Speaker 1: I loved y'all so much. I usually love every church
Speaker 1: I get to go to, small, big, stiff, Wiggley. I
Speaker 1: just love the House of God. But some churches don't
Speaker 1: like me so much. And I was in one of
Speaker 1: those not too long ago. I won't tell you where
Speaker 1: it is, just in case you have cousins there, but
Speaker 1: rhymes with Pennsylvania. And I knew. I knew I wasn't
Speaker 1: going to be warmly received because it was just it
Speaker 1: was just more of a formal setting, and I'm not
Speaker 1: very formal, and so when the women picked me up
Speaker 1: from the airport, it was just it was crickets all
Speaker 1: the way to the conference. And then we get to
Speaker 1: the conference and they had what they called the fellowship time,
Speaker 1: which means you usually eat carbs and cold coffee and
Speaker 1: make small talk in the fellowship hall before you go
Speaker 1: into the main part of the sanctuary. And I stood around.
Speaker 1: I thought they need to re christen this the stiff
Speaker 1: and Hateful Hall, because nobody's talking, like nobody's chatting, And
Speaker 1: so I just kept kind of moving from group to
Speaker 1: group trying to find somebody who would talk, and finally
Speaker 1: somebody introduced me to the worship leader for that particular conference,
Speaker 1: and she wasn't from that area, and she seemed friendly,
Speaker 1: and I thought, cool, we can be aliens and strangers together.
Speaker 1: And so I introduced myself to the worship leader. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna call her Wanda. That's not her real name, but
Speaker 1: I said, Wanda, I'm so glad you're here. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know anybody here, and she was like, I
Speaker 1: don't either, and so an effort to connect further, I
Speaker 1: started to tease. I don't know if y'all do that
Speaker 1: when you first meet people, you kind of start teasing
Speaker 1: with them, unk, you know. And I said, well, Wanda,
Speaker 1: you might want to watch me when you start playing
Speaker 1: a real up tempost song, because I might just break
Speaker 1: out into a worship dance. Now I was teasing. I know,
Speaker 1: we've got a couple of dancers here, and it's a
Speaker 1: biblical thing. It's a totally biblical thing. There's Preston's and scripture.
Speaker 1: David even says we should. But I grew up half Baptist.
Speaker 1: My mom's Baptist to the bone. My dad was Pentecostal.
Speaker 1: So the Baptist in me long to dance. The Pentecostal
Speaker 1: in me tries to dance, but the old pale woman
Speaker 1: that I am can't dance, and so it's just it's
Speaker 1: just a real juxtaposition for me. So I was just
Speaker 1: teasing with Wanda, and I said, you may I want
Speaker 1: to watch me because I'll break out into worship dance.
Speaker 1: And then you know, when you're teasing with somebody you
Speaker 1: don't know, and you can tell by the way they're
Speaker 1: listening to you, they think you're being serious. They don't
Speaker 1: realize you're you're kid yet, and I thought, gosh, I
Speaker 1: need to tell I was just playing because I don't
Speaker 1: want to think I was being disrespectful because there is
Speaker 1: liturgical dance in scripture, and so I thought, when we
Speaker 1: have a second I'll qualify that so she knows I'm
Speaker 1: not playing. Well. Then they separated us. Then the conference started.
Speaker 1: It was real, very very serious, and so I thought
Speaker 1: I'll talk to her at the end of conference, but
Speaker 1: they took us our separate ways. So the next morning,
Speaker 1: I was like, I've got to see Wanda for it
Speaker 1: starts to tell her that I was just kidding about
Speaker 1: the whole dancing thing, and so I'm starting to talk
Speaker 1: to her. They lead us in. It wasn't a house
Speaker 1: like elevation. It was a real it's just a real
Speaker 1: serious church. They had like, you know, polished pews all
Speaker 1: the way back and all the stained glass windows, pipe
Speaker 1: organ and so they usher wanding up to the front.
Speaker 1: They had two little, short, diagonally opposed pews like big
Speaker 1: enough for I don't know, two skinny keto girls or
Speaker 1: tunky chick with a bible. So I was on one
Speaker 1: little diagonal pew and one is on the other pew,
Speaker 1: and so I lean over to tell her remember last
Speaker 1: night when I said about it, well, why does start
Speaker 1: and explain it to her? The lady who was hostessing
Speaker 1: the event comes up. She's very very serious war hoos
Speaker 1: and she was like one to you know, I need
Speaker 1: you to start worship now. And so one is like, okay,
Speaker 1: hatn't got to explain it. Wanda stands up. She's a
Speaker 1: real perky worship leader. Didn't fit the whole setting, but
Speaker 1: she stands up and she goes exactly like this holly
Speaker 1: to me. She goes and then she comes up and
Speaker 1: I don't know how to explain what I felt to
Speaker 1: that moment, but it's just this deep sense of foreboding.
Speaker 1: I thought, just something about this didn't feel good to me.
Speaker 1: She walks up and Chris, they didn't have like a
Speaker 1: cool keyboard. They didn't have one of those old upright pianos.
Speaker 1: I remember those that as the high back. And so
Speaker 1: one of goes plays a song on the piano, kind
Speaker 1: of a hymn, and then she stops. There's about I
Speaker 1: don't know, three hundred women on the pews, very lot
Speaker 1: of match outfits, and she leans out from behind the
Speaker 1: piano and she went, ladies, I have got such a
Speaker 1: treat for you this morning. And then she gestures to
Speaker 1: me and she goes, hey, lo just she goes, Lisa
Speaker 1: is a worship dancer. And then she grabs this package.
Speaker 1: I hadn't noticed until that point. Scrabs this package on
Speaker 1: top of the piano. It's this long package, comes all
Speaker 1: the way off the stage, comes down to grind sitting.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting where you are, Holly. She unwraps this package
Speaker 1: and unfurls this massive, like five by seven foot purple
Speaker 1: flag with the alpha and the omega and gold glitter
Speaker 1: on the flag, and then she, you know, presents it
Speaker 1: to me with a flourish like we've planned this. And
Speaker 1: then a second she goes heads back up on stage. Now, y'all,
Speaker 1: the women are stiff. Wanda isn't and is evidently a
Speaker 1: little oblivious the women are stiff. She starts playing this
Speaker 1: real up tempo probably an elevation song, a real uptempo song,
Speaker 1: and then she goes like gestures to me like, now
Speaker 1: it's time for your routine. And I'm holding this massive flag,
Speaker 1: and you know, nobody's even singing with her. They're just
Speaker 1: and I'm holding this flag, and I thought this is
Speaker 1: like a Saturday night life skip, like I don't I
Speaker 1: don't know where to go from here. And then I
Speaker 1: have just a smedge of prodigal in me, and I thought,
Speaker 1: she's my only friend and these women probably need to
Speaker 1: be just poked a little bit. And so I started
Speaker 1: to dance, and the only thing I knew to do,
Speaker 1: because the flag was heavy, was just to do kind
Speaker 1: of this big squirl with a flag and women are
Speaker 1: laying either way. Well, Wanda was charismatic. So the song,
Speaker 1: I said, like seventeen minutes says one a song, And
Speaker 1: so I thought I can't hold anymore, Like my what
Speaker 1: hanging down part is starting to cramp. I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do, and so I thought, well,
Speaker 1: this is probably my last public dance, and so and
Speaker 1: this is straight up truth. I'll tell you if I
Speaker 1: was lying in church, I went all the way up
Speaker 1: to the front of the of the church and I
Speaker 1: kind of got to run and start because I've seen
Speaker 1: people do this at Joyce Myer events and I've always
Speaker 1: wanted to try it. And I started running. I'm going
Speaker 1: to have to do this to show y'all what I did.
Speaker 1: I started running and then I swept instead a grunt
Speaker 1: to take with a flag, And y'all, what was hilarious.
Speaker 1: I probably should have worn a sports braw for that.
Speaker 1: But but what it was hilarious is you could hear
Speaker 1: this collective gas people like all the women swept. But
Speaker 1: I didn't think God was disappointed. I felt like God
Speaker 1: was leaning over going Jesus, you've got to see what
Speaker 1: she's doing this morning. I am, y'all funny, y'all, it's funny.
Speaker 1: I am so much more Laurel and hearty than I
Speaker 1: am Shakira and j Lo. I do not have it altogether.
Speaker 1: My life plays out more like a bloop of real
Speaker 1: than a press release. But at fifty eight, what I'm learning.
Speaker 1: I keep saying sixty because sixty is just like a
Speaker 1: little over a year away for me. So I keep
Speaker 1: saying sixty so I get used to it. The thing
Speaker 1: I love about this age isn't just the discounts at McDonald's.
Speaker 1: It's that I can look back over fifty years of
Speaker 1: walking with Jesus and I can go, you know what,
Speaker 1: It's really not about my capacity. It's about his compassion.
Speaker 1: It's not about whether I have it all together. It's
Speaker 1: about Jesus. What I'm learning, and I'm a slow learner,
Speaker 1: but what I'm learning, y'all is if you really want
Speaker 1: to access intimacy with God, if you really want to
Speaker 1: commune with God, the key is humility. And Rick Warren
Speaker 1: says it well. I usually attribute this to C. S.
Speaker 1: Lewis because it sounds like something Sir Lewis would say.
Speaker 1: It's actually Rick Warren, pastor in California. He says, humility
Speaker 1: is not thinking less of ourselves. I think in American
Speaker 1: Christian culture we tend to think humility is, oh no,
Speaker 1: it's not about me. Well, that's actually just narcissism and
Speaker 1: a nicer outfit. That's not humility. That's still drawing all
Speaker 1: attention to yourself. Woe is me is not humility. Rick
Speaker 1: Warren says, humility isn't thinking less of yourself. It's just
Speaker 1: thinking of yourself less. It's just being so preoccupied with Jesus,
Speaker 1: being so distracted, so discombobulated by his kindness, his goodness,
Speaker 1: his accessibility, that we're just not very focused on ourselfs anymore.
Speaker 1: I think humility is the key to intimacy see with God.
Speaker 1: I think humility is necessary for worship. My posthumous pretend
Speaker 1: theological boyfriend, aw Tosier says it like this. He says,
Speaker 1: it takes humility to worship God acceptably. It takes humility
Speaker 1: to worship God acceptably. So it's it's the it's the
Speaker 1: the way that we commune with God. It's the way
Speaker 1: we effectively adequately worship God. I also think it's a
Speaker 1: harbinger for divine glory. It's kind of like this. You know,
Speaker 1: the most common bread in almost all of the Southern
Speaker 1: Hemisphere for the last I don't know, four or five centuries.
Speaker 1: I read this is the lowly tortilla chip because of
Speaker 1: or I should say tortilla, because of the relative cheapness
Speaker 1: of corn and how how easily it's grown in hot,
Speaker 1: humid areas. And so they've got tortillas. Totorya is a
Speaker 1: no big deal. They're just they're just common. But but
Speaker 1: if you cut a tortilla into triangles and you deep
Speaker 1: fry it, and if you're a Christian, you deep fried
Speaker 1: in lard, and then you you dip that triangle into
Speaker 1: a that of case. So then well that that becomes
Speaker 1: the conduit for a life changing culinary experience, y'all. That's humility.
Speaker 1: Humility actually leads us to glory, the kind of divine
Speaker 1: glory that we read about in the Old Testament, but
Speaker 1: we so rarely experience in our culture. And I think
Speaker 1: it's because we've gotten a little too proud. But we
Speaker 1: wrap verses around our pride and call it humble. So
Speaker 1: we're going to talk this morning, just for a minute
Speaker 1: about true humility. If you'll turn to first Samuel, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna show you the the proof of why I think
Speaker 1: humility is to glory, what ships and q so are
Speaker 1: to life change, First Samuel, and we're going to be
Speaker 1: looking at chapter two, verses twelve to twenty six. Now,
Speaker 1: the sons of Eli were worthless men, they did not
Speaker 1: know the Lord. The custom of the priest with the
Speaker 1: people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's
Speaker 1: servant would come while the meat was boiling, with a
Speaker 1: three pronged fork in his hand, and he would trust
Speaker 1: it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron or pot.
Speaker 1: All that the brought up the priest would take for himself.
Speaker 1: This is what they did at Shiloh to all the
Speaker 1: Israelites who came there. Moreover, before the fat was burned,
Speaker 1: the priest's servant would come and say to the man
Speaker 1: who was sacrificing, give meat for the priest to roast,
Speaker 1: for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but
Speaker 1: only raw. And if the man said to him, let
Speaker 1: them burn the fat first and then take as much
Speaker 1: as you wish, he would say, no, you must give
Speaker 1: it now, and if not, I take it by force.
Speaker 1: Thus the sin of the young men was very great
Speaker 1: in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated
Speaker 1: the offering of the Lord with contempt. Samuel was ministering
Speaker 1: before the Lord a boy clothed with a linen. Ephod
Speaker 1: and his mother used to make for him a little
Speaker 1: robe and take it to him each year when she
Speaker 1: went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
Speaker 1: Then Eli would bless el Caana, Samuel's daddy and his wife,
Speaker 1: and say, may the Lord give you children by this
Speaker 1: woman for the petition she asked of the Lord so
Speaker 1: they would return home. Indeed, the Lord visited Hannah, and
Speaker 1: she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters, and
Speaker 1: the young man Samuel, grew in the presence of the Lord.
Speaker 1: You probably remember Samuel's story. It's one of the favorite
Speaker 1: stories I saw Flannel graft when I was growing up.
Speaker 1: Babdocostel and Samuel was born to a woman who struggled
Speaker 1: with infertility named Hannah. The reason I love Hannah is
Speaker 1: not only that she was patient, which is something I've
Speaker 1: been praying for for five decades. Y'all. Remember, she had
Speaker 1: a sister wife that was back when polygamy was a norm,
Speaker 1: and she had to put up with his sister wife
Speaker 1: named Panina, who had all these kids. She was fertile,
Speaker 1: Myrtle and then Hannah short of them. Utilly didn't have
Speaker 1: any kids, and Panina was a big braggart. And when
Speaker 1: they drove to Costco, She's made Hannah's life miserable. And
Speaker 1: so Hannah went to church. I'm taking the tiniest bit
Speaker 1: of liberty with Hebrew, but this is what it would
Speaker 1: play out like. Now. They go to church and Hannah
Speaker 1: goes to the altar and is grieving with such drama
Speaker 1: that the priest Eli who's mentioned here, thinks she's had
Speaker 1: one too many mimosas before small group, and so the
Speaker 1: priest chastises her, and she says, no, sir, I haven't
Speaker 1: been drinking. I'm just travailing before the Lord because my
Speaker 1: heart has been broken for so long and it has
Speaker 1: just devastated me that I've never been able to curate children.
Speaker 1: And I know what that feels like because I didn't
Speaker 1: become a mom until the age of fifty through the
Speaker 1: miracle of adoption. So I know what it feels like
Speaker 1: to travail, especially on Mother's Day or Christmas. You wish
Speaker 1: there's more than yours and your dogs talking hanging on
Speaker 1: the fireplace. Nothing wrong with dogs, but that's all I
Speaker 1: had until the age of fifty. So identify with Hannah.
Speaker 1: And then she gets pregnant because our Lord is so kind,
Speaker 1: and she names her son Samuel, which means the Lord hears,
Speaker 1: and after he's weaned. She takes him to the temple
Speaker 1: and dedicates him and says, this is going to be
Speaker 1: like his boarding school. And she says to the priest Eli,
Speaker 1: I want you to raise him up in the ways
Speaker 1: of God. I want my boy to love God. I
Speaker 1: want my boy to give his life for kingdom purposes. Well,
Speaker 1: Eli already had two sons, so he effectively adopts Samuel.
Speaker 1: But he's got two older sons, Hofney and Phineas. And
Speaker 1: these boys are players. These boys were raised in the
Speaker 1: house of God. They were fluent in the ways of God,
Speaker 1: but they flouted the will of God because they were
Speaker 1: more interested in satisfying their own appetites than they were
Speaker 1: in honoring God or serving God or submitting to God's will.
Speaker 1: And so even though they were more than familiar with
Speaker 1: Torah or people who are trying to be fancy and
Speaker 1: pressure what dinner parties will say to Rah, but that's
Speaker 1: just the Hebrew version of the first five books of
Speaker 1: the Old Testament. They were familiar with that. And in
Speaker 1: the Hebrew scriptures, God very specifically said here's the template
Speaker 1: I want you to apply to sacrifice this and he said,
Speaker 1: when people bring meat to church, to temples what they
Speaker 1: called it back then, when they bring meat to church
Speaker 1: as an offering, I want you all to use a
Speaker 1: three pronged fork. I've studied this, I can't prove it.
Speaker 1: I'm almost sure that's where we get the vernacular pot
Speaker 1: luck supper, because people would put meat in a pot
Speaker 1: and then the priest had to poke a three pronged
Speaker 1: fork into the pot, and whatever they brought up was
Speaker 1: their protein for the day. And so Hafni and phineas
Speaker 1: the sons of Eli, the priest whose lineage goes back
Speaker 1: to Aaron, the first priest of Israel. So they had very,
Speaker 1: very impeccable blue blood when it comes to be in preased.
Speaker 1: I mean, if these guys were living today, Mother Teresa
Speaker 1: and Billy Graham and Spurgeon and maybe Stephen Ferdick although
Speaker 1: he's not dead, would be on their twenty three ae
Speaker 1: me Tree. I mean, they just incredible legacy with regards
Speaker 1: to people who love God in their backstory. But they
Speaker 1: just ignored all that because they decide, we don't want
Speaker 1: pot luck, we want to know what we're getting. So
Speaker 1: they set up a system in the parking lot of
Speaker 1: the temple and they begin accosting worshipers, so before they
Speaker 1: could even get to make their sacrifice, they'd be like,
Speaker 1: what you got in that yettie, Let me see give
Speaker 1: me those places, give me, give me that Kobe. And
Speaker 1: they set up a system where they took the meat
Speaker 1: before it was sacrificed. They took the choicest cuts. They
Speaker 1: had traggers set up in the parking lot. And that's
Speaker 1: why God says they're worthless men. And he says, Eli,
Speaker 1: you are not teaching your sons what it is to
Speaker 1: bow their knees before me. He said, Samuel is base
Speaker 1: an orphan, and Samuel Samuel and patting himself on the
Speaker 1: back and dislocating his shoulder. Samuel is not impressed with himself.
Speaker 1: Samuel's impressed with me. So God says, Samuel's growing up
Speaker 1: while your boys are growing out. The word in Hebrew
Speaker 1: for weight is cavode, is the same word for honor
Speaker 1: and for chubby. And God tells Eli, your sons are
Speaker 1: getting pretty thick, brother, because they're eating all that marbled me.
Speaker 1: And he goes on to chastise Eli. In verse twenty
Speaker 1: nine of chapter two, he says, why then do you
Speaker 1: scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded, and
Speaker 1: honor your sons above me by fattening yourself on the
Speaker 1: choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel. Therefore,
Speaker 1: the Lord, the God of Israel, declares, I promised that
Speaker 1: your house, in the house of your father, should go
Speaker 1: in an out before me. But now the Lord declares,
Speaker 1: far be it from me. For those who honor me,
Speaker 1: I will honor, and those who despise me shall be
Speaker 1: lightly esteemed. Behold, the days are coming when I will
Speaker 1: cut off your strength and the strength of your father's house,
Speaker 1: so that there will not be an old man in
Speaker 1: your house. Then, in distress, you will look with envious
Speaker 1: eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel,
Speaker 1: and there shall not be an old man in your
Speaker 1: house forever. The only one of you whom I shall
Speaker 1: not cut off from my altar shall be spared to
Speaker 1: weep his eyes out to grieve his heart. And all
Speaker 1: the descendants of your house shall die by the sword
Speaker 1: of men. And this shall come upon your two sons,
Speaker 1: Hoftni and Phineas shall be assigned to you. Both of
Speaker 1: them shall die on the same day. We go on
Speaker 1: to read the Hofti Infinius. Their destructive appetites led them
Speaker 1: to the point they spiraled to the point that they
Speaker 1: were actually getting jiggy with women who were coming into
Speaker 1: volunteer at church. So they added sexual abuse to their gluttony.
Speaker 1: And these these were bad guys. Y'all their sons of
Speaker 1: one of the high priests of Israel. We tend to
Speaker 1: think that legacy. We equate legacy with effective leadership. Legacy
Speaker 1: without humility is destructive. Legacy without humility leads to entitlement,
Speaker 1: which leads to lunacy. I love that Chris said, don't
Speaker 1: always give your kids what they want when they want it.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to talk about parenting. I've only been
Speaker 1: a parent for ten years and Missy is now a teenager,
Speaker 1: and so I can't say anything. I'm afraid I'll be
Speaker 1: struck by lightning because we're just starting to have a
Speaker 1: little emotion at our house, even though she's an amazing kid,
Speaker 1: much easier parent than I am deserving. But I'm not
Speaker 1: going to talk about parenting. I am going to talk
Speaker 1: about our calling as christ followers. If you had the privilege,
Speaker 1: the undeserved privilege of having Christian parents. Goodness gracious, that
Speaker 1: does not mean that you're going to be a great leader.
Speaker 1: It means that you should every single day go thank
Speaker 1: you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus,
Speaker 1: that I had legacy in my house, that I heard
Speaker 1: these stories when I was a kid. Without humility, legacy
Speaker 1: becomes entitlement. And that's what we're seeing all over culture.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to name names, but how many businesses
Speaker 1: have you seen absolutely fall apart when the sun takes
Speaker 1: over and the dad led really, really well. The dad
Speaker 1: built it from the ground up, and then the sun
Speaker 1: takes over with his bentley and his whatever addiction, and
Speaker 1: within ten years they're no longer traded. And when another
Speaker 1: ten years they're belly of Now. That is sad when
Speaker 1: you open up Wall Street and read about those kind
Speaker 1: of businesses. Sadder still are churches when you see a
Speaker 1: pasture who loves the Lord, and he's got a team
Speaker 1: of men and women who love the Lord, and there's
Speaker 1: honor and there's integrity in the house, and then you
Speaker 1: see a young leader come in. And I'm not against youth.
Speaker 1: Goodness gracious, I pray for a young man on ey harmony.
Speaker 1: So I am not at all opposed to youth. But
Speaker 1: if you see a youth begin to lead and they
Speaker 1: get a platform before they have the scaffolding of humility,
Speaker 1: they will topple because legacy does not equate to leadership.
Speaker 1: Legacy and humility become leadership. We've got to be aware
Speaker 1: that we've all got clay feet. We've got to be
Speaker 1: aware that the hope doesn't rest on us, at rest
Speaker 1: on Jesus. Hafi and Phineas completely forget that they fly
Speaker 1: out the ways of God and the Paul Harvey part
Speaker 1: of their story. The second half is heartbreakingly sad. Flip
Speaker 1: over a page to chapter four. A man of Benjamin
Speaker 1: ran from the battle line. This is verse Samuel fod
Speaker 1: verse twelve, with his clothes torn, dirt on his head.
Speaker 1: When he arrived, Eli was sitting on a seat by
Speaker 1: the road, watching for his heart trembled for the ark
Speaker 1: of God. Do you remember what the ark of God was? Young? Talkback,
Speaker 1: I'm not your pastor Joe, remember what it was? Remember
Speaker 1: Harrison fore chased it. Arc in Hebrew just means a box.
Speaker 1: Fancy word. It just means a box. And the ark
Speaker 1: of God or sometimes you call it the ark of
Speaker 1: the Covenant. For the Israelites, these relights where God's chosen people.
Speaker 1: That just means God set his favor on this motley
Speaker 1: crew of people group, and he said, I'm gonna set
Speaker 1: my favor on y'all, and for the rest of time,
Speaker 1: people are gonna look at you as a symbol of
Speaker 1: the kind of intimacy that people can have with me.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna set you apart. I'm I'm gonna call
Speaker 1: you a theocracy. Fancy word. That just means he set
Speaker 1: his favor on them first, and then forever more people
Speaker 1: will go, oh, God actually wants a relationship with us.
Speaker 1: Previous to the theocracy of Israel, people thought God was
Speaker 1: the sun. That was the Roman Egyptian idea. They thought
Speaker 1: God was the sun. You can't commune with the sun,
Speaker 1: don't wear sunscreen, the sun will fry you. And so
Speaker 1: the Hebrew God, who began Gudeo Christianity, said I want
Speaker 1: actually real relationship with you. So Israel, I'm gonna set
Speaker 1: you apart. I'm gonna commune with you, I'm gonna actually
Speaker 1: talk with you. There's gonna be boundaries for you to
Speaker 1: live a blessed, blessed life. They're not rules. I hate
Speaker 1: it when people call the Ten Commandments rules. They're like
Speaker 1: the the bumper reels at the bowling alley that keep
Speaker 1: your ball from going in the gutter. They're felt bumpers.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you these parameters because I love you,
Speaker 1: because you're my people. I'm gonna institute something called Sabbath.
Speaker 1: That's not so you can't wear, you know, shorts on Sunday.
Speaker 1: That's not so you can't have belly rings that you show,
Speaker 1: preferably not in church unless you're really lean that. That's
Speaker 1: not a punitive decree. Sabbath was given to a group
Speaker 1: of people. All they knew was slavery. They've just come
Speaker 1: out of slavery. That's all they know. And God says,
Speaker 1: you're not going to understand this now. But I'm giving
Speaker 1: you something called Shabbat, and that means one day a week.
Speaker 1: I want you to work. I want you to gather
Speaker 1: around the table, and I want you to eat carbs
Speaker 1: because kito is from the devil. And I want you
Speaker 1: to look at each other's eyes, and I want you
Speaker 1: to enjoy each other, and I want you to have
Speaker 1: fellowship and I want you to remember how much I
Speaker 1: love you. Sabbath Shabbat is about relationship. I'm a relational God.
Speaker 1: He's always been a relational God, and so he's told
Speaker 1: them from the very beginning, I love you, I'm for you.
Speaker 1: I love you, I'm for you. Hofei and Phineas just said, Nah,
Speaker 1: we want to do it our own way, y'all. They
Speaker 1: knew those parameters, they knew who God, what, they had
Speaker 1: heard their daddy praying, and they just didn't care. They
Speaker 1: wanted to fill their own bellies. How often have you
Speaker 1: stopped in a moment? Or I better said, as the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit stopped you and you went, what do I
Speaker 1: want to do? He said, Actually, your will isn't quite
Speaker 1: as important as God's, and you went, it is today,
Speaker 1: and you are oppositionally defiant even though you know God, y'all.
Speaker 1: I am a grace girl through and through. I love
Speaker 1: the unmerited favor of God as the only reason I'm here.
Speaker 1: I am a grace piglet. I love the unmerited favor
Speaker 1: of God. But I'm also a word woman. And if
Speaker 1: you study scripture, God doesn't play. God does not allow
Speaker 1: willful sin to continue indefinitely. There is a point where
Speaker 1: God brings a consequence, not because he's mean, but because
Speaker 1: he's merciful, and he doesn't want us to get so
Speaker 1: far removed from him that we can't find our way back.
Speaker 1: Hafni infineus goodness gracious. Of all people who knew God's will,
Speaker 1: they were the ones who shouldn't have wandered. Their father
Speaker 1: was in the ministry, this man of Benjamin. He came
Speaker 1: back to Eli, and Eli was skeered because he didn't
Speaker 1: know what had happened to the ark of the Lord.
Speaker 1: The box that carried the relics that proved that God
Speaker 1: loved the Israelite. Y'all remember what those relics were in
Speaker 1: the big box, A jar of barbecue potato ships we
Speaker 1: would call it manna. And then the staff that had
Speaker 1: butted miraculously pieces of the Ten Commandments. Those were relics
Speaker 1: that proved. So they were like, hey, we weren't smoking
Speaker 1: something medicinal. This really happened. He really gave these words
Speaker 1: to Moses on top of Mount Sinai. He was really
Speaker 1: with us in the wilderness. That ark of the Covenant
Speaker 1: was precious to them. I trade Bibles usually every ten years,
Speaker 1: but my dad wrote in this one, and my dad
Speaker 1: passed away in twenty twelve. This is precious to me.
Speaker 1: It's precious to me. I don't care if I lose
Speaker 1: my purse. I care if I lose my Bible. I
Speaker 1: care if I leave my Bible in an airport or
Speaker 1: a hotel. I'm the Ark of the Covenant. That was
Speaker 1: that was the crown jewel of Israel. And so Eli
Speaker 1: is afraid because the Philistines, who were the arch enemy
Speaker 1: of Israel, they always wanted to steal the Ark of
Speaker 1: the Covenant. And when the man came into the city
Speaker 1: and told the news, all the city cried out. When
Speaker 1: Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said, what
Speaker 1: is this uproar? Then the man hurried and came and
Speaker 1: told Eli. Now, Eli was ninety eight years old, and
Speaker 1: his eyes were set so that he could not see.
Speaker 1: In other words, he was blind, but he can hear everything.
Speaker 1: And the man said to Eli, I am he who
Speaker 1: has come from the battle. I fled from the battle today.
Speaker 1: And he said, how did it go? My son? He
Speaker 1: who brought the news answered and said, Israel has fled
Speaker 1: before the Philistines. And there has also been a great
Speaker 1: defeat among the people. Your two sons also, Hoffni and Finishiness,
Speaker 1: are dead, and the Ark of God has been captured.
Speaker 1: As soon as he mentioned the Ark of God, Eli
Speaker 1: fell over backward from his seat by the side of
Speaker 1: the gate, and his neck was broken and he died.
Speaker 1: For the man was old and heavy. He had judged
Speaker 1: Israel for forty years. Holly, how long have you and
Speaker 1: Stephen been leading Elevation? Sixteen so forty years double what
Speaker 1: you've plowed here. Forty years. Eli has been leading Israel.
Speaker 1: He's been their spiritual leader, and this is his epetah.
Speaker 1: He's standing on a chair waiting to hear about the
Speaker 1: Ark of the Covenant. And because he's a chunk, because
Speaker 1: he's been eating all that meat he's not supposed to
Speaker 1: to eat, he's heavy, and he's so flustered when the
Speaker 1: messenger comes back and says, I'm so sorry, the ark
Speaker 1: has been stolen, and your son's both died in battle,
Speaker 1: and he remembers the prophecy of God saying your sons
Speaker 1: are not going to live. You're not going to have
Speaker 1: any old men in your family tree. He falls off
Speaker 1: the chair and breaks his neck. That's not Jerry Springer,
Speaker 1: that's the Bible. That's called consequence. That's consequence of not
Speaker 1: going yes, sir, not my will but yours, which even
Speaker 1: Jesus said in the Garden of Guessimone, I don't know
Speaker 1: why we think we can shirk that anymore. And our
Speaker 1: Jesus is my bumper sticker society. I know, humility isn't
Speaker 1: trending because we're so preoccupied with my brand and my
Speaker 1: choice and my preference. Y'all. It never stop trending. In
Speaker 1: the scripture, God tells them over and over again, you're
Speaker 1: my people. I love you. You're my people. I love you.
Speaker 1: You're my people. I love you. I made away for you.
Speaker 1: Be reconciled with me. Now I'm God. You're not. I'm God,
Speaker 1: and you're not. Humility. Humility is it is key to
Speaker 1: intimacy with Jesus. Phineas one of the Fat Dead Boys wives.
Speaker 1: She's pregnant and when she hears her husband has been
Speaker 1: killed in battle and she sees her father in law
Speaker 1: topple over and die, she's spontaneously gives birth. She has
Speaker 1: a spontaneous birth, and she's so traumatized by what has
Speaker 1: happened that she doesn't immediately bond with the baby. The
Speaker 1: women around her have to care for the baby, and
Speaker 1: they say, but but you need to rejoice, You need
Speaker 1: to rejoice. You had a son. We know you lost
Speaker 1: your husband, you lost your friendly, but you had a son.
Speaker 1: And she says, name him ikabod kobad means where has
Speaker 1: the glory gone? One word in English is in glorious.
Speaker 1: The name cavode in Hebrew means glory, glory. Cavode also
Speaker 1: means chubby, juppy, same word for physical weight as for glory. Y'all.
Speaker 1: The bottom line of this Jerry Springer tail is our
Speaker 1: shoulders are not shaped to carrie divine glory when we
Speaker 1: think it's all about us. If you aren't careful, it
Speaker 1: will crush you. Our shoulders are not shaped to carry
Speaker 1: God's glory. I worry sometimes in the culture we have
Speaker 1: that's so focused on platform and entertainment, I think, oh, Lord,
Speaker 1: protect them, because when we start thinking I'm the conduit
Speaker 1: for God's glory, I'm like, no, baby, you better get
Speaker 1: out of the way. You had better get out of
Speaker 1: the way. Because God doesn't play with human pride. He
Speaker 1: just doesn't. And if human pride leads to an appetite,
Speaker 1: that says my stomach is more important than God's will. Y'ah,
Speaker 1: we are going to have some consequences that we haven't
Speaker 1: begun to fear. I'm usually not a fire and brimstone
Speaker 1: kind of girl. Again, I love the grace of God,
Speaker 1: but at that age I am. Sometimes I look at
Speaker 1: culture and I go, we have forgotten. We have forgotten
Speaker 1: the glory of God, and we're taking too much of
Speaker 1: it for ourselves. I watched a documentary recently and it
Speaker 1: was about Dennis Raider, the BTK serial killer, and he
Speaker 1: had a killing spree over about twenty years. They know
Speaker 1: definitively he killed ten people, one of them a nine
Speaker 1: year old little boy. But the whole time he was
Speaker 1: doing these heinous things in the dark, he was a
Speaker 1: leader in his church, and they asked him about that duplicity,
Speaker 1: and he talked about pride. He just said, I wanted
Speaker 1: people to know who I was. I wanted people to
Speaker 1: be impressed with me. I wanted to be a big
Speaker 1: man on campus. And I thought, we have no idea
Speaker 1: what our pride leads to. It leads to destruction. If
Speaker 1: I could hang my hat on one thing that I've
Speaker 1: had the privilege of witnessing in thirty plus years of
Speaker 1: vocational ministry. Something that happened about fifteen years ago at
Speaker 1: an event in Orlando was a women's conference that wasn't
Speaker 1: in a stained glass window kind of church, thankfully, it
Speaker 1: was actually in a holiday and we walked into this
Speaker 1: holiday inn and it was leaders from all around the country,
Speaker 1: all women, and I had the underserved privilege to be
Speaker 1: one of the teachers at this event. And we were
Speaker 1: all in the pre event time, gripping and grinned in time.
Speaker 1: And there was one woman I wanted to meet more
Speaker 1: than anybody else in the room because she was carrying
Speaker 1: a baby. And I've had baby fever since I was
Speaker 1: probably thirty years old. Didn't think I'd ever become a
Speaker 1: mom because my history romantically is a train wreck because
Speaker 1: I was just scared, slammed to death of intimacy, a
Speaker 1: lot of abuse in my background, So that was kind
Speaker 1: of It's kind of where my fault setting has often
Speaker 1: been set on abusive men and the good guys like y'all.
Speaker 1: Y'all God protected y'all from me. That was just hot mess. Express. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I went up and I told this woman, I said,
Speaker 1: I want to meet you, but I need to confess
Speaker 1: my ulterior motive. I'm really coming over to meet your baby.
Speaker 1: And she grinned and she said, well, my name's Molly,
Speaker 1: and then she down and she said, and this is
Speaker 1: Elijah said his name was Elijah, and yeah, sometimes a
Speaker 1: mama says their child's name, and even with a child
Speaker 1: or a daddy, if the child is sleeping, they wake
Speaker 1: up when they hear their parents' voice. When she said
Speaker 1: and this is Elijah, he just went he just woke up.
Speaker 1: And my first thought was, what a pumpkin, because he
Speaker 1: had this shock of just white hair. You know, sometimes
Speaker 1: Caucasian babies, no matter how much spit the mama uses,
Speaker 1: they just can't get their hair to lay down. He
Speaker 1: had this like little mohawk of white hair and then
Speaker 1: huge blue eyes, and I thought, oh, what a beautiful boy.
Speaker 1: And then my second thought was, I wonder if this
Speaker 1: has been a difficult season for Molly, because it was
Speaker 1: very apparent Elijah had down syndrome. And she began to
Speaker 1: tell me your story. She's my age, much older, and
Speaker 1: she said they didn't plan on the third child. She
Speaker 1: has two grown kids. But she said, we trust God.
Speaker 1: We trust God as sovereign. We know that he wove
Speaker 1: our family to include Elijah. But then she said, but
Speaker 1: it's it's been a tough season. She said she hadn't
Speaker 1: slept through the night since they had brought Elijah home
Speaker 1: from the hospital because he had a lot of medical
Speaker 1: issues and he wasn't sleeping much. They were struggling a
Speaker 1: little bit financially because of those medical issues, and she
Speaker 1: just said, it's been a tough season, and we trust
Speaker 1: the Lord, but it's been a hard season. And I
Speaker 1: was so grateful for her honesty, because I think sometimes
Speaker 1: our pride is just a smoke screen because we won't
Speaker 1: say I'm struggling. I think some of the no I'm
Speaker 1: good is actually we're afraid if we go I'm not
Speaker 1: so good. We're afraid somebody will pull the switch string
Speaker 1: and the whole sweater will unravel. And y'all, that's not church,
Speaker 1: by the way, Church is I'm dying today, Will you
Speaker 1: take a corner of my mount and carry me to
Speaker 1: the roof and lower me to Jesus neediness? Neediness is
Speaker 1: actually a spiritual necessity. So some of y'all aren't prideful
Speaker 1: because you're arrogant. You're prideful because you're just geared slammed
Speaker 1: to death. Somebody's going to look under the hood. So
Speaker 1: Molly said, it's been a tough season. She wasn't maudling,
Speaker 1: she ain't gone and on didn't air any dirty laundry.
Speaker 1: She's just honest. Well, then all of a sudden, the
Speaker 1: conference was over. It was a Friday Saturday conference. Saturday afternoon,
Speaker 1: I'm out in the foyer the hotel talking with some women.
Speaker 1: Molly comes walking up and asked me if i'll sign
Speaker 1: a book for her, and I was like, oh, sure,
Speaker 1: I'd love to. Was I'm writing in her book. The
Speaker 1: women I'd been chatting with continue to converse, and I
Speaker 1: accidentally wrote one of the words they said out loud
Speaker 1: into Molly's book in black sharpie because I have a
Speaker 1: little bit of add and I was like, oh snap,
Speaker 1: because I've written this mistake word in her book in
Speaker 1: big black manship market and I didn't know how to
Speaker 1: fix it. And I said, oh man, I really liked her.
Speaker 1: I so enjoyed the conversation last night. I've totally defaced
Speaker 1: her book. And then from seemingly out of nowhere, I
Speaker 1: remembered a verse that included the mistake word, and I
Speaker 1: was like, score. You know, I'll make this all like
Speaker 1: pinteresty and do it up around it, make it look
Speaker 1: like I meant to do that word in there, which
Speaker 1: is exactly what I did. Closed the book. We talked
Speaker 1: a minute more. I hugged her. She left it didn't
Speaker 1: think i'd ever see her again. We live four or
Speaker 1: five states away. Maybe ten minutes later, I see her
Speaker 1: turn back in the lobby and start walking toward me,
Speaker 1: very appearent she's been crying. And she walked up and
Speaker 1: she went, Lisa, I just got to tell you what
Speaker 1: that verse you wrote in my book meant to me.
Speaker 1: And I said, oh, God, come it, because sometimes I
Speaker 1: get the addresses mixed up of verses, or sometimes I'll
Speaker 1: read like a really resonant bumper sticker and I'll quote
Speaker 1: that as a verse. I don't mean to, but you
Speaker 1: know how, you'll just get things mixed up. And I thought,
Speaker 1: I probably, you know, put something there from People magazine
Speaker 1: or something. And she said, do you remember last night
Speaker 1: when I kind of told you our story about Elijah?
Speaker 1: And I said, oh, I remember everything, and she said, well,
Speaker 1: I didn't tell you the whole story. She said, it's
Speaker 1: been more than a hard season. She has been more
Speaker 1: than hard. She said, I feel like my prayers are
Speaker 1: hitting the ceiling. I know the theology in my head,
Speaker 1: but emotionally, I feel like God is a million miles well,
Speaker 1: she said, I'm just really, really struggling. And she said,
Speaker 1: my husband told me I really needed to come to
Speaker 1: this event, but I didn't want to come. She said,
Speaker 1: I just couldn't do perky. I just couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: So she said, finally we made a deal and I
Speaker 1: told him I would come, but I wouldn't drive with
Speaker 1: anybody else. I didn't want to make small talk. And
Speaker 1: she said, the whole way here, she's a four hour drive,
Speaker 1: and the whole way here, I've just been begging God
Speaker 1: for that. You know, sometimes you want that tangible thing,
Speaker 1: maybe Pastor Stevens preaching. You go, Oh my heavens, he's
Speaker 1: been reading my emails. He knows exactly where I am.
Speaker 1: You just want that that personal, personal message from the Lord.
Speaker 1: And she said the conference has been fine, but I
Speaker 1: didn't get it. She said, quite frankly, when everything concluded,
Speaker 1: I was a little disappointed because I just didn't get
Speaker 1: that word. I felt like I needed to kind of
Speaker 1: carry you on. I feel like I'm at a knot
Speaker 1: at the end of my rope and I just needed
Speaker 1: she needed something to help me hang on. And I
Speaker 1: just didn't get it. And she said, I was going
Speaker 1: back up to my hotel room, just get my suitcase.
Speaker 1: And she said when I got on the elevator where
Speaker 1: there were three other women on the elevator, and I
Speaker 1: didn't want to talk. I didn't want to make small talk.
Speaker 1: So she said, I just opened your books so they
Speaker 1: wouldn't say anything to me. I just pretended like I
Speaker 1: was reading. And she said, when I opened your book,
Speaker 1: I saw the verse you wrote in the front. And
Speaker 1: she said, I was so surprised that the verse you
Speaker 1: inscribed is the verse I chose when I was in
Speaker 1: campus crusade and college as my life verse. She said, Lis,
Speaker 1: I haven't thought of that verse in twenty five years.
Speaker 1: She said, that was so long ago I forgot. I
Speaker 1: saw it again, that that was the verse I chose.
Speaker 1: I was just trying to look spiritual. I chose kind
Speaker 1: of an obscure verse. And she said, out of all
Speaker 1: the verses in the Bible you could have written in
Speaker 1: the front of my book, you wrote that verse. And
Speaker 1: she said through that I sensed God's presence on the elevator, going, Molly,
Speaker 1: I'm right here. Nothing in your life is hidden from me.
Speaker 1: I'm right here. I see you. I've got you. She said,
Speaker 1: I just had to come back and say thank you.
Speaker 1: And I said, oh, Molly, it's a bigger miracle than
Speaker 1: you think. And I told her I was not being
Speaker 1: a good Bible teacher at that point. I wasn't being
Speaker 1: a sage prophet. All I was trying to do was
Speaker 1: cover up mistake. Truly. That was my only motive, was
Speaker 1: a cover up and mistake. And our God is so kind,
Speaker 1: and he's so good, and even in our pride, he
Speaker 1: was so redemptive. But he used even my mistake as
Speaker 1: a bridge to embrace, to encourage this beloved, exhausted daughter
Speaker 1: of his. Y'all, it has never ever been about us.
Speaker 1: I could stand up here for a weekest done Sundays
Speaker 1: and tell you miracle after miracle after miracle that I've
Speaker 1: seen in thirty five years, and none of them are
Speaker 1: connected to anything I carry. It's usually my lack, and
Speaker 1: it's God's largess. It's where his mercy seeps in the gaps.
Speaker 1: It's where his mercy covers it's where his kindness compensates.
Speaker 1: It's not all about us. We are not We are
Speaker 1: not containers of glory. We're calendars of grace. It leaks
Speaker 1: through us. It leaks through us. Can I ask you
Speaker 1: to bow your heads and close your eyes. Pastor Jonathan
Speaker 1: is gonna come up and close us. I feel like
Speaker 1: an ant in this house. I've such a deep affection
Speaker 1: for you, and I'm older than most of you, and
Speaker 1: I wish I was smart enough to have concise words
Speaker 1: to say, don't ever think less of yourself, but be
Speaker 1: preoccupied with Jesus. Be preoccupied with Jesus. Our shoulders aren't
Speaker 1: shaped for glory, y'all. It does not matter how many
Speaker 1: followers you have. It does not matter who's singing your praises.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how many accolades are on your press release.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. What matters is intimacy with Jesus. And
Speaker 1: if people clap lovely, it's fleeting. It won't carry you,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't honor God, whom we're preoccupied with our
Speaker 1: reputations and our appetite. Be preoccupied with Him. Well, Jesus.
Speaker 1: I pray for this house, this amazing anointed church that
Speaker 1: you love, that you blessed, that you poured favor on Lord.
Speaker 1: I pray that their DNA would would not just be Lord,
Speaker 1: a house where people are safe, in a house where
Speaker 1: people hear your gospel, in a house where people praise Jesus.
Speaker 1: I pray humility would be in their DNA. That people
Speaker 1: would be slow to take offense and quick to say
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, That people would be quick to step out
Speaker 1: of the way, so that you would be the biggest
Speaker 1: thing in the room, so that you would be the
Speaker 1: name on everyone's tongue. Lord, thank you, thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you that your mercy covers our weakness. Thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you that where we are weak, you are strong.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you that you don't turn
Speaker 1: your face from us when we're face down on the floor.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord Jesus, that even
Speaker 1: though you know we're dust, you call us a royal priesthood,
Speaker 1: Lord imbue in this house humility, ingratitude, humility, ingratitude, that
Speaker 1: we would be quick to fall on our face and
Speaker 1: just say thank you, thank you again, thank you again.
Speaker 1: I remember, Jesus. I remember, I remember what you saved
Speaker 1: me from. I remember the days you saved me from
Speaker 1: myself and my appetite. Oh Lord Jesus, I want to
Speaker 1: be hungry for you, for I'm hungry for anything else.
Speaker 1: Bless these people, Lord Jesus. Give them more of you,
Speaker 1: increase their hunger for you. We love you, Jesus. Thank
Speaker 1: you that you never remove yourself from us. We love you, Jesus. Well,
Speaker 1: if you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple things
Speaker 1: I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate,
Speaker 1: and review this podcast. You can also help us reach
Speaker 1: others by investing today at Elevationchurch dot org, slash gift
Speaker 1: and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast