Elevation with Steven Furtick - Hope Is In Our DNA (Lisa Harper)

Episode Date: June 29, 2020

Hope isn’t always easy to hold on to — especially in overwhelming or difficult seasons. In “Hope Is In Our DNA,” Lisa Harper teaches on some of the most “hopeless” passages in the Bible �� only to show that hope is often where we least expect it. From the Garden of Eden to King David to Jesus Himself, Lisa reveals how, just when you think nothing can change, God can change everything. And when things seem dark and we feel alone and we’re not sure how things are ever going to get better... He is there with restoration, redemption, and hope.See 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. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your fate. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. Amen. Well, welcome the Elevation Church. On behalf of Pastor Stephen and our family, I'm so happy that you're joining us. Type it in the chat. Let me know where you're joining us. us from. We have people joining us from all over the world all weekend long. Let's see, we've got

Melissa from Michigan. We've got Eric from Kenya. Joel is joining us from Mississippi, Hazel, from India, literally all over the world. I just love it. I love worshiping with Elevation Church. It's an amazing part of what I get to do with my life. And I know you're grateful for that too. Hey, shout out to Faith Ferdick. If you don't know her, she is the woman who gave our pastor life. And today is her birthday. So Faith, if you're watching, speak for all of us. When I say thank you, you are one special woman. You deserve an extra crown for raising Stephen Ferdick and not killing him because I now know what it's like to raise teenagers. And so thank you. We all thank you. Are your kids all set of eKids online? How many of you are grateful for

EKids online? I know it's not the same thing as dropping your kids off, but at least they're watching something that's wonderful and that's teaching them about God and giving you just a minute to be able to worship together. How many of you are grateful for our worship team? I just love our church. I love how they lead us every weekend. But if you're like, me, elevation worship is not just something that you watch on the weekends, but it's a sound that's coming out of your home. The songs and the sermons and the stories of this church are getting me through this season. And I know they are too. How many of you were with us last week when my husband preached about the plot twist? I got to tell you, my husband is not preached on

Father's Day in like a decade. And I was just thinking last night that apparently, in addition to all of the special anointings that are on Pastor Stephen's life. He also has a special Father's Day anointing. Am I wrong? If you saw that message, you know how incredible it was. And if you missed it, you need to go back and watch it. It was called Plot Twist. I think it's in my top 10. I have a lot in my top 10, but I think that one's in my top 10. I just love how God speaks to me every single time the word is preached on this stage. And today is going to be no exception. my dear friend Lisa Harper will be bringing the word and this woman this woman can preach and I'm not going to lie I love a good girl preacher and Lisa is one of my favorites Lisa and her daughter missy

live in Nashville Tennessee they drove down here to be with us this weekend so get ready because this woman knows the word of God and every time I'm around her I want to read my Bible more and I want to be a better Christian. So I'm going to stop talking. I hope you're having a great weekend. It's a great weekend here in Charlotte. Would you help me welcome Lisa Harper to the stage? We're trying so hard to hug responsibly.

I was thinking driving here. We drove here yesterday from Nashville, Tennessee, and I was just thinking about the breath. Y'all can sit down. You're so darling. At home, I know you're already sitting down. Half of y'all are like vegged out and stretch your pants. on the couch. But I was thinking about the breadth of elevation, what God has done in a really short

season to take the gospel all around the world. And I thought that kind of trajectory, I think, is almost unprecedented. It's obviously miraculous. God has authored the favor that he's given elevation. But I thought you don't get that broad without having really, really deep roots. And I love that woman right there. She's got really, really deep roots. And you may only see her on a screen. You may only see Holly on a screen, but I've been through a couple of valleys in the last 10 years. And Holly Ferdick was one of the first person to text prayers.

Just speak life to me. So I am delighted to be back in this house. I always come here with just a little bit of trepidation because I, too, watch Stephen Ferdick every weekend. And so now some of you are like, oh, you've got to be kidding me. I mean, Holly made me sound good, but I am no Stephen Ferdick. This is going to be like a mule at the Kentucky Derby. But hang with me because I think God has something for us. If nothing else, he has something for me. Because Chris, I have been waiting with bated breath. I don't even know what that means, but I've been so excited about being led and worship live by y'all. I know what Pastor Stephen said last week is true that. as Christ's followers, we carry the church in our hearts and minds, and so the church is open, as long as you and I are open to the working person of the Holy Spirit. But I've just got to be honest with y'all and tell you that my heart has been in a really stinker prodigal season lately.

And every time it sees the Zoom logo, it just kind of crosses its arms and refuses to listen. I miss corporate worship. As soon as Chris y'all started, I just thought I just, I just, I just, I just, you know, just feel like I want to sink into this. I want to marinate in this. It's been incredible to be here with y'all. This has been a less than lovely season. I don't have to remind y'all of the reasons why, but I'll start with homeschool. I love my kid. For those of you who don't know my story, I became a mom the same year. I went through menopause at 50 through the miracle of adoption. And My kid is the most amazing child in the world, except for years, of course, that's a tie.

But homeschooling, full-time, once COVID caused schools in Tennessee to close, that was a faith opportunity. And I do have to confess that once I watched Tiger King and counted it as biology for her. But I brought a two-minute video that I want to say. show y'all just as proof in case there's any truancy officers in e-fam all over the world. I bought proof that we actually did have classes. This was an L. Fresco class we had on etiquette. Just a little short, two-minute video that'll show you what went on during school at our house during COVID-19. Hey, Mom. How did you make that trashy noise again? Oh, that noise?

Yes, ma'am. You put your, you put your teeth, your top teeth, over your bottom lip, and then you like force air out of one side. Like, blow a little more air and just out of the side. Like, honey, I think you're too sweet to make trashy noises. Maybe we should sing a song, like a worship song. Yes, man. Maybe we should sing a worship song. Which one do you want to sing?

Probably Jesus Our attention, good grace. Oh, I love that one. Okay, you start it. His attention is in his blood. That's a good one. It is a good one. I love it. How does the chorus go of that one?

I actually think that is the course. Jesus, our salvation. our redemption. What comes after is in his blood? That's right. His kingdom comes. That's what comes after that. I love that, Tudor.

I do too. That's better than making those bad trashy noises, isn't it? It is. Do you think you're sweeter than me? I think so. Of YouTube. Most of y'all are probably sweeter than me and have not been tutoring your children in breaking wind noises.

It's been a long three months, and I just, my hats are as off to you. If you have been singing worship tunes like my kid, instead of making trashy noises like me, but to be really honest, I'd like to kick you in the shins if you haven't suffered it all over the last three months, because it has just been a rough go of it. And again, I don't have to. to remind you of why it's been rough. I know we've all been dealing with our own kind of rough in our little corner of the world. We had an especially intimate, difficult thing happened recently. Someone in my immediate family committed suicide nine weeks ago. And his death just ripped the fabric of our

lives. And over the last two months, I just feel like some of my hope has been leaking out of those holes. I just have had a harder time than normal hanging on to hope. It's been almost like wet soap. I'm just having a hard time hanging on to it. And my hope, my prayer is that none of you are having to grieve the loss of a loved one on top of everything else that we're slogging through for those of you who have. I'm so sorry. If you're dealing with the loss of a loved one, please, please, please put some of those details in the chat because we would love to pray with you and for you, but regardless of what's been shoplifting your hope lately, I think all of us can agree that at least some measure of our hope has been threatened in the last couple of months.

And so I thought it would be so appropriate, so prudent, prudent, maybe not for you, but certainly for me, to do a deep dive in scripture and try to recover some of the hope that these circumstances have shoplifted. And so I want to talk before we dive into scripture. If you're on the couch and you've got a Bible at your house, get up off the couch and grab that puppy and come back because we're going to be in the Bible. If you have kids in the room, I want to reiterate what Chad said about sending them over to kids YouTube because it's going to get a little hot in here pretty soon. So I want you to be careful to not have anybody under 13 in your living room. Just send them off for YouTube.

Don't let them watch Tiger King like I did with my child because now I'm going to be paying for therapy later. But anyway, before we dive into the text, our first text is going to be at the very beginning of the book, I want to remind us all that we get our New Testament, originally from Greek, and the Greek concept of hope, the Greek's pronounced hope. It's transliterated, E-L-P-I-S, but it's pronounced L-P-E-E-P-S, which I think that's cool, that peace is kind of in the Greek idea of hope. But the Greek concept of hope was not a, an objective assessment. They didn't look around at their circumstances and go, oh, here's what justifies my hope this season. It was actually a subjective experience. They looked back over their lives, and if there was proof of hope in their backstory, then they said, I will be expectant about

future hope. If they could look back to tangible hope, they said, then I know there will be proof of hope. There will definitely hope in the future. Let me explain it like this. COVID-19 has effectively swaggered into my house like Dennis the Rock Johnson. And evidently, the keto boy in my mind was a much weanier crop pants wearing wayfish guy because the rock just killed keto up in our house. And as a result, I have had an extreme uptick in carb consumption. And as a result of that, I definitely am up about 19 due to COVID. And so there is a very real probability that I'm going to faint up in this elevation house this morning because these spanks are cutting off my circulation. I shouldn't have done that because if I did that harder, you could lose an eye. But here's the deal. Here is the positive thing about my expansive tragedy. I saved pictures from last fall.

And last fall, I was really doing good on a low-carb life plan. And so I saved pictures of when I was actually wearing pants with zippers. So I have a witness. I have a tangible testimony that it is possible for me to wear pants that do not have an waistband. Can I get a witness? Are you with me? There is tangible proof in my past that I could go there again. Hope is not based on now. Not for Christ's followers. I love Pastor Seaman, Stephen Sermon last week on plot twist. I loved that one. It's probably in my top 10 too, Holly. I will never again look at the geographical phrase, Samaria, in the New Testament without thinking of his wordplay, his application some area. There will be some. areas will be reluctant to go through. I love that. But the thing that I resonated with most of all was when he talked about generational wells. When he talked about generational wells, because what was implied was that we will not have to worry about dying of thirst in the now because there was

ample provision in our history. And that's where we're going to go this morning. We're going to start at the beginning of the book. So if you brought the book, turn to Genesis chapter three. Now before we get there. John Michael, will you throw me my glasses out of my purse there in a blue case? Before we go there, we'll be in Genesis chapter 3, beginning with verse 21. I'm going to give you just a quick review. You probably know this. But at this point, at the very beginning of redemptive history, the Creator Redeemer, Father God, has already breathed the universe into existence out of nothing. And after he looked at the sea and the sky and the stars, all the creepy crawlies, ant eaters, and elephants. He said, something's missing. And so they got together,

and that's not a misspeak. Genesis 1, 26 and 27, explains to us that our God is an us. He's a Trinitarian God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. It says, God as an us, Augustine, St. Augustine, I have huge crushes on all the dead guys. I don't have to be platonic about them because they're dead and gone. I only have platonic crushes about living theologians. But anyway, St. Augustine says that only the Christian God is a perfect community unto himself. Genesis 1, 26, and 27, then let us make man in our image. We were hardwired for relationship. That's why when some of y'all miss get together with your eFAM, you go, I just didn't have a great week. We were hardwired for relationship. That's a whole other story, but we'll go there soon.

Sorry, I'm tinkling, and not just because of this fangs. And so God then breathes man into existence. And then God takes a nap. I think it is so stinking cool that our Father God created rest, modeled rest in Genesis chapter 2. Y'all, that's before the fall. The fall happens in Genesis chapter 3. That means rest was not some divine accommodation for human weakness. Rest was part of his perfect gift to us. Isn't that good? As a whole other sermon. So anyway, he's created the heavens and the earth. He's created man. He's taken a nap, wakes up, really refresh him his nap,

looks around and goes, something is missing. Something beautiful is missing. And he creates woman. And that's where the story starts getting sticky. Because a lot of people then put hierarchy in the story. Now, I'm not going to labor here too long because I don't want to take the heat. I want Stephen to take the heat. But the Hebrew word used for woman is easer.

It's translated helper. our Bibles. Do you know who else describes himself as an easer 14 times in Genesis? God. Man and woman, that was never intended to be a hierarchical relationship with suppression and with oppression. I was always intended to be a mutual, helpful relationship. Not going to go there because Eve does drop the ball, because soon after she's created, she gets deceived by this really rotten, slithery fruit salesman named Satan. And she takes a bite out of some of his rotten fruit and the trajectory of mankind has been downhill ever since. We're joining the story right after she is rebelled against God and hooked up with the fruit

salesman. Genesis 3, chapter 21, and the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife, garments of skin and clothe them. Then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us and knowing good and evil. Now lest he reach out his hand and take off the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the Garden of Eden, he placed a cherubim in a flaming sword that turned every which way to guard the way to the tree of life. Now, I don't know if y'all get mental pictures when you read the Bible. My mom was Baptist, dad was Pentecostal, so I'm Babixtal, which means I love to wiggle in worship, but I have no rhythm. And so I've heard all these

stories since I was teeny. You've seen most of them flannel graft. And when I used to hear that story as a kid, I immediately got a mental picture of Adam and Eve. I pictured Adam as being very lean, and this is way before payload when it was cool for guys to be lean. He was just kind of a lean, weak-looking man, stringy hair extensions, and kind of threw his own wife under the bus. You know, I didn't need the fruit. She did. And oh, cover my junk. I mean, he just, he just, he, Adam does nothing for me. He doesn't blow my skirt up. And then Eve, I think of her as the woman I don't want to be. Because she's, I mean, let's just face it, she's trashy. You know, she does exactly what God tells her not to do. And that's after she's paraded around nude.

I mean, she is trashy. So I picture her like the trashy girls that, hung out at the skating rink in the town I grew up in in central Florida. So I picture her with kind of an ACDC tube top and Daisy Dukes and like, you know, really bad hair. And she's got tats and she's only, oh, I don't know, 15. I mean, she's just, you know, this girl is rough, bad news. So when it says God drove them out of the Garden of Eden, my first response used to be good riddance. You know, he's a sissy and she's trashy. good riddance. And I kind of pictured him just booting them out of glory. Y'all, that's not at all

the context of Genesis 3. That word drove out comes from the Hebrew word garash. I can't pronounce it well because I don't get enough guttural in my throat, but it's garash. And it's used redemptively in Exodus twice for the moment this season when God drove his people, the Theocracy of Israel, out of captivity toward the promise. Like us, they were about as smart as sheep. So they had gotten really comfortable in captivity. God had to rock them out of a rut to get them from captivity to the promise. The word is used in exes twice, totally redemptive context.

They're not being hurt. They're not being ushered toward their own death. They're actually being ushered toward their own freedom and life. but it says they were driven out toward freedom away from Egypt. Redemptive context. And then in 1 Samuel, chapter 21, that's after David, he's running away from Saul. Remember Saul was the first king of Israel. He was a narcissistic nut job.

I was really jealous of David because David had more followers than him. And so he was trying to kill him. And so David flees for his life and he ends up fleeing into enemy territory. Remember who their arch enemy was? Y'all can talk back. You're still social distance and spit. That's cool. Philistines. So he finds himself in Philistine territory. He finds himself standing before the king of the Philistines, the king of Gath. This is 1st Samuel 19, if you want to check me. And when he stands before the king of Gath, he realizes, oh, goodness gracious, I'm wearing Goliath sword. Do you remember who Goliath was? And when he was like the big dog daddy of the Philist, he was, he was like the big dog daddy of the

You remember, he's this probably eight-foot man when David, before he had even started using, you know, clareton or anything for his skin. Is that for girls or is that for acne? Is it for acne? Oh, allergies. That's right. I was trying to do an acne medication. I couldn't pull one fast enough. So anyway, before David's even gone through puberty, he ends up killing Goliath. You remember the story with a slingstone. And slingshot stone, whatever. And so he kills the giant, from that day forward, David is enemy number one to the Philistines. He utterly humiliated them. Now, here it is years later, and he's up in the middle of Philistine, standing in front of the king of the Philistines wearing Goliath sword. I mean, you talk about waving a red flag in front of a

bull. I mean, surely he is about to get his own head cut off. And that's why David starts to feign madness and he did what no other Israelite man would do, he drooled in his beard. And by feigning madness and dribbling in his beard, which was a huge no-no for Orthodox Jewish men in that era of history, Gath, the men of Gath, the soldiers of the king of Gath say, we need to let this guy go. Otherwise, an innocent crazy man's blood is going to be on your hands.

And it says, and thus David was drove out. You see God's merciful sovereignty there? He's about to get killed, and God drives him out for his own good, for survival. It's immediately after God rescues him from the King of Gath. The David writes Psalm 34, one of my favorite Psalms, where he says, Those who look to the Lord, their faces are radiant. They'll never be covered with shame. He's just totally shamed himself by drilling in his beard, pretending to be a bad, mad, man. God uses that, drives him out from certain death, and immediately after that, he says, my face will never be covered with shame because of how you drove me out to victory, God. It's in that same Psalm that we get, God is close to the brokenhearted. He's near to us when our lives feel crushed, which is just a theme verse for this season in our world and the world at large. So now, when I think of

Genesis 3, I don't think of a girl on a tube top. I think of. I think of a girl on a tube top. I think Think of our gracious God, taken his kids by the arms, and redemptively ushering them out of Eden, not because he's a unibrowed librarian and is about to smack them over the head with the Bible, but because he knows what they don't. And he knows if they come back and they eat from the tree of life, they will be forever frozen in Eden, forever separated from the intimacy with him that they were created for. he begins to drive them out, heard them toward recreating the intimacy that he had fashioned them for. It's such a redemptive passage, y'all. There is so much hope in scripture. When people tell

me the Bible's boring, I'm like, no, you may have sat under a boring Bible teacher. The Bible itself is not boring, nor is it punitive. This is a divine love story. It's filled with hope. Okay, head to the right, and if you can prove to me that you've actually been spending your quiet time in numbers, specifically Numbers Chapter 27, I will send you 20 bucks. Not that we advocate bedding here at elevation. But I want to take you to another passage, and this one is just stunning. It's just one that we usually skip over because it sounds like it's one of those boring Old Testament passages. Isn't it funny how so many of us think of the God of the Old Testament as like this angry autocrat and the God of the New Testament as Jesus with bright girl hair extensions, like all

warm and fuzzy? If that is true, then Genesis 1, 26, and 27 isn't. If that's true, then God is bipolar. It's not true. Drives me nuts when people say, well, Jesus said in the red letters. I'm like, he didn't say the black letters. Because last I knew, it's God, Father, God's Son, God, God, the Holy Spirit. But when we start... Stop stepping on anybody's toes. Okay, numbers, 27. Then drew near the daughters of Zalofahad, the son of Heifer, the son of Gilead, son of Maker,

and a lot of other hard words. The names of his daughters were Malah, Noah, Hogla. Now I need to stop there for just a minute, because I know a lot of you, especially you younger mamas, really want to name your kids' biblical names to impress your small group. Don't be working with Hogla.

Hagla, that's just hard. That's not a good name. It's in the Bible, but it's not a good name. Don't replicate that name. Hagla, Milka, and Tirza. And they stood before Moses and before Eleazar, the priest, and before chiefs, and all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meetings, saying our father died in the wilderness. He was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord.

And the company of Korab, but died for his own sin. And he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan? Because he had no son give to us a possession among our father's brothers. Now, you better bet at this point in ancient history, everybody who's watching this take place started whipping out their cell phones. They're like, I am going to insta story this because they are just about to be fried into a grease spot of oblivion. Because at this point in ancient history, women had basically the same value as a good milk cow. Women were regarded as chattel, something a man

could own. And the law of the land was primogeniture. Primogeniture, if you remember, from high school, or college history meant that the firstborn son inherited all of his father's estate upon his father's death. That's what reigns during this period of Israel's history. And so these daughters of Zlofahad, they have the hutspah to go against the law of culture, come before Moses and the high priest and go, we think we should get daddy's land. You can just imagine all of Israel's like, and they just assume a lightning bolt. It's just about to come out and fry these cheeky chicks. But that's not what happens. Y'all, this is stunning. I so want to read this to my militant friends who are burning their bras and tell them that floppiness is not necessary. Moses brought their case

before the Lord, verse five. And the Lord said to Moses, the daughters of Zalofa had a right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father's brothers and transfer the inheritance of their father to them. And you shall speak to the people of Israel saying, if a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter. Y'all, what that passage that we tend to skip over says is that our creator redeemer is not some autocrat or a misogynist who enjoys punishing his people, but instead he has always been actively redeeming culture. He's always been actively redeeming culture. He's always been actively restoring the dignity that others have stolen from his image bears. This book is filled

with generational wells of hope. Y'all just over and over and over again. Guys, if you'll stay with me for just one more second, I've got one more estrogen passage, but I'll be fast. Deuteronomy, chapter 22, verse 28, if a man meets a virgin who has not betrothed and seizes her and lies with her and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman 50 shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife because he has not violated her. He may not divorce her all his days. Now, I don't know if you really heard what I was saying in the ESV there, but that is nasty town. I mean, that is just awful if you read it at first glance without the socio-historical context,

because what that is saying is a young woman who has been violated by a man that sounds like that young man bribes her daddy, and then she has to. marry her violator. So it sure sounds like God is advocating that insult be added to injury. You have to understand the context, y'all. Any text in this love story can be used as a proof text that is not true if you take it out of context. And the context, God's people have just come out of Egyptian captivity where they have been under what we could call the first iteration of Sharia law. And the culture that they had been in for 400 years, said that any young woman, 12 and over, who was not married or betruth, was vulnerable to be violated by any man who so chose.

And the consequence of the man who violated her is, guess what? Not a, nothing. Not a slap on the wrist, not a traffic violation. And so one of my professors at Denver Seminary, I love this. He puts it like this. He said, so God steps over the fence of ancient culture. And he says, you're not going to violate my baby girls anymore. If you ever wondered why girls in this era of history got married at 12? This is why.

You ever wonder why women don't go alone to the well? This is why. He says, from now on, any of you idiots who are even thinking about violating one of my daughters, here's the deal. If you do so, you will set up a 401K for her. through her daddy. Y'all, this is unheard of. Women were now not allowed to hold property at this time in history.

He says, you'll set up an account so she'll be financially independent. Then you will give her your name, not to re-violate her, but to begin to restore some of the dignity you stole. And then if you do not take care of her and provide for her for the rest of her life, you're liable to get stoned by the rest of the community, big boy. I heard this passage quoted about a year ago in a blog by a woman who was trying to prove that God is a masaginist. And I thought you've missed the whole thing. The whole point of this is that God has always been in the process of redeeming culture, of restoring the value that other people have stolen from us.

This is a book of hope, y'all. There is hope on every page. we don't always mine it correctly because we read the Bible lazy. We want something we can tweet instead of something that we can chew on. But the Bible is filled with hope. I'm close to landing. Just two more passages. Head to the right to Matthew's Gospel, to Matthew chapter 18. And some of you, how many of y'all are eights on the enneagram? Eights on the enneagram. Okay, my guess would be some of you eights are very familiar with this passage. if you're a female eight, you've probably cross-stitched it. It might be hanging on your wall.

Matthew 18, beginning in verse 15, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be, that every charge, excuse me, may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, tell it to everybody. Go ahead and get on e-fam and just, just just blow the news everywhere in church. And if he refuses to listen, even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

When I was in high school, we had a youth pastor for a season who was really, really passionate. And he used to wave his Bible around like this. When I was in my 20s, I tried to imitate it, and I hit a woman upside the head with Genesis. But just, boom, went out of my Bible and hit this woman in the head.

I was like, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. They never invited me back. But he would swing his Bible, around, quote from Matthew 18, and you would tell all of us in the youth ministry that we were supposed to go and verbally confront, better yet assault, our friends who were partying after football games or smoking pot, or were still engaged in heavy petting. Now, I know I'm older than the median of elevation, but can I get a witness? Did any of y'all have a pastor who used the phraseology, heavy petting. Do you remember Holly? And it confused me. I mean,

this kind of fire and brimstone revival. This was the late 70s. I was in middle school in central Florida. And a pastor got up and started swinging his Bible around. Vanes were popping out. And he said, any of you who've been involved in heavy petting, want you to come to the altar and repent? You know, and I'd come there on the van with our little First Baptist church and and I was nervous because I was afraid the van would leave me because I didn't really always believe a Villegram when he said they'd stay but I sat there and I thought have I have I? I mean I love our beagle we have the sweetest beagle named Smoky and I thought have I just inadvertently like like rubbed her fur the wrong way or maybe pet her with a little bit too much weight have I caused

my dog canine injury I don't know this verse has been used, y'all, to shame teenagers who struggled with, you know, frisky feelings, I think since the beginning of Baptist time anyway, it's also been used to justify ecclesiastical expulsion. In other words, this passage, Matthew 18, has been used as the sole passage to justify kicking people out of church. Do you hear me? Now, I want to take just a second here. because I'm not advocating for anarchy in church. I'm really not. For church to be a healthy, thriving community, there have to be parameters. This is not just crazy town.

And so we need spiritual leaders. We need people holding us accountable. But I really think that when we take this verse as the proof text to kick people out of fellowship, I think we're missing the main point Jesus was making. It's right there in front of us, and I've missed it my whole life. I am 56 years old. I have a master's in theology. I'm two years away, God willing, from having a doctorate in and redemptive hermeneics. I have studied my behind-off because I'm single, and it's the only way I get any kind of endorphance. And so I've got scads of books on exegesis and exocatology and

redemptive hermeneics and socio-historical context. But it wasn't until this last summer. I was sitting in a class, listening to a professor, unpack the redemptive thread in Matthew 18 that I went, Jesus, it's Jesus speaking and Jesus says, treat them as tax collectors and Gentiles. How did Jesus always treat tax collectors and Gentiles? I mean, Matthews, writing. it. Matthew was a tax collector before he encountered Jesus and Jesus said, come be a fisher of men with me. Matt, change your Facebook status. You're going to be an evangelist, but you were a tax collector. Do you remember Luke 19? If you don't remember it right off hand, I bet you've sang, Luke 19, there was wee little man and a wee little man was he? Remember Zekees? Climed up in a sycamore

tree to meet Jesus? Y'all, he was the CEO of the IRS division in Jericho. It was implied by Dr. Luke that Zakias got filthy rich by padding to what he was assessing his Jewish countrymen and then skimming off the top before wiring those funds to Rome. I mean, this was not just a tax collector. This was a tax collector without scruples. And yet when Jesus meets Zach, do you think he calls them out for his duplicity? No. He invites himself over for dinner.

And after Zach and Jesus hang out, do you remember Zach's response? I'll give half of what I own to the poor, half of what I own, to prison ministry and to orphans in Uganda and to feed the homeless here in Charlotte. I'll give half of what I own. I'm so happy to trade in my Bentley for a smart car. And anyone whom I'm defrauded, I'll repay them four times what I knew. initially stole, treat them as tax collectors and Gentiles. Remember Genesis 12? When God says to our great, great granddaddy Abraham, through you, all of the nations of the earth will be blessed. They'll all meet Jesus. The promise goes all the way back to the beginning. It's fulfilled in the

working person of Jesus Christ. Paul said, my whole ministry is so that Gentiles will come to know Jesus. Two-thirds of the New Testament is about outsiders being drawn in to the unconditional love of our Creator, Redeemer. Treat them as Gentiles and tax collectors. Do you really think he intended that to be punitive? Yeah, we use the Bible as a club and it was never meant to be used as a club. It's true. It's authoritative. There are parameters for abundant life in here. This isn't a joke, but it's not punitive. We're going to land in Hebrews, Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 12. Any of you who grew up in church, Holly, I know that you could quote this one backwards, because it's one of the first verses that we learned when we are growing up. If you've listened to Pastor Stephen, for any

length of time, you've heard this verse. You've heard this whole book preach. Hebrews, chapter four, verse 12, for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and the spirit of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Again, this is one of those passages. I used to swing my Bible around in the 20s, in my 20s, not the 20s, I'm not that old. But I would use that passage basically to guilt people into being in a Bible study. And it wasn't until recently that I started really looking at that verse. And I thought, oh my goodness. Now, y'all, let me qualify this, because I'm probably going to step on some toes. I am a Bible banger through and through. I believe in the veracity and the authority of

that text from cover to cover. God willing, I will spend the rest of my life talking about what's between those leather-bound pages. I love this book. It's not just a book to me. It's life to me. Everything I've ever needed for life and godliness I find on these pages. It's not a textbook. It's not a rule book. It's not a collection of benign morality tales. This is life to us. But I took that verse out of context in Hebrews. I thought it was all about the Bible. Do you remember when Hebrews was written? Colleen, you'll know, between 60 and 70 AD. Between 60 and 70 AD, she's like, uh-huh, uh-huh. Do y'all also remember AD? A lot of people think that's after death. It's actually Latin.

Anno Domini the Year of Our Lord. BC is before Christ. You know, they've changed the history books now. And BC is now B.C. is now B.C.E. before the common era. And instead of it being AD, Anno Domini, the Year of Our Lord, it's C.E. Common Era. Just a little side note. Interesting how everybody is trying to throw Jesus out of history. And yet Jesus is the foundation of the history of hope.

Anyway, went and written between 60 and 70 AD, between 60 and 70 AD, there were very few other epistles, New Testament epistles we would now call books being circulated. The very first collection, loose collection of most of the New Testament books was in 200. The very first formal collection of all 27 New Testament books is in 367, I think, AD. That was by Anna, and I think, something anathemas or anathasia or something some mix of those terms. And then it was formally canonized into the very first New Testament, the Council of Hippo in 393 AD. What do all those boring historical facts mean? Means that right here when this pastor is encouraging his sheep, because his sheep like us were really tired and his sheep like us were running out of hope. And he said, I want you to remember that Jesus, Logos, Greek, Jesus. That word is used in John 1 in the beginning was the word, and the word was God,

and the word was with God. This is before we had inscriptured text. He's saying, Jesus is sharper than a two-edged short sword. Jesus knows the motive of your heart, and Jesus knows you're running out of hope. Jesus, it's all about Jesus, y'all. When we segregate the God who loves us from in scripturated text, it becomes punitive. When we realize this is all about Jesus, this is the generational well from which we can draw hope in the driest season. You look back and go, our Creator Redeemer has always been in the process of restoring the dignity that has been stolen from us, of redeeming the mistakes that you and I have made, oftentimes against each other. I can't. even mention Hebrews without thinking of something that happened recently. I was speaking at a

conference for people who were in addiction. It's a recovery from addiction conference. And I have never struggled with alcohol or drugs or opioids, but I identify as a recovering addict because one of my favorite theologians, a guy named Dr. Ed T. Welch, wrote a book called A Banquet in the Grave. And in that book, he said that all addictions are ultimately a disorder of worship. In other words, if you don't put Jesus in the biggest hole in your soul, you'll run to the wrong things or the wrong people. So I thought I'm at home with these recovering addicts. And it was on a Friday night, and it went through Saturday. Friday night, there's this woman during worship who came up front. And this church wasn't quite as wiggly as we are here at elevation. It was a little more, just a little less

demonstrative. And so she was the only woman up front, only person up front. And she was completely oblivious to anybody else. About six, seven hundred of us at this conference. She was just dancing and dipping and twirling. And I found myself distracted by her as we were singing. And I thought, I'd love to hear her story. Because in my experience, people who are able to kind of step outside from that world most of us live in where we're afraid of what anybody else thinks. People who out operate independent of other people's approval usually have these incredible backstories. And I thought, man, I'd love to know her story. And so I was excited the next morning I went to the sanctuary early because I was teaching that morning and I went in

early just to pray and prepare. And she was in there. We're only two people in the sanctuary. She was up front. So I walked up and I introduced myself to her. And she said, name was Joyce, and I said, Joyce, I just want to thank you because I was trying to focus on Jesus, but I got distracted a few times by you last night, and I was just really undone by how unrestricted you were during worship. I mean, it was just you and Jesus, and I'm not quite that free yet, so I really loved the model that you set before me. And I said, it also made me wonder of what your backstory is, because that kind of praise usually comes from someone who's been delivered from a lot. And she said, oh, yes, ma'am, I've been delivered. And she launched into this story

that could have come from cable. I mean, just horrible backstory of abuse. And she was a hardcore, addict and alcoholic for about 13 years. And then she met Jesus. And Jesus just invaded every dark corner of her life, and she became just a passionate follower of Jesus Christ, was involved in addiction ministries and celebrate recovery, had really impacted her community. And I thought, wouldn't you know it? I mean, that's why she dances like that. Well, later on, just maybe 20 minutes later, I'm standing up on stage, starting my message. And I looked down, and Joyce is just sitting right there. And I thought, oh, my goodness, she's got such a great voice. Because as soon as she introduced herself, I thought she is like a three pack a day smoker. You shout that real gravely awesome voice.

And I thought, I'm going to get Joyce to read from the passage I'm reading. I happen to be in Hebrews. And so normally I will warn people. If I'm going to ask them to read something that I'm doing, you know, I'll tell them ahead of time, even in our Bible study. I'm like, is it cool if I ask you to pray today? I don't like to, you know, shock people. And so normally I would have asked Joyce, but at this point I hadn't just, I was so overwhelmed by how much I loved her story. and she's sitting right there, and I thought we've got to use that voice. So I jump off stage, and I go, y'all, this is my new friend Joyce. I mean, I just love her heart and I love her voice.

So she's going to read the text for us today. And Joyce kind of looked a little flustered, and then she took the mic and she read the passage, tripped over a few of the words in the beginning, but then, you know, got in a groove and read the passage. And everybody clapped politely, and I was like, thanks, Joyce. I go up and I finish. Well, maybe four hours later, the conference is over. I'm in the back of the room, and Joyce comes up and just kind of sheepishly says, I need to tell you how you having me read that passage impacted me.

And I was like, oh, man, you know, I'm sure. Sure I've somehow stepped on a bruise where she's afraid of reading in public or something. I so should have asked her. And I said, oh, Joyce, I'm so sorry if I wounded you. And she goes, no, no, I need to tell you a little more of my story. She said, I told you that God had healed me of alcoholism. And then I've been clean for a long, long time, been sober for a long long time. She goes, what I didn't tell you was that nine months ago, I fell off the wagon.

She said nine months ago, I was engaged to be married. Only guy I ever trusted. And she said, two weeks before the wedding, I found out he'd been stepping out with my best friend. And she said, I was just devastated. And so she said, I turned back to Jack Daniels to drown my sorrows. And she said, I spent the weekend after I found out he stepped out on me. She said, I was just drunk as a skunk all weekend. And she said, when I sobered up on Monday, I came into church where she had been on staff.

And she said, I told the leaders, I said, y'all, I fell off the wagon. I told them why. And she said they were really, really gracious. But then they were also very, very sober in how they followed through. And they said, we can no longer have you on staff because of you having that mistake, especially since you work with addicts. And so they asked for her letter of resignation. She left staff, and she ended up leaving that particular church because she said, even though I wanted to stay there, I wanted to walk it out.

She said, Lisa, every time I walked in the sanctuary, I felt like I had a scarlet leather A for alcoholic on my chest. And she said, I just couldn't do it. So after a couple of months, I moved my membership to another church across town. She said, I didn't tell you this morning that this is the church that I was asked to resign from. and she said, and last night was the very first time, I've stepped foot in the sanctuary again. And I said, oh, Joyce, I'm so sorry. Because I thought, here I've ruined what God had shaped to be this precious homecoming. And she said, oh, no, no, no, you didn't ruin anything. She said, Lisa, you couldn't possibly have known that when I was a little girl, I was illiterate.

My mom didn't send me to kindergarten. And on the first day of the first grade, I walked into a little school in Appalachia, and the teacher was a new teacher, didn't know my story. And she called on me to read. And she said, I stood up, and she said, I can still remember how bad my legs were shaking

because I didn't know any of my A, B, and C, much less how to string them together. So she said, I just looked at those letters on the page. They were like hieroglyphics. And I just recited something I had heard from one of mom's soap operas, hoping that somehow the line I spoke was close to what was in this book, little Jack and Jane Primer. And she said, all the kids started dying laughing. And they all started calling me stupid. And she said, that name stuck all the way through high school graduation.

So she said, I learned if I was ever going to speak out loud, say anything in public in school or at work. She said, I would obsessively go over every. single word that I was going to read or I was going to speak because I was so nervous about ever speaking publicly. She said, but when you called me, out of 700 people, you called me by name, and you said, I want Joyce to read. She said, it's like the heavens rolled back and God himself said, that's my girl. Listen to her. And she said, today, this place. shame has become a place of honor to me. Don't y'all want to be a little more like Joyce? Don't you want to be so undone by the redemption in our story, by the redemption and the

stories behind us that we can't help but express some of that hope to the world around us? A world that's desperate for hope, y'all. Can you imagine not knowing Jesus in this season? can you imagine how hopeless some of the precious image bears that you rub shoulders with, not really now, but you rub shoulders six feet away from now. People are dying for real hope. And we have it. If you walk with Jesus, we have it. You may have forgotten it.

You may have misplaced it. But the reservoir of hope for Christ followers, it's bottomless. We can all. ways. Reach into generational wells. There are millions in here and draw up living hope. Peter says living hope, not stagnant hope, living hope. Shall you just close your eyes and bow your heads. And when you sit for just a second, wherever you are, I know so many of you are in your cars, you're maybe at work watching a laptop, you're at home on the couch, still a little bit grumpy that it was me and not Stephen.

Would you just sit for a minute? Ask God to open your eyes to the hope that is already yours. Ask him to give you the grace to lean back into the generations of hope that we've been forged from. The eternal hope we're walking toward Jesus. We confessed to you this morning as your sons and daughters. that all too often we look like that passage in Proverbs that says hope deferred, hope delayed makes a heart sick. And Jesus, some of us feel just flat heart sick this season because it's been harder than usual

to hang on to hope. And so we need you, King Jesus. We need your Holy Spirit to quicken our minds and our hearts to remind us of our history, redemptive history, the history that you have woven us. into the history that you have always been actively a part of, redeeming, restoring, setting captives free, oh, Lord Jesus, remind us that there's no room for dry bones in our hearts. No room for dry bones. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this reminder that you see us.

You've always seen us. You've always loved us. you've always been actively in the process of colonist's home teach us what it is to rest in your hope we will be so careful Jesus to give you and you alone the honor and the glory and the praise for what you do this day in June 2020 thank you for joining us special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry is because of you that this ministry is possible.

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