Elevation with Steven Furtick - Enough Already! (Lisa Harper)

Episode Date: July 2, 2023

You are enough. In “Enough Already!” Lisa Harper reminds us we don’t have to do anything to earn God’s love — it’s our inheritance as His sons and daughters. If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: http://ele.vc/tIepfr To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://www.elevationchurch.org/giving/ Scripture References: Genesis 48, verses 8-22 Romans 8, verses 14-17 Luke 11, verses 5-13See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these new sermons every week. I hope you're blessed today. I don't know how. Honestly, I'm flamux myself as to how I slid in to the DMs of Elevation.

I don't know how I'm shocked. I told Holly in the very beginning I thought she got me confused with either. Lisa Turkhurst who sells a lot of books or Lisa Bavir who preaches in leather pants and I thought I know but I can't or it sounds like ducks are being killed there's a lot of squeaking if I preach in leather and so I really don't know how other than pure grace that I get to be here but I am absolutely delighted I do there's there's not too many people I respect more than Pastor Holly and Pastor Steve and I love Wade and Amy, Chris, Colleen Tunis. There's just so many people at elevation who have taught me, who have modeled for me, what running hard toward Jesus looks like, what it looks like to be

enveloped in a family of faith. And so before we dive into God's Word, let me get you to reach out and touch that saint next to you. This is not rhetorical. Go ahead and touch them. Don't grope them. Just touch them. Gentlemen, I know this is real girly, so y'all don't have to interoperable. lock fingers. You can just awkwardly pinky grip at this point. Those of you joining us online at eFAM, you don't have to touch anybody. I hope you're in comfy pants. You can just undo the top button because this is a safe place to lean into Jesus. We want you to be comfortable. Would you pray for those saints on either side of you? If you're watching by yourself, pray for yourself and pray then in these next few minutes as we dive into this love letter called the Bible

that God will give us eyes to see bigger, ears that hear louder, and hearts that are pliant enough to actually receive the glorious good news that we have a perfect God who loves us unconditionally. We're the prize, y'all, we're the prize. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, thank you for this time and the space that we get to. to come together and focus our attention and our affection on you. Lord, we confess that most of us come with a lot of distraction. It takes me more, more than four or five songs to actually get my heart in a place to receive from you. Man, I wish worship had been an hour this morning.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for that promise that when we seek you with all our hearts, you will be found by us. But Jesus, I praise you even more so for that promise in Isaiah, the beginning of the book, where you say so great is your love for us that you even reveal yourself to people who aren't looking for you yet. We're undone this morning by your kindness. God, just undone. We confess, as your sons and daughters, we can't even understand scripture apart from Holy Spirit. So Holy Spirit, just have your way in this place and our hearts and our minds just plow up ground that's hard or numb or disappointed. Open our eyes.

lift our view beyond our circumstances so that we can remember this miraculous love story you you wrote us into we love you Jesus we need you Jesus we pray all these things and you're perfect and holy name Lord Jesus amen and amen speaking of sliding into elevations DMs this is called body glide it's it's a it's a it's a It's a stick. It's an anti-chafeing bomb. It's all about getting yourself slippery. And I just wanted to start with TMI because I had to wear this the last time I was in an athletic competition.

I got talked into running a 10K. And even though I'm wearing Spanx this morning, it's probably very apparent that I'm not gifted at long distance running. But a friend of mine talked to me into it because she said, Lisa, they have this amazing swag. They have really cute T-shirts. This was in Colorado. And I thought, okay, I'll line up with all these paleo people and I'll run this 10K because the t-shirts are really cute. And so before the race, she whipped out one of these body glide slides. And she said, I don't want to hurt your feelings.

But, you know, you have such gifted legs that I think that it might help you to rub this on your her thighs. She did not say or else she will be arrested for arson, but that was the implication. And so I slathered myself up with body glide. Gentleman is like, what in the Sam Hill? We're getting to the Bible. We're going to get there in just a second. So I'm all slathered up with body glide so I won't start a forest fire and the starter's pistol goes off to start this race. And I have Kodak courage. So I am up with the elite eight, like the first 200 yards of the race because everybody's cheering. But then it turns uphill and we start running up those gorgeous rocky mountains that were always meant to be skied down, not run up. I start running up those

mountains and I thought, this is horrible. Who would do this as a hobby? Who would, I mean, I can understand if you were being disciplined or this was some kind of parole thing, but people do this on purpose. And so about halfway through the race, I was like, I can't do this. I cannot do this anymore. This friction is too much. I have, I have what they call hot spots for for runners. And so I thought, I'm an old athlete. I played volleyball and tennis in college. And I thought, I just can't bring myself to quit. That just seems sissy-ish. And I can't do that. But maybe I could find a hole. And I could step in a hole and break my ankle. And then I could step off this course with some, some measure of dignity left. And so I'm searching for a hole on the race course. And all of a sudden, I hear this

really loud, swishing sound behind me. And so I look over my shoulder and y'all, there's a six-foot bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich beside me. You know how some people have so much energy when they run races that they actually wear costumes, which I'm like, really, I'm like about to crawl and cry and knock somebody over the head who has a donut who's watching the race so I can take their carb but instead these people have enough energy to have a costume the first guy had this massive foam cut out that was like wonderbread just his face is poking through running shoes just his face behind him is like this green tart piece of lettuce it was very lifelike um I wanted to eat it badly and then he's roped to a middle runner the middle runner just

just his little face is poking out from a piece of life-like American cheese, and then attached to that is three pieces of very wiggly bacon. I don't know what they made that out of. Then there's two other ropes pulling up the caboose. He's another giant piece of wonder bread, and then he's slathered with all kinds of condiments in a life-sized tomato, well more than life-sized tomato. And, I mean, it was really incredible, so creative,

this giant six foot BLT, and it was passing me. And that is a lot of wind resistance. And so that was the lowest point of my competition. I decided never, ever again would I compete in anything where I had to wear body glide. So I no longer compete in 10Ks. I don't rollerblade. I don't go to Myrtle Beach because that particular. vacation mecca, there's a lot of people there who need body glide. It's a whole lot of

rubbing going on up at Myrtle Beach and I hope I've offended you Myrtle Beachers but I was there recently and I just mentally I couldn't handle that corporate need for for some something to stop the chafing. Now I don't know if running is your nemesis or if chafing is real for you. but I do know all of us can identify with feeling like we're not quite good enough for whatever activity we've stepped into, that we don't quite meet the minimum requirement for some club, some community that we'd hoped to belong to. Feeling like we're not quite good enough, that's not just an athletic competition thing, that's a human thing. of the human condition is to feel like we're just a little bit less than acceptable.

Maybe it's that your mother-in-law always treated you like her boy could have done better. Or maybe you're the only one who doesn't know how to pronounce tobacco in your e-fam. Or maybe it's that you're in a double spanks kind of season and you hang out with a lot of keto girls. I don't know what it is, but there's just something about the human. human experience that presses on the bruise in our human psyche and causes us at some level to doubt, am I actually good enough for that? And the real danger is when we superimpose that, wondering if we're good enough onto the character of our creator, Redeemer. It's the human experience to think we don't quite measure up. It is actually not biblically defensible. It's not in this divine

Love story we call a Bible. If you brought yours, turn to Genesis 48 and I'll prove it. Genesis 48, it's about a quarter of an inch from the beginning, unless you have a Schofield Bible. We'll have it up on the screens. Genesis 48, verse 8, and this is a long one, so don't play angry birds yet. I'll read fast. When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, who are these? Now let me qualify this just a minute, because when you hear the word Israel, we forget that Israel is. synonymous for Jacob. So this is one of the patriarchs in scripture, Jacob. So when I read Israel, I might just start changing it. I love you. I might just start changing it to Jacob because same, same name. And Joseph, you all remember who Joseph is? Y'all can talk back. I'm not your pastor. He's the guy who got this really cool colored coat from H&M and his brothers got all jealous and

threw him in a hole. Remember that? And then they dragged him off as a slave. He was in Egypt. and then Pharaoh's wife was a total hoochie mama, and she accused him of sexual misconduct, and he didn't do it, but he got thrown in jail anyway. Y'all remember this guy? And then he ends up being this great leader, and God uses him to actually help his people not die of starvation, Jeremy Famine. Are you with me on the story? Okay.

So we're at the part where he's done all that. He's a grown man. He has children of his own, and he goes back to Jacob, the patriarch, with two little boys. two little boys, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born in Egypt, not in Israel. And so his dad, Jacob, the granddaddy of these little boys, Joe says to him, these are my sons whom God has given me here. And he said, bring them to me, please, that I may bless them. Now, the eyes of Jacob were dim with age so that he could not see. So he had cataracts. And Jacob, so Joe brought them near him and he kissed them and embraced them.

And Jacob said to Joe, I never expect to see your face. Because remember, they've been separated since his hateful brothers threw them in the pit and all. He says, I never expected to see your face. I never expected this reconciliation. I never expected you to come back to me. But God has let me see your offspring also.

Then Joseph removed them from his knees and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. He's so delighted to bring his boys to his father. And Joe took them both. If Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand and brought them near him. And Jacob stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands, if you've got a brick and mortar

Bible and you're comfortable writing in it, underscore that, hugely significant, even for us as modern day Christ followers. We'll get there in just a second. Crossing his hands for Manassah was the firstborn. and he blessed Joe and said the God before whom my father's Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless these boys. And in them let my name be carried on in the name of my father's Abe and Isaac

and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. When Joe saw that his dad laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him. And he took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manassus head. And Joe said to his daddy, not this way, Dad, since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head. But his father refused and said, I know my son, I know I might have cataracts, but I'm not stupid. That's not literal Hebrew. It's more message point two. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations. So, so Jacob blessed them that day, saying, bless you. Israel will pronounce blessings, saying,

make you as Ephraim and as Manassah. Thus he put Ephraim before Manassah. Then Israel said to Joe, behold, I'm about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. Moreover, I've given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amarites with my sword and with my bow. So what does that Old Testament history mean to us today? Why is it significant for us, especially for those of us who wonder how in the world could a perfect God like that fully accept? fully love a damaged woman, a damaged man like me. First of all, in this ancient culture,

they practiced the law of primogeniture, and that just means the firstborn got everything. Firstborn son got everything. The law of inheritance was the firstborn son was it. Second really was just a spare. First is the heir, second is a spare. And so what would happen is the patriarch of any family community, would bless the firstborn with his right hand. Because in Semitic culture, the right hand is the blessed

hand. The right hand is the holy hand. The right hand is the hand that you want to bless with. Left hand is considered subservient. I was just in Israel again in March. And none of my Jewish friends will greet me with their left hand. That's considered disrespectful. The right hand is the hand of blessing. That's why you will never read in scripture that Jesus sat at the left hand of God the father always the right always the right so when when joe multicolored coat guy brings his two little boys to their granddad and he says i want you to bless them dad and then jacob acrosses his arms y'all this is the only time that happens in all of scripture that's called a hapax legamon isn't that cool show that with your epham group if they're thinking you're sliding just go well i was

reading a hapax legamon it's a fancy word that means it only happens once in a corpus or in a text. You will never read this again in scripture. This is the only time you've got a patriarch crossing his arms intentionally to bless the second son instead of the first, as was their custom, as was their tradition. Joseph is so flustered by it. He's like, Dad, you messed up, you blessed the wrong kid. And he goes, no, I knew exactly what I was doing. He says, here's the deal, Joseph. I want both of them blessed. What this leads to scholars, critical scholars, call this etiology, fancy word that means this is the foundation that explains what happens later on. This is the causation of something.

This explains why Ephraim, who was the second son, becomes prominent in Israel's history. From then on, from Genesis 48, when you hear about Manassah, he's firstborn, it says, Manasseh and Ephraim. You would think they were twins. By the way, you read them in biblical narrative. And then Ephraim actually kind of gets bigger than Manasseh. Ephraim is the one where we get a lot of the leaders from in the Old Testament. Ephraim is the one when Israel splits into two nations. Y'all remember when that happened? Because we had Solomon, third kingdom of Israel, and he was a player and had way too many wives and concubines and they fought and they couldn't decide for an erudy. I'll remember this. And so it was real Jerry Springer. And so instead of Israel being

one one united nation under yahweh they split and there was northern israel and there was southern israel there were 12 tribes y'all remember who the 12 tribes came from you don't talk back jacob so it's jacob's 12 sons who make up the 12 tribes of israel those are the tribes that step over the jordan and they go into canaan they're the ones who occupy promised land there are great great great great great great great great great great great great great and then some spiritual grandmamas and granddad buddies. Well, Ephraim and Manasseh are sons of Joseph, which means technically they aren't one of the 12 tribes. They're half tribe. But do you know that after this, they're called a tribe? Technically they're not a tribe, but they're called a full-on tribe. And when Israel splits, 10 tribes go to the north, two tribes,

Judah and Benjamin go to the south where Jerusalem is. Do you know what they begin calling the north? Ephraim. The name Ephraim becomes a metonym for all the Israelites in the north. So he just gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and more prominent in Israel's history. But he's the second son. He's the spare. It's so cool, y'all. What this means for us as Christ's followers, it means there's no second best.

It means there's no JV. It means there's no lesser than it. It means if you put your hope in Jesus, we're all favorites. Every single one of us. He doesn't go, oh, you know what? It's Thanksgiving up here in glory. You've got to sit at the kitty table. Only the mature believers sit here.

That is not biblically defensible. He goes, there is now no more hierarchy. You humans have hierarchy. You humans elevate certain ethnicities, certain socioeconomic group. certain waist sizes, certain hair colors, you establish criteria for value. I don't. If you have put your hope in me, your all favorite sons. Paul continues this theme. I just love this theme. He continues it in Romans 8. Romans 8 is basically the hub of our theological wheel. As believers, you know this. Romans 8, some of y'all have Instagrammed it, but you might not know it, know it.

Romans 8, verse 14, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. That's not a gender exclusive term, by the way. Paul goes on to explain later in Galatians 3. He says, if you are in Christ, there is now no more Greek nor Jew, male, nor female, slave, nor master. So this is actually not a gender exclusive term. It's just in language at this time. It was a patriarchal society. so inheritance language was masculine, but that's not just talking about boys there. For all, that's the operative word.

For all who are led by the spirit of God or sons of God, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. Do you know Jesus is the first one in Luke 11 when he's teaching us how to pray? Prior to Jesus, the rabbis had really formal prayers. And they would approach Y'allway, God, the Father, with a title. Jesus says, no, you get to approach him as dad. Your sons, your firstborn, you get to approach him as dad, Abba, father, dad. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs, underscore that, y'all. Fellow heirs.

Your translation might say co-hears. with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified in him. Colossians 1 tells us that Jesus is the firstborn of all creation. He blows William the Prince of Wales away. He's not just the firstborn in UK royalty. He is the firstborn of all creation. He is the definitive heir, the definitive firstborn. And here Paul says you're his co-heirs. You raggedy, broke down, prone to shave, prone to wander, people. You are co-ares. The Greek term there is

Sune-clay Rannamos. Sune-clay Ramanos, it means we are properly entitled to inherit every single thing Jesus inherits. Properly entitled to inherit everything. J'all, that should blow your doors. Properly entitled to inherit. So Jesus doesn't say, hey, Dad, I've got a friend. I mean, I know they're kind of broke down. Another kind of ratchet, but I got to know them in Charlotte. And can we just invite them in them? And they can stay like, they can stay in the basement. That's not it. We sit right next. to Jesus at the banqueting table of God. The Father, it's stunning.

Our access is stunning. We're not less than adopted children. We're co-ares. Missy and I were at a Christmas event last year. And a man who has since become a friend, a messianic rabbi from Israel, was at this event in Nashville. We were teaching him how to talk right and eat biscuits. And he watched Missy and I for a long time. And then he called me over and he said, Lisa, do you understand the distinction between adoption in America and adoption in a Jewish culture, especially a biblical Jewish culture?

And I said, I don't think so. And he said, well, in my culture, and especially in the context of biblical narrative, a parent could do. inherit a biological child. Could disinherent a biological child. But it is illegal, if you're an Orthodox Jew, to disinherit an adopted child. He said, we don't even realize how significant it was when Joseph went with Mary to have the first born sacrifice made. A week after baby Jesus was born, you read this in Luke 2. That's where Simeon sings over Jesus and says, this is the Savior.

This is a man you have been waiting for all this time. That's where Anna, remember she was waiting there for almost 100 years. Simeon's old. I always imagine her back in the bathroom, like filling the paper towel dispensers. And she knows Simeon. They're really close friends from the Jewish retirement home across the street from the temple. They're both big volunteers in the temple, been there for decades. And she hears Simeon warbling, and she's back for filling the paper towel dispenser.

And she thinks, oh, no, he's broken his hip again. And she goes running or kind of wobbling into temple. and she looks up and she sees these teenagers and the boy has a pigeon squawking in his backpack. Mary and Joe were poor. They couldn't afford a normal sacrifice. So they brought a pigeon. And they've got a baby boy. And Simeon is holding this baby boy. And Simeon's face is lit up like a Christmas tree. And he says, this is the one. And this is the one we've been waiting for all these. did this, this is the Christ. This is Emmanuel. My friend Samuel said, Lisa, when that happened, when Joseph voluntarily went to temple and said,

this is my firstborn, what he was saying is, this one gets my full inheritance. Even though I'm technically the stepdad, I didn't get Mary pregnant. Technically, I'm the stepdad. This is my son. And every single thing I have I'm given to this boy. He said, that's what we have. When it says we're co-hears with Christ, we're co-hears with Christ, we get everything he gets. That is so hard for me to understand. It's become a little more tangible now that I'm a mom myself.

I became a mom through the miracle of adoption the year I turned 50. I was really broke down probably all the chafing in my 20s and 30s. And I was really afraid of intimacy. I didn't get married in my 20s and 30s. I was really drawn to abusers. God protected me from the men. I was most drawn to you. And this is, of course, pre-online dating, which that's been a train wreck for me too.

I won't go there. but the few good godly guys I dated, God protected them for me because I was just crippled with shame. Even though I knew Jesus, I knew them as my Savior. I didn't know him as my liberator in my 20s and 30s. And by the way, when I hear babies, I love the sound of babies in church. Don't worry about a baby. When I see people in church give dirty looks to parents or grandparents or aunties or uncles with babies, I always pray the people, given the dirty looks, would get hives. Because I'm like, Lord, have mercy. If ever we should celebrate babies.

But to get to have my story redeemed, to get to become a mom at the age of 50 through the miracle of adoption after my little girl's first mama died in Haiti, I just feel like I'm still in the honeymoon season of how God restored that part of my story. And getting to be Missy's mom. getting to be Mrs. Mom has helped me understand more about being a child of God, head backwards to Luke's gospel. I love Luke's gospel. Luke is the only known non-gentile author of Scripture. He wrote the gospel according to Luke and the acts of the apostles. And he was an outlier. He was not a Jew, all of the other authors of Holy Writ are Jews. We've got a few books that are formally classified as anonymous,

but most of them were written by Jews. And so Luke, as a Gentile, knew what it was to wonder if he fit, that he actually didn't meet the minimum requirement for an author of a Ewan Gellion, a gospel. And so his stories are just riddled with compassion and with the idea of what it means to be close. to this God who calls us his children. And this story, this story that Jesus tells in Luke 11, you know, half of his sermon material was parabolic. It was story. This story he tells just

slays me. Begins in verse 5. He's taught them how to pray. And then Jesus said to them, he's talking to the disciples, which of you has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three lows. This is Luke 11, verse 6. For a friend of mine, has arrived in a journey and I have nothing to set before him and he will answer from within, do not bother me. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence. Again, if y'all are comfortable writing in your Bible underscore that one, that is such an interesting word. This too is a hapex ligamon. This is the only

time this particular word is used anywhere in the Bible. The Greek of that English word is anadia. And it's this audaciousness. Anytime you read about this in history, Josephus talks about it a lot, he was first century historian, and he always uses it in the pejorative sense. So he says, because the neighbor is so audacious in his banging, the dad eventually rises and gives him what he needs. Verse eight, verse nine. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find knock, and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives, and the one who seeks fines, and the one who knocks, it will be opened? What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish, give him a serpent? Or if he asked for an egg, we'll give him

a scorpion. And if you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children? How much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? I grew up half-baptist My mom is Baptist of the bone. My dad's Pentecostal, so I'm Bapticoastal, which means I want to dance, but I have no rhythm. And I've seen almost all of these stories flannel graft. I've heard that story in Luke 11. I bet I've heard that preach. Oh, I don't know, Holly a thousand times. You have to. I'm sure you've preached it before. I've seen it flannel graft. I mean, I thought I knew every nuance to that story as horrifically as that sounds. And then in a seminary class, I'm finishing up a doctorate at Den Sem. I heard one of the the he's considered the foremost authority on the parables dr craig blomber preach on this particular passage and i was just undone by his application one of my other favorite theologians living one

anyway i love all the dead guys but dr craig keener is alive and kicking at osbury seminary in kentucky and dr craig keener says this if you get out of the bible what you're expecting to get out of the bible you need to change your expectations it's always bigger it's always better I thought that story in Luke 11 was about prayer. I thought it was about persistence in prayer, because the takeaway is always ask, seek, knock. And Dr. Blomberg said, well, that's one of the applications, but you actually have to dig a little deeper

and look at the parabolic semblance in this story. So anytime you have a dad in one of Jesus' stories or a master, a vineyard owner, who does that represent? Always, always, young talk back? God. Always. If it's a father in the story, Jesus always represents God, the father. Master, always represents the king of all the kings, always, always, always. So you've got a dad. He's in bed. He's asleep in his house. If you know anything about first century Jewish or or Semitic architecture,

you'll know they had one bedroom. So if you're asleep as a dad or as a mom or as a granddad or an uncle or foster parent, your kids are with, You. I don't have separate bedrooms where they're playing PlayStation or texting naughty things. They don't have that. They're with you in that one sleeping room. So you've got the dad. And then you've got the neighbor. And so the neighbor comes over because the neighbor wasn't prepared for a guest who comes to his house and didn't text ahead of time. And so he panics because he's got nothing in the pantry. He comes to the sleeping dad, bangs in the door and says, I need something. Tortillas, you know, just. anything, even those reduced fat trisket, anything, I've got to have something because I don't have anything to put for this guy. That is unheard of in their culture. It's hospitable culture. You always had bread. So the thing I love about the Bible, because carbs are elevated in the Bible, which I think is a good thing. I think kale is just about from the devil. But anyway, you always had bread. This guy's run out of bread, so he panics. He comes next door. He starts banging on the door. And when he's banging on the door, the dad goes, go away. I've already read the bedtime story. We've already had the water. We've already done everything. We are asleep. Go away. This is so rude. Anadilla, he's audacious. The guy's persistent because he's panicked. He just keeps banging on the door because he's like, I need something to linguine anything. I need something to give my guest. And it says, because of his impudence, the

dad eventually gets up and gives them a snack for his guest. And then usually the application is, if you bang a little harder, God will answer. Y'all, that's not biblically defensible. It doesn't even go with a story. The stranger, Dr. Blomberg says, likely represents an unbeliever. Dad represents God. Where are we? Where are we? Are we outside banging? Are we inside? Reclining right next to our dad?

Yeah, this is less about prayer and it's more about proximity. It's less about us banging on the door. That doesn't bear out with theological logic. We don't have to beg God to act on our behalf. We're favorite sons and daughters. He loves us on our worst day. We'll get disciplined from our dad, but not discipline because he's a unibroad librarian who's mad at us. We get discipline because he loves us. He's for us. Three years ago, Missy and I went from Nashville to Calispell, Montana.

It was kind of toward the end of COVID. We were so excited to actually be leaving the house because, you know, during COVID, how you're not traveling much. And I travel a lot for work. And I got so bored at home that I accidentally cut through my propane line with a chainsaw. It's actually not hyperbolic. I did. I almost killed us. I'm single and old. My dad was a contractor, so I know my way around a power tool, and I was buzzing this bush. And I thought, I just will do some landscaping.

And I'm kind of a slow reactor, and I smelled propane and realized, oh, God. I just cut a propane line, almost killed us. So I thought it's good for us to get out of the house. And so I was thrilled when Levi and Jenny said, come up to Calispell. They have a church called Fresh Life. and he said, come up. We'd love to host you at Calispell. And it took us a while to get there, because you know that tail into COVID. There weren't as many flights. And so we flew from Nashville to Chicago, a long later from Chicago. Finally got Calispell, Montana. It was late in the afternoon, but I didn't

have anything to do until the next morning. So I said, hey, baby, since we've been sitting forever, you want to go stretch your legs? There's some great hiking trails around here. Missy said, no, ma'am. I was like, okay. I said, well, I said, well, you're going to go. I said, well, you're going to go. I said, Well, honey, they've got a lake right by the hotel, and there's some canoes there. You want to get in a canoe and go for a canoe ride? No, ma'am. I was like, okay, well, we came through this darling little mountain village on the way to the hotel, and there was a candy shop there, and they've got ice cream and chocolate and all kind of stuff.

You want to walk up and get some candy at the candy shop? No, ma'am. And then I pulled out my peace to resistance. And my apologies if you build these or like these, but I just uphold. horror hotel pools, because I think they're just like big basins of bacteria. And so I love pools, but just not, you know, pools with that much strange flush in it. And so I don't usually swim in a hotel pools. Missy loves hotel pools. So I kind of pulled the last trick out of my bag. And I said, baby, do you want to go swim in the hotel pool? There's like a big slide in everything.

And she said, no, ma'am. It takes me a lot. long time. I am not the sharpest tool in the shed. But I finally, after four flat refusals, realized I am getting on my child's nerves. You know, she was 11 at the time. She's just stepping into puberty. And I thought, oh my goodness, I'm not her hero anymore. I'm getting on her nerves. And so I said, honey, am I getting on your nerves? And she said, yes, ma'am. And she said, is that disrespectful? I said, no, baby, that's not disrespectful. That's so normal. As a matter of fact, over the next few years, I'm going to get on your last nerve. That's part of what growing up is. I said, that's not disrespectful, honey. That's just normal.

So here's the deal. I'm going to draw an imaginary line down this hotel room. And you get to stay on this side of the hotel room and you've got a little bit of homework. So you can do the homework on your iPad. And then after that, you watch whatever you want to watch. And then I'll stay on this side, because I've got a little bit of homework too. And we can just stay on our separate size of the hotel room. And if you need me, just call me, but I'll stay over here and I won't bug you anymore. And she said, yes, ma'am. And a couple of hours went by in that companionable silence. And then the sun went down. It was time for us to get ready for bed. And so we brushed our teeth. They had two sinks. And then we went to bed. They had two beds. Missy got in her little hotel bed.

And I got my little hotel bed. I turned out the light. Maybe 30 seconds passed. And then I heard my little girl. And she said, will you come over here? And I said, I'll tell you what you can do. You can climb out the window and you can get in the snow and you can walk through the snow and you can go to the concierge. And you can ask the concierge if he'll bring you up to this floor. And then you can knock on the door and if you bang really loud, then I might answer the door, but I'm not sure. Do y'all think that's what I did?

When she said, I just need to get Pentecostal for a minute. I don't feel like I really preach unless the veins start poking out. And I did spit a little bit, Abby, just a little bit of spit. We call that anointing. I didn't yell. I didn't tell her she had to go outside and bang on the door when she said, Mama, will you come over here and cuddle me? Y'all, I leapt from my bed to hers and I brought snacks.

I mean, this is my kid. This is my daughter. I will give her anything I have. And my love for my kid pails next to God's love for us. We forget that we're co-hears. We forget that we're right next to him. We don't have to bang. He's for us, not against us. One glance of your eyes. You've captured his heart. You don't have to put on matching t-shirts. drive a long way to be in the presence of your creator-redeemer. He loves you. He loves you. He is a perfect, holy God. That means he's transcendent.

But he condescends to be close to us. He's a relational God. He's a father. And he says, you are my faith. You're my favorite. You're my favorite. You're my favorite. You're my favorite. You're my favorite. Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast. And if you did, make sure to share it and subscribe so we can get you all of these new messages as soon as they're available. I also want to take a moment and thank all of you who are a part of elevation. Whether you support us financially or serve with us or just share these messages, it's because of you that we're able to reach people all or. around the world. And if you want more information on how to be a part of elevation, click the

link in the description. Thanks again for listening. Make sure to leave a review, share the message, and subscribe. God bless you. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.