Elevation with Steven Furtick - The Humility Gap (Lisa Harper)

Episode Date: July 4, 2022

True humility isn’t about acknowledging what we lack, but acknowledging God’s ability to do more. In “The Humility Gap” guest speaker Lisa Harper teaches us that when we humble ourselves, we leave room for God’s mercy to fill in our gaps. If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: http://ele.vc/tIepfrSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. I love y'all so much. I usually love every church I get to go to, small, big, stiff, wiggly. I just love the house of God. But some churches don't like me so much. And I was in one of those not too long ago. I won't tell you where it is just in case you have cousins there.

But rhymes with Insylvania. And I knew. I knew I wasn't going to be warmly received because it was just more of a formal setting, and I'm not very formal. And so when the women picked me up from the airport, it was just, it was crickets all the way to the conference. And then we get to the conference, and they had what they called the fellowship time, which means you usually eat carbs and cold coffee and make small talk in the fellowship hall before you go into the main part of the sanctuary.

And I stood around. and I thought they need to rechristen this, the stiff and hateful hall, because nobody's talking. Like, nobody's chatting. And so I just kept kind of moving from group to group trying to find somebody who would talk. And finally, somebody introduced me to the worship leader for that particular conference, and she wasn't from that area. And she seemed friendly, and I thought, cool, we can be aliens and strangers together. And so I introduced myself to the worship leader.

I'm going to call her Wanda. That's not her will name. But I said, Wanda, I'm so glad you're here. I don't know anybody here. And she was like, I don't either. And so an effort to connect further, I started to tease. I don't know if you all do that when you first meet people. You kind of start teasing with them, chunks, you know. And I said, well, Wanda, you might want to watch me when you start playing a real up-tempo song because I might just break out into a worship dance. Now, I was teasing. I know. We've got a couple of dancers here. And it's a biblical thing. It's

a totally biblical thing. There's precedents in scripture. David even says we should. But I grew up half Baptist, my mom is Baptist to the bone. My dad was Pentecostal. So the Baptist in me longs to dance. The Pentecostal in me tries to dance, but the old pale woman that I am can't dance. And so it's just a real juxtaposition for me. So I was just teasing with Wanda, and I said, you may want to watch me because I'll break out and do worship dance. And then, you know, when you're teasing with somebody you don't know, and you can tell, by the way, they're listening to you, they think you're being serious. They don't realize you're kidding yet. And I thought, gosh, I need to tell I was just playing because I don't want to think I was being disrespectful

because there is liturgical dance in scripture. And so I thought, when we have a second, I'll qualify that so she knows I'm not playing. Well, then they separated us. Then the conference started. It was real, very, very serious. And so I thought I'll talk to her at the end of conference, but they took us our separate ways. So the next morning, I was like, I have got to see Wanda for it. It starts to tell her that I was just kidding about the whole dancing thing. And so I'm starting to talk to her. They lead us in. It wasn't a house-like elevation. It was a real serious church.

They had like, you know, polished pews all the way back and all the stained glass windows, pipe organ. So they usher wanda up to the front. They had two little short, diagonally opposed pews, like big enough for, I don't know, two skinny keto girls or chunky chick with the Bible. So I was on one little diagonal pew and one was on the other pew. And so I leaned over to tell her,

remember last night when I said about it, Well, why does I'm starting to explain it to? The lady who was hostessing the event comes up. She's very, very serious. We're hos. And she was like, Wanda, you know, I need you to start worship now. So Wanda's like, okay, hadn't got to explain it. Wanda stands up.

She's a real perky worship leader. It didn't fit the whole setting. But she stands up and she goes exactly like this, Holly Toome. She goes, and then she comes up. And I don't know how to explain what I felt in that moment, but it was just this deep sense of forbobes. voting. I thought, just something about this doesn't feel good to me. She walks up and Chris, they didn't have like a cool keyboard. They didn't have, they had one of those old upright pianos.

I remember those that has the high back. And so Wanda goes, plays a song on the piano, kind of a hymn. And then she stops. There's about, I don't know, 300 women on the pews, very, a lot of match outfits. And she leans out from behind the piano and she went, ladies, I have got such a treat. for you this morning and then she gestures to me and she goes hey Liger she goes Lisa is a worship dancer and then she grabs this package I hadn't noticed until that point she grabs this package on top of the piano it's this long package comes all the way off the stage comes down to where I'm sitting I'm sitting where you are Holly she unwraps this package and unfurls this massive like five by seven foot purple flag

with the alpha and the omega and gold glitter on the flag. And then she presents it to me with a flourish. Like we've planned this. And then a second time she goes, heads back up on stage. Now, y'all, the women are stiff. Wanda isn't, and is evidently a little oblivious. The women are stiff.

She starts playing this real up-tempo, probably an elevation song, a real up-tempo song. And then she goes, like gestures to me. Like, now it's time for your routine. And I'm holding this massive flag. And nobody's even singing with her. They're just. And I'm holding this flag.

And I thought, this is like a Saturday Night Live Skip. Like, I don't know where to go from here. And then I have just a smidge of prodigal in me. And I thought she's my only friend. And these women probably need to be just poked a little bit. And so I started to dance. and the only thing I knew to do because the flag was heavy

was just to do kind of this big twirl with a flag and women are laying out of the way. Well, Wanda was charismatic, so the song lasted like 17 minutes as one song. And so I thought, I can't hold it anymore.

Like my what hanging down part is starting to cramp. I was like, I don't know what to do. And so I thought, well, this is probably my last public dance. And so, and this is straight up truth. I'll tell you if I was lying in church. I went all the way over to the front

of the church, and I kind of got a run and start, because I've seen people do this at Joyce Meyer events, and I've always wanted to try it, and I started running. I'm going to have to do this to show y'all what I did. I started running, and then I just went and did a grungitate with a flag, and y'all, what was hilarious, I probably should have worn a sports bra for that, but, but, what was hilarious is you could hear this collective gas. People like, all the women just went, but I didn't think God was disappointed. I felt like God was leaning over going, Jesus, you've got to see what she's doing this morning. I am, y'all funny. I am so much more Laurel and Hardy than I am Shakira and Jalo. I do not have it all together. My life plays out more like a

blooper reel than a press release. But at 58, what I'm learning, I keep saying 60, because 60 is just like a little over a year away for me. And so I keep saying 60, so I'll get used to it. The thing I love about this age isn't just the discounts at McDonald's. It's that I can look back over. 50 years of walking with Jesus. And I can go, you know what, it's really not about my capacity. It's about his compassion. It's not about whether I have it all together. It's about Jesus. What I'm learning, and I'm a slow learner, but what I'm learning, y'all, is if you really want to access intimacy with God, if you really want to commune with God, the key is humility. And Rick Warren says it well. I usually attribute this to C.S. Louis.

because it sounds like something Sir Lewis would say. It's actually Rick Warren, pastor in California. He says, humility is not thinking less of ourselves. I think in American Christian culture, we tend to think humility is, oh, no, it's not about me. Well, that's actually just narcissism in a nicer outfit. That's not humility. That's still drawing all the tension to yourself. Woe is me.

It's not humility. Rick Warren says, humility isn't thinking less of yourself. It's just thinking of yourself less. It's just being so preoccupied with Jesus, being so distracted, so discombobulated by his kindness, his goodness, his accessibility that we're just not very focused on ourselves anymore. I think humility is the key to intimacy with God. I think humility is necessary for worship. My posthumous pretend theological boyfriend, A.W. Tozier says it like this.

He says it takes humility. to worship God acceptably. It takes humility to worship God acceptably. So it's the way that we commune with God. It's the way we

effectively adequately worship God. I also think it's a harbinger for divine glory. It's kind of like this. You know, the most common bread in almost all of the southern hemisphere for the last, I don't know,

four or five centuries, I read this, is the lowly tortilla chip because of, or I should say tortilla, because of the relative cheapness of corn and how easily it's grown in hot, humid areas. And so they've got tortillas everywhere. Tortillas are no big deal. They're just common. But, but if you cut a tortilla into triangles and you deep fry it, and if you're a Christian, you deep fried and lard. And then you dip that triangle into a vat of queso. Then, well, that becomes the conduit for a life-changing culinary experience. Y'all, that's humility.

Humility actually leads us to glory, the kind of divine glory that we read about in the Old Testament, but we so rarely experience in our culture. And I think it's because we've got. and a little too proud, but we wrap verses around our pride and call it humble. So we're going to talk this morning just for a minute about true humility. If you'll turn to 1st Samuel, I'm going to show you the proof of why I think humility is to glory what chips and queso are to life change.

1 Samuel and we're going to be looking at chapter 2 verses 12 to 26 now the sons of eli were worthless men they did not know the lord the custom of the priest with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice the priest's servant would come while the meat was boiling with a three-pronged fork in his hand and he would trust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot all that the fork brought up the priest would take from This is what they did at Shiloh, to all the Israelites who came there. Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but only raw. And if the man said to him, let them burn the fat first and then take as much as you wish, he would say, no, you must give it

now. And if not, I will take it by force. Thus, the sin of the young men was very great in the side of the Lord for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt. Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy clothed with a linen, Ephod, and his mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. Then Eli would bless Elkanah, Samuel's daddy, and his wife, and say, may the Lord give you children by this woman for the petition, she asked to the Lord, so they would return home. Indeed, the Lord visited Hanon. She conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the young man, Samuel, grew in the presence of the Lord. You probably remember Samuel's story.

It's one of the favorite stories I saw flannel graft when I was growing up, Baptistocastal. And Samuel was born to a woman who struggled with infertility named Hannah. The reason I love Hannah is not only that she was patient, which is something I've been praying for for five decades. Y'all remember she had a sister wife that was back when polygamy was the norm, and she had to put up with this sister wife named Panina, who had all these kids, she was fertile, myrtle.

And then Hannah, Strothampton, didn't have any kids, and Panina was a big braggart, and when they drove to Costco, she just made Hannah's life miserable. And so Hannah went to church. I'm taking the tiniest bit of liberty with Hebrew, but this is what it would play out like. Now, they go to church,

and Hannah goes to the altar and is grieving with such drama that the priest, Eli, who's mentioned here, think she's had one too many, many mimoses before small group. And so the priest chastises her and she says, no, sir, I haven't been drinking. I'm just travailing before the Lord because my heart has been broken for so long and it has just devastated me that I've never been able to carry children. And I know what that feels like because I didn't become a mom until the age of 50 through the miracle of adoption. So I know what it

feels like to travail, especially on Mother's Day or Christmas when you wish there's more than yours and your dog stalking hanging on the fireplace, nothing wrong with dogs. But that's all I had until the age of 50. So identify with Hannah. And then she gets pregnant because our Lord is so kind. And she names her son Samuel, which means the Lord hears. And after he's weaned, she takes him to the temple and dedicates him and says, this is going to be like his boarding school. And she says to the priest, Eli, I want you to raise him up in the ways of God. I want my boy to love. love God. I want my boy to give his life for kingdom purposes. Well, Eli already had two sons, so he effectively adopts Samuel, but he's got two older sons, Hoffmey and Phineas, and these boys are

players. These boys were raised in the house of God. They were fluent in the ways of God, but they flouted the will of God because they were more interested in satisfying their own appetites than they were in honoring God or serving God or submitting to God's will. And so even though they were more than familiar with Torah, or people who are trying to be fancy and precious you at dinner parties will say Torah, but that's just the Hebrew version of the first five books of the Old Testament. They were familiar with that. And in the Hebrew scriptures, God very specifically said, here's the template I want you to apply to sacrifices. And he said, when people bring meat to church to temples, what they called it back then, when they bring meat to church as an offering, I want

shall use a three-pronged fork. I've studied this. I can't prove it. I'm almost sure that's where we get the vernacular potluck supper, because people would put meat in a pot, and then the priest had to poke a three-pronged fork into the pot, and whatever they brought up was their protein for the day. And so Hoffney and Phineas, the sons of Eli, the priest, whose lineage goes back to Aaron, the first priest of Israel. So they had very, very, very impeccable blue blood when it comes to being priest. I mean, if these guys were living today, Mother Teresa and Billy Graham and Spurgeon, and maybe Stephen Ferdick, although he's not dead, would be on their 23 Amitri. I mean, just incredible legacy with regards to people who love God and their backstory. But they just ignored all that because they decided we don't want potluck.

We want to know what we're getting. So they set up a system in the parking lot of the temple, and they begin accosting worshippers. So before they could even get to make their sacrifice, they'd be like, what you got in that? Yetty. Let me see. Give me those filets. Give me that.

Give me that Kobe. And they set up a system where they took the meat before it was sacrificed. They took the choices, cuts. They had Trayers set up in the parking lot. And that's why God says they're worthless men. And he says, Eli, you are not teaching your sons what it is to bow their knees before me. He said, Samuel is basically an orphan. And Samuel, Samian patting himself on the back and dislocating his shoulder.

Samuel is not impressed with himself. Samuel's impressed with me. So God says, Samuel's growing up while your boys are growing out. The word in Hebrew for weight is cavode. It's the same word for honor and for chubby. And God tells Eli, your son's getting pretty thick. fit, brother, because they're eating all that marbled meat. And he goes on to chastise Eli in verse 29 of chapter 2. He says, why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded

and honor your sons above me by fattening yourself on the choices, parts of every offering of my people, Israel? Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel declares, I promised that your house, and the house of your father should go in and out before me. But now the Lord declares, far be it from me. For those who honor me, I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father's house so that there will not be an old man in your house. Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out,

to grieve his heart, and all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men. And this shall come upon your two sons, Hoffney and Phineas, shall be assigned to you. Both of them shall die on the same day. We go on to read that Hoffney and Phineas, their destructive appetites led them to the point, they spowled to the point that they were actually getting jiggy with women who were coming in to volunteer at church. So they added sexual abuse to their gluttony. And these were bad guys. Y'all, they're sons of one of the high priests of Israel.

We tend to think that legacy, we equate legacy with effective leadership. Legacy without humility is destructive. Legacy without humility leads to entitlement, which leads to lunacy. I love that Chris said, don't always give your kids what they want when they want it. I'm not going to talk about parenting. I've only been a parent for 10 years, and Missy is now a teenager, and so I can't say anything, or I'm afraid I'll be struck by lightning because we're just starting to have a little emotion at our house, even though she's an amazing kid, much easier parent than I am deserving. But I'm not going to talk about parenting. I am

going to talk about our calling as Christ's followers. If you had the privilege, the undeserved privilege, of having Christian parents. Goodness gracious, that does not mean that you're going to be a great leader. It means that you should every single day go, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, that I had legacy in my house, that I heard these stories when I was a kid without humility, legacy becomes entitlement. And that's what we're seeing all over culture. I'm not going to name names, but how many business.

businesses have you seen absolutely fall apart when the sun takes over? And the dad led really, really well. The dad built it from the ground up, and then the son takes over with his Bentley and his whatever addiction. And within 10 years, they're no longer traded. And when another 10 years, they're belly up. Now, that is sad when you open up Wall Street and read about those kind of businesses. Sat or still are churches. When you see a pastor who loves the Lord, and he's got a team of men and women who love the Lord, and there's honor and there's integrity in the house. And then you see a young leader come in, and I'm not against youth. Goodness gracious, I pray for a young man on E-Harmony. So I am not at all opposed to youth. But if you see a youth begin to lead and they get a

platform before they have the scaffolding of humility, they will topple. Because legacy does not equate to leadership. Legacy and humility become leadership. We've got to be aware that we've all got clay feet. We've got to be aware that the hope doesn't rest on us. It rests on Jesus. Hoffie and Phineas completely forget that. They flout the ways of God.

And the Paul Harvey part of their story, the second half, is heartbreaking. sad, flip over a page to chapter four. A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line. This is 1st Samuel 4, verse 12. With his clothes torn with dirt on his head, when he arrived, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road watching for his heart trembled for the ark of God. Do you remember what an ark of God was? Y'all can talk back. I'm not your pastor. Do you remember what it was? Remember Harrison Ford chased it? Ark and he. Hebrew just means box, fancy word, but just means a box. And the Ark of God, or sometimes you call it the Ark of the Covenant for the Israelites. The Israelites were God's chosen people. That just means

God set his favor on this motley crew of people group. And he said, I'm going to set my favor on y'all. And for the rest of time, people are going to look at you as a symbol of the kind of intimacy that people can have with me. So I'm going to set you apart. I'm going to call you a theocracy, fancy word that just means he set his favor on them first. And then forevermore people will go, oh, God actually wants a relationship with us. Previous to the Theocracy of Israel, people thought God was the sun. That was the Roman Egyptian idea. They thought God was a son. You can't commune with a sun. Don't wear sunscreen. The sun will fry you. And so the Hebrew God, who began Judeo-Christianity, said, I want actually real relationship with you. So Israel, I'm going to set you apart. I'm going to

communion with you. I'm going to actually talk with you. There's going to be boundaries for you to live a blessed, blessed life. They're not rules. I hate it what people call the Ten Commandments rules. They're like the bumper reels at the bowling alley that keep your ball from going in the gutter. They're felt bumpers. I'm going to give you these parameters because I love you because you're my people. I'm going to institute something called Sabbath. That's not so you can't wear, you know, shorts on Sunday. That's not so you can't have belly rings that you show, preferably not in church, unless you're really lean. That's not a punitive decree. Sabbath was given to a group of people. All they knew was slavery. They've just come out of slavery. That's all they know. And God says,

you're not going to understand this now, but I'm giving you something called Shabbat. And that means one day a week. I don't want you to work. I want you to gather around the table. And I want you to eat carbs because keto is from the devil. And I want you to look at each other's eyes and I want you to enjoy each other and I want you to have fellowship and I want you to remember how much I love you. Sabbath, Shabbat is about relationship. I'm a relational God. He's always been a relational God. And so he's told them from the very beginning, I love you, I'm for you, I love you, I'm for you. Hoffni and Phineas just said, nah, we want to do it our own way. Y'all, they knew those parameters. They knew who God. What they had to heard their daddy praying, and they just didn't care. They wanted to fill their own bellies.

How often have you stopped in a moment, or I better said, as the Holy Spirit stopped you, and you went, what do I want to do? The Holy Spirit said, actually, your will isn't quite as important as God's, and you went, it is today. And you're oppositional defiant, even the though you know God. Y'all, I am a grace girl through and through. I love the unmerited favor of God. That's the only reason I'm here. I am a grace piglet. I love the unmerited favor of God. But I'm also a word woman. And if you study scripture, God doesn't play. God does not allow willful sin to continue indefinitely. There is a point where God brings a consequence, not because he's mean, but because he's merciful, and he doesn't want us to get so far removed from him that we can't

find our way back. Hoffney and Phineas, goodness gracious, of all people who knew God's will, they were the ones who shouldn't have wandered. Their father was in the ministry. This man of Benjamin, And he came back to Eli, and Eli was scared because he didn't know what had happened to the Ark of the Lord, the box that carried the relics that proved that God loved the Israelites. Y'all remember what those relics were in the big box? A jar of barbecue potato chips, we would call it manna. And then the staff that had budded miraculously, pieces of the Ten Commandments, those were relics that proved. So they were like, hey, we weren't smoking something medicinal. really happened. He really gave these words to Moses on top of Mount Sinai. He was really with us

in the wilderness. That ark of the covenant was precious to them. I trade Bibles usually every 10 years. But my dad wrote in this one and my dad passed away in 2012. This is precious to me. It's precious to me. I don't care if I lose my purse. I care if I lose my Bible. I care if I leave my Bible in an airport or a hotel. The Ark of the Covenant, that was the crown jewel of Israel. And so Eli is afraid because the Philistines, who were the arch enemy of Israel, they always wanted to steal the Ark of the Covenant.

And when the man came into the city and told the news, all the city cried out. When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said, what is this uproar? Then the man hurried and came and told Eli. Now, Eli was 98 years old. And his eyes were set so that he could not see. In other words, he was blind, but he can hear everything.

And the man said to Eli, I am he who has come from the battle. I fled from the battle today. And he said, how did it go, my son? He who brought the news, answered and said, Israel has fled before the Philistines. And there has also been a great defeat among the people. Your two sons also, Hoffney and Phineas, are dead. And the Ark of God has been captured.

As soon as he mentioned, the Ark of God. Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate and his neck was broken and he died for the man was old and heavy. He had judged Israel for 40 years. Holly, how long have you and Stephen been leading elevation? 16. So 40 years. Double what you've plowed here. 40 years. Eli has been leading Israel. He's been their spiritual leader. And this is this is his epitaph. He's standing on a chair waiting to hear about the Ark of the Covenant. And because he's a chunk, because he's been eating all that meat, he's not supposed to eat. He's heavy.

And he's so flustered when the messenger comes back and says, I'm so sorry, the ark has been stolen. And your sons both died in battle. And he remembers the prophecy of God saying your sons are not going to live. You're not going to have any old men in your family tree. He falls off the chair and breaks his neck. That's not Jerry Springer. That's the Bible. That's called Consequence.

That's consequence of not going, yes, sir. Not my will, but yours, which even Jesus said in the Garden of Gassimony, I don't know why we think we can shirk that anymore. And our Jesus is my bumper sticker society. I know humility isn't trending because we're so preoccupied with my brand and my choice and my preference. Y'all, it never stopped trending in the scripture. God tells them over and over again, you're my people, I love you, you're my people, I love you, I love you, I'm made a way for you be reconciled with me.

Now, I'm God. You're not. I'm God and you're not. Humility. Humility is, it is key to intimacy with Jesus. Phineas, one of the fat dead boys' wives, she's pregnant. And when she hears, her husband has been killed in battle and she sees her father-in-law topple over and die. She spontaneously gives birth. She has a spontaneous birth. and she's so traumatized by what has happened that she doesn't immediately bond with the baby. The women around her have to care for the baby. And they say, but you need to rejoice. You need to rejoice.

You had a son. We know you lost your husband. You lost your father. But you had a son. And she says, name him Iqabad. Ichabod means where has the glory gone? One word in English is inglorious. The name Kavode in Hebrew means glory.

glory. Kavode also means chubby, jubby, chubby. Same word for physical weight as for glory. Y'all, the bottom line of this Jerry Springer tale is our shoulders are not shaped to carry divine glory. When we think it's all about us, if you aren't careful, it will crush you. Our shoulders are not shaped to carry God's glory. I worry sometimes in the culture we have that's so focused on platform and entertainment, I think, oh, Lord, protect them.

Because when we start thinking, I'm the conduit for God's glory, I'm like, no, baby, you better get out of the way. You had better get out of the way because God doesn't play with human pride. He just doesn't. And if human pride leads to an appetite that says, my stomach is more important than God's will, we are going to have some consequences that we haven't begun to fear. I'm usually not a fire and brimstone kind of girl. Again, I love the grace of God. But at the age I am, sometimes I look at culture and I go, we have forgotten. We have forgotten the glory of God. And we're taking too much of it for ourselves. I watched a documentary recently, and it was about

Dennis Raider, the BTK serial killer. And he had a killing spree over about 20 years. They know definitively he killed 10 people, one of them a 9-year-old little boy. But the whole time, he was doing these heinous things in the dark. He was a leader in his church. And they asked him about that duplicity. And he talked about pride.

He just said, I wanted people to know who I was. I wanted people to be impressed with me. I wanted to be a big man on campus. And I thought we have no idea what our pride leads to. It leads to destruction. If I could hang my hat on one thing that I've had the privilege of witnessing in 30-plus years of vocational ministry, it was something that happened about 15 years ago at an event in Orlando. It was a women's conference that wasn't in a stiff, stained glass window kind of church, thankfully.

It was actually in a holiday. And we walked into this holiday inn, and it was leaders from all around the country, all women. And I had the undeserved privilege to be one of the teachers at this event. And we were all in the pre-event time, gripping and grinning time. And there was one woman I wanted to meet more than anybody else in the room because she was carrying a baby. And I've had baby fever since I was probably 30 years old.

Didn't think I'd ever become a mom because my history romantically is a train wreck. because I was just scared, slammed to death of intimacy, a lot of abuse in my background. So that was kind of my, it's kind of where I, my default setting has often been set on abusive men. And the good guys like y'all, God protected y'all from me. I was just Hot Mass Express. Anyway, I went up and I told this woman, I said, I want to meet you, but I need to confess my ulterior motive. I'm really coming over to meet your baby.

And she grinned and she said, well, my name's Molly. And then she gestured down and she said, and this is Elijah. She said, his name was Elijah. And yeah, sometimes a mama says their child's name and even with a child or a daddy. If the child is sleeping, they wake up and they hear their parents' voice. When she said, and this is Elijah, he just went, he just woke up. And my first thought was, what a pumpkin. Because he had this shock of just white hair.

You know, sometimes Caucasian babies, no matter how much spit. the mama uses. They just can't get their hair to lay down. He's had this like little mohawk of white hair. And then huge blue eyes. And I thought, oh, what a beautiful boy. And then my second thought was, I wonder if this has been a difficult season for Molly, because it was very apparent. Elijah had Down syndrome. And she began to tell me her story. She's my age, much older. And she said, they didn't plan on the third child. She has two grown kids. But she said, we trust God. We trust God as sovereign. we know that he wove our family to include Elijah. But then she said, but it's been a tough season.

She said she hadn't slept through the night since they brought Elijah home from the hospital because he had a lot of medical issues and he wasn't sleeping much. They were struggling a little bit financially because of those medical issues. And she just said, it's been a tough season. You know, we trust the Lord, but it's been a hard season. And I was so grateful for her honesty because I think sometimes our pride is just a smokescreen because we won't say I'm struggling. I think some of the, no, I'm good, is actually we're afraid if we go, I'm not so good. We're afraid somebody will pull the string

and the whole sweater will unravel. And y'all, that's not church, by the way. Church is, I'm dying today. Will you take a corner of my mat and carry me to the roof and lower me to Jesus? Neatiness. Neatiness is actually a spiritual. necessity. So some of y'all aren't prideful because you're arrogant, you're prideful because you're just scared, slammed to death, somebody's going to look under the hood. So Molly said, it's been a tough season. She wasn't modeling. She ain't going on and on, didn't air any dirty laundry. She was just honest. Well, then all of a sudden, the conference was over. It was a Friday, Saturday conference, Saturday afternoon. I'm out in the foyer, the hotel, talking with some women.

Molly comes walking up and asks me if I'll sign a book for her. And I was like, oh, sure, I'd love to. Was I'm writing in her book, the women I'd been chatting with, continue to converse, and I accidentally wrote one of the words they said out loud into Molly's book in Black Sharpie, because I have a little bit of ADD. And I was like, oh, snap, because I've written this mistake word in her book in Big Black Magic Marker. I didn't know how to fix it. And I thought, oh, man, I really liked her. I so enjoyed the conversation last night. I've totally defaced her book. And then from seemingly out of nowhere, I remembered a verse that included the mistake word. And I was like, score. You know, I'll make this all like, pinching.

and do it up around it, make it look like I meant to do that word in there, which is exactly what I did. I closed the book. We talked a minute more. I hugged her. She left. I didn't think I'd ever see her again. We live four or five states away. Maybe 10 minutes later. I see her turn back in the lobby and start walking toward me. Very apparent she's been crying. And she walked up and she went, Lisa, I've just got to tell you what that verse you wrote in my book meant to me. And I thought, oh, god, come it. because sometimes I get the addresses mixed up of verses, or sometimes I'll read like a really resonant bumper sticker, and I'll quote that as a verse.

I don't mean to, but you know how you'll just get things mixed up? And I thought, I probably put something there from People Magazine or something. And she said, do you remember last night when I kind of told you our story about Elijah? And I said, oh, I remember everything. And she said, well, I didn't tell you the whole story. She said, it's been more than a hard season. She's been more than hard. She said, I feel like my prayers are hitting the ceiling.

I know the theology in my head, but emotionally I feel like God is a million miles away. She said, I'm just really, really struggling. And she said, my husband told me I really needed to come to this event, but I didn't want to come. She said, I just couldn't do perky. I just couldn't do it. So she said, finally we made a deal.

And I told him I would come, but I wouldn't drive with anybody else. I didn't want to make small talk. And she said, the whole way he's. here. It's a four-hour drive and the whole way here. I've just been begging God for that. You know, sometimes you want that tangible thing. Maybe Pastor Stevens preaching. You go, oh, my heavens, he's been reading my emails. He knows exactly where I am. You just want that, that personal, personal message from the Lord. And she said, the conference has been fine, but I didn't get it. She said, quite frankly, when everything concluded, I was a little disappointed because I just

didn't get that word. I felt like I needed to kind of carry on. I feel like I'm at a knot at the end of my rope. And I just needed something to help me hang on. And I just didn't get it. And she said, I was going back up to my hotel room, just to get my suitcase. And she said, when I got on the elevator, where there were three other women on the elevator. And I didn't want to talk. I didn't want to make small talk. So she said, I just opened your book so they wouldn't say anything to me. I just pretended like I was reading. And she said, when I opened your book, I saw the verse you wrote in the front. And she said, I was so surprised that the verse you inscribed is the verse I chose when I was in campus crusade in college as my life verse. She said, Lisa, I haven't thought of that verse in 25 years.

She said, that was so long ago, I forgot. I saw it again that that was the verse I chose. I was just trying to look spiritual. I chose kind of an obscure verse. And she said, out of all the verses in the Bible you could have written in the front of my book. You wrote that verse. And she said, through that, I sensed God's presence on the elevator going, Molly, I'm right here. Nothing in your life is hidden from me. I'm right here. I see you. I've got you. She said, I just had to come back and say, thank you. And I said, oh, Molly, it's a bigger miracle than you think. And I told her I was not being a good Bible teacher at that point. I wasn't being a sage prophet.

All I was trying to do was cover up a mistake. Truly, that was my only motive, was to cover up a mistake. And our God is so kind and he's so good. And even in our pride, he's so redemptive. But he used even my mistake as a bridge to embrace, to encourage this. beloved exhausted daughter of his. Y'all, it has never, ever been about us. I could stand up here for a weakest on Sundays and tell you miracle after miracle after miracle that I've seen in 35 years. And none of them are connected to anything I carry. It's usually my lack. And it's God's Lord,

yes. It's where his mercy seeps in the gaps. It's where his, His mercy covers. It's where his kindness compensates. It's not all about us. We are not, we are not containers of glory. We're colanders of grace. It leaks through us. It leaks through us. Can I ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes? Pastor Jonathan is going to come up and close us. I feel like an aunt in this house. I have such a deep affection for you. I'm older than most of you. And I wish I was smart enough to have concise words to say,

don't ever think less of yourself. But be preoccupied with Jesus. Be preoccupied with Jesus. Our shoulders aren't shaped for glory, y'all. It does not matter how many followers you have. It does not matter who's singing your praises. It doesn't matter how many accolades are on your press release. It doesn't matter.

What matters is intimacy with Jesus. And if people clap, lovely, it's fleeting. It won't carry you. And it doesn't honor God when we're preoccupied. with our reputations and our appetite. Be preoccupied with Him. Lord Jesus, I pray for this house, this amazing, anointed church that you love, that you've blessed, that you've poured favor on. Lord, I pray that their DNA would not just be, Lord, a house where people are safe and a house where people hear your gospel and a house where people

praise Jesus, I pray humility would be in their DNA. The people would be slow to take offense and quick to say, I'm sorry, that people would be quick to step out of the way so that you would be the biggest thing in the room so that you would be the name on everyone's tongue. Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you, that your mercy covers our weakness. Thank you, thank you, thank you. That where we are weak, you are strong. thank you, thank you, thank you, that you don't turn your face from us when we're face down on the

floor. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord Jesus, that even though you know we're dust, you call us a royal priesthood. Lord, imbue in this house humility and gratitude, humility and gratitude, that we would be quick to fall on our face and just say thank you. Thank you again. Thank you again. I remember, Jesus, I remember, I remember what you saved me from. I remember the days you saved me from myself and my appetite. Oh, Lord Jesus, I want to be hungry for you, for I'm hungry for anything else. Bless these people, Lord Jesus. Give them more of you, increase their hunger for you.

We love you, Jesus. Thank you that you never remove yourself from us. We love you, Jesus. Well, if you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple things I'd love for you to do. make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You can also help us reach others by investing today at elevationchurch.org slash give. And thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.