You Can Be Satisfied (Lisa Harper)

0:00:02.160 --> 0:00:04.720 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:07.200 Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:10.520 you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:12.600 it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:17.160 see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:21.400 I really have to tell y'all. The first time Pastor 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:24.599 Stephen and Holly invited me to come to Elevation, I 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:30.000 thought they were confused, because I love this house. Pastor Tim, 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:34.519 you fat move like dance. I thought he's only been 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:36.440 a believer for a short period of time, because that's 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:41.160 that's some BC rhythms from before Christ rhythm right there, brother. 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:47.479 But the first time, really, I want like I need 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:51.120 a little bit of training between service. My my baby 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:53.960 can dance, but mama ain't got no rhythm. The first 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:55.920 time I got to come be with y'all, I was 0:00:56.120 --> 0:01:00.600 so excited because you have taught me. I've learned so 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:04.640 much about Jesus through your house. And I thought, surely 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:09.080 Pastor Stephen has got me confused with Lisa Bevie. Now, 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:11.280 I don't know if y'all know who Lisa Bevie is, 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:15.600 but a woman can preach where about the same age, 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:18.080 but she has much more authority than I do. And 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:22.000 she wears leather pants a lot of times when she preaches, 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.280 and I thought, uh, oh, to keep up the charade, 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:27.880 I might have to wear leather pants to elevation. And 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:30.080 when I wear leather pants, it sounds like ducks are 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.360 being killed. So I'm not quite as lean as the 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:35.200 other Lisa, and I thought, oh, this is gonna be 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:39.320 so uncomfortable. So I was thrilled to find out that 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.840 they lowered the bar, that they actually knew. I wasn't 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:48.080 that Lisa. And so to get to to get to 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:53.760 be with y'all. Now, it's pure grace, y'all. It's pure 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:56.760 grace that I get to come back and run hard 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:00.760 towards Jesus with this house. I love me some elevation deeply, 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:07.440 deeply respect. That's my cousin right there, so deeply respects 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:10.600 what God has done and is doing through your house, 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:14.320 through pastor Steven Holly, the whole team here. I just 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:18.440 I'm in the middle of a forty day fast on sugar, 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:21.359 and when Chunks called me, I was like, I'm gonna 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:23.480 get some sugar after all, baby, I get to go 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:28.239 to Elevation. Not too many sweeter houses that I've been 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:30.400 to in the world. I do want to make just 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:33.119 a couple of qualifications before we dive into the message. 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.799 The first is I'm a spitter, and so I'm so sorry. 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:41.040 We're just gonna call it a baptism. E fam y'all 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:43.480 can breathe a sigh of relief that you're not in 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:46.800 the room. I will not sprinkle you, but anybody with 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:50.040 about fifteen feet y'all just plan to get wet. And 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.400 then my second qualification is for the tech tech team. 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:56.359 This is the first time I've been to Elevation that 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:58.799 I actually have a title. They always have to make 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.080 up a title for me. I'm creatively challenged, but I 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:04.520 have a title. So for those of you who are 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:08.440 enneagram ones or threes or eights, y'all are note takers, 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:12.560 I know you are. Heaven forbid. Here's the title. The 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:17.320 title for our message this morning is Mick Jagger was wrong. 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:22.600 You with me? Mick Jagger was wrong. I'll explain that 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.400 in a minute. I even have a secondary title, Bruce 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:32.280 Springsteen was right. Mick Jagger was wrong. Bruce Springsteen was right. Now, 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.800 for those of you gen zers who don't know who's 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.320 Sir Jagger or the Boss who they are, y'all need 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:44.320 to rectify your spotify because they're two of the best. 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:48.760 But theologically Mick Jagger was wrong, and light of that title, 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:51.400 we probably need to pray before we dive into God's word. 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.880 And so since we've loosened up a little bit on 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:57.480 the restrictions, and y'all are sitting next to your beloved, 0:03:57.520 --> 0:03:59.600 reach out and touch them. If they're not your beloved, 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:03.480 don't grow. But let's pray. Those of y'all who are 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:06.560 listening to this online and you're driving, please don't close 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:13.680 your eyes while you pray. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, King 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:16.160 of Kings, Lord of Lords, the Lion and the Lamb, 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:23.719 the Lily of the Valley, Mighty God, wonderful counselor Messiah, Oudai, 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:31.400 the Christ, the Anointed One. Jesus. Thank you for your mercy, 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.719 Thank you for your compassion, Thank you for your accessibility. 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:40.520 Thank you that what we saying was not just inspirational. 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:44.240 Thank you that you actually do meet all of our 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:48.960 needs according to your riches and your glory. Thank you 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:51.359 that you stick closer than a brother. Thank you that 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:54.080 we can cast all our anxiety on you because you 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:57.960 care for us. Thank you, Jesus that when you ascended 0:04:58.000 --> 0:04:59.600 into heaven is sit at the right hand of God 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:03.640 the Father, you did not leave us as orphans. That 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:07.679 even during those seasons when we feel missed or marginalized, 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:11.760 your presence is palpable. Thank you that when we look 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:14.159 back over our lives we don't see you are back, 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.920 that you are present, that you left us your holy Spirit, 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:21.599 who even this morning reminds us that we have the 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:25.000 right to call the God who breathe the universe into existence. Dad. 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:29.479 Thank you, Thank you, thank you, and thank you for 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:33.799 your word. As Chris said, we need it. Lord. Sometimes 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:37.440 we forget it's a love story. We forget that we 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.480 can find ourselves on these paper thin pages, and we 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:42.920 can find over and over and over and over again 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:47.400 that you're a God who condescends to embrace his people. 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:50.680 That you're not a far away, unibrowed librarian. You're an 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:57.640 up close, personal, compassionate savior. Jesus, we ask for more 0:05:57.680 --> 0:05:59.400 of you this morning. We asked that you would give 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:03.200 us eyes to see more clearly and ears to hear 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:09.479 louder and hearts that would really believe, really believe that 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:15.240 you love us, Teach us what it is to know that, 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:17.800 to rest in that, to live out of that reality. 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:20.520 We ask these things Jesus, by the power and authority 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:23.680 of your name, and we ask it for your purposes. 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:31.279 A men and a men. I feel so close to 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:34.520 y'all and so affectionate with y'all because you have become 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.360 like a family of cousins for me, Holly has become 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:40.360 just a dear, dear friend. I don't like standing next 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:43.320 to her because her waist is about the size of 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:46.039 my ankle. But other than not wanting to stand in 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:50.400 close physical proximity, I love Holly, and so I feel 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:53.000 safe enough to tell y'all a story that I have 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:58.080 never told before publicly, because it's a story that is, well, 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:00.920 it's just a little too revelatory. It's about one of 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:05.960 my most recent blind dates gone horribly awry. For those 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:08.560 of you who've been here before, you might remember that 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:11.720 I'm old and single. I'm fifty seven, My husband is 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:16.080 lost and won't stop to ask for directions, and do 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:19.520 you have a daughter? By the miraculous kindness of God, 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:21.680 I got to bring my baby girl home from Haiti 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:24.560 the year I turned fifty and she was four, so 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:26.560 I went through menopause and motherhood at the same time. 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:31.160 But we don't have a baby daddy, and so I 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:33.080 actually told her one day. I was teasing with her 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:35.600 and we were talking about prayer request, and I said, baby, 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:37.840 it's okay for us to pray for a baby daddy. 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:39.960 I said, you know, God brought you to me, but 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:42.120 it'd be cool if we had a daddy with skin 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:45.080 on in our house. And she went right to her 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:47.880 little Christian school and gave that as a prayer request, 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.320 got met in the drive through pickup line by the headmaster, 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:55.840 who was not at all pleased that I told a 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:59.040 kindergartener to make her prayer request. I need a baby daddy, 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:03.240 so anyway, be careful, be careful who you use that 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:08.800 terminology with. But I've gotten so content that I really 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:12.120 have kind of stopped even thinking much about marriage. And 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:14.640 part of it is I lost all my estrogen after menopause, 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.120 so it's just like life for the most part, is 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:19.840 really good, except I can't wear pants with zippers anymore. 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:23.320 And so I was explaining this to a friend recently. 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:27.080 I was telling her how excited I was because I've 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:30.640 been dreaming about a John Deere tractor for about fifteen years. 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.040 We live out in the country south of Nashville. I 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:35.840 got a little tiny farmat five acres, and I've just 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.760 been jones in for John Deere and I finally found 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.760 one that was used on sale, and I was just 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:45.079 so fired up about this John Deere tractor. So I'm 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:47.400 telling this friend of mine, who's much more mature in 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:49.400 her walk of faith, of how I just I feel 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:52.600 like I'm finally content because I got my John Deere. 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:57.040 And she said, Lisa, you need help, And she began 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:00.439 to lecture me about the fact that I I wasn't 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:04.280 praying about marriage again, that that I wasn't praying for 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:06.960 a husband, And she lectured me so effectively that she 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.840 finally manipulated me into signing up for a three month 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:14.839 trial membership with a Christian online dating organization. Please hear me, 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:17.480 I'm not dissing them. I've seen the advertisements. I've seen 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:20.920 the cute couples gazing adoringly at each other. Maybe some 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:24.400 of y'all met through online dating, which is a cult, 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:28.080 but other than that, I know it can work. I 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:31.200 know it can work. And so she said the reason 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:33.760 that I wouldn't even try it was because of my pride. 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:36.160 And I thought, well, you know, my prides got me 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:38.400 in trouble before past tim and so I thought, she's 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:40.920 probably right. I'll sign up. It was only seventy nine 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:43.240 dollars for three months, and I thought, that's good. You know, 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:47.000 it's about Starbucks, you know price, I can do it. 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:50.720 So I sign up, and for some reason, I'm set 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:53.679 up with a lot of men who live in their 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:56.080 mother's basements and are unemployed. Not that there's a thing 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:59.320 wrong with that, nothing at all wrong with that, but 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:04.040 my preference would be preference, just preference would be a 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:06.480 man who who doesn't live with his mama, because we're 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:10.720 in our fifties and and you know, if he had 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:12.840 a part time job, that would be cool. And so 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:15.840 I was really excited that one of the men I 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:19.040 was matched with had had a full time job and 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:21.800 had a place he lived by himself. So I thought, 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:25.120 this is amazing. Well, we start, you know, just communicating 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:27.920 back and forth on email, and he had sent a picture, 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:30.120 but you know, we all lie on our pictures more 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:34.480 over fifty anyway, you should see my filters. Yeah, when 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:36.880 Colleen takes pictures, I'm like, please stand on a ladder 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.160 so I can you have So I'm like, you know, 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:41.000 I don't care if he doesn't have to have hair money, 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.360 as long as he you know, doesn't live with his mama. 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:47.560 And so he was super witty, and I was like, oh, man, 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:51.840 this is awesome because humor is just Humor's it for me? 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:54.920 Humor's like wits, like an aphrodisiac. I'm like, man, this 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.760 is awesome. I like this guy and ladies aim in 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:06.880 me on this. He could spell. That's amazing. I mean 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:09.199 to get a guy and guys, I love men, Please 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:11.800 hear me. I'm not trying to throw shade at y'all. 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:14.640 It's just a lot of times on email, guys are 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:17.559 less than grammatically correct. And so if you get a 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:20.200 guy who's witty and he can spell, I'm like, oh, 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:24.480 my goodness, is light Romeo with you know, amazing? And 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:26.840 so I thought, I'm kind of starting to feel myself 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:30.200 kind of lean toward this fella. And so he sent 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.040 me an email that happens in online dating. That is okay. 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:36.200 Let's move to the next step. Let's meet face to face, 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:38.319 and I was like, well, I would love to you. 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:40.400 That would be a delight. And then he sent me 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:44.839 a disclaimer. It's rather lengthy disclaimer, and I won't tell 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.320 you everything in his disclaimer, but I will tell you 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.040 he explained. And this part didn't funny, so hear me. 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:53.760 He explained that he had extreme social anxiety and so 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:56.600 he did not leave his home, that he worked from home, 0:11:57.000 --> 0:11:59.280 that he had not left his home in years except 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.360 for rare occasion, and that I mean that that's not funny. 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:04.960 That kind of broke my heart. And then he said 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:08.640 he was also very hesitant to ever leave his home 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:13.480 because he really really loved his pets. I love my pets. 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:15.480 I mean I do. I have two dogs. I don't have, 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:17.560 you know, a T shirt with air picture on it 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.000 or anything. Don't sleep with him, but I love my dogs. 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.160 I really love my dogs. And so he went on 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:24.680 to explain he loved his pets Nean thirty eight cats, 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:28.439 and I was like, well, you know, I mean, I 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:30.320 really want to be open. I don't want to be 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:35.240 too picky, but Missy, my little girl is allergic to cats, 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:38.760 and I'm very much an extrovert, and so I thought 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:42.080 to stay inside all day with that many cats, I 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.080 don't think I can do it. I don't think, you know, miss, 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:48.120 he'd be sneezing, I'd be bored. I just I don't think. 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:50.600 Probably this is a match made in heaven. But I 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:54.160 wanted to be really careful about telling this guy probably, 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:56.400 probably this isn't going to go anywhere, because I thought 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:58.280 I don't want to be unkind or say anything that 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:00.800 would be offensive to him. I was thinking about it 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:03.360 all afternoon. I was really kind of worried as to 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:06.720 how to explain to this fella. Because you don't leave 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.880 your home and because you're a catboy, it's we're probably 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:13.120 not going to connect. And I had to go to 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:15.200 my doctor because I had bronchitis and a double air 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:18.000 infection at that time, and my doctor gave me. He 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:20.480 gave me some pretty strong steroids, and then he gave 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.720 me Ambient because he said, Lisa, the steroids are going 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:25.240 to keep you from sleeping, so you're gonna have to 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:27.520 take Ambient tonight. And y'all may be able to guess 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:31.480 the rest of the story. I took Ambient. I've only 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.000 taken Ambient a few times. Last time I took ambian. 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:36.439 I am signed up for a coffee club that I 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:39.200 couldn't get out of it. It had an ironclad contract, 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:42.400 and I almost bought a condo and cabo because I 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:48.200 get real liberated when I'm on Ambient, and so I 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:51.920 took that ambient and then I forgot what I did next. 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:54.360 So I can kind of I can kind of identify 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:57.520 with people who party too much, because those few little 0:13:57.520 --> 0:13:59.680 ambients I've taken in my life have just sent me 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:03.800 right to the edge of appropriate behavior. I woke up 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:07.120 the next morning after this sweet man's missive, and I 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:09.480 woke up in a panic because my iPad was next 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.600 to me in my bed and I just had this oh, 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.360 and I thought, I think I messaged him while I 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:18.600 was ambient Loopy, and so I, just as quick as 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:22.280 I could, went to that you know, Christian online dating app, 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:24.880 and I went to my scent messages, and sure enough 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:27.680 I had messaged him the night before when I was 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:31.280 out of my mind, and I wrote him a dear 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:35.880 John letter that was that had bad grammar, and at 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:39.760 the end of the note I said, as I was 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:44.680 basically saying goodbye, I said, maybe someday I'll be able 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:49.200 to sit on your lap, y'all. I meant to write, 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:54.000 maybe someday I'll meet your cats, and I don't know. 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:57.680 To this day, I am like, I am old, have 0:14:57.760 --> 0:14:59.920 not dated him forever. I am not sleazy. I do 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:02.400 not say some things like that. It was some kind 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:07.120 of horrible, ambient fueled Freudian slip. I meant to say, 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:10.600 maybe I would meet his cats. And when I saw 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:13.880 it there blinking on my screen, maybe someday I'll send it, 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:17.960 I just went. I just I pinnicked. I got completely 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.360 out of the dating app. I've never been on one since. 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:25.200 I was like, oh, this is just so awful, and 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:27.960 I had to tell my friend I'm never doing it again. 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:30.680 I said, I'm never It was so awkward. Maybe not 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:33.320 as awkward as you know, renting a plane to fly 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:35.320 a banner one eight hundred and five A eight please 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:39.360 call Lisa for a date, but awkward nonetheless. And I 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:42.240 said that just doesn't do it for me. I said, 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:45.000 we were sharing stuff about ourselves, but we were sharing 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:49.000 it digitally. I said, even if we had sent pictures, 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.840 they would have been filtered. I said, that's not the 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:55.200 kind of relationship that I'm craving. I want to face 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:59.160 to face relationship. I want a real relationship. I want 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.480 an authentic relationship. I want them to be able to 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:05.320 see the spanks poking out of my stretchy pants. I 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:08.480 want that kind of Guys, if you don't know what 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:11.240 they are, don't google it because you can't unsee it. 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:17.600 But I want intimacy. I want to be known. And 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:21.440 the older I get, the more I crave that With Jesus, 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:26.000 I don't want I don't want a superficial relationship with Jesus. 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:30.280 I don't want to just accrue information about Jesus. I 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:34.640 want intimacy with Jesus. If you brought your bibley, you 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:38.360 have your phone, turn to Genesis chapter one. You'll know this. 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:42.520 I've actually heard Steven preach on this multiple times. Chapter one, 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:46.560 verses twenty six and twenty seven. Then God said, let 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:50.000 us make man in our image, after our likeness, and 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:51.960 let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:54.479 and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:57.080 and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing 0:16:57.080 --> 0:16:59.440 that creeps on the earth. So God created man in 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:02.280 his own image, in the image of God. He created 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:08.040 him male and female. He created them those verses are 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:12.360 what we get the theology Imago Day from Imago Day 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:16.200 comes from two Latin words meaning image and God. And 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:20.880 what this basically means is every single one of us 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:27.359 here in South Carolina, listening online in South Africa, every Epham, 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:31.920 everybody outside of the family of God, every single human being, 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:38.919 regardless of ethnicity or gender, or age or status socioeconomically. 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:42.600 Everyone was made in God's image. They beare his thumbprint. 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:47.600 That means they are inherently worthy of dignity and respect 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:52.000 and compassion. It also means we were wired for relationship 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:54.159 because God makes it clear in Genesis One that he 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:58.080 fashioned us after himself. He's a trinitarian god. God the Father, 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:01.119 got the Son and got the Holy Spirit. Saint Augustine says, 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:05.920 only the Christian God is a perfect community unto himself, 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:08.639 and we were made in that image. That means we 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:15.919 were hard wired for relational intimacy. We were hardwired for intimacy. 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:20.240 We were not hardwired for social media. We were not 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:25.520 hardwired for distance. We were not hardwired for filters. We 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:29.520 were not hardwired to curate who we are so someone 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:33.119 else will approve. And I'm not dising social media I'm saying, 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:36.600 I think we've become content with what we were not 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:41.000 made to crave. I think we call intimacy what is 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:46.399 really merely information, both about each other and about God. A. W. 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:50.720 Tozier puts it like this. For millions of Christians, God 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:53.600 is no more real than he is denied Christians. They 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:57.000 go through life trying to love an ideal and be 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:04.000 loyal to a mere principle. R. Springsteen says it possibly better. 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:09.760 He says, everybody has a hungry heart. Everybody has a 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:15.359 hungry heart. Blaze Pascal who have a massive platonic crush 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:18.000 on and can't wake to hug in heaven. He was 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:22.600 a brilliant physicist, philosopher, and theologian in the eighteen sixteen hundreds. 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:25.800 He says it best, there is a God shaped vacuum 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.200 in the heart of each man, which cannot be satisfied 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:30.600 by any created thing, but only by God, the Father 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:35.440 made known through Jesus Christ. I'm in the latter stages 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:38.720 of a doctorate, and so I have been reading voraciously 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:41.600 because I get graded on that. And I've been reading 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:45.359 a lot of papers about the spiritual condition of post 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:50.240 post postmodern society. And one of the things that both theologians, 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:55.720 scholars and sociologists sociologists that's a hard work, socio smart 0:19:55.760 --> 0:20:01.959 people have noted is that there has been an uptick 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:07.120 in spiritual curiosity, so that in this era, I would say, 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:11.639 the modern era, there has been an increased curiosity about 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:16.200 spiritual things. The latest survey, I said, said that has 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:20.600 been increased dramatically as a result of the pandemic. Because 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:24.199 of the isolation, people are going, I want to have 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:30.560 an encounter with something or someone transcendent. But those exact 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:36.080 same polls, those exact same PhD papers and dissertations point 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:40.440 to the fact that contentment is at an all time low, 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:47.720 all time low, that most people feel missed, Most people 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:51.800 feel like, no matter how many likes I get on Instagram, 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:55.800 I still feel like nobody really knows my heart. We 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:59.080 weren't made for that, y'all. We were made for more 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:03.679 than what most of us are living in. Information about 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:09.399 God is a really, really poor substitute for intimacy with God. 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:13.720 I love this book. I built my life on this 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:17.840 inscriptated revelation. But I'm telling you, if all you know 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:21.280 is this as a rule book or a textbook or 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:27.439 an ancient tomb with morality tales. Goodness, gracious, you're not 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:29.960 going to have intimacy at its core. This is a 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:33.480 love story. At its core. This is about the compassion 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:36.119 of God. Turn to John four. I know you know 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:39.159 this story. You've read it a thousand times. If you 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:41.560 were raised half Baptists like me, you have seen it. 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:47.080 Flannel Graft John chapter four. Now when Jesus learned that 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:50.159 the Pharisees has heard, Now when Jesus learned that the 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:52.879 Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:56.399 disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:59.640 only as disciples. He loved youd and departed again for Galilee. 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:02.320 And he had to pass. That's actually not a great 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:05.000 English translation. He didn't have to pass. He chose to 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:07.840 pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:11.159 Samaria called Sikhar, near the field that Jacob given to 0:22:11.200 --> 0:22:13.800 his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, weird 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:17.080 as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:20.520 If you are comfortable writing in your bibles, those of 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:23.159 you have brick and mortar bibles, and those of you 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:26.159 who don't own a brick and mortar Bible, this is 0:22:26.200 --> 0:22:28.840 because I'm old. But let me bring an old sister 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:34.560 word to you. If your only Bible, hear me, if 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:36.560 your only Bible, because I know most of the times 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:38.680 we don't bring our Bibles to settings like this. I'm 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:41.080 so happy you have your iPads and your phones. But 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:43.719 if you don't have a brick and mortar Bible somewhere 0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:46.640 in your home, in your apartment, that's like an old 0:22:46.640 --> 0:22:51.320 man in short shorts. That's sad. You need a brick 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:54.000 and mortar Bible. And I'm telling you as an older sister, 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:56.960 those of y'all who still have tight skin and high metabolisms, 0:22:57.000 --> 0:23:01.320 there will be seasons in your life when you go 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:03.719 I got to be close to the promises to remember him. 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:06.040 I need to go back through the pages of my 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:08.959 Bible and see the notes I made in my Bible 0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:11.439 and go, oh, he was there, he was there, he 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:17.040 saw me. So no shame, no condemnation. If you're new 0:23:17.359 --> 0:23:20.000 to the Family of God, if you don't know Jesus yet, 0:23:20.040 --> 0:23:22.280 you're still just kind of circling the church wondering if 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:25.960 this is true. Please talk to somebody in your EPAM, 0:23:26.359 --> 0:23:30.560 somebody here in brick and Mortar Elevation and just say 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:32.359 I'd really love to be hooked up with a Bible, 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:35.280 because we would love to get you an actual brick 0:23:35.320 --> 0:23:38.520 and mortar book to take home with you. But if 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:43.360 you're comfortable writing those underscore underscore that Jesus was sitting 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:45.520 by the well, I'll come back to that in just 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:47.440 a minute. It was about the sixth hour. That means 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:49.840 it was blazing hot because it was the middle of 0:23:49.880 --> 0:23:52.920 a Middle Eastern day. There came a woman of Samaria 0:23:52.920 --> 0:23:54.639 to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a 0:23:54.720 --> 0:23:57.119 drink for his disciples. He had gone away to the 0:23:57.119 --> 0:23:59.280 city to get chick fil a. The Samaritan woman said 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:02.199 to him, how is that that you you asked for 0:24:02.240 --> 0:24:04.680 a drink from me, a woman from Samaria. I won't 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:06.760 go into great detail, but most of you know that 0:24:06.800 --> 0:24:11.800 Samaritans were considered half breeds in the most goodness, the 0:24:11.840 --> 0:24:16.520 most misunderstood, most demeaning way, because they were half jew 0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:22.000 and half Assyrian. When Israel was defeated and Northern Israel 0:24:22.119 --> 0:24:27.920 was carried away by the Assyrians, Assyrian warriors married Jewish 0:24:28.080 --> 0:24:31.679 widows they'd killed their husbands, and they didn't do that 0:24:31.760 --> 0:24:35.800 because they loved them. They did that to further subjugate 0:24:35.880 --> 0:24:39.880 them under water down Jewish lineage. And so a Samaritan 0:24:40.240 --> 0:24:44.479 was considered by a jew to be just way way way, 0:24:44.560 --> 0:24:47.439 way way way down on the social totem pole. And 0:24:47.520 --> 0:24:51.560 there was even mishnah. There was even application of Torah 0:24:51.720 --> 0:24:55.080 the Jewish Bible that said, if you have a Samaritan 0:24:55.080 --> 0:24:57.679 in your home for a meal, you've heaped coals of 0:24:58.040 --> 0:25:03.400 judgment on your family's head. So the persecution of Samaritans 0:25:03.080 --> 0:25:08.000 was like the persecution of some persecuted people groups we've 0:25:08.000 --> 0:25:10.560 seen in our era. So this woman saying, how in 0:25:10.560 --> 0:25:12.040 the world would a guy like you talk to a 0:25:12.080 --> 0:25:14.840 girl like me? And Jesus answered, if you knew the 0:25:14.840 --> 0:25:16.840 gift of God verse ten, and who is it that 0:25:16.960 --> 0:25:18.560 is saying, do you give me a drink? You would 0:25:18.560 --> 0:25:22.680 have asked him and he would have given you living water. Well, 0:25:22.720 --> 0:25:26.960 they go on to have this beautiful discussion about theology, 0:25:27.040 --> 0:25:31.840 which again was highly unlikely. This is in the first century. 0:25:32.040 --> 0:25:35.520 This is the era in history that women were considered 0:25:36.400 --> 0:25:39.280 lower than a second class citizen, whether they're Samaritan or not. 0:25:39.920 --> 0:25:42.720 One of the most common rabbinic proverbs during the first 0:25:42.720 --> 0:25:48.560 century was better that tora be burned than read by 0:25:48.560 --> 0:25:52.720 a woman. Woman wasn't even allowed to engage with the 0:25:52.800 --> 0:25:56.080 Jewish Bible. Women weren't allowed in the part of synagogue 0:25:56.119 --> 0:25:59.240 where teaching happened. They could go to the other part 0:25:59.400 --> 0:26:02.520 and cross stitch and share recipes, but they couldn't be 0:26:02.640 --> 0:26:05.480 in the part where they were talking about how God 0:26:05.560 --> 0:26:09.440 loves us, how he meets all our needs. Another rabbinic 0:26:09.560 --> 0:26:13.880 proverb was thank the vow Jehovah, who did not make 0:26:13.960 --> 0:26:19.880 me a woman. And so it's highly unlikely for you 0:26:19.920 --> 0:26:23.560 to have a conversation with a Samaritan, even more unlikely 0:26:24.119 --> 0:26:28.040 for a rabbi to have a theological conversation with a woman. 0:26:28.760 --> 0:26:32.840 And yet here's Jesus. He always turns culture upside down. 0:26:32.920 --> 0:26:36.800 Here's Jesus join to someone everyone else would ostracize or 0:26:36.840 --> 0:26:39.359 marginalized had it's this conversation with her, and y'all remember 0:26:39.440 --> 0:26:42.560 later on in John four he talks to her about worship. 0:26:43.119 --> 0:26:46.080 And I know y'all have such amazing musical worship. Here 0:26:46.160 --> 0:26:49.400 Chris could probably he could probably stand up and recite 0:26:49.480 --> 0:26:52.399 all of John four it's one of those kind of 0:26:53.560 --> 0:26:58.600 orthodox walls about worship. It's foundational. But it's even better 0:26:58.640 --> 0:27:01.359 than we read in the Black, White, and Red, because 0:27:01.359 --> 0:27:05.600 when Jesus talks to this woman about worship, do y'all 0:27:05.600 --> 0:27:07.800 remember any other facts about her besides the fact that 0:27:07.800 --> 0:27:13.000 she's a Samaritan? You'll can talk about exactly she's been 0:27:13.040 --> 0:27:17.439 married multiple times. Anybody remember exactly how many times? Five times? 0:27:17.920 --> 0:27:22.959 And what's her current living conditions living with a man 0:27:23.000 --> 0:27:26.320 who won't do her the dignity of marriage. Perhaps had cats, 0:27:26.359 --> 0:27:31.200 we don't know for sure, but she's living with a man. 0:27:32.400 --> 0:27:35.320 She's living with a man who won't marry her. Now, 0:27:35.400 --> 0:27:38.359 I've heard from my earliest memories in church, I started 0:27:38.400 --> 0:27:40.200 going to church when I was in utero. My mom 0:27:40.320 --> 0:27:42.840 was there every time the doors were open, and so 0:27:43.040 --> 0:27:45.600 from my earliest memories, I remember this story, and I 0:27:45.640 --> 0:27:49.040 remember this woman always being castigated, not for being Samaritan, 0:27:49.080 --> 0:27:53.440 but for being sleazy, because goodness gracious, I mean, it's 0:27:53.440 --> 0:27:55.639 like she got marriage mixed up with Cinco demayo im 0:27:55.640 --> 0:27:57.960 and she just gets married over and over and over again. 0:27:58.320 --> 0:28:02.440 And so she's castigated, even in modern evangelical culture, as 0:28:02.480 --> 0:28:05.359 being a woman of loose morals, y'all, we've gotten it wrong. 0:28:06.359 --> 0:28:10.359 If you study Judeo Christian history and culture in the 0:28:10.400 --> 0:28:16.080 first century, it's highly unlikely for a woman to be 0:28:16.160 --> 0:28:20.399 married twice because once a man gave a woman a 0:28:20.440 --> 0:28:24.119 certificate of divorce, it was also a label of shame. 0:28:24.720 --> 0:28:28.840 Rabbi Hellel, who preceded Jesus. He died I think five 0:28:28.920 --> 0:28:31.920 years after Jesus was born, but one of the most 0:28:31.920 --> 0:28:36.560 authoritative rabbis in Jewish history. Rabbi Hellel had such a 0:28:36.720 --> 0:28:40.960 disregard for women that he taught Jewish men it is okay, 0:28:41.040 --> 0:28:43.440 it is okay with God for you to divorce your 0:28:44.080 --> 0:28:47.160 wife if you don't like the way she cooks. That's 0:28:47.160 --> 0:28:50.360 in Mishnah. They get to divorce their wives. And once 0:28:50.400 --> 0:28:52.680 they divorce her, what that man has said to his 0:28:52.720 --> 0:28:58.440 community is she's not worth it. Pick somebody else. She's 0:28:58.640 --> 0:29:05.800 not worth it. She's been married and divorced five times. 0:29:06.600 --> 0:29:08.920 No Jewish man is going to marry a woman who's 0:29:08.960 --> 0:29:13.160 been divorced rarely once, but two times three times. There's 0:29:13.200 --> 0:29:16.120 no way. That just flies in the face of first 0:29:16.160 --> 0:29:20.640 century Jewish protocol. What modern conservative theologians assert is that 0:29:20.800 --> 0:29:24.480 not only did she not have loose morals, it's much 0:29:24.800 --> 0:29:29.440 more likely that she was beautiful with a tremendous character. 0:29:30.200 --> 0:29:34.440 That's the only thing that would justify men being willing 0:29:34.520 --> 0:29:37.360 to take the unnecessary risk, because they could have slept 0:29:37.360 --> 0:29:39.960 with her but not given her a certificate of marriage. 0:29:40.480 --> 0:29:43.400 And yet five guys said, she's worth it to me. 0:29:43.840 --> 0:29:48.280 She's worth it to me. So stop and think she's castigated. 0:29:48.880 --> 0:29:53.239 One of my favorite theologians believes we can't prove this 0:29:53.400 --> 0:29:55.760 until we get to Gloria met her, but believe she 0:29:55.800 --> 0:29:59.240 probably struggled with infertility because that was also a reason 0:29:59.400 --> 0:30:04.240 to divorce a woman. So stop and think she's been 0:30:04.320 --> 0:30:06.840 taken for test drives over and over and over again. 0:30:06.920 --> 0:30:09.240 Can you imagine at twelve when she got married the 0:30:09.280 --> 0:30:12.440 first time, which was common in their culture, and so 0:30:12.720 --> 0:30:14.760 for the first time in front of her friends and family, 0:30:14.840 --> 0:30:18.960 she says, I do. There's no way she would think 0:30:19.560 --> 0:30:23.600 at thirty, I'm going to have been married five times 0:30:24.440 --> 0:30:26.360 and then I'm going to be living on the outskirts 0:30:26.400 --> 0:30:30.640 of men with a guy who drinks and beats me, 0:30:31.480 --> 0:30:35.080 because otherwise I would starve or else be sold as 0:30:35.120 --> 0:30:38.600 a slave. There's no way she considered that her lot 0:30:38.720 --> 0:30:43.560 in life. It's so interesting how other people's assumptions often 0:30:43.600 --> 0:30:46.800 cause us to step back from not only intimacy with 0:30:46.840 --> 0:30:50.840 each other, but intimacy with God. This woe is completely 0:30:51.120 --> 0:30:56.000 completely ostracized. She's at the well heat of the day. 0:30:56.160 --> 0:30:58.239 We know all those parts of the story. We just 0:30:58.280 --> 0:31:00.720 didn't know that she may be innocent of the gossip 0:31:00.720 --> 0:31:05.840 that has milinded her. Jesus engages with her. He has 0:31:05.880 --> 0:31:10.520 an intimate conversation with her. He doesn't give her a 0:31:10.560 --> 0:31:14.720 meme that's, you know, inspirational. He doesn't give her a 0:31:14.800 --> 0:31:20.680 WWJD bracelet. They have an intimate conversation and he talks 0:31:20.680 --> 0:31:24.280 with her about worship. Y'all, there are ten words in 0:31:24.320 --> 0:31:28.120 the Greek translated into the word worship. Ten words in 0:31:28.200 --> 0:31:34.600 the Greek Jesus, Jesus one. It's pross cnuo, so often 0:31:34.680 --> 0:31:38.400 translated in Bibles as to bow down, But it's better 0:31:38.440 --> 0:31:44.480 than that. Pross in Greek means to move toward anybody. 0:31:44.520 --> 0:31:52.240 Guess what qunua means means to kiss, means to kiss. 0:31:52.720 --> 0:31:58.520 Stop and think about her story. She's been married five times. 0:31:59.560 --> 0:32:03.600 Every time she hopes, maybe he'll see beyond my flaws. 0:32:05.120 --> 0:32:07.960 Maybe even if I can't have a baby this time, 0:32:08.440 --> 0:32:12.600 he'll still say I belong to him. He'll still love me. 0:32:12.960 --> 0:32:15.560 Maybe if I burn his burrito, he won't kick me 0:32:15.640 --> 0:32:19.760 to the curb. Maybe, just maybe this love will last. 0:32:20.360 --> 0:32:24.080 And it never does. And she finds herself dried up 0:32:24.240 --> 0:32:27.080 in her thirties on the outskirts of town, and she 0:32:27.120 --> 0:32:32.320 meets this man named Yashua, and he looks into her eyes. 0:32:33.400 --> 0:32:38.640 He doesn't ignore, he's not condescending to her, and then 0:32:38.720 --> 0:32:42.200 he essentially says, if you'll move toward me with your kisses, 0:32:42.720 --> 0:32:47.640 you won't be thirsty for affection anymore. So intimate. It's 0:32:47.720 --> 0:32:52.560 so intimate we tend to read scripture as punitive. God 0:32:52.800 --> 0:32:59.840 is holy, perfectly holy. He gives us parameters for holy lives. 0:33:00.080 --> 0:33:03.280 I give Missy parameters. When I first brought her home 0:33:03.320 --> 0:33:06.440 from Haiti, I told her that she had to hold 0:33:06.480 --> 0:33:09.479 my hand when we're in the target parking lot. And 0:33:09.520 --> 0:33:11.560 I said, baby, you have to hold my hand because 0:33:11.600 --> 0:33:14.960 you're little, and so when other cars drive past, they 0:33:15.040 --> 0:33:18.560 can't see you, and so if you're not holding my hand, 0:33:18.960 --> 0:33:22.600 they could run over you accidentally, and you would be 0:33:22.640 --> 0:33:27.000 a pancake. And she said, oh, what a pancake, mama. 0:33:27.240 --> 0:33:29.600 And so I took her home that night and I 0:33:29.680 --> 0:33:33.600 made pancakes for dinner and I flipped a pancake under 0:33:33.640 --> 0:33:36.520 her plate. She's like her mama. She loves her some carbs. 0:33:37.280 --> 0:33:39.760 And as she was eating that pancake, I said, baby, 0:33:40.080 --> 0:33:44.479 that is a pancake. And that's what you'll look like 0:33:44.600 --> 0:33:49.160 if you don't hold my hand. Walking into target, I said, 0:33:49.240 --> 0:33:51.720 you'll get flat and she said I'll get flat and 0:33:51.760 --> 0:33:53.440 I said you will and she said, well, I get 0:33:53.480 --> 0:33:56.840 dead and I said you will. Was that being a hateful, 0:33:56.920 --> 0:34:00.480 cruel mama? No, I love that kid than I can 0:34:00.480 --> 0:34:04.000 wrap words around. I love her more than I knew 0:34:04.000 --> 0:34:06.920 I had the capacity love. God changed the topography of 0:34:06.960 --> 0:34:10.560 my heart through becoming her mama. I adore this child, 0:34:10.840 --> 0:34:15.359 but I am determined to keep her safe. I'm going 0:34:15.400 --> 0:34:18.240 to protect her. I want her to live her best life. 0:34:18.360 --> 0:34:22.719 We are not created by a unibrow librarian who's just 0:34:22.840 --> 0:34:25.239 waiting to step out of heaven and smack us over 0:34:25.239 --> 0:34:28.399 the head with a Bible. We were created by an 0:34:28.560 --> 0:34:35.360 up close, personal redeemer who longs for real relationship with us. 0:34:35.760 --> 0:34:39.920 You know, when John explains that she's the first, the 0:34:40.080 --> 0:34:44.759 very first evangelists to instigate a citywide revival. That's in 0:34:44.840 --> 0:34:47.920 verse thirty nine. Many Samaritans from that town believed in 0:34:48.000 --> 0:34:52.440 him because of the woman's testimony, So the whole town 0:34:52.760 --> 0:34:57.040 is changed by her testimony. And then John says that 0:34:57.120 --> 0:35:00.960 she says, he told me everything I ever did. Do 0:35:01.040 --> 0:35:04.640 you think she said that with her head bowed in shame. 0:35:05.440 --> 0:35:08.640 It was amazing because he knew what I knew. That's 0:35:08.680 --> 0:35:12.560 how we tend to think God relates to us. That 0:35:12.640 --> 0:35:15.880 he goes Lisa, I know sometimes in your singleness, you've 0:35:15.920 --> 0:35:18.080 had naughty thoughts and you're tempted to watch sex in 0:35:18.120 --> 0:35:23.600 the city. That's not how he relates to me. That's 0:35:23.640 --> 0:35:30.239 not at all. He is holy, and he even disciplines 0:35:30.280 --> 0:35:32.279 me because I need it, But he does it with 0:35:32.520 --> 0:35:37.160 such kindness. He puts his hands on the side of 0:35:37.239 --> 0:35:41.880 my face and he says, look at me, I what 0:35:42.120 --> 0:35:46.400 you crave. You think that guy on some social media 0:35:46.560 --> 0:35:49.760 site if he said I'm okay, you're a little fluffy 0:35:50.120 --> 0:35:52.879 and you're old, but I'll marry you and i'll love 0:35:52.920 --> 0:35:56.400 your daughter, you think that would satisfy you. Honey, It 0:35:56.440 --> 0:36:00.879 won't because you were made for more than that. If 0:36:00.880 --> 0:36:03.680 he has a husband for me, hallelujah. If y'all have 0:36:04.080 --> 0:36:08.439 older brothers who are employed, hallelujah. But you know that's 0:36:08.480 --> 0:36:11.919 not my hope anymore. That's not my hope. My hope 0:36:12.000 --> 0:36:15.600 is intimacy with Jesus. I want to be able to say, 0:36:15.719 --> 0:36:21.239 like this woman, he knows everything about me, and he 0:36:21.520 --> 0:36:26.680 loves me unconditionally. When you reveal your sin to Jesus, 0:36:26.719 --> 0:36:29.960 it's not because he doesn't already know it. It's for 0:36:30.040 --> 0:36:34.120 our good. It's for our healing. When we reveal our 0:36:34.200 --> 0:36:38.000 sin to him and he goes, I know, honey, I know. 0:36:38.080 --> 0:36:41.720 We go Oh, he still loves me, and he knows 0:36:42.040 --> 0:36:47.520 that Jesus knows us completely and yet still loves us unconditionally. 0:36:47.600 --> 0:36:50.840 Turned to the end of the book to John chapter 0:36:50.920 --> 0:36:55.080 twenty one to bring you up to speed those of 0:36:55.120 --> 0:36:57.799 you who haven't heard this story. Peter, who is one 0:36:57.840 --> 0:37:00.440 of the original twelve Disciples. He's the one I identify 0:37:00.520 --> 0:37:04.520 with the most because he's always stepping in it, always 0:37:04.600 --> 0:37:08.000 make mistakes, always doing stuff before he prays about it. 0:37:08.080 --> 0:37:11.919 He is just like caffeinated ad d and this close 0:37:11.960 --> 0:37:13.920 to being a prodigal. Every day of his life just 0:37:15.000 --> 0:37:18.720 a stinker for Jesus. And I love that the stories 0:37:18.760 --> 0:37:21.200 we read, y'all, these are not perfect paleo kind of 0:37:21.200 --> 0:37:24.560 spiritual people. I mean, there are people who eat too 0:37:24.600 --> 0:37:27.080 much sugar and who struggle and sometimes say bad words 0:37:27.080 --> 0:37:30.520 in traffic. And I'm not justifying sin. Sin separates us 0:37:30.520 --> 0:37:32.520 from God. If sin was no big deal, Jesus could 0:37:32.520 --> 0:37:35.160 have just done attention. Sin is a big deal, But 0:37:36.440 --> 0:37:38.960 his grace is greater still. He's a kind God, He's 0:37:39.000 --> 0:37:43.480 a good God. Y'all remember the story. You remember the story. 0:37:43.560 --> 0:37:46.319 You remember that Peter throws Jesus under the bus at 0:37:46.320 --> 0:37:50.799 the point of Jesus' most urgent, poignant need. It's just 0:37:51.080 --> 0:37:54.920 prior to the cross. And first Pete falls asleep outside 0:37:54.960 --> 0:37:59.120 the garden of Guessimone, and then Peter denies that he 0:37:59.239 --> 0:38:02.239 even knows Jesus. He's afraid he's going to get caught 0:38:02.320 --> 0:38:04.000 up in the uproar and maybe he's going to be 0:38:04.320 --> 0:38:06.960 martyred as well. And he panics and he goes, no, 0:38:07.040 --> 0:38:08.319 I don't know the man. I don't know the man 0:38:08.360 --> 0:38:11.680 three times, and then he throws in expletives to convince 0:38:11.719 --> 0:38:16.120 the crowd. Y'all know this well, the next time he 0:38:16.200 --> 0:38:21.560 meets Jesus after throwing Jesus under the bus. Basically, it's 0:38:21.560 --> 0:38:24.600 the coolest story because the first time Peter meets Jesus, 0:38:24.880 --> 0:38:28.319 he's fishing, doesn't catch any fish. It's repeated, it's it's 0:38:28.480 --> 0:38:31.840 the exact daja vous moment. It's so sweet. He's fishing 0:38:32.080 --> 0:38:35.120 same light. John calls it Sea of Tiberius for political reasons. 0:38:35.160 --> 0:38:37.920 It's the Sea of Galilee Lake. Gonna see it. Pete's 0:38:37.920 --> 0:38:40.840 back out on a boat. He's fishing, hasn't caught anything. 0:38:41.320 --> 0:38:44.759 A stranger appears on the shore and says, have you 0:38:44.800 --> 0:38:47.640 caught any fish? And he says, nope, not a one. 0:38:47.719 --> 0:38:49.400 He says, throw your nets to the right side of 0:38:49.400 --> 0:38:52.600 the boat. Same exact thing as Luke five. They throw 0:38:52.600 --> 0:38:54.560 the nuts the right side of the boat. Fish begin 0:38:54.640 --> 0:38:57.239 a catapult into the net. I mean, Pete, even as 0:38:57.280 --> 0:39:00.520 slow as he was, you know, Pete went. This feels familiar. 0:39:01.160 --> 0:39:05.839 Something about this feels familiar. And then he recognizes it's Jesus. Now, 0:39:05.880 --> 0:39:09.640 remember the context, Remember the context. Last time he saw 0:39:09.680 --> 0:39:16.239 his savior, he has betrayed him horrifically. This is the 0:39:16.239 --> 0:39:18.000 next time. It's a week and a half later, only 0:39:18.040 --> 0:39:21.319 a week and a half. You'd think that Pete would go, 0:39:21.719 --> 0:39:24.160 I need to back the bus up. I need to 0:39:24.160 --> 0:39:26.080 get in a twelve step program. I need to go 0:39:26.120 --> 0:39:28.239 to John mac twell conference. I mean, I need to 0:39:28.280 --> 0:39:33.440 get myself to gether before I engage again with Jesus. 0:39:33.440 --> 0:39:37.440 That's not what he does. Instead, he dives out of 0:39:37.480 --> 0:39:40.560 the boat. Scholars tell us they're only about one hundred 0:39:40.600 --> 0:39:42.920 yards from shore. I mean, he could have waited two 0:39:42.960 --> 0:39:45.799 or three minutes, but he doesn't. He can't wait to 0:39:45.880 --> 0:39:49.920 get up close to Jesus, even though he's carrying horrific betrayal. 0:39:50.360 --> 0:39:52.239 But he knows what he'll find with the fee of Jesus. 0:39:52.280 --> 0:39:54.880 He knows he'll find mercy because he's spent three years 0:39:54.920 --> 0:39:57.640 with Jesus, even though he totally messed up. He knows 0:39:57.640 --> 0:40:01.000 he'll find mercy he gets to Jesus. You remember the story, 0:40:01.120 --> 0:40:03.840 Jesus eats a fish to show it really is me. 0:40:03.920 --> 0:40:06.440 I'm not a mirage. And then they have a conversation. 0:40:06.520 --> 0:40:08.880 Do you remember the last conversation, Pete, how with Jesus. 0:40:09.600 --> 0:40:14.400 It's when I was real familiar conversations in church, Jesus 0:40:14.440 --> 0:40:18.799 says to Peter John twenty one, He says to him 0:40:19.760 --> 0:40:23.239 when they had finished breakfast, Simon's son of John, do 0:40:23.280 --> 0:40:25.919 you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord, 0:40:25.960 --> 0:40:28.279 you know that I love you. He said to him, 0:40:28.320 --> 0:40:31.200 Feed my lambs, he said to him. Second time, Simon, 0:40:31.880 --> 0:40:34.800 son of John, do you love me? Said to him, yes, Lord, 0:40:34.880 --> 0:40:37.440 you know that I love you. He said, feed my sheep. 0:40:37.480 --> 0:40:40.680 He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, 0:40:40.800 --> 0:40:43.279 do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said 0:40:43.280 --> 0:40:45.280 it the third time? Do you love me? And he said, Lord, 0:40:45.400 --> 0:40:50.160 you know everything, You know that I love you. Now 0:40:50.239 --> 0:40:55.840 y'all have heard why Jesus posed the question three times? 0:40:56.280 --> 0:40:59.640 Why have y'all heard Jesus pose that question three times? 0:41:01.560 --> 0:41:06.280 Talk about louder exactly because he denied him three times. 0:41:06.280 --> 0:41:09.000 We're almost always taught that it's kind of a biblical 0:41:09.120 --> 0:41:12.319 quid pro quo that because Pete denied him three times, 0:41:12.440 --> 0:41:16.640 Jesus kind of resets Peter's faith by asking the quote, Oh, y'all, 0:41:16.719 --> 0:41:20.480 it's so much better than that. We cried at Superico 0:41:20.640 --> 0:41:22.680 last night talking about the love of Christ over this 0:41:22.719 --> 0:41:25.920 one passage that we tend to miss so often. We 0:41:26.000 --> 0:41:30.480 miss the compassion in God's word. The first time, Jesus 0:41:30.600 --> 0:41:33.799 asked Peter the question on the heels of one of 0:41:33.800 --> 0:41:36.759 the world's biggest betrayals. He says, Simon, son of John 0:41:36.760 --> 0:41:41.680 and Pete, do you aga payo me? Three words in 0:41:41.680 --> 0:41:44.360 the Greek for love. Aga payoh means sacrificial love. You 0:41:44.400 --> 0:41:48.080 love him more than anything? Fialao is a brotherly kind 0:41:48.080 --> 0:41:50.560 of facebook friend kind of love. And then eiros is 0:41:50.600 --> 0:41:53.680 what I never get to experience. That's a frisky kind 0:41:53.680 --> 0:41:58.680 of love. And so Jesus says to Peter, Peter, do 0:41:58.760 --> 0:42:01.759 you aga payem? We just translate them all love. It's 0:42:01.880 --> 0:42:04.480 so much better, It's so much more intimate. Do you 0:42:04.520 --> 0:42:06.680 I could pay me? Do you love me more than anything? 0:42:06.760 --> 0:42:10.440 Pete says, Lord, you know me? You know I just 0:42:10.480 --> 0:42:13.680 threw you under the bus. You know I totally blew it. 0:42:14.640 --> 0:42:17.680 You know I fail you. You know I love you 0:42:17.840 --> 0:42:21.879 like a friend on my best day. That's all I've got. 0:42:22.480 --> 0:42:26.160 Second time, Jesus says Peter, do you I could pay me? 0:42:27.200 --> 0:42:28.799 Do you love me more than anything? Do you love 0:42:28.800 --> 0:42:31.239 me with a sacrificial love? Have you laid it all down? 0:42:31.280 --> 0:42:37.239 Are you living what you sing every Sunday at elevation, No, sir, no, sir. 0:42:37.280 --> 0:42:41.279 You know me, Jesus. A week and a half ago, 0:42:41.360 --> 0:42:43.560 while I was flinging the fort and telling people I 0:42:43.560 --> 0:42:47.360 had never seen you in my life. You know me, Jesus. 0:42:48.120 --> 0:42:50.160 You know how fickle my faith is. You know how 0:42:50.200 --> 0:42:52.960 many times I've messed up. You know me, Jesus. You 0:42:53.040 --> 0:42:55.719 know I flail you on my best day. All of 0:42:55.800 --> 0:42:59.200 God is a brotherly kind of love. Third time, our Savior. 0:42:59.239 --> 0:43:02.359 Don't you imagine Pete now, just kind of staring at 0:43:02.360 --> 0:43:06.880 his feet, you know, probably wearing chocko's and that Middle 0:43:06.880 --> 0:43:11.080 Eastern sand. He's hot, he's grimy, just staring at his feet, 0:43:11.880 --> 0:43:16.239 thinking I am the worst of the worst. And I 0:43:16.239 --> 0:43:19.200 imagine Jesus. I don't know for sure, but I always 0:43:19.200 --> 0:43:22.880 get pictures in my head when I read these true stories, 0:43:24.120 --> 0:43:28.320 and I imagine Jesus grinning, and I imagine him taking 0:43:28.440 --> 0:43:32.000 his hands that have recently had spikes driven through the wrist, 0:43:32.560 --> 0:43:35.160 and I imagine him just taking that rough fisherman by 0:43:35.200 --> 0:43:40.920 the face and tilting his attention up toward him, looking 0:43:41.040 --> 0:43:44.920 deep into his eyes, those eyes that at that point thought, 0:43:44.960 --> 0:43:48.480 no one's ever gonna look into my soul again, because 0:43:48.520 --> 0:43:53.719 all they'll find his failure and Jesus saying, Pete, do 0:43:53.800 --> 0:43:58.080 you filail me? Peter goes Lord you you know me, 0:43:59.280 --> 0:44:05.160 and jesusays no, I know you and Peter right now, 0:44:05.160 --> 0:44:09.080 that's enough. I'm not kicking you off the team. I'm 0:44:09.160 --> 0:44:11.920 naming you team captain. I'm going to build a new 0:44:11.920 --> 0:44:18.560 Testament Church on your shoulders. Peter, I know you, and 0:44:18.600 --> 0:44:23.919 I love you. I love everything about you. Y'all, we've 0:44:23.960 --> 0:44:31.240 been deluded into thinking that our performance activates and accelerates 0:44:31.520 --> 0:44:37.640 intimacy with Jesus, and it doesn't. Intimacy with Jesus is 0:44:37.800 --> 0:44:43.200 not accelerated. It's not activated by our performance, by our 0:44:43.200 --> 0:44:49.320 deservedness or lack thereof. It's his kindness. He closes the gap, 0:44:49.880 --> 0:44:53.799 He pursues us. Most of what it takes to have 0:44:53.880 --> 0:44:59.120 intimacy with Jesus is just recognizing you can't make it 0:44:59.120 --> 0:45:03.000 by yourself. One of the reasons I love Peter so 0:45:03.120 --> 0:45:07.720 much is my faith has been solidified in failure. Twelve 0:45:07.760 --> 0:45:11.279 years ago, I lost everything that mattered to me two 0:45:11.400 --> 0:45:15.280 primary relationships, one to death, and I was diagnosed with cancer, 0:45:15.360 --> 0:45:18.680 which at first looked very serious, all in the same week, 0:45:19.880 --> 0:45:22.600 and I've always been one of those girls who preaches grace, 0:45:22.680 --> 0:45:24.600 but I don't really believe it. For myself, it's been 0:45:24.640 --> 0:45:26.759 like what soap. It's been hard for me to hang 0:45:26.800 --> 0:45:29.560 on too, and so I talk about it. I can 0:45:29.640 --> 0:45:31.560 thrown across the cup about it. I can even give 0:45:31.560 --> 0:45:35.319 you the Greek about it. But I am in the 0:45:35.440 --> 0:45:39.120 corner of my heart thought that I definitely wasn't good 0:45:39.200 --> 0:45:41.759 enough for God, and I actually wondered if God was 0:45:41.880 --> 0:45:44.240 enough for me. I thought, if I don't have somebody 0:45:44.280 --> 0:45:47.880 with skin on, I'm not really sure I can make it. 0:45:47.360 --> 0:45:51.560 And I lost hope and I got to a point 0:45:51.600 --> 0:45:56.520 of such deep desperation disappointment. I lived in a little 0:45:56.560 --> 0:46:00.279 cottage south of Nashville by myself that I remember waking 0:46:00.360 --> 0:46:04.600 up one morning and thinking, I've got Ambien from a 0:46:04.680 --> 0:46:08.080 time I was sick. I'm going to take to Mbian. 0:46:08.200 --> 0:46:10.560 Not because I want to die. I was too afraid 0:46:10.560 --> 0:46:12.520 of the mess I'd leave behind for people. But I 0:46:12.680 --> 0:46:16.879 just can't be conscious. I just don't. I just want 0:46:17.000 --> 0:46:20.160 don't want to wake up and remember that I don't 0:46:20.160 --> 0:46:22.960 feel like anybody really knows me, and I don't feel 0:46:23.000 --> 0:46:27.200 like if they did, they'd really love me much less Jesus, 0:46:27.400 --> 0:46:31.040 and he spoke to me during that season more clearly 0:46:31.080 --> 0:46:34.239 than he has ever spoken to me. I don't know 0:46:34.280 --> 0:46:36.719 if it was an audible voice. I would by myself 0:46:37.520 --> 0:46:41.319 it certainly felt audible. But he said, Lisa, you've been 0:46:41.400 --> 0:46:46.320 running your whole life. You've been running scared your whole life. 0:46:47.960 --> 0:46:50.680 So I'm going to take you to the basement and 0:46:50.760 --> 0:46:52.760 I'm going to sit there with you in the dark 0:46:53.719 --> 0:46:58.040 until fear doesn't own you anymore. I had already been 0:46:58.080 --> 0:47:02.880 to seminary the first go around. I could pose that 0:47:02.960 --> 0:47:06.600 I had intimacy with Jesus, but most of the time 0:47:06.680 --> 0:47:10.480 that's all it was. I was running scared, and I 0:47:10.520 --> 0:47:15.520 had a lot of information about God, intimacy with God 0:47:15.600 --> 0:47:19.719 I just couldn't hang on to. And it was there 0:47:19.760 --> 0:47:23.920 in the dark. It was there, this smack dab in 0:47:23.960 --> 0:47:30.120 the middle of my failure, my ineptitude, that Jesus held me, 0:47:31.320 --> 0:47:34.640 and I learned how to be held. I learned to 0:47:34.719 --> 0:47:39.920 lean against his breath breast and quit trying to perform 0:47:40.040 --> 0:47:44.880 for his affection. Nine weeks ago, I was hospitalized with 0:47:45.200 --> 0:47:49.799 COVID and I had a very very severe pneumonia, and 0:47:49.920 --> 0:47:53.440 the first night I overheard too medical personnel. They didn't 0:47:53.480 --> 0:47:56.360 know I could hear. They thought I was unconscious. I 0:47:56.440 --> 0:47:59.160 just had my eyes closed because I was so so tired. 0:48:00.040 --> 0:48:03.320 And I overheard them lamenting the fact that they didn't 0:48:03.320 --> 0:48:06.160 think they could stabilize me. And I knew I was 0:48:06.200 --> 0:48:08.600 in trouble based on the numbers. I knew that I 0:48:08.640 --> 0:48:11.240 couldn't breathe. I didn't realize how close I was to death, 0:48:12.280 --> 0:48:20.200 and I thought, oh goodness, gracious, I'm about to die. 0:48:20.320 --> 0:48:22.400 And I'm fifty seven and I have an eleven year 0:48:22.440 --> 0:48:26.080 old daughter, and I certainly didn't want to die. But 0:48:26.239 --> 0:48:33.960 y'all the presence of Christ in my hospital room. He 0:48:34.360 --> 0:48:40.040 was palpable, and he held me again, and I wasn't 0:48:40.080 --> 0:48:47.240 afraid because leaning into him is who I am now. 0:48:47.719 --> 0:48:51.560 He's my hope, he's my breath, he's my joy, he's 0:48:51.680 --> 0:48:58.600 my love. He's the reason I get up in the morning. 0:49:01.760 --> 0:49:05.040 I've been long winded. Some people wish I didn't get 0:49:05.080 --> 0:49:09.680 my breath back after that pneumonia, and I apologize for 0:49:09.760 --> 0:49:12.439 going a little over, But I want to actually end 0:49:12.480 --> 0:49:18.000 with a question. The last thing you say was I 0:49:18.120 --> 0:49:24.880 shall not want. In Mark chapter ten, Jesus encounters a 0:49:24.920 --> 0:49:29.960 man who's been totally missed. He doesn't have intimate relationships. 0:49:30.000 --> 0:49:35.880 He's blind, he's ostracized. He's alone in the dark, and 0:49:36.040 --> 0:49:40.920 Jesus puts Easter on pause. He's walking to Easter and 0:49:41.000 --> 0:49:45.439 he stops and he says, bring him to me. He's 0:49:45.480 --> 0:49:50.120 that kind. He is that kind. He would pause everything 0:49:51.000 --> 0:49:55.560 for you. It's not a corporate grace that you're experiencing. 0:49:55.880 --> 0:50:03.000 At elevation. He sees you, he knows you, he loves you. 0:50:03.360 --> 0:50:05.799 He sings to you in the dark. You may not 0:50:06.040 --> 0:50:10.040 feel it, but he is closer than your next breath. 0:50:10.520 --> 0:50:16.759 And he says to Bartimaeus, what do you need? I 0:50:16.880 --> 0:50:21.520 shall not want. Some of are gonna sing that I 0:50:21.520 --> 0:50:24.480 am gonna walk out of service this morning, and you're 0:50:24.480 --> 0:50:28.000 gonna get in your car and you're gonna feel overwhelmed 0:50:28.040 --> 0:50:31.520 by disappointment and loneliness. You're gonna go back to your 0:50:31.560 --> 0:50:34.160 condos and your apartments, and you're gonna say, I'd love 0:50:34.200 --> 0:50:37.640 to be with a guy with cats. I'd love to 0:50:37.680 --> 0:50:41.359 have somebody who pursues me. I'm tired of carrying the 0:50:41.360 --> 0:50:45.279 weight of my life by myself. Now ask God to 0:50:45.440 --> 0:50:47.560 bow your heads and close your eyes again. If you're 0:50:47.600 --> 0:50:53.359 driving listening to this, obviously, stay alert, but I would 0:50:53.400 --> 0:50:57.480 ask you the same question, what do you need from Jesus? 0:51:00.000 --> 0:51:11.160 What do you need from Jesus? A veneer of relationship 0:51:11.239 --> 0:51:18.359 with Jesus is not going to satisfy your soul, our 0:51:18.400 --> 0:51:25.480 soul's crave intimacy. He created us that way. He created 0:51:25.560 --> 0:51:30.439 us to long to be held, to long to be 0:51:30.520 --> 0:51:37.960 seen by him, to have ongoing conversation with him every day, 0:51:39.520 --> 0:51:46.440 to walk with him. What do you need from Jesus? 0:51:51.239 --> 0:51:53.799 Thank you for joining us special thanks to those of 0:51:53.840 --> 0:51:56.839 you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of 0:51:56.880 --> 0:51:59.719 you that this ministry is possible. You can click the 0:51:59.760 --> 0:52:03.520 link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch 0:52:03.680 --> 0:52:06.960 dot org slash podcast for more information and if you 0:52:07.040 --> 0:52:10.279 enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it 0:52:10.320 --> 0:52:12.600 with your friends. You can click the share button, take 0:52:12.640 --> 0:52:15.000 a screenshot and share it on your social stories and 0:52:15.040 --> 0:52:17.879 tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God 0:52:17.920 --> 0:52:18.319 bless you