:36.240 love it. How does the chorus go of that one? 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:41.400 I actually think that is the chorus and Jesus our salvation, 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:52.920 our reathomtion. What comes after is in his blood jeezesus 0:08:55.040 --> 0:09:04.319 blood of it? Right? Friend forfu ish keen do come? 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:07.840 That's what comes to us to that. I love that, tutor, 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:11.439 I do too. That's better than making those bad, trashy noises, 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:14.280 isn't it it is? Do you think you're sweeter than me? 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:22.400 I think so. Of YouTube, most of y'all are probably 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.360 sweeter than me. And have not been tutoring your children 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:30.920 and breaking when noises. It's been a long three months, 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:36.040 and I just my hats are is off to you 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.839 if you have been singing worship tunes like my kid 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:42.600 instead of making trashy noises like me. But to be 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:44.640 really honest, I'd like to kick you in the shins 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:47.360 if you haven't suffered at all over the last three months, 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:50.000 because it has just been a rough go of it. 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:54.320 And again, I don't have to remind you of why 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:56.680 it's been rough. I know we've all been dealing with 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:59.280 our own kind of rough in our little corner of 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:05.760 the world. We had an especially intimate difficult thing happened recently. 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:10.920 Someone in my immediate family committed suicide nine weeks ago, 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:16.559 and his death just ripped the fabric of our lives. 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:19.320 And over the last two months, I just feel like 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:23.680 some of my hope has been leaking out of those holes. 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.200 I just have had a harder time than normal hanging 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:29.000 on to hope. It's been almost like wet soap. I'm 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:33.000 just having a hard time hanging on to it. And 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:35.960 my hope, my prayer is that none of you are 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:37.800 having to gree the loss of a loved one on 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:41.680 top of everything else that we're slogging through. For those 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:46.400 of you who have, I'm so sorry if you're dealing 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:48.280 with the loss of a loved one. Please please please 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:51.000 put some of those details in the chat, because we 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:54.120 would love to pray with you and for you. But 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:58.400 regardless of what's been shoplifting your hope lately, I think 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:01.959 all of us can agree that that at least some 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:05.400 measure of our hope has been threatened in the last 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:07.959 couple of months. And so I thought it would be 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:11.360 so appropriate, so prudent, prudent, maybe not for you, but 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.559 certainly for me to do a deep dive in scripture 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:16.959 and try to recover some of the hope that these 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:22.080 circumstances have shoplifted. And so I want to talk before 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:24.400 we dive into scripture. If you're on the couch and 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:27.560 you've got a Bible at your house, get up off 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:29.600 the counts and grab that pumpy and come back, because 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:31.040 we're going to be in the Bible. If you have 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:34.360 kids in the room, I want to reiterate what Chad 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:36.960 said about sending them over to kids YouTube, because it's 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:38.960 going to get a little hot in here pretty soon. 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:40.920 So I want you to be careful to not have 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:44.080 anybody under thirteen in your living room. Just send them 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:47.240 off for YouTube. Don't let them watch Tiger King like 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:48.800 I did with my child, because now I'm going to 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.320 be paying for therapy later. But anyway, before we dive 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:54.079 into the text, our first text is going to be 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:55.800 at the very big beginning of the book, I want 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:59.640 to remind us all that we get our New Testament 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:04.520 from Greek and the Greek concept of hope. The Greeks 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:10.760 pronounced hope. It's transliterated elpis, but it's pronounced l piece, 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:12.960 which I think that's cool. That peace is kind of 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:15.760 in the Greek idea of hope. But the Greek concept 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:23.680 of hope was not an objective assessment. They didn't look 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:27.479 around at their circumstances and go, oh, here's what justifies 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:33.239 my hope this season. It was actually a subjective experience. 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:36.760 They looked back over their lives and if there was 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:40.280 proof of hope in their backstory, then they said, I 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:44.640 will be expectant about future hope. If they could look 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:47.880 back to tangible hope, they said, then I know there 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:52.000 will be proof of hope. There will definitely hope in 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:55.840 the future. Let me explain it like this, COVID nineteen 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:59.760 has effectively swaggered into my house like Dennis the Rock Johnson. 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:04.319 And evidently the Keto boy in my mind was a 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:08.960 much weinier crop pants wearing Wayfish guy because the rock 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:13.080 just killed Keto up in our house. And as a result, 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:18.439 I have had an extreme uptick in carb consumption. And 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:22.880 as a result of that, I definitely am am up 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:27.440 about nineteen due to COVID, And so there is a 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:30.440 very real probability that I'm going to faint up in 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:33.920 this elevation house this morning because these banks are cutting 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.560 off my circulation. I shouldn't have done that, because if 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:40.000 I did that harder, you could lose an eye. But 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:43.760 here's the deal. Here is the positive thing about my 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:48.720 expansive tragedy. I saved pictures from last fall and last 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:51.200 fall I was really doing good on a low carb 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:55.520 life plan, and so I saved pictures of when I 0:13:55.640 --> 0:14:01.200 was actually wearing pants with zippers. So I have a witness. 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:05.560 I have a tangible testimony that it is possible for 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:08.400 me to wear pants that do not have an elastic 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:10.800 waistban Can I get a witness? Are you with me? 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:14.880 There is tangible proof in my past that I could 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:18.240 go there again. Hope is not based on now, not 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:22.840 for christ followers. I love pastor seement Stephen sermon last 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:25.880 week on plot Twist. I loved that one. It's probably 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:29.000 in my top ten two Holly, I will never again 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:33.120 look at the geographical phrase Samaria and the New Testament 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:37.480 without thinking of his wordplay, his application some area, there 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:39.960 will be some areas will be reluctant to go through. 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:42.800 I love that. But the thing that I resonated with 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:46.200 most of all was when he talked about generational wells. 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:51.040 When he talked about generational wells, because what was implied 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:54.520 was that we will not have to worry about dying 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:58.080 of thirst in the now because there was ample provision 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:01.240 in our history. And that's where we're going to go 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:02.720 this morning. We're going to start at the beginning of 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:04.520 the book. So if you brought the book, turn to 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:08.720 Genesis chapter three. Now before we get there, John Michael, 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:10.720 will you throw me my glasses out of my purse, 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:14.360 they're in a blue case. Before we go there, we'll 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.600 be in Genesis chapter three beginning when verse twenty one. 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:19.320 I want to give you just a quick review you 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.960 probably know this, But at this point, at the very 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:27.040 beginning of redemptive history, the Creator, Redeemer, Father God has 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:32.680 already breathed the universe into existence out of nothing. And 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:35.400 after he looked at the sea and the sky and 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.760 the stars, all the creepy crawleys and eaters and elephants, 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:43.120 he said, something's missing, And so they got together. And 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:45.720 that's not a misspeak. Genesis one twenty six and twenty 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:48.640 seven explains to us that our God is in us. 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:51.040 He's a trinitarian god, God the Father, God the Sign, 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:56.240 and God the Holy Spirit. It says, God has an us, Augustine, 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.640 Saint Augustine, I'll have huge crushes and all the dead guys, 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:01.960 I have to be platonic about them because they're dead 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:05.119 and gone. I only have platonic crushes about living theologians. 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:08.640 But anyway, Saint Augustine says that only the Christian God 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:11.920 is a perfect community unto himself Genesis one, twenty six 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:16.000 and twenty seven. Then let us make man in our image. 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:20.520 We were hard wired for a relationship. That's why when 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:23.280 some of y'all miss get together with your epham, you go. 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:25.760 I just didn't have a great week we were hard 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:29.160 wired for relationship. That's a whole nother story, but we'll 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:32.640 go there soon. Sorry, I'm tinkling, and not just because 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:38.080 this thinks. So God then breathes man into existence, and 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:41.360 then God takes a nap. I think it is so 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:47.480 stink and cool that our father God created Rest modeled 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.920 Rest in Genesis chapter two, y'all, that's before the fall. 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.320 The fall happens in Genesis chapter three. That means Rest 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.400 was not some divine accommodation for human weakness. Rest was 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:01.680 part of his perfect gift. Us. Isn't that good as 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:05.159 a whole other sermon? So anyway, He's created the heavens 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:07.320 and the earth. He's created man, he's taken a nap, 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:10.520 wakes up really refreshed from his nap, looks around and goes, 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:16.359 something is missing, something beautiful is missing, and he creates woman. 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.760 And that's where the story starts getting sticky because a 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:23.720 lot of people then put hierarchy in the story. Now, 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:25.520 I'm not gonna lay it here too long because I 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:27.080 don't want to take the heat. I want Stephen to 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.680 take the heat. But the Hebrew word used for woman 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:33.960 is easier. It's translated helper in our Bibles. You know 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:37.480 who else describes himself as an easer fourteen times in 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:43.160 Genesis God, Man and Woman. And that was never intended 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:47.879 to be a hierarchical relationship with suppression and with oppression. 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:51.600 I was always intended to be a mutual, helpful relationship. 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:54.399 Not going to go there because Eve does drop the ball, 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.240 because soon after she's created, she gets deceived by this 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:02.240 really rotten, slithery fruits salesman named Satan, and she takes 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:04.720 a bite out of some of his rotten fruit, and 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:09.280 the trajectory of mankind has been downhill ever since. We're 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:13.280 joining the story right after she has rebelled against God 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:17.000 and hooked up with the fruit salesman Genesis three, chapter 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:19.280 twenty one. And the Lord God made for Adam and 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:21.960 for his wife garments of skin and clothe them. Then 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:25.399 the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:27.320 one of us, and knowing good and evil. Now lest 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:29.560 he reach out his hand and take also over the 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:33.199 tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:35.240 Lord God send him out from the garden of Eden 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:37.040 to work the ground from which he was taken. He 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:41.240 drove out the man, and at the east of the 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:43.439 Garden of Eden. He placed the Cherubim in a flaming 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:45.960 sword that turned every which way to guard the way 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:48.480 to the Tree of life. Now, I don't know if 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:52.360 y'all get mental pictures when you read the Bible. Mom 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:55.520 was Baptist, Dad was Pentecostal. So I'm Babtcostal, which means 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:57.399 I love to wiggle in worship, but I have no rhythm. 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:01.000 And so I've heard all these stories since I was 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.040 teeny You've seen most of them flannel graft. And when 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:06.680 I used to hear that story as a kid, I 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:10.639 immediately got a mental picture of Adam and Eve. I 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:14.000 pictured Adam as being very lean, and this is way 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:16.040 before Peyloa, when it was cool for guys to be lean. 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:21.760 He was just kind of a lean, weak looking man, 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:27.240 stringy hair extensions, and kind of threw his own wife 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:30.080 under the bus. You know, I didn't need the fruit 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:32.639 she did. And oh, cover my junk. I mean, he 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:35.760 just he just he. Adam does nothing for me. He 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:38.880 doesn't blow my skirt up. And then Eve, I think 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.240 of her as the woman I don't want to be 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:45.240 because she's I mean, let's just face it, she's trashy, 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:50.199 you know, she does exactly what God tells her not 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:53.159 to do, and that's after she's paraded around nude. I 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:57.399 mean she is trashy. So I picture her like the 0:19:57.480 --> 0:19:59.879 trashy girls that hung out of the skating rink and 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:02.720 town I grew up in in central Florida. So I 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:05.240 picture her with kind of an ac DC tube top 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:09.800 and Daisy Dukes and like, you know, really bad hair, 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.120 and she's got tat since she's only, oh, I don't know, fifteen, 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:16.080 I mean, she's just you know, this girl is rough, 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:20.200 bad news. So when it says God drove them out 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:23.159 of the garden of Eden, my first response used to 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:26.840 be good riddance. You know, he's a sissy and she's trashy. 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:31.000 Good riddance, And I kind of pictured him just booting 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:33.760 them out of glory. Y'all. That's not at all the 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:38.600 contexts of Genesis three. That word drove out comes from 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:42.280 the Hebrew word garosh. I can't pronounce it well because 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:45.000 I don't get enough gutturle in my throat, but it's garash, 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:51.840 and it's used redemptively in Exodus twice. For the moment 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:55.760 this season when God drove his people the theocracy of 0:20:55.840 --> 0:21:01.240 Israel out of captivity toward the promise. Like us, they 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:04.160 were about as smart as sheep, so they had gotten 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:09.480 really comfortable in captivity. God had to rock them out 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:15.040 of a rut to get them from captivity to the promise. 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:18.760 The word is he's in nexus twice, totally redemptive context. 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:22.280 They're not being hurt, they're not being ushered toward their 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:25.360 own death. They're actually being ushered toward their own freedom 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:29.800 and life. But it says they were driven out toward 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:34.720 freedom away from Egypt, redemptive context. And then in First 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:40.000 Samuel chapter twenty one, that's after David he's running away 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:42.240 from Saul. Remember Saul was the first king of Israel. 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:45.000 He was a narcissistic nut job, was really jealous of 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:47.960 David because David had more followers than him, and so 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:51.159 he's trying to kill him, and so David flees for 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:54.080 his life and he ends up fleeing into enemy territory. 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:57.880 Remember who their arch enemy was. Gonna talk back, you're 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:02.119 still social distance and spit. Let's go Philistines. So he 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:05.879 finds himself in Philistine territory, finds himself standing before the 0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:08.840 King of the Philistines, the King of goth this first 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:11.240 Samuel nineteen, if you want to check me. And when 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:15.680 he stands before the King of goth he realizes, oh goodness, 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:20.840 it's gracious, I'm wearing Goliath's sword. Do you remember who 0:22:20.880 --> 0:22:24.400 Goliath was. I mean, he was like the big dog 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:28.720 daddy of the Philistines. You remember, He's this probably eight 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:32.720 foot man. When David before he'd even started using you know, 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:35.960 claton or anything for his skin. Is that for girls? 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:39.920 Or is that for acne? Is it for acney? Oh? Allergies? 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:43.200 That's right. I was trying to do an acne medication. 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:46.600 I couldn't pull one fast enough. So anyway, before David's 0:22:46.640 --> 0:22:49.760 even gone through puberty, he ends up killing Goliath, you 0:22:49.800 --> 0:22:53.439 remember the story, with a slingstone and slingshot stone, whatever, 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:57.200 and so he kills the giant. Well, from that day forward, 0:22:57.920 --> 0:23:01.400 David is enemy number one to the Philistines. He utterly 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:05.800 humiliated them. Now Here it is years later, and he's 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:09.520 up in the middle of Philistine standing in front of 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:14.400 the King of the Philistines, wearing Goliath's sword. I mean, 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:16.960 you talk about waving a red flag in front of 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:20.000 a bull. I mean, surely he is about to get 0:23:20.040 --> 0:23:23.840 his own head cut off. And that's why David starts 0:23:23.920 --> 0:23:29.000 to feign madness. And he did what no other Israelite 0:23:29.200 --> 0:23:32.840 man would do. He drooled in his beard. And by 0:23:32.880 --> 0:23:36.240 feigning madness and dribbling in his beard, which was a 0:23:36.359 --> 0:23:39.120 huge no no for Orthodox Jewish Men in that era 0:23:39.160 --> 0:23:43.240 of history. Gath, the men of Gath, the soldiers of 0:23:43.280 --> 0:23:46.520 the king of Goths, say we need to let this 0:23:46.600 --> 0:23:49.960 guy go. Otherwise, an innocent, crazy man's blood is going 0:23:50.040 --> 0:23:52.320 to be on your hands, and it says, and thus 0:23:52.440 --> 0:23:57.560 David was drove out. You see God's merciful sovereignty there. 0:23:57.640 --> 0:24:01.880 He's about to get killed and God drives him out 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:06.840 for his own good for survival. It's immediately after God 0:24:06.960 --> 0:24:09.840 rescues him from the King of Gath the David writes 0:24:09.880 --> 0:24:13.320 Psalm thirty four, one of my favorite psalms, where he says, 0:24:13.320 --> 0:24:15.919 those who look to the Lord, their faces are radiance. 0:24:16.440 --> 0:24:21.439 They'll never be covered with shame. He's just totally shamed 0:24:21.480 --> 0:24:24.520 himself by drilling in his beard, pretending to be a madman. 0:24:24.960 --> 0:24:29.199 God uses that drives him out from certain death, and 0:24:29.280 --> 0:24:31.919 immediately after that he says, my face will never be 0:24:31.960 --> 0:24:34.280 covered with shame. Because of how you drove me out 0:24:34.280 --> 0:24:37.720 to victory God. It's in that same psalm that we 0:24:37.840 --> 0:24:41.040 get God is close to the broken arty. He's near 0:24:41.080 --> 0:24:43.280 to us when our lives feel crushed, which is just 0:24:43.359 --> 0:24:47.240 a theme verse for this season in our world and 0:24:47.320 --> 0:24:51.000 the world at large. So now when I think of 0:24:51.000 --> 0:24:52.720 Genesis three, I don't think of a girl on a 0:24:52.800 --> 0:24:57.760 tube top. I think of our gracious God taken his 0:24:58.000 --> 0:25:03.560 kids by the arms and redemptively ushering them out of Eden. 0:25:03.640 --> 0:25:07.399 Not because he's a unibrowed librarian and is about to 0:25:07.400 --> 0:25:09.879 smack him over the head with the Bible, but because 0:25:09.920 --> 0:25:12.840 he knows what they don't, and he knows that they 0:25:12.920 --> 0:25:15.840 come back and they eat from the tree of Life, 0:25:16.000 --> 0:25:21.040 they will be forever frozen in Eden, forever separated from 0:25:21.080 --> 0:25:24.360 the intimacy with Him that they were created for. So 0:25:24.400 --> 0:25:31.560 he begins to drive them out, heard them toward recreating 0:25:31.760 --> 0:25:35.679 the intimacy that he had fashioned them for. It's such 0:25:35.760 --> 0:25:40.359 a redemptive passage, y'all. There is so much hope in scripture. 0:25:40.640 --> 0:25:42.600 When people tell me the Bible is boring, I'm like, no, 0:25:42.720 --> 0:25:45.040 you may have sat under a boring Bible, teacher. The 0:25:45.080 --> 0:25:49.200 Bible itself is not boring, nor is it punitive. This 0:25:49.480 --> 0:25:52.720 is a divine love story. It's filled with hope. Okay, 0:25:52.760 --> 0:25:55.919 head to the right, and if you can prove to 0:25:56.000 --> 0:26:01.600 me that you've actually been spending your quiet time in numbers, 0:26:01.640 --> 0:26:06.439 specifically numbers chapter twenty seven, I will send you twenty bucks. 0:26:07.359 --> 0:26:10.800 Not that we advocate betting here at Elevation, but I 0:26:10.840 --> 0:26:12.760 want to take you to another passage. And this one 0:26:12.800 --> 0:26:16.320 is just stunny. It's just one that we usually skip 0:26:16.359 --> 0:26:18.520 over because it sounds like it's one of those boring 0:26:18.520 --> 0:26:21.560 Old Testament passages. Isn't it funny how so many of 0:26:21.640 --> 0:26:24.080 us think of the God of the Old Testament as 0:26:24.160 --> 0:26:27.520 like this angry autocrat and the God of the New 0:26:27.560 --> 0:26:30.800 Testament as Jesus with brettgirl hair extensions, like all warm 0:26:30.840 --> 0:26:33.720 and fuzzy. You know, if that is true, then Genesis one, 0:26:33.800 --> 0:26:36.560 twenty six and twenty seven isn't. If that's true, then 0:26:36.560 --> 0:26:40.240 God is bipolar. It's not true. Drives me nuts when 0:26:40.280 --> 0:26:42.840 people say, well, Jesus said in the red letters, I'm like, 0:26:42.880 --> 0:26:45.600 he didn't say the black letters, because last I know, 0:26:46.160 --> 0:26:48.359 it's Godfather. God's said and got the Holy Spirit. But 0:26:48.600 --> 0:26:52.440 when we stop stepping onion, based toes Okay numbers twenty seven. 0:26:52.880 --> 0:26:56.400 Then drew near the daughters of Zilofah had the son 0:26:56.440 --> 0:26:59.320 of Heafer, the son of Gilead, son of Maker, and 0:26:59.359 --> 0:27:02.320 a lot of other words. The names of his daughters 0:27:02.359 --> 0:27:06.120 were Mila, Noah, Hogla. Now I need to stop there 0:27:06.119 --> 0:27:07.520 for just a minute, because I know a lot of you, 0:27:07.640 --> 0:27:11.399 especially you younger mamas, really want to name your kid's 0:27:11.520 --> 0:27:14.920 biblical names to impress your small group. Don't be working 0:27:14.960 --> 0:27:18.560 with Hogla, Hogla. That's just hard. That's not a good name. 0:27:18.600 --> 0:27:20.440 It's in the Bible, but it's not a good name. 0:27:20.480 --> 0:27:24.840 Don't replicate that name. Hogla, Milka and Tirza. And they 0:27:24.880 --> 0:27:27.560 stood before Moses and before Elizer, the priests, and before 0:27:27.640 --> 0:27:30.159 chiefs and all the congregation, at the entrance of the 0:27:30.200 --> 0:27:32.600 tent of meetings, saying, our father died in the wilderness. 0:27:32.600 --> 0:27:34.439 He was not among the company of those who gathered 0:27:34.440 --> 0:27:37.520 themselves together against the Lord and the company of Karab, 0:27:37.600 --> 0:27:40.080 but died for his own sin. And he had no sons. 0:27:40.400 --> 0:27:42.480 Why should the name of our father be taken away 0:27:42.520 --> 0:27:44.919 from his clan because he had no son? Give to 0:27:45.119 --> 0:27:48.880 us a possession among our fathers. Brothers. Now you better bet. 0:27:48.920 --> 0:27:52.280 At this point in ancient history, everybody who's watching this 0:27:52.400 --> 0:27:55.359 take place start equipping out their cell phones. They're like, 0:27:55.440 --> 0:27:57.680 I Am going to instant story this because they are 0:27:57.720 --> 0:27:59.879 just about to be fright into a great spot of oblivion. 0:28:00.359 --> 0:28:04.680 Because at this point in ancient history, women had basically 0:28:04.720 --> 0:28:08.000 the same value as a good milk cow. Women were 0:28:08.040 --> 0:28:11.240 regarded as chattel, something a man could own, and the 0:28:11.359 --> 0:28:16.840 law of the land was primogeniture. Primogeniture, if you remember 0:28:16.920 --> 0:28:20.760 from high school or college, history, meant that the firstborn 0:28:21.080 --> 0:28:26.040 son inherited all of his father's estate upon his father's death. 0:28:26.440 --> 0:28:29.960 That's what reigns during this period of Israel's history. And 0:28:30.040 --> 0:28:33.240 so these daughters of Zilofah had they have the hut 0:28:33.320 --> 0:28:38.240 spot to go against the law of culture, come before 0:28:38.320 --> 0:28:40.920 Moses and the high Priest and go, we think we 0:28:40.960 --> 0:28:44.640 should get daddy's land. You just imagine all of Israel's 0:28:44.680 --> 0:28:48.600 like they just assume the lightning bolt is just about 0:28:48.600 --> 0:28:51.240 to come out and fry these cheeky jacks. But that's 0:28:51.240 --> 0:28:54.720 not what happens. All this is stunning. I so want 0:28:54.720 --> 0:28:57.520 to read this to my militant friends who are burning 0:28:57.520 --> 0:28:59.960 their bras and tell them that floppiness is not necessar. 0:29:01.080 --> 0:29:04.760 Moses brought their case before the Lord verse five, and 0:29:04.800 --> 0:29:07.360 the Lord said to Moses, the daughters of Zilofah had 0:29:07.400 --> 0:29:09.800 are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance 0:29:09.840 --> 0:29:12.640 among their father's brothers, and transfer the inheritance of their 0:29:12.680 --> 0:29:15.080 father to them. And you shall speak to the people 0:29:15.080 --> 0:29:18.280 of Israel, saying, if a man dies and has no son, 0:29:18.320 --> 0:29:23.720 then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter. Y'all. 0:29:23.840 --> 0:29:26.720 What that passage that we tend to skip over says 0:29:27.040 --> 0:29:32.840 is that our creator, Redeemer is not some autocrat or 0:29:32.880 --> 0:29:38.160 a massagynist to enjoy is punishing his people, But instead 0:29:38.240 --> 0:29:44.520 he has always been actively redeeming culture. He's always been 0:29:44.600 --> 0:29:48.960 actively restoring the dignity that others have stolen from his 0:29:49.080 --> 0:29:55.080 image bears. This book is filled with generational walls of hope, y'all. 0:29:55.160 --> 0:29:58.800 Just over and over and over again, guys, if you'll 0:29:58.840 --> 0:30:00.680 stay with me for just one mo more second, I've 0:30:00.720 --> 0:30:04.880 got one more estrogen passage, but I'll be fast. Deuteronomy, 0:30:04.920 --> 0:30:07.440 chapter twenty two, Verse twenty eight. If a man meets 0:30:07.480 --> 0:30:09.960 a virgin who's not betrothed and seizes her in lies 0:30:10.000 --> 0:30:11.400 with her and they are found, than the man who 0:30:11.440 --> 0:30:12.840 lay with her shall give to the father of the 0:30:13.520 --> 0:30:16.800 woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife. 0:30:16.880 --> 0:30:19.560 Because he has not violated her, he may not divorce 0:30:19.600 --> 0:30:21.600 her all his days. Now, I don't know if you 0:30:21.640 --> 0:30:24.000 really heard what I was saying in the ESV there, 0:30:24.000 --> 0:30:27.240 but that is nasty town. I mean, that is just 0:30:27.680 --> 0:30:31.240 awful if you read it at first glance without the 0:30:31.360 --> 0:30:35.800 sociohistorical context. Because what that is saying is a young 0:30:35.880 --> 0:30:40.280 woman who has been violated by a man. That sounds 0:30:40.400 --> 0:30:43.200 like that young young man bribes her daddy and then 0:30:43.240 --> 0:30:46.080 she has to marry her violator. So it sure sounds 0:30:46.120 --> 0:30:49.520 like God is advocating the insult be added to injury. 0:30:49.800 --> 0:30:54.200 You have to understand the context, y'all. Any text in 0:30:54.240 --> 0:30:56.520 this love story can be used as a proof text 0:30:57.440 --> 0:31:00.840 that is not true if you take it out of context. 0:31:01.160 --> 0:31:03.920 In the context, God's people have just come out of 0:31:03.960 --> 0:31:07.320 Egyptian captivity, where they have been under what we could 0:31:07.360 --> 0:31:11.040 call the first iteration of Sharia law and the culture 0:31:11.120 --> 0:31:14.600 that they had been in for four hundred years, said 0:31:14.640 --> 0:31:18.920 that any young woman twelve and over who was not 0:31:19.040 --> 0:31:23.000 married or betruthed was vulnerable to be violated by any 0:31:23.080 --> 0:31:27.080 man who so chose. And the consequence of the man 0:31:27.200 --> 0:31:31.880 who violated her is, guess what, a nothing, not a 0:31:31.880 --> 0:31:34.640 slap on the wrist, not a traffic violation. And so 0:31:34.800 --> 0:31:36.920 one of my professors at Denver Seminary, I love this. 0:31:37.120 --> 0:31:39.680 He puts it like this. He said, So God steps 0:31:39.880 --> 0:31:45.960 over the fence of ancient culture, and he says, you're 0:31:46.000 --> 0:31:48.720 not going to violate my baby girls anymore. Have you 0:31:48.800 --> 0:31:52.440 ever wondered why girls in this era of history got 0:31:52.440 --> 0:31:56.200 married at twelve? This is why you ever wonder why 0:31:56.280 --> 0:31:59.160 women don't go alone to the well. This is why 0:32:00.280 --> 0:32:04.280 he says, from now on, any of you idiots who 0:32:04.320 --> 0:32:09.640 are even thinking about violating one of my daughters, here's 0:32:09.680 --> 0:32:12.400 the deal. If you do so, you will set up 0:32:12.440 --> 0:32:15.720 a four oh one k for her through her daddy. God. 0:32:15.720 --> 0:32:18.160 This is unheard of. Women were now even allowed to 0:32:18.200 --> 0:32:21.040 hold property at this time in history. He says, you'll 0:32:21.040 --> 0:32:24.200 set up an account soci'll be financially independent. Then you 0:32:24.240 --> 0:32:28.400 will give her your name, not to reviolate her, but 0:32:28.440 --> 0:32:31.280 to begin to restore some of the dignity you stole. 0:32:31.840 --> 0:32:34.600 And then if you do not take care of her 0:32:34.640 --> 0:32:37.480 and provide for her for the rest of her life. 0:32:37.640 --> 0:32:40.760 You're liable to get stoned by the rest of the community, 0:32:40.920 --> 0:32:44.720 big boy. I heard this passage quoted about a year 0:32:44.800 --> 0:32:46.920 ago in a blog by a woman who is trying 0:32:46.960 --> 0:32:50.200 to prove that God is a massagist, and I thought, 0:32:50.240 --> 0:32:53.800 you've missed the whole thing. The whole point of this 0:32:54.480 --> 0:32:58.440 is that God has always been in the process of 0:32:58.560 --> 0:33:03.720 redeeming clue, of restoring the value that other people have 0:33:03.920 --> 0:33:06.560 stolen from us. This is a book of hope, y'all. 0:33:07.280 --> 0:33:11.120 There is hope on every page. We don't always mine 0:33:11.120 --> 0:33:14.760 it correctly because we read the Bible lazy. We want 0:33:14.800 --> 0:33:17.320 something we can tweet instead of something that we can 0:33:17.680 --> 0:33:21.720 chew on. But the Bible is filled with hope. I'm 0:33:21.760 --> 0:33:24.720 close to landing. Just two more passages. Head to the 0:33:24.800 --> 0:33:29.480 right to Matthew's Gospel to Matthew Chapter eighteen. And some 0:33:29.560 --> 0:33:32.800 of you, how many of y'all are eights on the enneagram? 0:33:33.320 --> 0:33:36.480 Eight's on the inneagram. My guess would be some of 0:33:36.520 --> 0:33:38.959 you eights are very familiar with this passage. If you're 0:33:39.000 --> 0:33:41.720 a female eight, you've probably cross stitched it. It might 0:33:41.800 --> 0:33:46.360 be hanging on your wall Matthew eighteen, beginning in verse fifteen. 0:33:46.480 --> 0:33:49.240 If your brother sends against you, go and tell him 0:33:49.320 --> 0:33:52.240 his fault between you and him alone. If he listens 0:33:52.240 --> 0:33:54.040 to you, you have gained your brother. But if he 0:33:54.080 --> 0:33:57.480 does not listen, take one or two others along with you. 0:33:57.600 --> 0:34:00.480 That every change may be, that every charge, excuse me, 0:34:00.520 --> 0:34:02.960 may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 0:34:02.960 --> 0:34:05.040 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to 0:34:05.040 --> 0:34:07.000 the church, Tell it to everybody. Go ahead and get 0:34:07.000 --> 0:34:10.480 on EPAM and just just blow the news everywhere in church. 0:34:10.760 --> 0:34:13.440 And if he refuses to listen even to the church, 0:34:13.840 --> 0:34:16.239 let him be to you as a gentile and a 0:34:16.400 --> 0:34:19.920 tax collector. When I was in high school, we had 0:34:19.920 --> 0:34:23.600 a youth pastor for a season who was really, really passionate, 0:34:24.040 --> 0:34:26.120 and he used to wave his Bible around like this. 0:34:26.760 --> 0:34:28.680 When I was in my twenties, I tried to imitate 0:34:28.719 --> 0:34:31.000 it and I hit a woman upside the head with Genesis. 0:34:31.160 --> 0:34:33.640 I just went out of my Bible and hit this 0:34:33.680 --> 0:34:35.200 woman in the head. I was like, I'm sorry, I'm 0:34:35.200 --> 0:34:37.560 so sorry. They never invited me back. But he would 0:34:37.640 --> 0:34:41.759 swing his Bible around quote from Matthew eighteen, and you 0:34:41.800 --> 0:34:44.799 would tell all of us in the youth ministry that 0:34:44.920 --> 0:34:48.600 we were supposed to go and verbally confront, better yet 0:34:48.640 --> 0:34:52.160 assault our friends who were partying after football games or 0:34:52.200 --> 0:35:00.120 smoking pot, or were still engaged in heavy petting. So 0:35:00.239 --> 0:35:04.759 I'm older than the median of elevation, But can I 0:35:04.760 --> 0:35:07.120 get a witness? Did any of y'all have a pastor 0:35:07.160 --> 0:35:10.920 who used the phraseology heavy petting? Do you remember, Holly? 0:35:11.360 --> 0:35:14.600 And it confused me, I mean confused me a lot. 0:35:14.600 --> 0:35:17.880 I remember being at this kind of fire and Brimstone revival. 0:35:18.000 --> 0:35:20.400 This was the late seventies. I was in middle school 0:35:20.400 --> 0:35:23.200 in central Florida and a pastor got up and started 0:35:23.200 --> 0:35:26.799 swinging his Bible around. Veins were popping out, and he said, 0:35:26.840 --> 0:35:31.600 any of you who've been involved in heavy petting wants 0:35:31.640 --> 0:35:34.759 you to come to the altar and repent, you know. 0:35:34.960 --> 0:35:37.920 And I'd come there on the van with our little 0:35:38.080 --> 0:35:40.880 First Baptist church. And I was nervous because I was 0:35:40.920 --> 0:35:42.560 afraid the van would leave me because I didn't really 0:35:42.560 --> 0:35:45.279 always believe Billy Graham when he said they'd stay. But 0:35:45.400 --> 0:35:49.200 I sat there and I thought, half I half I. 0:35:49.200 --> 0:35:52.200 I mean, I love our beagle. We had the sweetest 0:35:52.239 --> 0:35:56.879 beagle named smoky, and I thought, have I just inadvertently 0:35:57.200 --> 0:36:01.359 like rubbed her fur the wrong way or maybe pet 0:36:01.440 --> 0:36:03.799 her with a little bit too much? Wait? Have I 0:36:03.960 --> 0:36:08.600 caused my dog canine injury? I don't know. This verse 0:36:08.880 --> 0:36:15.120 has been used, y'all to shame teenagers who struggled with, 0:36:15.719 --> 0:36:18.719 you know, frisky feelings. I think since the beginning of 0:36:18.800 --> 0:36:24.560 Baptist time anyway. It's also been used to justify ecclesiastical expulsion. 0:36:25.080 --> 0:36:28.680 In other words, this passage Matthew eighteen has been used 0:36:28.719 --> 0:36:34.720 as the sole passage to justify kicking people out of church. 0:36:34.800 --> 0:36:37.560 Do you hear me? Now? I want to take just 0:36:37.600 --> 0:36:41.879 a second here, because I'm not advocating for anarchy in church. 0:36:41.920 --> 0:36:47.400 I'm really not for church to be a healthy, thriving community. 0:36:47.520 --> 0:36:52.080 There have to be parameters. This is not just crazy town, 0:36:52.360 --> 0:36:56.480 and so we need spiritual leaders, we need people holding 0:36:56.560 --> 0:37:01.439 us accountable. But I really think that when we take 0:37:01.520 --> 0:37:05.640 this verse as the proof text to kick people out 0:37:05.680 --> 0:37:08.160 of fellowship, I think we're missing the main point Jesus 0:37:08.239 --> 0:37:11.440 was making. It's right there in front of us, and 0:37:11.440 --> 0:37:15.279 I've missed it my whole life. I am fifty six 0:37:15.400 --> 0:37:19.000 years old. I have a master's in theology. I'm two 0:37:19.120 --> 0:37:22.440 years away, god willing from having a doctorate and redemptive hermaeutics. 0:37:23.200 --> 0:37:27.480 I have studied my behind off because I'm single and 0:37:27.560 --> 0:37:29.800 it's the only way I get any kind of endorphins. 0:37:30.360 --> 0:37:36.000 And so I've got scads of books on exit Jesus 0:37:36.040 --> 0:37:42.560 and catology and redemptive hermonutics and socio historical contexts. But 0:37:42.640 --> 0:37:44.680 it wasn't until this last summer I was sitting in 0:37:44.719 --> 0:37:48.719 a class listening to a professor unpacked the redemptive thread 0:37:48.760 --> 0:37:55.800 in Matthew eighteen that I went Jesus. It's Jesus speaking, 0:37:55.880 --> 0:38:02.319 and Jesus says, treat them as taxs and gentiles. How 0:38:02.360 --> 0:38:08.279 did Jesus always treat tax collectors and gentiles? I mean 0:38:08.440 --> 0:38:14.040 Matthew's writing it. Matthew was a tax collector before he 0:38:14.200 --> 0:38:17.120 encountered Jesus, and Jesus said, come be a fisher of 0:38:17.200 --> 0:38:20.600 men with me. Might change your Facebook status. You're going 0:38:20.640 --> 0:38:23.280 to be an evangelist, but you were a tax collector. 0:38:23.480 --> 0:38:25.960 Do you remember Luke nineteen? If you don't remember it, 0:38:26.000 --> 0:38:29.480 right off, Hannah about you? You sang Luke nineteen, There 0:38:29.560 --> 0:38:31.520 was wee little man, and a wee little man was 0:38:31.560 --> 0:38:34.520 he member, Zachias climbed up in a sycamore tree to 0:38:34.520 --> 0:38:38.080 meet Jesus. Y'all, he was the CEO of the IRS 0:38:38.200 --> 0:38:44.839 division in Jericho. It was implied by Doctor Luke that 0:38:45.080 --> 0:38:48.600 Zachias got filthy rich by padding to what he was 0:38:48.640 --> 0:38:53.320 assessing his Jewish countrymen and then skimming off the top 0:38:53.440 --> 0:38:57.480 before wiring those funds to erme. I mean, this was 0:38:57.719 --> 0:39:00.360 not just a tax collector. This was a tax cotor 0:39:00.400 --> 0:39:04.640 without scruples. And yet when Jesus meets zach do you 0:39:04.640 --> 0:39:08.160 think he calls them out for his duplicity. Now he 0:39:08.239 --> 0:39:12.120 invites himself over for dinner. And after Zach and Jesus 0:39:12.280 --> 0:39:16.760 hang out, do you remember Zach's response, I'll give half 0:39:16.880 --> 0:39:20.279 of what I own to the poor, half of what 0:39:20.320 --> 0:39:25.400 I own to prison ministry, and to orphans and Uganda, 0:39:26.320 --> 0:39:28.719 and to feed the homeless here in Charlotte. I'll give 0:39:28.760 --> 0:39:31.440 half of what I own. I'm so happy to trade 0:39:31.480 --> 0:39:35.640 in my billey for a smart car. And anyone whom 0:39:35.680 --> 0:39:41.280 I'm defrauded, I'll repay them four times what I initially stole. 0:39:41.480 --> 0:39:45.600 Treat them as tax collectors and gentiles. Remember Genesis, well, 0:39:46.480 --> 0:39:50.600 when God says to our great great Granddaddy Abraham. Through you, 0:39:51.239 --> 0:39:54.000 all of the nations of the earth will be blessed. 0:39:54.320 --> 0:39:56.799 They'll all meet Jesus. The promise goes all the way 0:39:56.800 --> 0:39:59.320 back to the beginning. It's fulfilled in the working person 0:39:59.360 --> 0:40:03.600 of Jesus Christ. Paul said, my whole ministry is so 0:40:03.719 --> 0:40:09.279 that gentiles will come to know Jesus. Two thirds of 0:40:09.320 --> 0:40:13.600 the New Testament is about outsiders being drawn into the 0:40:13.800 --> 0:40:19.200 unconditional love of our creator redeemer. Treat them as gentiles 0:40:19.320 --> 0:40:22.319 and tax collectors. Do you really think he intended that 0:40:22.360 --> 0:40:26.360 to be punitive, y'a. We used the Bible as a club, 0:40:26.400 --> 0:40:28.840 and it was never meant to be used as a club. 0:40:29.120 --> 0:40:34.400 It's true, it's authoritative. There are parameters for abundant life 0:40:34.560 --> 0:40:38.040 in here. This isn't a joke, but it's not punitive. 0:40:38.600 --> 0:40:42.600 We're going to land in Hebrews. Hebrews, chapter four, verse twelve. 0:40:42.640 --> 0:40:44.840 Any of you who grew up in church, hoighly, I 0:40:44.920 --> 0:40:47.560 know that you could quote this one backwards, because it's 0:40:47.600 --> 0:40:49.600 one of the first verses that we learned when we 0:40:49.640 --> 0:40:52.000 are growing up. If you've listened to pastor Steven for 0:40:52.080 --> 0:40:55.640 any length of time, you've heard this verse, you've heard 0:40:55.640 --> 0:40:59.440 this whole book preach Hebrews, Chapter four, verse twelve. For 0:40:59.520 --> 0:41:01.640 the Word of God is living an active sharper than 0:41:01.680 --> 0:41:04.000 any two edged sword, piercing to the division of the 0:41:04.040 --> 0:41:06.400 soul and the spirit of joints and of marrow, and 0:41:06.440 --> 0:41:10.759 discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Again, this 0:41:10.840 --> 0:41:14.040 is one of those passages I used to swing my 0:41:14.080 --> 0:41:17.640 Bible around in the twenties, in my twenties, not the twenties, 0:41:17.680 --> 0:41:21.759 I'm not that old, but I would use that passage 0:41:21.920 --> 0:41:25.520 basically to guilt people into being in a Bible study. 0:41:26.160 --> 0:41:29.240 And it wasn't until recently that I started really looking 0:41:29.880 --> 0:41:33.359 at that verse and I thought, oh my goodness, now, y'all, 0:41:33.400 --> 0:41:36.200 let me qualify this because I'm probably going to step 0:41:36.200 --> 0:41:40.359 on some toes. I am a Bible banger through and through. 0:41:41.360 --> 0:41:44.520 I believe in the veracity and the authority of that 0:41:44.680 --> 0:41:49.120 text from cover to cover, God willing, I will spend 0:41:49.120 --> 0:41:54.120 the rest of my life talking about what's between those 0:41:54.239 --> 0:41:59.759 leather bound pages. I love this book. It's not just 0:41:59.760 --> 0:42:02.759 a book to me, it's life. To me. Everything I've 0:42:02.800 --> 0:42:05.880 ever needed for life in Godliness I find on these pages. 0:42:06.280 --> 0:42:08.160 It's not a textbook. It's not a rule book. It's 0:42:08.200 --> 0:42:11.360 not a collection of benign morality tales. This is life, Gus. 0:42:12.320 --> 0:42:15.560 But I took that verse out of context in Hebrews. 0:42:15.560 --> 0:42:17.320 I thought it was all about the Bible. Do you 0:42:17.360 --> 0:42:21.560 remember when Hebrews was written, Colleen, You'll know between sixty 0:42:21.560 --> 0:42:24.480 and seventy a D between sixty and seventy eight D 0:42:24.520 --> 0:42:26.520 is She's not uh huh uh huh. Do y'all also 0:42:26.640 --> 0:42:29.200 remember a D. A lot of people think that's after death. 0:42:29.200 --> 0:42:31.600 It's actually Latin and o domini the year of Our 0:42:31.640 --> 0:42:34.439 Lord b C is before Christ. Do you know they've 0:42:34.520 --> 0:42:38.279 changed the history books now and b C is now 0:42:38.360 --> 0:42:42.040 BCEE before the Common era, And instead of it being 0:42:42.200 --> 0:42:44.560 a d Ano Domini the year of our Lord, it's 0:42:44.560 --> 0:42:50.040 ce Common Era. Just a little side note. Interesting how 0:42:50.120 --> 0:42:53.560 everybody's starting to throw Jesus out of history, and yet 0:42:53.680 --> 0:42:59.200 Jesus is the foundation of the history of hope anyway, 0:42:59.320 --> 0:43:02.240 wit and written between sixty and seventy AD. Between sixty 0:43:02.239 --> 0:43:05.040 and seventy eight, there were very few other epistles, New 0:43:05.080 --> 0:43:08.799 Testament epistles we've now called books being circulated. The very 0:43:08.840 --> 0:43:13.320 first collection, loose collection of most of the New Testament 0:43:13.320 --> 0:43:16.480 books was in two hundred. The very first formal collection 0:43:16.920 --> 0:43:19.839 of all twenty seven New Testament books is in three 0:43:20.520 --> 0:43:26.920 sixty seven I think AD. That was by and I 0:43:26.960 --> 0:43:32.560 think something anathemas or anaphasia or something some mix of 0:43:32.600 --> 0:43:36.480 those terms. And then it was formally canonized into the 0:43:36.600 --> 0:43:38.880 very first New Testament of the Council of Hippo in 0:43:38.920 --> 0:43:42.360 three ninety three AD. What do all those boring historical 0:43:42.480 --> 0:43:46.080 facts me means that right here, when this pastor is 0:43:46.160 --> 0:43:49.520 encouraging his sheep, because his sheep, like us, were really tired, 0:43:50.280 --> 0:43:52.520 and his sheep, like us, were running out of hope, 0:43:53.200 --> 0:43:57.400 and he said, I want you to remember that Jesus 0:43:57.800 --> 0:44:01.839 logos Greek Jesus. That word is used in John one 0:44:01.880 --> 0:44:03.680 in the beginning was the word, and the word was God. 0:44:03.719 --> 0:44:06.040 The word was with God. This is before we had 0:44:06.040 --> 0:44:11.279 inscripturted text. He's saying, Jesus is sharper than a two 0:44:11.360 --> 0:44:14.959 edged short soord, Jesus knows the motive of your heart, 0:44:15.320 --> 0:44:19.239 and Jesus knows you're running out of hope. Jesus. It's 0:44:19.280 --> 0:44:22.839 all about Jesus, y'all. When we segregate the God who 0:44:22.880 --> 0:44:27.719 loves us from inscripturated text, it becomes punitive when we 0:44:27.800 --> 0:44:33.320 realize this is all about Jesus. This is the generational 0:44:33.400 --> 0:44:37.160 well from which we can draw hope. In the driest season, 0:44:37.560 --> 0:44:41.480 you look back and go our creative redeemer has always 0:44:42.239 --> 0:44:47.040 been in the process of restoring the dignity that has 0:44:47.080 --> 0:44:51.200 been stolen from us, of redeeming the mistakes that you 0:44:51.200 --> 0:44:55.040 and I have made, oftentimes against each other. I can't 0:44:55.239 --> 0:44:58.640 even mention Hebrews without thinking of something that happened recently. 0:44:58.680 --> 0:45:04.120 I was speaking at a conference for people who were 0:45:04.400 --> 0:45:09.000 in addiction Recovery from Addiction conference, and I have never 0:45:09.239 --> 0:45:15.080 struggled with alcohol or drugs or opioids, but I identify 0:45:15.360 --> 0:45:18.799 as a recovering addict because one of my favorite theologians, 0:45:18.800 --> 0:45:21.400 a guy named doctor ed T. Welch, wrote a book 0:45:21.440 --> 0:45:24.120 called A Banquet in the Grave, and in that book 0:45:24.160 --> 0:45:27.080 he said that all addictions are ultimately a disorder of worship. 0:45:27.440 --> 0:45:29.920 In other words, if you don't put Jesus in the 0:45:29.920 --> 0:45:31.759 biggest hole in your soul, you'll run to the wrong 0:45:31.760 --> 0:45:34.000 things of the wrong people. So I thought, I'm at 0:45:34.040 --> 0:45:37.759 home with these recovering addicts. And it was on a 0:45:37.800 --> 0:45:40.799 Friday night. Then it went through Saturday Friday night, there's 0:45:40.840 --> 0:45:44.160 this woman during worship who came up front. And this 0:45:44.360 --> 0:45:48.440 church wasn't quite as wiggly as we are here at Elevation. 0:45:48.640 --> 0:45:52.040 It was a little more, a little less demonstrative, and 0:45:52.120 --> 0:45:55.360 so she was the only woman upfront, only person upfront, 0:45:55.920 --> 0:46:01.120 and she was completely oblivious to any body else about 0:46:01.160 --> 0:46:03.759 six seven hundred of us at this conference. She was 0:46:03.880 --> 0:46:07.720 just dancing and dipping and twirling, and I found myself 0:46:07.800 --> 0:46:10.520 distracted by her as we were singing. I thought, I'd 0:46:10.560 --> 0:46:16.040 love to hear her story, because in my experience, people 0:46:16.120 --> 0:46:20.200 who were able to kind of step outside from that 0:46:20.320 --> 0:46:22.520 world most of us live in where we're afraid of 0:46:22.520 --> 0:46:26.400 what anybody else thinks. People who out operate independent of 0:46:26.440 --> 0:46:30.160 other people's approval usually have these incredible backstories. And I thought, man, 0:46:30.200 --> 0:46:33.480 I'd love to know her story, and so I was excited. 0:46:33.560 --> 0:46:36.719 The next morning, I went to the sanctuary early because 0:46:36.719 --> 0:46:38.759 I was teaching that morning, and I went in early 0:46:38.920 --> 0:46:40.880 just to pray and prepare her. And she was in 0:46:40.920 --> 0:46:42.880 there with the only two people in the sanctuary. She 0:46:43.000 --> 0:46:45.920 was up front. So I walked up and I introduced 0:46:45.920 --> 0:46:48.280 myself to her, and she said her name was Joyce, 0:46:48.320 --> 0:46:50.279 and I said, Joyce, I just want to thank you 0:46:50.360 --> 0:46:53.480 because I was trying to focus on Jesus, but I 0:46:53.520 --> 0:46:56.200 got distracted a few times by you last night. I 0:46:56.280 --> 0:47:01.719 was just really undone by how un restricted you were 0:47:01.840 --> 0:47:05.880 dear in worship. I mean, it was just you and Jesus, 0:47:05.960 --> 0:47:09.080 and I'm not quite that free yet. So I really 0:47:09.120 --> 0:47:12.839 loved the model that you set before me. And I said, 0:47:12.840 --> 0:47:16.200 it also made me wonder what your backstory is, because 0:47:16.239 --> 0:47:19.359 that kind of praise usually comes from someone who's been 0:47:19.400 --> 0:47:22.319 delivered from a lot. And she said, oh, yes, ma'am, 0:47:22.320 --> 0:47:26.560 I've been delivered, and she launched into this story that 0:47:26.960 --> 0:47:30.759 could have come from cable. I mean, just horrible backstory 0:47:31.440 --> 0:47:36.279 of abuse. And she was a hardcore addict and alcoholic 0:47:36.360 --> 0:47:40.160 for about thirteen years, and then she met Jesus, and 0:47:40.480 --> 0:47:44.440 Jesus just invaded every dark corner of her life and 0:47:44.480 --> 0:47:49.480 she became just a passionate follower of Jesus Christ was 0:47:49.560 --> 0:47:54.000 involved in addiction ministries and celebrate recovery had really impacted 0:47:54.280 --> 0:47:58.160 her community, and I thought, you know, I mean, that's 0:47:58.200 --> 0:48:02.080 why she dances like that. Well later on, just maybe 0:48:02.120 --> 0:48:05.320 twenty minutes later, I'm standing up on stage sharking my message, 0:48:05.800 --> 0:48:09.200 and I look down and Joyce is just sitting right there, 0:48:09.640 --> 0:48:11.560 and I thought, oh, my goodness, she's got such a 0:48:11.560 --> 0:48:13.839 great voice, because as soon as she introduced herself, I thought, 0:48:13.880 --> 0:48:15.960 she is like a three pack a day smoker. Shut it, 0:48:16.120 --> 0:48:19.520 U gravelly awesome voice. And I thought, I'm going to 0:48:19.560 --> 0:48:22.719 get Joyce to read from the passage I'm reading. I 0:48:22.719 --> 0:48:25.680 happened to be in Hebrews, and so normally I will 0:48:25.800 --> 0:48:27.760 warn people if I'm going to ask them to read 0:48:27.960 --> 0:48:30.040 something that i'm doing, you know, I'll tell them ahead 0:48:30.040 --> 0:48:32.080 of time. Even in our Bible study. I'm like, is 0:48:32.120 --> 0:48:33.719 it cool if I ask you to pray today? I 0:48:33.719 --> 0:48:37.720 don't like to, you know, shock people, And so normally 0:48:37.719 --> 0:48:39.880 I would have asked Joyce, but at this point I hadn't. 0:48:40.040 --> 0:48:41.879 Just I was so overwhelmed by how much I loved 0:48:41.880 --> 0:48:43.399 her story and she's sitting right there, and I thought, 0:48:43.400 --> 0:48:45.640 we've got to use that voice. So I jump off 0:48:45.680 --> 0:48:47.880 stage and I go, y'all, this is my new friend, Joyce, 0:48:48.200 --> 0:48:50.280 and I just love her heart and I love her voice. 0:48:50.280 --> 0:48:52.040 So she's going to read the text for us today. 0:48:52.400 --> 0:48:54.440 And Joyce kind of looked a little flustered, and then 0:48:54.520 --> 0:48:57.000 she took the mic, and she read the passage, tripped 0:48:57.040 --> 0:48:58.799 over a few of the words in the beginning, but 0:48:58.880 --> 0:49:01.480 then you know, got a great even read the passage 0:49:01.719 --> 0:49:04.280 and everybody clapped politely, and I was like, dange Joyce, 0:49:04.360 --> 0:49:06.920 I go up and I finish well. Maybe four hours 0:49:07.000 --> 0:49:08.840 later the conference is over. I'm in the back of 0:49:08.880 --> 0:49:10.960 the room and Joyce comes up and just kind of 0:49:11.000 --> 0:49:14.239 sheepishly says, miss Lisa, I need to tell you how 0:49:14.440 --> 0:49:18.000 you having me read that passage impacted me. And I 0:49:18.080 --> 0:49:22.480 was like, oh, man, you know, I'm sure sure I've 0:49:22.520 --> 0:49:26.080 somehow stepped on a bruise where she's afraid of reading 0:49:26.080 --> 0:49:28.160 in public or something. I so should have asked her. 0:49:28.320 --> 0:49:30.400 And I said, oh, Joyce, I'm so sorry if I 0:49:30.400 --> 0:49:32.120 wounded you, and she says, no, no, I need to 0:49:32.160 --> 0:49:34.439 tell you a little more of my story. She said, 0:49:34.800 --> 0:49:37.800 I told you that God had healed me of alcoholism, 0:49:38.200 --> 0:49:40.040 and then I've been clean for a long long time, 0:49:40.120 --> 0:49:42.360 been sober for a long long time. She goes, what 0:49:42.400 --> 0:49:45.160 I didn't tell you was that nine months ago I 0:49:45.160 --> 0:49:47.080 fell off the wagon. And she said, nine months ago 0:49:47.120 --> 0:49:50.280 I was engaged to be married only guy I ever trusted, 0:49:50.760 --> 0:49:52.759 And she said two weeks for the wedding. I found 0:49:52.800 --> 0:49:55.120 out he'd been stepping out with my best friend, and 0:49:55.160 --> 0:49:58.560 she said, I was just devastated, and so she said, 0:49:58.600 --> 0:50:02.280 I turned back to Jack Daniels to drown my sorrows. 0:50:02.719 --> 0:50:05.200 And she said I spent the weekend after I found 0:50:05.200 --> 0:50:07.200 out he stepped out on me. She said, I was 0:50:07.320 --> 0:50:10.799 just drunk as a skun all weekend. And she said 0:50:10.840 --> 0:50:13.880 when I sobered up on Monday, I came into church 0:50:13.960 --> 0:50:15.759 where she had been on staff, and she said, I 0:50:15.800 --> 0:50:18.320 told the leaders. I said, yeah, I fell off the wagon. 0:50:18.400 --> 0:50:21.400 I told them why, and she said they were really 0:50:21.440 --> 0:50:26.000 really gracious, but then they were also very very sober 0:50:26.800 --> 0:50:29.279 in how they followed through, and they said, we can 0:50:29.320 --> 0:50:31.840 no longer have you on staff because of you having 0:50:32.239 --> 0:50:35.160 that mistake, especially since you work with addicts, and so 0:50:35.239 --> 0:50:40.120 they asked for her letter of resignation. She left staff, 0:50:40.160 --> 0:50:43.719 and she ended up leaving that particular church because she said, 0:50:43.760 --> 0:50:45.759 even though I wanted to stay there, I wanted to 0:50:45.760 --> 0:50:47.800 walk it out. She said, Lisa, every time I walked 0:50:47.840 --> 0:50:49.919 in the sainctuary, I felt I had a scarlet leather 0:50:50.000 --> 0:50:52.480 a for alcoholic on my chest. And she said, I 0:50:52.520 --> 0:50:54.440 just couldn't do it. So After a couple of months, 0:50:54.480 --> 0:50:58.759 I moved my membership to another church across town. She said, 0:50:58.800 --> 0:51:01.640 I didn't tell you this morning, and that this is 0:51:01.680 --> 0:51:05.839 the church that I was asked to resign from. And 0:51:05.880 --> 0:51:09.320 she said, and last night was the very first time 0:51:09.800 --> 0:51:13.920 I stepped foot in the sanctuary again. And I said, oh, Joyce, 0:51:14.600 --> 0:51:18.640 I'm so sorry because I thought, here I've ruined what 0:51:18.880 --> 0:51:23.439 God had shaped to be this precious homecoming. And she said, 0:51:23.520 --> 0:51:27.400 oh no, no no, no, you didn't ruin anything. She said, Lisa, 0:51:27.440 --> 0:51:29.520 you couldn't possibly have known that. When I was a 0:51:29.520 --> 0:51:33.200 little girl, I was illiterate. My mom didn't send me 0:51:33.280 --> 0:51:36.960 to kindergarten. And on the first day of the first grade, 0:51:37.000 --> 0:51:41.200 I walked into a little school in Appalachia and the 0:51:41.239 --> 0:51:43.840 teacher was a new teacher, didn't know my story, and 0:51:43.880 --> 0:51:46.600 she called on me to read and she said I 0:51:46.800 --> 0:51:49.560 stood up, and she said, I can still remember how 0:51:49.600 --> 0:51:52.840 bad my legs were shaking because I didn't know any 0:51:53.080 --> 0:51:55.279 of my A, B, and c's, much less how to 0:51:55.320 --> 0:51:58.200 string them together. So she said, I just looked at 0:51:58.239 --> 0:52:01.400 those letters on the page. They were like hieroglyphics, and 0:52:01.480 --> 0:52:03.920 I just recited something I had heard from one of 0:52:04.000 --> 0:52:07.360 mom's soap operas, hoping that somehow the line I spoke 0:52:07.480 --> 0:52:10.479 was close to what was in this book Little Jack 0:52:10.520 --> 0:52:14.800 and Jane Primer. And she said, all the kids started dying, laughing, 0:52:14.920 --> 0:52:17.520 and they all started calling me stupid. And she said 0:52:17.560 --> 0:52:20.080 that name stuck all the way through high school graduation. 0:52:20.760 --> 0:52:23.719 So she said, I learned if I was ever going 0:52:23.760 --> 0:52:27.760 to speak out loud, say anything in public, in school 0:52:27.840 --> 0:52:31.080 or at work, she said, I would obsessively go over 0:52:31.160 --> 0:52:32.880 every single word that I was going to read or 0:52:32.920 --> 0:52:35.279 I was going to speak, because I was so nervous 0:52:35.760 --> 0:52:39.960 about ever speaking publicly. She said, But when you called 0:52:40.080 --> 0:52:45.959 me out of seven hundred people, you called me by name, 0:52:46.400 --> 0:52:50.200 and you said, I want Joyce to read, she said, 0:52:50.239 --> 0:52:53.920 it's like the heavens rolled back and God himself said, 0:52:54.480 --> 0:52:59.760 that's my girl. Listen to her. And she said, today 0:53:00.600 --> 0:53:04.400 this place of same has become a place of honor 0:53:04.800 --> 0:53:07.040 to me. Don't y'all want to be a little more 0:53:07.080 --> 0:53:11.759 like Joyce? Don't you want to be so undone by 0:53:11.800 --> 0:53:15.239 the redemption and our story, by the redemption and the 0:53:15.280 --> 0:53:21.200 stories behind us, that we can't help but express some 0:53:21.320 --> 0:53:23.479 of that hope to the world around us, a hope 0:53:23.480 --> 0:53:27.759 that's world that's desperate for hope, y'all. Can you imagine 0:53:27.800 --> 0:53:31.800 not knowing Jesus in the season. Can you imagine how 0:53:31.800 --> 0:53:35.359 hopeless some of the precious image bearers that you rub 0:53:35.400 --> 0:53:38.359 shoulders with, not really now, but you rub shoulders six 0:53:38.400 --> 0:53:43.920 feet away from now are. People are dying for real hope, 0:53:44.160 --> 0:53:48.200 and we have it. If you walk with Jesus, we 0:53:48.360 --> 0:53:51.239 have it. You may have forgotten it, you may have 0:53:51.360 --> 0:53:56.480 misplaced it. But the reservoir of hope for Christ followers, 0:53:56.719 --> 0:54:04.160 it's bottomless. We can alway reach into generational wells. There 0:54:04.160 --> 0:54:09.560 are millions in here and draw living hope, Peter says, 0:54:09.719 --> 0:54:15.480 living hope, not stagnant hope, living hope. Shall just close 0:54:15.480 --> 0:54:17.319 your eyes and bow your heads, and when you sit 0:54:17.480 --> 0:54:20.080 for just a second, wherever you are, and if so 0:54:20.160 --> 0:54:23.200 many of you are in your cars, you're maybe at 0:54:23.280 --> 0:54:27.000 work watching a laptop, you're at home on the couch, 0:54:27.680 --> 0:54:29.680 still a little bit grumpy that it was me and 0:54:29.760 --> 0:54:35.799 not Stephen, would you just sit for a minute and 0:54:36.080 --> 0:54:39.960 ask God to open your eyes to the hope that 0:54:40.239 --> 0:54:46.560 is already yours. Ask Him to give you the grace 0:54:46.680 --> 0:54:52.719 to lean back into the generations of hope that we've 0:54:52.760 --> 0:54:59.640 been forged from the eternal hope we're walking toward. Jesus, 0:54:59.680 --> 0:55:02.440 we can fester you this morning, as your sons and daughters, 0:55:02.520 --> 0:55:05.560 that all too often we look like that passage and 0:55:05.640 --> 0:55:10.120 proverbs that says, hope deferred, hope delayed makes a heart sick. 0:55:10.800 --> 0:55:14.000 And Jesus, some of us feel just flat heart sick 0:55:14.280 --> 0:55:17.479 this season because it's been harder than usual to hang 0:55:17.560 --> 0:55:21.480 on to hope. And so we need you, keen, Jesus, 0:55:22.000 --> 0:55:25.520 we need your Holy Spirit to quicken our minds and 0:55:25.560 --> 0:55:30.600 our hearts. To remind us of our history, redemptive history, 0:55:30.640 --> 0:55:34.320 the history that you have woven us into, the history 0:55:34.320 --> 0:55:38.200 that you've always been actively a part of, redeeming, restoring, 0:55:38.360 --> 0:55:45.200 setting captives free. Oh Lord Jesus, remind us that there's 0:55:45.320 --> 0:55:49.200 no room for dry bones in our hearts, no room 0:55:49.280 --> 0:55:55.880 for dry bones. Thank you, thank you, thank you for 0:55:55.960 --> 0:55:58.920 this reminder that you see us. You've always seen us, 0:56:00.000 --> 0:56:05.279 you've always loved us, you've always been actively in the 0:56:05.320 --> 0:56:09.560 process of calling us home. Teach us what it is 0:56:10.040 --> 0:56:15.800 to rest in your hope. We will be so careful, Jesus, 0:56:15.800 --> 0:56:18.759 to give you and you alone the honor and the 0:56:18.800 --> 0:56:22.560 glory and the praise for what you do this day 0:56:22.640 --> 0:56:28.640 in June twenty twenty, Thank you for joining us. Special 0:56:28.680 --> 0:56:31.520 thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. 0:56:31.840 --> 0:56:34.799 Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You 0:56:34.800 --> 0:56:37.280 can click the link in the description to give now 0:56:37.800 --> 0:56:41.640 or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information 0:56:42.200 --> 0:56:45.319 and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You 0:56:45.360 --> 0:56:47.400 can share it with your friends. You can click the 0:56:47.440 --> 0:56:49.719 share button, take a screenshot and share it on your 0:56:49.719 --> 0:56:52.719 social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again 0:56:52.760 --> 0:56:58.920 for listening. God bless you